I am Andrea, I used to be a member of the forum long time ago while I was living in Baden in 2013. I am glad to be back!
I am Mexican, living and working in Paris with a carte bleu CdS. My husband (french) was just offered and accepted a really good opportunity to work in Basel. Our first option is to be able to live in the French border (Saint Louis) and commute to Basel as needed.
I have several questions regarding this situation and I will probably need an immigration lawyer (any contacts?) but if you have some ideas/tips please let me know!
I read about the G crossing border permit:
1. If everything is well, I would be able to negotiate that I keep working for my French company from home for 6 months until I am able to process the border permit. If I'd be 5 years in France in December 2020 (but not yet with nationality), would I need to do extra process to grant the permanent residency? I would be less than 1yr married to my French husband, but I am considering changing my CdS to Vie Privee Familier if this helps. Is this doable? I know that job hunting will be challenging, so I am more wondering about the legality of this.
2. Do I need to apply to a permanent residency before being able to obtain the border permit?
3. If I find a company who wants to hire me, I am living in France rightfully next to my French husband, can I work for this company? can they process a border permit or this is not possible?
4. Should I give it all up and move to Switzerland and not in France? This is definitely not our first choice because: a) we don't have kids but we are planning to have them soon, I am familiar with the difficulties of two working parents + small kids in Switzerland. This is more accessible on the French side. Me giving my career is not an option i have a good career. b) health insurance + retirement plan is more attractive for us on the French side than on the Swiss side. Yes, the taxes are higher but we are willing to go through this.
Do anyone has any tips for this? If not, please, please if you could provide me with an immigration lawyer it would be great as well
I do want to, and I want to start the process once we make the move to the French border (another reason why we would like to stay on this side so I would not lose the 5 years history). However, it will take at least 1 year if no covid happens to process the nationality by decret (nationality by marriage won't be possible until 3yrs from now + the waiting time).
I just want to see if it is possible that I can work in Basel while living in France and while I do the whole long process of obtaining the French nationality
a G Permit is linked to an employer and is typically valid for one year. Hence, you won't get a G-permit because your husband has one, you'll have to find a job firs. It's different if you reside in Switzerland in which case he'll get a B and you will get it too.
Also, think about health insurance because if you plan to be a mom one day, it's one thing to be taken care of in a provincial French hospital, another is in the first-class Universitätsspital in Basel.
Re Saint Louis - I hope you've visited this thing. It's only marginally better that Mulhouse and Mulhouse is the shi&hole of the area. If you insist on staying in France at least consider the surrounding villages. Boring and sleepy, but at least picturesque, calm and beautiful.
We did a similar thing years ago: moved to France and after two years being fed up with the ridiculous French administration, poor housing, commute, lack of proper service, mediocre schooling, etc, etc. moved to Basel. This was 10 years ago, now we go to France only for occasional shopping.
This is a bit confusing because I found in another post the following:
I appreciate your thoughts but right now we are living in France (me for the last five year), I am familiar with the French admin, poor housing? have you seen the apartments in Paris? Lack of proper service and mediocre schooling.. again... I was not asking for a personal opinion between French and Swiss life.. Both sides have good and bad things.. I am asking about what it is possible to do according to our options...
We have friends working in Basel and living in the French side, they are not unhappy and suffering
Your husbands employer will also be able to help clarfy. G is issued indeed with the requirements you posted, but AFAIK assumes employment. Otherwise everyone living in France will get a G permit irrelevant if they work or just want the paper
Saint Louis has 0 similarities with Paris. My only advice would be to check it out first.
And definitely we will take a look. If it is completely impossible for me to find a job and live in France we will reconsider, if it is really too bad we will also reconsider 😬.
Is it true that I would not be able to join my husband until months after he moves - alone - to Basel? As my paperwork won’t be able to be processed until he gets his permit?
“Third-country nationals will only be given a cross-border commuter G-permit, if they have a permanent residence permit in a neighboring country. They also need to have had their residence in the neighboring country’s border zone for at least six months and fulfill the labor market requirements. G-permits are usually valid for one year, and are limited to the border zone of the issuing canton. Third-country border commuters require permission to change jobs”
So yes, you need French permanent residency - and also to have lived in a border zone for at least 6 months. So that will be living in St Louis or similar French area for at least that long before you’d qualify for a G permit. Labor market requirements will depend on what sort of work you plan to do and whether the employer can justify hiring you over anyone else depending on what labor market conditions apply in that particular field of employment.
Only the employer can apply for a G permit for you; you can’t do it yourself because of the above requirements.
Thank you Medea! (i remember you from my old times!).
I did some quick research and I am able change my Carte Bleue to a Permanent Residence since my time living in France. I will take a look at it.
So for the G Permit, if I have the residence in France and I have been 6 months in the border, I could get a job in Basel and they would process the permit to allow me to work for a year with it. Is this depending on the quotas?
I have a good cv (I believe), working in international corporate finance for the last 8yrs and with experiences over three continents so I hope it would not be that bad.
If we decide to live in Switzerland - and not in France - would I have the same work rights as my husband? Can I move with him wt the same time or we would have to apply for reunification visa?
Yes, a lot of people live in France and Germany and commute to Basel for work. You have the advantage of knowing how France works, so better get the settlement permit in France done, just a few months more.
Well, as others mentioned St. Louis is not exactly the nicest place in the world. Nothing specially wrong, just a urban area affected by deindustrialization as the rest of Alsace. The good news is that there are many beautiful villages around with nice houses, lower rent, less urban problems and delicious wines just a few km to the north.
There's a thing known as Basel traffic. Never lived in Basel but every time I have to drive from Switzerland to France or Germany, the traffic in Basel is hopeless. So, better use the train or trams to commute from France to Basel. There are trams that cross the border, check the Basel public transport plan https://www.bvb.ch/de/fahrplan/liniennetz/ and there's a commuter train that links Mulhouse and Basel with several intermediate stops.
It would be great if you could explore the area before taking a decision. Drive around to get a better knowledge of the area.
We managed to visit Basel/Saint Louis just before the second lockdown and we were able to find an apartment and booked it on the spot (heavenly bigger than ours in Paris!). The apartment is walking distance from the tram and just in front of the bus going to the center in Basel. The street is lovely during the fall (I guess it may be less during the summer without the lovely colors), but I think it is a good apartment to begin our adventure in the area.
I also managed to keep my work from Paris in St Louis (work from home) at least for a year more if not more. So this gives me the advantage of time in order to get my precious France residency (as I have the lovely carte bleue right now but useful in everywhere but switzerland ), and along the way my nationality. Today is my 6th year anniversary with the French bureaucracy (including a PACS and a Marriage) so a couple of more processes won't hurt (specially having an spouse who is very French/Parisian).
Thank you so much for your help and I am looking forward moving back to Switzerland (ish) after 7yrs away! I loved my time there and I am so happy to come back!