1. How long does it take generally for a D after the form is applied? Also factoring in COVID. I'm not sure if this impacts it.
2. What requirements do you think they want to see?
I see lots of stuff on permits but the Swiss Consulate in the US suggested I apply for a D permit. I think this is a Shengan permit? Anyway, I'm moderately young but in a good financial position so I don't have to work. I think that's why they suggested it, because I think as long as you can show you have a sufficient resources it's okay. Anyway, I have not had an answer yet and they did not specify what the requirements are.
Not an expert... There is not much information out there but it could likely take 2-3 months to process as a newly registered person in Switzerland. Although your profile says that you joined this forum in 2013.
They probably want to be reassured that you are not a threat to society or the internal security of Switzerland and such. It probably also depends on if your considered an extended tourist. Best guess is they want to see 100,000 or more francs a year coming in to support yourself?!? but don't qoute me, it could be less or maybe more.
Best of luck.
Since a D permit doesn’t exist that makes no sense whatsoever. What there is is a Type D visa which allows the holder to enter the country for more than the 90 day tourist limit. However, that is only granted if you’ve been approved for a Swiss resident permit.
As you say, you’re retired you would need to prove you have sufficient funds to support yourself once you move here - and what you consider sufficient may not be the same as the Swiss authorities.
You would need to contact the cantonal migration office to find out how much you’d need for them to grant you a permit, then do whatever paperwork they need and send that to the embassy along with paperwork for the Type D visa. If the permit is approved then the Type D visa will be stamped into your passport and you’ll have a certain period of time it’s valid for.
I can't decide if the OP is a troll or not.
EDIT - It appears not, just very uninformed.
It’s a long time ago since I came a cross this.... From what I remember to be granted a permit your ability to support yourself over the long term must be derived from not economic activity worldwide. So royalties, investment income, interest and so on. Management of offshore business would rule you out etc. This option is mainly targeting entertainment artists, patent holders and the ultra rich.
As said above, D visa is just to enter the country. You need a residence permit to live here, and for that you need to have an actual reason to move here. To come live here as a non-EU national without gainful activity, and without any particular reason like education or joining family or asylum, etc, from what I recall reading the immigration law, requires your admittance to have "important public interest", which is loosely defined as when denying you could injure Switzerland's international relations, when you would have a very important impact fiscally, or when you are a world-renowned artist or innovator that would bring international standing to Switzerland. So it's not enough to just have money to support yourself, you have to be extremely rich. In the 8 years between 2009 and 2017, only 523 foreigners were admitted under that reason, of them only 21 Americans.
For comparison, just to get the right to come here to work as a self-employed person, your turnover must be in the millions. So to come here and not work in Switzerland at all, that gives you an idea what kind of numbers we might be talking about...
So depending on just how rich you are, it might very well be far easier to find a job and come here to work than to come here not to work.
Yes, there is an official "Application for a long stay visa (visa D)", which the Swiss Consulate sent me officially. So clearly it exists.
The Bern immigration confirmed that the paperwork must be processed through the consulate in the US in NYC. I read somewhere that typical processing time is 15 days. I get the impression that it's probably easy because they're not going to complain as long as you're bringing money in, not taking jobs or threatening the social system, and plan to leave. Shengan rules already allow 90 days in 180 so I feel like this is not a huge expansion on that.
Since someone asked, the reason my profile date is 2013 is because I have traveled and stayed a few months here and there within Switzerland within the valid non-permit rules: 90 days. But now I want to stay longer. I do have a very solid income stream from abroad, obviously this is a matter of opinion what is good.
On the application they are ask where i plan to reside in Switzerland, so it is clear that they are allowing some degree of residency. From what I can gather this is not a Swiss VISA per se, but a Shengan VISA. That is the only Visa D I see in my research.
The application was returned once, within 10 days, stating that I should provide supporting financial documents. They did not specify specifically what this meant, so I included tax returns and some financial reports from one of my main companies demonstrating ownership, cash, and financial integrity.
A D visa allows you to enter the country, but not to stay and live here. A D visa is issued to allow you to enter the country once you have been approved for a residence permit (L, B or C). Once you get here you collect your residence permit and the D visa expires.
.... But you seem to think you know it all already, so I wonder why you are asking us?
