B permit Kanton Change Non EU

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hi,

Does anyone know please - (or guide me if answered before since this seems to be a fairly common case) if one changes B permit Non EU from Kanton 1 to 2 i.e gets a new B permit with Another Kanton:

1. Can one continue to stay in original Kanton since kids family doesn't wish to shift?

2. Does this affect Naturalisation or resets the years to get the C?

2
1. Can you clarify? Why would you move canton and then not actually move? You can ask permission to live in a different canton from where you work. In those cases the work authorization comes from the canton of work, and the immigration authorities from both canton of work and of residence have to agree to let you live in the different canton. It's often not a problem if you have a good reason to want to live in the other canton, for example your spouse also has a job there and commute makes more sense for you than for them, or kids already in school and not wanting to disturb their schooling with an unnecessary move. If approved your permit is issued by canton of residence.

2. C permit is based on time lived in Switzerland as a whole. There are reports of immigration officers who think changing cantons resets the clock for C permit but nothing in the law or directives supports that.

For Naturalisation, there is both a federal requirements of 10 years, and a cantonal and communal requirement that varies by canton. Your clock at the federal level doesn't reset, but at the cantonal level yes (depending on how long you've been there and what the requirements are in your new canton)

3

  1. There’s no point in changing cantons if you don’t plan to move to the new one. And no, you can’t stay because the old permit would become invalid on the granting of a new one in a different canton. And under family reunification all your dependents must live in the same accommodation that you do so yes, the whole family would have to move as well.

  2. As Kundo said there are cantonal and gemeinde/commune residence requirements for naturalisation purposes so moving would reset those.

4
Note that the cantonal and commune requirements typically very between 2 and 5 years of residency, so the clock resetting is only an issue if the move happens late in the 10 years overall. For example one can move to Basel on year 8 of their stay in Switzerland and still be able to apply after 10 years.

5
Thanks for the Information, i give more details below.

Yes of course I could explain.

Current Situation:

Primary B Permit owner: Me, Issued from Kanton 1 living here 4+ years

Would be Situation:

Primary B permit owner: Spouse, (I become dependent) but work authorisation from Kanton 2 so normally would also be Permit from Kanton 2

Prefer current Kanton since kids go to local school.

6
You live in the Kanton you got the permit from. Not doing that as a non EU is not a good idea.

7
Still don't fully understand. Why the change from main permit to dependent (that's usually not possible by the way, because it would needlessly use up a quota spot for this year)? Will both you and your spouse change jobs? Whose job are in what canton?

Anyway, as I wrote before, when applying for the new permit you can apply to live in a different canton than where you work. There has to be a good reason and both cantons need to approve it, but it's possible. In that case the AWA from the work canton still makes the decision on work authorisation, then the migration from both work and residence canton decide if you can live in that other canton. If both you and your spouses work in a different canton as where you live, it might not be accepted. If the dependent spouse works in the residence canton, that's grounds for wanting to stay there (plus the kids' school situation).

8
Yes, to answer the question - Why change to dependent?

Well we both have swiss jobs, however due to my closed B permit restrictions , I cannot to take up remote/non-CH jobs which are better paying than current.

With this change, spouse can continue the stable current job which is in another kanton. Earlier she was dependent, we never asked independent one (not to waste quota). So, now we seek a separate permit for spouse and I change mine to dependent.

Even if I continue working in current Kanton, as dependent, am free to look at any swiss job - than restricted B permits.

9
Your wife has a dependant permit and you a tied B permit?

Changing that so that your wife has the permit means her employer needs to go through a hiring process, assuming she is non EU.

Are you sure they are willing to do that?

Also such changes are seldom approved.

10
Your spouse's employer would have to advertise her position (and in principle could decide to hire someone else), and I think that would possibly need to happen after you've already left your job. As long as you have a job and a permit tied to it, immigration has no reason to waste a quota unit on your wife when they can just keep her on a dependent permit that doesn't count towards quotas. That seems like a ridiculous risk to take when you currently already have two steady Swiss incomes, especially when you can apply for a C permit in less than a year (which would allow you to take whatever work you want)

11
Indeed, this would need to be evaluated by the employer and considerable efforts needed on their behalf to even start this process. They have been fairly reluctant to go down this road in the past...

Yes, there are quite many moving parts (points of failures) in this approach. Even if there were no change in Kantons, there is a lot of ground to be covered. Based on the feedback above, I believe it might be best to simply carry on as you say.

Thanks a lot gentlemen for the feedback. I really appreciate your practical inputs.

12
Why do you try to move so much? you need to wait less than a year to apply for C permit. Then you can do whatever you want.