I tried to fit everything into the title of this thread - and before I get shot down - I have searched and read through numerous posts and did not find a relevant answer.
Our situation:
We moved to CH (ZH, to be precise) in January 2017 for my husband's work. He had a 5-year contract, we are both EU citizens, but still we were issued an L permit. Each year, we hoped to get a B, but got an L. We have now been here almost five years.
In May 2021, my husband was made redundant and is now on RAV - Canton ZH, only issues 2 x 6 month L visas to Arbeitssuchende (job hunters). The first one just expired and we are awaiting the second one.
My questions, assuming neither my husband nor I find a job before May 2022: What happens when our second L Visa runs out? Do we get kicked out of CH? Our daughter is in school until July and my husband is entitled to 400 days of RAV benefits, so... does he lose out on 6 months (or more) of the contributions he is entitled to? A few people mentioned 5 years as a sort of mythical number, after which you should be able to apply for a B... is there any truth in that?
The FMOP agreement gives you five years to establish economic viability and an entitlement to obtain permanent resident status provided you meet the requirements. A failure to do so entitles the state to ask you to leave, whether they do so or not is up to them.
My guess is that you will continue to receive permit extensions until your benefits run out. After that, no idea.
This sounds like a rolling contract that was only renewed year on year - hence the L permit instead of a B. A year or less you get an L, a contract of more than a year you get a B.
I guess it depends on whether RAV would agree to be your new “employer” so you could get a new permit after the second L runs out. That might depend on whether RAV think you have a good chance of getting another job here or not. If not, then with no residence permit you cannot stay in Switzerland except as a tourist for 3 months. It is possible to move RAV payments to another EU country for 3 months, but whether that could be extended in any way I don’t know.
Ok, that's interesting... so we would have to take it up with the RAV to see if they could/would be willing to step in. Hopefully, we won't still be in this situation in 6 months' time, but it feels frustrating (and, dare I say it, wrong?!) to have contributed for almost 5 years and not receive all we are entitled to.
I accidentally typed part of my reply inside the quote, so in answer to your comment: Nope, not a rolling contract on a yearly basis - in fact it dumbfounded the employees at the Migrationsamt every year. And every year they said they would look into it, and every year we were issued an "L".