B Permit: How long can you spend outside the country?

Hi all, I have a B residency permit currently and may need to spend some time abroad (1 to 3 months max) due to a family member being unwell. Is this something I would need to declare to the local office where I live, or am I free to come and go as I please for as long as my permit would be valid?

Wasn ́t it up to 6 months?

If so, no notification necessary but you may want to check with your landlord so someone can pick up your mail (see thread on full mailboxes )

You can be out of the country for up to 6 months before your permit becomes invalid. No need to inform anyone.

Get the post office to either forward your mail or hold it for you until you return. Make sure your monthly bills get paid though.

Agree with MF. According to this law firm webpage, B and C permits become invalid six months after leaving Switzerland if not otherwise de-registered:

http://www.aufenthaltsbewilligung-ar...-bewilligungen

How about registering abroad? So if you have B - permit, and I leave Switzerland for 3 months, can I officially register abroad without the Swiss authorities making a fuzz?

What do you mean register abroad? If you mean moving somewhere else and register as being resident, yes, you can do that, but you’re supposed to deregister here first. You’d need the deregstration document you get to cancel things like insurances, phone contracts, etc.

Also confirmed in the Foreign Nationals Act (Art 61).

Art. 61 Expiry of permits
1 A permit expires:
a. on notice of departure abroad;
b. on the grant of a permit in another canton;
c. on the expiry of the term of validity of the permit;
d. on expulsion in terms of Article 68. 2

If a foreign national leaves Switzerland without giving notice of departure, a short stay permit expires after three months, and a residence or permanent residence permit after six months. On request, a permanent residence permit may remain valid for a further four years.

https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classifi…232/index.html

Perfect intell, thank you

Just for future info. We left Switz a couple of years ago and paid a small fee to keep our "C" permits valid for a "no questions asked" return for a period of 4 years. We are anticipating to put this to use this summer.

This depends on what the reason for your leaving is. The default “yes, okay” reasons are being sent abroad by your Swiss employer, military service or further education. Any othe reasons start as default “no, not possible” so you have to make a REALLY good case to change that.

If you are registered for a 2-year master overseas and applied for 3 year break from the C permit while the 3rd year was for graduation trip, it was a 'no' too - from personal experience.

She said she was very generous to offer me 2 extra months XD

Reviving this old thread to ask a clarifying question.

Say I have a B permit, leave the country for 5 months, come back for a few weeks, then leave for 5 months again. Is there a limit to how much time can be spent out of the country per year? Or do I just need to return within 6 months each time?

I was told B permit restrictions were that you need to be in Switzerland for 180 days in any 365 period, so it doesn't reset (and it's not calendar year).

When I had a B permit, and left to travel for 8 months, I had to give proof of employment for the date of return. My B permit was "put on hold".

Hell of a culture shock, going to work the day after getting back from India !

Also, my partner got "told off" by the commune because he hadn't told them that he was leaving for more than 6 months (He's Swiss)

not a very similar situation, but i used to travel a lot in 2018 and 19.

something like 80 flights per year or so.

as long as you come and go, in my experience nobody bothers you.

the trips were business in nature (company trips) so it might have something to do with it.

I know a large number of people are stuck in this situation, where due to lockdown they have returned to their other properties in Europe and worked remotely for the last 18 months.

If you are still paying Swiss tax the Swiss don’t have an incentive to look at the airport arrival/departure info to calculate who has stayed home too long, also if you use train or car to cross the border there is not an electronic registration of you crossing the border.

Cross the border by train and you will avoid any complications.

ftfy

That is, if they don’t already want you gone.

My wife and I are retired and have homes in the UK and CH. Due to being trapped in the UK by the imposition of pandemic travel restrictions in December, we haven't been in CH since October. We were planning to come back to CH soon after the UK government allowed overseas travel for leisure purposes to resume on May 17th, but weren't quick enough to do so before the CH introduced the quarantine requirement, and now that obligation (in both directions) has led us to postpone our return.

Strictly speaking our B permits are no longer valid as we have been out of CH more than six months. However, we come and go by car without being logged in and out, and have no interactions with any Swiss government bodies, so "they" have no idea where we are. If - when we do return - we are checked at the border (not that unlikely as we have a GB licence plate), how likely is it that our length of absence will be an issue? If so, and we answer truthfully, might we be refused entry, or is it more likely that we will be allowed in but reported and possibly fined and/or required to apply for new permits?

Any reports of relevant experiences gratefully received!

I always wonderd that. How the hell do they know if you are in the country or not (of couse there are means of checking like going through the bank statements, passport check at the airport but do they really waste investigatory resources to check on everyone on a constant basis?)

If they are in the UK then they are out of the Schengen area so clearly absent from Switzerland. I doubt anyone would notice unless there was a reason to check up on them.

I always try to make sure there are local cash withdrawals & debit card purchase every month if possible. I would ideally return every 6 weeks, so you have boarding passes, make some ATM withdrawals & do some shopping to prove you were indeed present & not taking the piss returning every 6 months for a day.