I am from a non EU country and I live in Switzerland for the last 8.5 years. I am on chomage since June last year and my B permit is up for renewal at the end of Dec 2021.
My spouse, whose B permit was dependent on mine luckily found employment with a Canadian company and now, she started working for them in a very good role through a payroll company. We checked with the authorities and they said she can work through this arrangement.
If I don't find an employment before end of december, will I able to renew my B permit as a dependent of my spouse?
Also, I have plans to start a firm with my Swiss friend and would that help? Your advice will be greatly appreciated.
No, because her permit is still dependent on yours. If you lose your permit, she’ll lose hers as well. It might be possible to change hers to the main one, but you’d need to talk to the cantonal migration office to see if they’d agree.
She got the permit via family reunification. It doesn’t matter how much she earns.
If she’s non-EU like you if the canton might agree to a change then I suspect her employer would have to prove why they can’t find a Swiss/EU national who could do the job, i.e. follow the non-EU hiring criteria. With the family reunification permit she bypassed that requirement.
The law is pretty clear:
“The possibility of engaging in a gainful activity for family members is related, according to art. 26 and 27 OASA, for the duration of the authorization of the person who has benefited from family reunification. If the spouse’s residence permit is not renewed, his family members can not claim a right to continue their gainful activity (Article 6 (2) OASA).”
We have seen one or two cases here where a dependent permit has been allowed to be changed to the main one, but it’s very rare.
Definitely happens in Zurich if you command a six figure salary and your employer is used to hiring non-EU people from scratch (i.e. getting the initial work permit with all the justifications). Don't know about Vaud and OP's employer though.
If she is working via a payroll company then that is the employer. Usually the payroll companies have contracts with the an end date (in my experience). If this is the case it may become difficult to justify the switch. I am just guessing without any experience on my own.
However, I wish you all the best. Go ahead and talk to your canton for the switch.
Yeah, I think they’d be unlikely to switch the permit status in that case. Still, it never hurts to ask. If nothing else, if the migration office say they won’t consider changing them the OP then knows they need to consider preparing to leave the country when his permit expires, assuming it’s not renewed by RAV.
I want to present one more information and see if that changes anything. Her permit was renewed in May till 2023 but it was mentioned in the permit that it was for family unification and any lucrative activity needed to be authorised. She got the job recently. Does that change anything in your opinion?
I can't imagine that she will get an independent permit based on working for a Canadian based company remotely. Non-EU citizens get permits, because Swiss companies need them, her working for a company in Canada is of no benefit to Switzerland (unless she will be paying a massive amount of tax - then money talks).
Thank you. I am getting more interview calls in recent times and there are more consulting opportunities than full time roles. They see that I can add value but they can't hire me full time because of my seniority and also, the cost to the company
No, it changes nothing. Despite the date on her permit, if yours isn’t renewed then hers will become invalid since it’s dependent on you having a permit.
You need to adapt to the situation. Lower your expectations wrt to the salary, if needed. You can extend your permit and then stay to find a better job later on.