The confusion was that you wrote permit D, which does not exist. Visa D yes.
And it normally takes a while and it is not that easy. So good luck.
Looking forward to your results, keep us updated!
In my experience individuals with significant assets and income who want to reside here can afford to hire the services of an immigration lawyer to assist them. They don't post on EF.
Yes, it costs money but if the OP claims he is as wealthy as he is, he can well afford the services of a professional.
True, but keep in mind Switzerland is a bit unique in that sense. In most countries, the visa is what one needs in order to reside as opposed to only enter.
OP:
Here's a company I found via an internet search that helps non-EUs secure residency based on wealth.
The financial requirement under this program is minimum annual taxes of 250,000 CHF. Not income, amount paid in taxes . Don't ask me what that equates to in assets and investments, but it's got to be millions.
Processing time is 3-6 months.
Here's another site with similar numbers and info. That site says you need at least 250K up front and that 250K is the minimum annually, it could mean up to 1 million in annual taxes paid depending on canton and municipality.
As of today, Google says 250K CHF = 270,868.25 USD.
Medea didn't mention FATCA, but you'll want to take that into consideration as well. Banks here are very reluctant to take U.S. clients due to FATCA. I suppose being ultra-rich might help, but then again the ultra-rich are the ones known for hiding big sums of cash. I'd consider them more of a risk than a pauper who earns the EF minimum salary of 120K
Indeed, there’s that too 3Wishes. Not only are most Swiss banks flat out rejecting any Americans for accounts, there’s also the fact that the OP would still be required to file US tax returns and more than likely end up owing the US tax on top of Swiss ones. More on your US tax filing obligations here:
That can be a real pain. I had an American flatmate and because we had a shared rental deposit account, my name became associated with his and there were all kinds of flags and blocks on my account like I was myself American and had failed to produce the appropriate documents...
Yes, like we've been trying to tell you, it exists but it is not a residence permit. It does not give you the right to stay in the country. It merely allows you to enter the country without a proof of a return ticket within 90 days. Even if the consulate issued you a D visa without talking with immigration first (they shouldn't and probably wouldn't, but even if), that would not give you any right to live in Switzerland. You still need a residence permit, which are issued by and valid only in your canton of residence.
What normally happens when you apply for a Visa D is the consulate sends all your file to the migration office of the canton you say you will be living in. One of the first thing they will look at is what "purpose of stay" you indicated in and look at your eligibility for a residence permit for that purpose. They check if the file is complete (if not they ask the consulate to request additional documents from you), and they evaluate you for issuing a residence permit based on the canton's immigration policy. They may first send it to the work and industry administration of the canton for approval if you plan on working as self-employed (if you were employed, the whole process would be done by your employer in the first place, not by you). Then if canton says yes, it goes up to the federal migration administration, and they check everything again in light of federal law. If they also say yes, they send it back to canton with a final approval, and you're marked in the system as having an approved residence permit. They also send an authorization to the consulate to issue your entry visa (i.e. the D visa). You retrieve the visa from the consulate, move to Switzerland and register to your commune. They see you have an approved permit and at that point the order gets sent to actually produce your permit.
In your case, with a purpose of stay to just live here from your own wealth, the mechanism for the canton to justify accepting you is the "important public interest" clause, which some of us explained above.
Oh boy.... that's going to be one rude awakening
Not to derail this thread but I really don't understand why the OP wants to move here in the first place.
For starters, surely life in the US can't be as expensive as here, particularly for a US citizen.
However, it's not just about the cost of living. Many retired people choose not to stay here. Just some food for thought.
For many of those retired people, cost of living is one of the significant reasons they choose not to stay.
However, for OP, of he's wealthy enough for the Swiss government to permit him reside here, not for the purposes of being employed, then the cost if living will be of little concern to him.
Right, but as Mrs. D said. People who have THAT kind of money, don't go asking the opinion of a bunch of unknowns on an internet forum. They seek professional advice and pay for it. I don't remember Tina Turner or Phil Collins asking us how they could get residence permits...
Not necessarily this. It is also about lifestyle.
As the OP is American, there are taxation issues for him.
I have worked with clients (non EU) who wanted to reside in Switzerland and were not employed. My sole task was to show them suitable properties for rent. They had their own advisors (legal, financial) on matters of immigration and taxation.