I’m writing because I’ve sent various emails to swiss authority departments and I’m not sure how they line up with the flowchart for general processing of the permit. (L) My overall goal would be able to say “Ah because X are waiting on approval, it’s in the cantonal step and has not passed the labor market test yet.” The reasons for this is due to timing and overall confidence that I will receive a permit (it has already been 2 months since my employer applied).
In any case, here’s the situation:
I contacted the Consulate and then told me it’s pending at the
Cantonal Migration Office and to reach out to them directly.
I then contacted Service du contrôle des habitants and they said they do not have any ongoing process with my application (“Nous n’avons aucune démarche en cours vous concernant.”)They told me to reach out to SPOP.
Finally, I contacted SPOP and they said “Votre demande est en cours auprès du Service de l’emploi” (in process at Service de l’emploi). To my understanding, this is the SDE which is recently renamed DGEM.
So in short, it’s been 2 months and my job is supposed to start Dec 1st. As far as I’m concerned, this means that I still haven’t been approved at the cantonal level. What department specifically is when you pass the labor market test?
Moreover, if anyone can just tell me where these departments reside on the below flowchart, it would give a better understanding of where my application is…
By your description, it seems the application is with the cantonal labor admin. For clarity, green boxes are cantonal offices, and yellow ones are federal ones.
Now, the bad news. In the loop, there's only employer, cantonal and federal offices, not you. Your employer is in charge of this part of the process. It is not guaranteed that if you contact the service de l'emploi they will tell you something.
On the good news side, as soon as your employer gets this confirmation from SEM (migration federal admin) you can travel. But, do you know if you need an entry visa to Switzerland or not?
Hi thanks for the clear answer and diagram, I wasn't expecting that
When you say SEM, is it the first pass in the diagram or which one of the two: SEM (residence) or SEM (labor market)? Note that my stay is longer than 4 months so it's the other flowchart.
I will need a VISA D (contract is 8 months). That means that I will need to obtain the VISA in my home country before I travel over to Switzerland, correct?
So, the other flowchart is even clearer. The application from the employer is stuck with cantonal labor authority . Once it clears this step it goes to federal office (SEM) then the decision goes back to cantonal office , and then you can apply for the D type visa at local Swiss embassy.
ONly issue is that cantonal office is implied 2 times in the process. So, does your employer knows if the application for your job was successful or not? If so, you're almost there. If not, I don't think the visa will be ready on time because it takes a few weeks after you apply at local Swiss embassy/consulate (red rectangle).
Got it, okay. I've sent in my VISA application a while ago as per instructions from HR. It's on standby though as it waits for the swiss authority decision.
Right, it's implied 2 times. This is exactly what I've been trying to figure out (if it's in the first pass or the second). In the words of my connection at HR (for clarity, the secretary that coordinates with HR - not HR themselves) "Unfortunately I have no information about this. I don’t know if your file is already to the SEM or not."
That's what started me on my journey of emails and got me the responses illustrated in the first post on this thread. In general, it doesn't look like it's passed the first cantonal market authority step as I feel like they would have told me.
Would you advise that I either ask SPOP directly if it's passed the first step and they have an official decision? I could also ask HR directly instead of the secretary but I didn't want to be rude and bypass her job - which is why I reached out personally.
Totally agree though, I just want to see if it's passed the labor test as that is the crux and most worrying part. They should be able to tell me if it's passed it though, right? Again, I don't want to show that I'm nervous about passing it as I'm already a not super ideal candidate (22, fresh out of grad school, however the job is very niche for my skills - STEM)...
The secretary may be kind, but will keep getting the paycheck regardless of your hiring situation. So, this person doesn't give a single **** about it. HR is in a similar situation of not caring that much. So, do not let your future in the hands of people with no incentive to do anything.
The only person that cares is hiring manager which has job waiting to be done by Dec 2022, so contact this person.
ahhh, I'm a corporate drone....I need a drink now.