Hi all,
I'm currently in my home country (EU) working for a US-based company through a B2B contract (I'm self-employed in my country). Since I want to move to Switzerland (Ticino) the company offered to hire me through a proxy company or just to keep the current arrangement. I prefer the latter but that requires me to get a permit (B, I guess) without a work contract, thus I have a few concerns:
1) I understand that I need to prove that I can afford Switzerland, be insured, etc... but are there any catches when applying for such a non-work permit?
2) I'll need permits for my spouse and children too. Does it change anything?
3) Will my children be able attend local schools after registration (i.e., while waiting for permits)?
4) Will I be required to pay OASI or other insurances, except health, which I know is mandatory?
5) Any other tips or tricks (like useful documents I could bring them, or some Ticino-specific requirements, ...)?
Thanks!
1) As you work you will need a work permit. As you work you obviously get a pay check and thus can afford your stay
2) If they also live here they will also get a permit. Standrd procedure.
3) Schooling is manmdatory. They will join there assigned class as few days after you registered your resideny.
4) Yes, you will have to pay social security. Look up or search for the Anobag and also here https://www4.ti.ch/dss/ias/prestazio...si-di-calcolo/
Thanks! But I work through my company in a foreign country, so we would I need a work permit? I understand that my permit route would be through "sufficient financial means" then, right?
No, sufficient financial means is derived from non work sources - royalties, investment income etc.
As an EU citizen you have a right to:
- To come to Switzerland for a period of three to six months to seek work
- To come to Switzerland to establish a viable business based in the Swiss economy
- To take up full time employment
- For the purpose of family reunification
- To permanent resident status after five years provided you have established economic viability
- To come to Switzerland for short periods to do work on behalf of your company
And that is it. There is no enforceable right to come to Switzerland and establish yourself as a remote worker, it is up to the authorities to decide. Else where on the forum you will find a discussion on how Switzerland currently dealing with the remote working situation and a few links. I’m sorry I don’t remember the link.
That is not to say people don’t do it, they do but they usually don’t require the level of official sanction the primary bread winner does to rent long term, obtain insurance, obtain dependent visas, send kids to school and college etc.
You can also retire in Switzerland as an EU person, but you have to show sufficient funds and health insurance. Retiring does not mean working remotely.
You can be self-employed here. However, depending on what type of work you do the Swiss authorities may require you to have a minimum of 3 clients to be considered as self-employed and not an employee of one company. I would check with the Ticino migration office to see whether you’d be considered as self-employed with just the one client or not. If they say no, then the easiest would be for you to establish a company here and then that company employs you to work for the US one.
They could try, but this right comes as part of the agreement with the EU to facilitate the operation of the single market. So if your business is not grounded in the Swiss economy or in some way associated with facilitating EU trade it is going to be problematic to start with.
And then submitting a five year business plan with one remote client is going to be hard to sell as a potential growing business that will sustain the family over the long haul.
It will probably come down to the attitude of the authorities on the day.
Where in the agreement does it say that? As far as I am aware it should be treated the very same as self employment, if not as actual employment which are both granted rights by the FMOP. The FMOP does not say anything about the place of the employer on the place of work. Place of work is were the work is performed, in this case Switzerland.
The biggest issue with remote work is that the place of were the work is performed is Switzerland, and thus Swiss social security contributions have to be paid. But that is what ANOBAG is for. In addition if no double taxation treaty between Switzerland and the other country exists, you might not only pay tax in Switzerland but also in the other country plus you might have to figure out to get the foreign tax at source back.
Thanks you all, that's really helpful! I've also just found a nice summary from PwC on remote working:
https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/regul...e-working.html Just to cite the most important part:
in practice, foreign EU/EFTA workers performing remote work in Switzerland for an employer based abroad not linked to the Swiss labour market and without contacts with Swiss clients or entities are to be qualified as "without work activity" and can thus perform remote work without the need of a formal work permit. They would need to ask for a residence permit and show that they have sufficient financial means to live in Switzerland. The revenues the remote worker would receive as a salary would be taken into consideration in such an assessment of sufficient financial means.
So seems like it is "officially" an option to come to Switzerland and get a "sufficient financial means" permit while working remotely.
Maybe, but only if you're an employee and your employer is in another country . If you are self employed, then you need to be declared as such and pay social security (both employee and employer's share) and have a residence permit for work purposes.
I cannot find any info that this is really the case for foreign country self-employment. If you have source for that, please share!
I.e. many millions in the bank.
Tom
What you quoted a couple posts above is explicitly about being an employee of a foreign company that has no ties and no clients in Switzerland. You said you're self-employed, so you're not their employee (I.e. they don't contribute social security for you nor deduce your social security contributions or taxes from your pay, for instance). If you operate through a company you own and of which you are an employee, and that will remain a corporate identity in the US, then maybe what you quoted above is applicable to you. ALSO possibly if you maintain a permanent base of operations in the US and the US continues to consider you a tax resident. But if you're an independent contractor without a permanent base of operations in the US, who is not considered a tax resident there, and live and work in Switzerland, where will you be considered tax resident if not Switzerland? Where will you contribute to social security? Where's your tax residency?
I would start by reading the bilateral agreements between your Switzerland and both the US and your home country if there is one. These will usually have information on exactly these kind of situations.
It depends on what you want to take from the article.... It’s as I said before - it is at the pleasure of the authorities. You may get the permit or not, you may get a renewal or not, the same goes with reunification permits and permanent status. You won’t know until you try it.
At the end of the day everyone has to decide what is right for them. Some people want a lot of certain before allowing the family to put down roots, others not so much.