I apologize if somebody asked the same question before. I searched thru the EF but i could not find a similar question.
A friend of mine is in Switzerland now working as an au pair for a Swiss German family in Bern. She has a L Permit( for au pairs and she came thru to CH thanks to a placement agency) . She comes from south America.
After her au pair year she would like to stay in Switzerland and follow a master, does anyone of you know if this possible? Can she change the permit she has? does she need to go back to her home country and apply for a student permit from there?
It shouldn't be a problem, speaking from previous experience. I've just gotten accepted to HSG for graduate studies and I am presently here on the au pair permit. I'm an American. The important thing is to make sure to apply by the correct deadlines for all the unis! If she is accepted to uni, then it shouldn't be a problem.
So at last, here is what happened to my friend. Some months before her au pair year finished, she applied for a master program at the university of Fribourg and got an affirmative answer from them. After paying the semester fees and having a letter issued by the university saying that she was officially registered, she was able to go to the inmigration department and require a change of her permit ( that meaning ,she will change the L permit for a B permit).
That was it, after bringing the papers the process of getting a new pemit took around 3 weeks. Now she has a B permit and can stay an study :-).
A student visa is only needed if the au pair does not have her new permit before expiration of the first one. If this is the case, one must ask for a student visa and expect to wait around 3 months.