I read somewhere on some permit applications for residence permits such as the L, B, or C permits, that one had to report about ever receiving social assistance or welfare assistance.
Are these referring ONLY to Swiss forms of social assistance or to any form of such assistance from any country at any point in one’s life?
Specifically I’d like to know if receiving Medicaid in the US would impact future residence permit applications.
Does anyone know if it would or does anyone have links in English or German with more information?
From what I can tell, the US Medicaid system would most likely be considered Prämievergünstigungen or “reduced prices for health insurance” but I could be wrong.
From what I read here, receiving social assistance can degrade a C-permit to a B-permit or a B-permit to an L-permit or worse, but I cannot tell if social assistance received when living outside of Switzerland at some point in one’s life would be something one must report in a future Swiss permit application.
In this link, (not available in English), section 6 Sozialhilfebezug has some details about “Legal consequences for Foreigners who receive social benefits”, but it doesn’t answer my above question. It just talks about permit degradation.
https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/de/home…thalt/faq.html
Any advice or information would be much appreciated.
Only Swiss social assistance
Thank you for the quick response, Limegrass2. That's what I was thinking as well, but I wasn't sure. Do you have a reference for this answer or how do you know this to be true?
I don't think you will find any official source specifically excluding US Medicaid (or any foreign government assistance) from the definition of being dependent on social aid in Swiss migration law terms
So I guess put another way, as long as a person is not "draining" Swiss public funds, such a situation would not interest the Swiss government. They might even be happy that one could import funds in such a way, as to spend them locally on the cost of living in the Swiss economy, like a tourist would. Would you mostly agree with this view, Limegrass2?
Neither happy nor frowned upon, just out of scope/interest.
Besides, I don’t see how you can import any sort of government assistance (excluding unemployment benefits from an EU country due to agreements in place) whilst not being resident in country providing assistance. If the latter is true (ie resident in both Switzerland and other country) check what the consequences in other country are if found out not truly resident
For naturalisation people are required to pay back any social assistance before their file can progress by a certain point. No suggestion that social assistance needs to be repaid in other jurisdictions.