I am from UE and living in CH, canton Zürich for 2 years on a B permit (it is valid in the entire Switzerland).
I want to relocate to a commune in Canton Bern (to work for a company there).
Will this affect my future plans (C Permit, Citizenship)?
Hi everyone,
Your B permit is not valid in all of Switzerland, only your canton of residence, but since you're EU, you can routinely move to a new canton and get a new permit issued.
Moving to a new canton shouldn't affect the C permit, except with regards to the language requirements which are determined by the language of the commune (so if you move to a French commune in canton Berne, that's the language you'll need to prove you can speak well enough).
For citizenship, it won't change anything since it's early on. I think for Berne you only need to have lived in the canton and in the same commune for at least two years, so you could in principle move several times in the coming years as long as you're settled down in the final commune by the end of year 8 of your stay in Switzerland. Be aware that some cantons require living in the same commune for 5 years, so if you move again in the future that is not to be forgotten.
In this country one becomes a citizen of their commune, their Canton and the Confederation.
The Confederation decides the number of years required in the country, while the Cantons decide on the residency requirements in its Canton and Communes. The differ so you need to check.
This is not true, EU B permit is issued for 5 years and valid in whole Switzerland. You do not need a new permit by moving to a new Canton.
You're right of course. But every EU friend I have who has moved cantons has had to basically do the same procedure as a permit renewal when registering in the new commune, and received a new permit (with the old paper ones, they would get a new address page while the left page stayed the same. With the new credit card format permits, I'm not sure if they make a new one). The expiry date will be the same. So yeah it's the same permit. But you have to deregister, re register, and pay the permit issuance fee for the changes to the permit, so I say, semantics...
Agree the permits need to be reissued. That happened to us twice, once when we moved from GE to VD and once when we moved within VD.
(One of us 3rd country, the other EU)
Yes, you do. Your address will change so the new canton needs to issue a new permit - and you’ll be charged for it of course. Even moving within the same commune/gemeinde you will need a new one. It doesn’t matter what type of permit - B or C - you still need to register the new details and will get a new permit issued to you.
Within Canton I have moved (and of course registered) 3 times and never got a new permit and I was also not charged for it. The new Gemeinde simply provides a confirmation about the new address in pdf, in my permit it is still my very first address when I moved to CH.
Between Cantons I thought it's the same, because that is what written on my permit, but then maybe in the reality they issue a new after Canton change.
Well Zürich is different.
Don’t assume that what happens in Zürich happens in the other Cantons.
I've moved twice within my commune/gemeinde. I still have the original address on the B-Permit. I had to register each new address and asked both times.
For moving cantons I do not know as I have never done it. But a friend who did said f you move cantons your B permit time resets to zero. They're sickened as they could have applied for the C before moving but now must spend 5 years in AG.
Zürich again. It isn’t the centre of the Universe, not the centre of Switzerland.
EDIT: I have the same experience as davidb and Ato above.
Yes, what is valid for Zürich is not necessarily valid for the entire CH, but for the same reason what Medea wrote can be correct only in some part of CH and surely not in ZH.
And since the OP profile says "Zürich"... ;-)
This is not true for Zurich.
Better?
Also not true for BL or BS. Permits are handled at cantonal level. Tom - how does the great state of Ticino handle this?
Ditto for Bern.
I've moved some 6 times or so, the permit does not get reissued.
This is not true for C permits. I'm afraid someone has given your friend misinformation.
One only needs 5 or 10 years in the country on a B permit to apply for C. Depending on fast track or not, of course. Language requirements might apply too.
It's only under ordinary naturalization one needs to pay attention to how long they've been living in a particular municipality or canton.
If your friend has been in CH at least 5 years, had a B permit, has a language certificate (or comes from a country that doesn't need one), and hasn't been on social help, they should apply for the C.
To add to what's already been said:
Naturalisation is guided by federal, cantonal law and regulations, and potentially by additional regulations by the municipality. Some municipalities/towns have more stringent requirements than others, the hardest one I remember seeing is 5 years living in the municipality as requirement for naturalisation.
This isn't relevant yet, but later on it well may.
So just to do a quick summary (maybe other people want to know this)
* Future requesting of the C permit
I can switch cantons since it is early on and the canton I live in does not really matter for the C permit (as long as I lived inside Switzerland for 5 years and I am compliant with the other rules).
* Future requesting of the citizenship
The cantons and communes can have different time period requirements for when you can request citizenship so I must check the cantonal and municipal rules to allow me request the citizenship at the end of the 10 years (in my case) that I lived in CH.
For example
- canton Bern requires the for the last 2 years of your stay you did not changed cantons and for the last 2 years you have not changed your municipality (in other places this can be different, like 5 years in the same canton and 3 years in the same municipality)
Thank you all for your answers.