I am a non EU and had been offered a job by a hedge fund in Switzerland and my work permit was under process for four months till today when I heard from my employer that the Canton has rejected their application. The reasons cited was that the job ad for the position were too tailored to match my skills and they think that my company had offered me a job and then went out to put fake advertisements to fulfill the formal requirements. Also they said that there are many finance professional in EU looking for a job right now.
Now this is true, the position was pretty much made for me and they posted the job ads in such a way that no-one else could qualify. Also my company is hiring a non EU for the first time and they were not fully aware of the tricks for the process.
I'd very much appreciate if someone could advise me on the situation as to what could be the next steps I can take. As a first thought I was thinking to re-apply for the permit in the same canton- this time with more generalized job ad (I'm not sure if this is allowed or if it will help).
It would be a really big help if someone could advise on what could be the possible options or if someone has gone through similar situation. My employers are completely with me and they really want to hire me and do whatever steps are required.
i believe the only option is to appeal the current decision but from what you say your employer is going to have work really hard to overturn it!
what makes you think that re-applying for a position that has 'wider' scope will be any more successful? you (employee + employer) are now known to the authorities and they will be extra vigilant on any application that is placed. if it is a wider scoped job is placed the chances of a suitable EU candidate is greater and _they_ will be insisted upon.
in your case as well i don't think it is simply a cantonal decision, i think it becomes federal. so applying in a different canton is of no benefit.
you both are going to have work very very hard to turn it around.
What bill_door said plus you will need a specialist immigration lawyer and a big bag of cash with no guarantee of success - in fact, if the authorities already believe the company has tried to circumvent the permit regulations then it is 99.9% certain you will be wasting your money.
IMO what has been attempted by the parties is unethical/illegal. A few such cases are what bring a bad name to a group at large...perhaps genuine cases in this sector will also be turned away now .
Fooling the system, and then having the gall to admit it in a public forum . Without even anonymizing it!!! If the authorities have some eyes and ears in EF, they might now track the employer and press charges.
Since you asked, my advice would be that you request the moderators to do something about this thread before further damage could be done.
Ok. Thats not helpful- Why would you think this is unethical ??? If I own a company and I want to create a post to hire a person you think there's something wrong with it. What is wrong here is the system and the laws which are way too general. Authorities know nothing about the way small firms work and how specialized the jobs can be in such places. And they don't understand that if you put up a generic job ad when you actually know who you want to hire how much time and money is wasted.
Only mistake we did was not hiring an immigration lawyer in the start because then we'd have used the tricks and were not too obvious. And FYI most of the companies do it.
I posted in this forum so that I could get advise/help on the situation and not to start a discussion about what is ethical/unethical. So please if you don't have any advise which relates to the topic then don't waste your time scribbling here !!
Isn't it really up to your potential employer to thrash it out with the Canton? They have to justify why you're the only person to fit the bill. there's not really much you can do from your end. Apart from that, seeing as you admitted that the job description and advert was written with you in mind and the Canton have already stated that this is not permitted, then you don't really have much of a leg to stand on.
Exactly. Otherwise, by trying to help you, you can get EF into trouble . Just like you have now got your overly helpful employer into potential mess by going public on their illegal act.
If you choose to pursue this discussion and draw more public attention that is your choice.
Look, grow up, given that some where in the region of 100,000 finance professionals have lost their jobs in last 12 months, do you seriously expect anyone in authority to believe that a company can not find a Swiss or EU citizen that can do the job???
I think you're pretty much stuffed. As to wanting help here on the forum I don't really understand what help you expect people here to offer. Short of a list of tips on how to bend or break the law there isn't much help that you'd find useful in your situation. The issue is that you and your company tried to cheat, you got caught out and now you're complaining that it's the laws that are unfair and that the authorities don't understand etc and everyone does it blah blah blah. A rather pathetic attempt to portray yourself as the victim.
In short, it's your problem pal, if you don't like the fact that people on this forum say what they think about your situation then again, that's your problem. Switzerland and indeed the EU isn't exactly desperate for financial people right now and as for hedge funds? That's almost a dirty word in some parts nowadays.
I am all for full cross border access for everybody, everywhere, but we will never see it unfortunately. With the current situation with visas you are stuffed.
Any financial position can very easily be filled from within Switzerland without even looking at the EU, let alone outside of the EU, and I fail to see what special qualities anybody has that makes them a hedge fund manager. Hedge fund managing isn't specialist anymore and doesn't require special skills not found among the general population.
Given the current climate I am very suprised that your company even applied for a non eu permit for such a role. Saying that every company is doing it is not helpful, and admitting to such a scheme in a public forum is extremely naive and I'm sure the company involved will not thank you.
If people start giving advice that is useful (i.e. illegal) I'm sure the EF will have to remove the thread anyway.
"If I own a company and I want to create a post to hire a person you think there's something wrong with it." Yes most certainly, this route has been used in the past to obtain residency rights the world over.
"Only mistake we did was not hiring an immigration lawyer in the start because then we'd have used the tricks and were not too obvious. And FYI most of the companies do it."
Re what other companies do in Switzerland : Kind of you to make us wise n knowledgable. I am sure our forum readers are more clever than yesterday.
" Authorities know nothing about the way small firms work" : One thing sure is the authorities know how to apply the law in similar issues when residents are without jobs.
"What is wrong here is the system and the laws which are way too general": Funny you still want to come to such a country.
If I was in your position I would probably also go along with the process, but obviously the authorities are a bit more switched on than the UK and they have rejected your application.
The social and moral issues are secondary to the fact, as stated in previous posts, you are party to an illegal act and that you are pretty much admitting to fraud on a public forum, which IMHO is not really something that one would expect a person applying for a senior financial position to do.
Its only natural that employers prefer to hire locals-I've got a B permit, and have been turned down for a couple of jobs because there were locals who applied. The employers way of thinking was- they felt more confident the local (Swiss) applicant would be around for longer than I was likely to be.
Unfair? I don't know. It only seems unfair when you're on the wrong side of the law. Protectionism is evil... until you need to be protected.
Bad luck about the rejected work permit. I would strongly avoid messing about further though, unless you're appealing their decision (through appropriate channels). Most countries require a declaration about your previous issues with visas etc. You don't want this to jeopardize your chances at a future visa/job opportunity elsewhere.