My future wife and I are renting in Geneva but considering buying a propery in France in a 20km-30 radius (our respective employers are fine with this)
I have looked up most of the post (same outdated as i think the law might have already changed with the social security for instance you can choose etc..) but lacked insight on personnal experience, tips, pros and cons (50% vs 80 % of unemployement benefit, commute etc).
For those of you who experienced that / live in France and commute to go to work in Swizerland everyday, could you please share your experience and if it is a no brainer to move as it suggests on Paper or if on the contrary your regret it.
Our big pro to move is:
- Money / Afordability in France
Our big cons is:
- Commute / trafic /
- If we get fired / let go, find ourselves in a position where the new Swiss employer wants one of us to live in Swizerland..they we are in a bad position with the French home.
- heard about Swiss not liking 'frontaliers' although never heard/experienced this behavior towards them.
Thanks in advance and looking forward to read your input.
Shouldn’t be a problem to change from a B permit to a G then.
Commuting, well I’ve read on the forum here that it can be a pain, queues at the border crossing and if you have to cross the city as well it could take a long, long time.
Not sure a Swiss employer could have a say in where you live. As an EU national you can live anywhere and work in Switzerland, you’re not limited to the border zones as non-EU nationals are. You could rent a place in Switzerland for the week and so long as you return to your main home in France at least once a week then you’re fine. Would cut out the commuting problem somewhat too.
Just bear in mind the vote to curb immigration and what may come out of that. If they bring in quotas for EU nationals as well it could be that frontaliers would find themselves squeezed out in favour of those willing to live and work in Switzerland. Whether it would affect existing frontaliers or only new ones no one can say.
I have worked as a Geneva frontalier for 16 years. Most of that time living near Annecy.
- Affordability of accomodation is obvious. I have a 140 square meter house with 2000 square meters of land on the edge of town. You could buy it for 500kCHF.
- Traffic is pretty horrible, although nothing compared to London or New York. I leave home at 6:30, hit the border at 6:50, by using the ridiculously expensive motorway (14€ per day ). I'm in the office at Meyrin by 7:20. I leave work at 16:30 to avoid the evening rush. On an ordinary day, a later schedule is OK. It's just that when there is an accident, or the customs guys decide to close a lane for no particular reason, you can easily lose 30 minutes or more.
For the other questions, I cannot answer having never experienced the Swiss system, nor been fired (yet...).
- I wonder if a Swiss employer can ask a new employee to live in Switzerland rather than France. I guess they would just not make an offer to a frontalier.
- I work for a very international company with a minority of Swiss employees. I have never experienced any of the anti-frontalier sentiment that is supposed to be out there.
Thank very much for your input, both of you, much appreciated!
I have personnaly been ask by 'future employer' to live in Swizerland as a pre-requisite to be hired (in the financial industry) but it tends to be rare...especially in International companies.
Very interesting these lines about the G permit. I though it wasn't allowed for obsucre reasons to get 2 places in both Swiss (rental) and France (own).
I guess i would have to maybe live a bit closer than annecy.Close to a Bus stop / Train station maybe...Although i assume supply is low and it is more pricey..
That being said, being able to aford that much near Annecy for that price is really good. Feels like it's worth it..
We live about 20km from the border in the direction of Chamonix (nearest towns are Bonneville and La Roche sur Foron). My commute isn't too bad - best case scenario is in summer on the motorbike when it takes me a little less than 30 minutes, most of the time even in the car it doesn't generally take more than 45 minutes. My wife's (works in Petit-Lancy) is something like 45 minutes in the morning and over an hour in the evenings. Both commutes can take considerably longer in winter. We'd like to live closer to the border but then costs rise considerably the nearer one gets
Anti-frontalier sentiment has never caused me any trouble, but then I haven't tried to change jobs recently.
Well, if you live a fair way from your Swiss workplace it’s sometimes easier to rent a place for the week and return home again at the weekends. If you’re fairly close to the border and don’t mind the commute then returning home every evening is more usual, but the rule is so long as you do it once a week you can qualify for a G permit.
I think that's what i got to do, find something that is closer to the border..as long as i still can get an interesting discount on the properties. Not to mention the food is also much cheaper)
Bear in mind the health insurance as well - the arrangements for frontaliers in France have just changed (discussed at great length here and elsewhere).