Tom
The GB plate alone is an issue.
Neighbors can be nosy. Earlier this year I bumped into "the old guy" in our building. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks. He asked if we had been on vacation, as our car had not moved.
There are plenty of older people at home most of the day, who watch all the comings and goings, who then gossip to others about what they interpret to be happening. I could hear a conversation yesterday happening a few buildings away, where 2 men were speculating when someone would die, as they'd noticed Spitex coming twice a day to bring medication. They then speculated over when the flat would be available for rent afterwards. They went on to discuss a story 1 of them had heard about another neighbour. They then discussed someone's lights being on all night routinely.
These sorts of people are always on the look-out for people moving a lot of stuff in, or out, of the building, seeing strangers staying over in a building, or not seeing someone for a while, checking why lights are on, or why they're off, and they gossip to everyone they can about what they believe to be going on.
Would you mind sharing who actually told you this?
I asked immigration lawyers, tax lawyers, scanned Swiss government documents, called immigration offices, posted on EF and could never get a clear, confirmed, definitive answer on this.
What you say makes logical sense but no one could actually put their hand on the heart and confirm exactly how days were calculated.
I am very much aware of that. But do you know any examples where the neighbours actually reported the absence of foreigners? or of authorities coming to question them? Like is that a common practice?
I haven't observed a distinction between foreigners and locals. I've known both be reported.
I have a few examples of people having contacted whichever government group to report their presumption as fact. They seem to be careful to call it a wellfare check or safety check.
I've known a few people be reported to Abfall Amt either because "it must be them", or because they moved smelly rubbish or rubbish that was in the way (and put out on the wrong day), and were then assumed to have been "caught red-handed".
I know of a European having been reported to Migrationsamt "out of concern" for having a L permit, "which must be fake, or they are up-to-something, as all Europeans have a B permit", and refusing to engage in a discussion about their permit with this stranger.
I've known people be reported to their landlords, because "the dumped rubbish outside must be from them".
I've known an old person report anyone putting their bike temporarily somewhere that the old person disagrees with to the police.
Don't imagine the gossips I mentioned stop at gossiping. Their intentions are nefarious. They don't present their guess-work as anything but fact, even though they have no clue what's going on.
I had a conversation with someone earlier, who moans often (justifiably) about their neighbour, who lives on the ground floor above the cellar, and, whenever the person I know is in the cellar, the neighbour comes to see what they are doing. The same neighbour then gives a report to the landlord about their comings and goings.
The person I know said they were looking out from their balcony early this morning, and saw the neighbour on the ground floor quietly watching a group of painters from their balcony, to see what they were doing.
Geez, sounds like you are living in our building, we have a neighbour exactly like that, she used to follow us in the basement to check if we were closing the doors and turning the lights off and God knows what other suspicions she had. She constantly compalined to our landlord that we did this and that, she always got laughed at and our landlord even told us that she is a bit "special". But apparently this wasn't only with us foreigners, she was equally annoying with the Swiss as well. Until she was approached directly by our neighbours and dealt with in a very direct and honest way. She stopped ever since. We barely see her anymore hahah.
Our neighbor took a ruler to all the tied paper bundles of our house on paper trash day to measure whether they were all within the proper number of centimeters thickness as documented in local gemeinde's recycling instructions.
(Not that the people collecting the bundles ever noticed or cared.)
When they were a couple of centimeters off, she went through the papers to see look for names and put the bundle of papers she opened back on our doorstep.
Now we have to shred everything because we can't trust her not to go through our paper recycling.
I used to put badly rapped papers in the container at my old flat, knowing there were no names on anything & the nosy neighbour would spend hours trying to find the culprit
Can I be travelling (COVID safely) and so not have a fixed Swiss address? I am considering a break, moving out of my permanent place here and travelling Europe but still employed by my Swiss employer on a B permit; and still paying taxes, health insurance, mobile phone etc as normal in Switzerland... just not in a fixed place for rent payments.
I would not be away for more than 2 months.... and some of that might be travelling around Switzerland.
This is the new "work from anywhere" model, although paying Swiss taxes, health insurance etc...
https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...e-country.html
The above (similar) thread might help. However, I have still not found a clear answer to "six months per year vs. maximum abscence of six months".
Hello! We have a permit B issued in Zurich (+ a job contract without expiration date) and we plan:
1. End of June 2022: to end our rental contract, move all our belongings to a temporary storage.
2. July 2022: to travel abroad for the whole month.
3. Beginning of August 2022: to start a new rental contract in a different commune of the same canton and move our belongings from the storage to our new place.
Question: would we lose our B permit, or the law 142.20§61.2 applies and we keep our permit B?
142.20§61.2: "If a foreign national leaves Switzerland without giving notice of departure, a short stay permit expires after three months, and a residence or settlement permit after six months. On request, a settlement permit may remain valid for a further four years." from https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/758/en#a61
Thank you!
Yes, this is my question as well. Did you get an answer, ie, how long someone with a B permit needs to stay in Switzerland before taking another 6 month break abroad?
A permit is a residence permit. If you are no longer resident in Switzerland I’m not certain you can retain your permit.
At a minimum this would include maintaining a residence, health insurance and paying taxes.
Non-EU permits are in short supply and are subject to quotas.
Short visits will not reset the clock. You should a be a bona fide resident which most likely means you should be here for more than half of the calendar year. The SEM Guidelines have more details in Chapter 3.4.3
I had to take a break for a few months some time back so i checked with a lawyer.
Its a rolling 365 days he mentioned.
You can stay out for 6 months (179 days i think) in any 365 days (not a year but 365 day period)
Lets say you are out of switzerland from Jan-jun, and come back in Jun then you in theory cant go out of Switzerland atleast till Jan the next year