How to get a L Job Seeker Permit after completing PhD

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hey everyone I wanted to share my experiences with getting a L Job Seeker Permit in Bern.

It's actually possible!

My profile:

- PhD Student, contract ended in August, finished but still student until defense.

- Living in Switzerland since 2012.

- Continual B permit (annual renewal) since then.

- Non-EU

I applied for the Job Seeker permit on August 3rd, 2018.

At the Gemeinde, I was given a piece of paper (attached below) stating the required documents for a "Verlängerung einer bestehenden Bewilligung" (Extension of an existing permit). It required:

- A personal letter detailing why you want the permit, and your current situation (mine was 1 page long).

- An explanation of your efforts to find work so far. So note that you are expected to be looking for work before you apply for the permit. I hadn't applied for any jobs yet, but I detailed what I planned to do in the following months to find employment.

- At least 2500.- per month (3-6 months). I showed bank statement. Interestingly according to the form you can apply for one of these permits even if you're on the RAV. There are also other ways, z.b. a guarantor.

- Scanned copy of both sides of your health insurance card.

- Document confirming your firing/end of contract/reason for leaving work. In my case I attached my contract which stated that it ended in August of this year.

- A copy of your B/L permit.

- Copy of your passport.

- The standard form you fill out when you apply for a new permit (don't forget this).

I receive the permit by mail next week (first week of October), making the whole process take 2 months from application to issuance.

The cost was 162 francs.

The permit is initially issued for 3 months and is always an L.

P.S. When you receive the letter saying you can pick up your permit on a specific day (12.11.2018), you can actually go into the Gemeinde and already have it issued before that day.

Hope this helps settle any questions about the process.

2
Would you be so kind to share which area you did your pHd?

And which kanton you are?

Good to know it is indeed possible!!

Im attending a Master in Engineering (I am also non-eu) and hope

The master in engineering to be enough to have this permit for job seek

3
Bern.

Natural Sciences.

4
Two more things.

First, my permit was issued for 5 months.

Second, and importantly. Some people have told me that the Gemeinde has told them that they will not issue a job seeker permit until they have a degree in hand.

This is incorrect.

If you are told this, do not give up nor leave but find/ask for someone more knowledgeable .

You can receive your L permit if your still finishing your PhD.

I did, and others have too.

Unfortunately, when it comes to student affairs at the Fremdenpolizei, many of the employees are under-informed and will give you incorrect information.

5
Thanks for sharing your story.

I have a question regarding following situation:

I’m non-eu finishing my PhD in October (Zurich). I was offered a job starting from November 1, so I would not actually need a job seeking permit but rather want to be registered with the new employer. What would be the process in this case? I will have to renew my current permit in December as it expires by the end of the year.

6
Since you are Non-EU, your company should do everything. They will apply for a new permit on your behalf. Talk to HR and get them to start the process so it’s ready for your start date.

If you already have a valid permit, Swiss graduate, PhD, it is easy peasy.

After my Postdoc I was also in the same boat. The employer did everything. I just had to follow up directly a few times when the permit arrived late.

7
Thanks. Would it mean that I will have to renew my permit before November once again (my current one expires at the end of the year)? Or I just wait to receive the renewal form and sign it at the new employer in December?

Could you get B permit or L? I guess they are not under quotas so in this sense timing does not mean much, right (as far as I do not violate any rules)?

8

For you, I would get the new employer to apply for a permit that allows you to work on your start date (Nov1) once you get that you don't care that the other one expires a month after (Dec 1). Hence renew your permit before November, do this by tell your employer to do it.

I don't know about you, but in my time in Geneva, I have not once received a request for renewal. It was always up to me to do it by going to HR to tell them to do it.

If your contract is at least a year, you should get a B. But that all depends on the canton, how the canton feels about you, how the worker who looks at your documents feels about you, how much coffee they have had that day or not...

9
Now I can share my story how it actually worked out for me with the timeline. Hopefully, it will be useful as there is not much information about how to find jobs and switch to a normal job permit for non-EU people.

General info:

Getting a non-EU permit is not easy, but if you study in Switzerland and your job is of high economic or scientific value (whatever it means, the description is pretty vague), you can apply for a 6-month job seeker permit. As I was very much concerned that I won't be able to find a job, I started really early (8 month before the graduation), and it paid off. What was not clear to me is whether already having found a job, I had to apply first for the job seeker permit and then for the work permit. Apparently not, here is how it was.

The regulation (see p. 5.1.2, I actually even attached it to my job applications): https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/data/se...ngen-aug-d.pdf

June 2015 - arrived to start my PhD in Zurich (UZH, Informatics), got B permit (Ausbildung mit Erwerbstätigkeit). During this time I was always employed by the university with contracts that were renewed yearly.

February 2019 - started to search jobs, as it became clear that I was going to graduate this year, the contract from the university is until 31 Dec 2019, the current B permit (for PhD) is also valid until 31 Dec 2019.

16 May 2019 - got an offer from an IT company in Zurich for an IT consultant position, open-ended contract. Note: the company didn't have any experience in hiring non-eu and applying for permits before.

25 May 2019 - accepted the offer

18 June 2019 - the company applied for the permit, so that I can switch from B that I had for my PhD

28 June 2019 - the application was rejected, I don't know the details but the message was that they have to apply again when they have a confirmation that I graduated

1 August 2019 - submitted my dissertation (for the review)

22 October 2019 - successfully defended my PhD dissertation

23 October 2019 - send a confirmation letter that I defended to the company. Note: the confirmation letter from the university is enough, I will get the certificate in February 2020

24 October 2019 - the company submitted the application again, which now contained the confirmation letter. Additionally, even though they didn't go through the standard non-eu hiring process, they attached a letter explaining why they want to hire me and how they searched before. They were prepared with all the documents to be submitted and waited for the confirmation letter, so it was that quick.

14 November 2019 - the application was finally approved, and the company got approval letters from AWA, SEM, and Migrationsamt

27 November 2019 - I went to my Gemeinde with the regular renewal form (which I got btw at the beginning of Oct 2019, as usual). I waited until there is news from the application because I didn't really know whether I should apply for job seeker permit OR the university OR the new company should stamp & sign the form. In the end, it was the company who stamped & signed it, when we got the confirmation about the approval. Before that I contacted Arbeitsamt, Migrationsamt and my Gemeinde, but somehow nobody could give me a clear answer.

4 December 2019 - got a B permit (mit Erwerbstätigkeit)

1 January 2020 - going to start with a new job

10
Thanks belissa!

But what do you mean when you wrote that your company “didn’t go through the standard non-eu hiring process”?

11
I mean that normally to hire a non-eu person they have to advertise the job for at least 6 month, then prove that they couldn't find anybody from CH / EU / EFTA. In my case the company didn't do this, but again they attached a letter explaining that they want to hire me and why.