Hi All,
I am a non-EU national, on a restricted B permit (tied to employer) working for Zurich based client since last 4 years (first 2 years on L, last 2 on B). Now Zurich canton is no more keen to extend my B closed permission (expiring soon) and hence my parent company wants me to return to my base location (outside EU of course).
I recently got connected to a very small, locally registered company (~10 members probably), whose primary area of work is 'manpower staffing/recruitment', but it’s also registered as Swiss IT company. This company is willing to apply for converting my permit to B open. The company does not have much past experience of such conversion either.
I kindly want to take opinion from forum members about merit/feasibility in initiating such conversion please. This option will obviously necessitate me to resign from current job and such conversion will potentially take ~3 months and final result may swing in any direction.
As the step involves good time, cost, and no job with family, I am still in process of deciding and any feedbacks will be greatly helpful please. Thanks.
Welcome to the Forum.
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly. I'm pretty sure you do not want to resign your current job until you have more assurances regarding the new job.
AFAIK the new employer has to go through the same non-EU hiring process as the current one.
Ask the new company to start the process - if they are successful, you can change jobs... if not, stick with your current job (potentially back at base), and then you can always apply to other jobs in CH if you want.
But beware, moving to another company which is willing and able to secure you another B permit will not be able to get you an open permit. It will be restricted to employment by them.
Thanks 3wishes for your welcome and kind words please..
Hi Bowlie, thanks for your feedback please..
Indeed, I assumed that if the future company is offering a local contract and applying for B open permission, it probably would be an open permit, but I understand from your feedback that because ‘a particular’ company is applying for such conversion, it may still be a closed/restricted permit ?
Does stay of duration (4 years in my case) has any bearing on this decision (as I hear/read that after overall 6 years, authorities normally issue B open to non EU nationals)....
Actually my main confusion (and original query) was around the feasibility of such conversion / permit transfer itself (especially when future employer is extremely small and primarily focused on manpower/staffing please).
According to article 21 section 2(c) of the FNIA, people with an existing B permit with the authorisation to work are deemed to be "domestic" employees and hence on the same footing as CH/EU citizens:
https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/758/en
Looks like you had a time restricted B, not just an employer restricted B. A true expat stint (Entsendung).
I do not think that Art. 21 Para 2. Letter c FNIA applies in such a case.
Means the company which wants to employ you have to jump through all the usual hoops. https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/de/home...zulassung.html