Question about splitting time between Switzerland and Wales. Advice appreciated.

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1
Greetings everyone. First post here. Unfortunately i have a question that i am a little stuck with. I tried a few different searches on google but couldn't find an answer really.

I am Welsh/British and moved to Switzerland for work 3 years ago.

With a B permit, which is what i have, how much time per year is one able to spend outside of Switzerland?

Personal family circumstances mean that i would need to return home to Wales and spend maybe 5/6 months a year there over the next year, maybe two. I would prefer that time to be alternate months but it might end up being a couple of months there then back for a couple months then back again. I'm uncertain at the moment how it will work out.

If work allows this, is this permitted under my current residency permit? I'd rather not have to permanently leave the country as this is where i would like to remain after these circumstances are dealt with in a year or two.

I would keep working for the company here and my salary would go into my bank account here, taxation, etc. all of that would remain the same, i'd just be living in a different country for a while.

Assuming this is permissible under a B Permit:

I would probably move out of my apartment and stay at an AirBnB, for ~6 months this might work out cheaper than a year's rent of an apartment. I already have a store room that i rent so i would keep that and keep all of my stuff there while i'm away.

Can you think of any other options/ideas?

How about Health Insurance? Would i need to pay that for the time that im out of the country? I suppose worst case i could just use the cheapest tariff (telephone doctor).

I'm just a little worried my expenses will go very high if i have to pay rent in two countries (although it wont be too much for a room for while i'm in wales). I just don't want to waste all of my hard earned money over the next year/two because this situation has come up so, thinking if its possible, how i could save my pennies.

Any advice or suggestions on what i can do on the Swiss side would be much appreciated.

2
90 views and not one suggestion or opinion for me?

3
You can spend 6 months out of the country without losing your B permit. You need a valid residential address and to be paying health insurance all the time. You might be liable for UK tax on top of your Swiss tax.

4
Hi and welcome.

If you search this forum, you will find lots of threads regarding B permit.

Like for example these ones:

https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...itzerland.html

https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...e-country.html

First thing first: you may want to ask your employer if they allow remote working from another country for up to 6 months.

5
You need to be very careful of the number of days or as above you can become liable for UK tax:

https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence

6
If you decide on UK residency it will be a maximum of 90 days out of 180.

7
?

What will be?

8
Up to 6 months in one go, otherwise I think no limit on the days.

You'd surely become UK tax-resident and in theory I think the work you do in the UK would need to be taxed in the UK (social security etc).

In practice you could do nothing special and wait for authorities to ask questions when you might suddenly find yourself liable to taxes and your employer too(?) but it might not ever happen. The corona situation currently gives you some leeway when it comes to working in the UK but that will likely change soon.

9
183 days in Wales will, in theory, make you taxable there. If you have a UK passport and are working from home there, it's unlikely to register.

Your employer might have concerns about this.

Health insurance will have to continue and you'll need a fixed abode here of course, to retain the B. As a non-EU citizen, you really want to keep it

You might not be detected but if you're flying in and out through a Swiss airport, your arrivals will be recorded - so they might find out. Like Landers said, if you get the basics right and your employer allows it (because they might not with the social deductions being paid in Switzerland, etc) then try.

10

Have to ask is this really necessary? Because you’re going to have to isolate once you arrive in Wales for up to 10 days so not sure how much help/assistance you can give. You may have to do the same when you come back here and of course the covid situation is changing weekly/monthly so you might find yourself stuck in one country or the other and not be able to get back.

https://gov.wales/rules-foreign-trav…#section-48358

https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home…tml#1355154378

You will certainly need to keep your accommodation here; I doubt an AirBnB would be accepted. Swiss health insurance you’d have to keep as well and it’s not possible to change your policy until November at the earliest iirc.

To continue to be a resident here your centre of life should be here; that means a minimum of 183 days spent in Switzerland. As said a max of 6 months at a time will see your permit become invalid, but splitting the time up shouldn’t be a problem. Since as a non-EU now your entry/exit will be recorded you need to keep careful track of your days here.

11
Pretty sure this is not correct.

12
I am pretty sure you're correct. 183 is a UK thing (actually midights or "midnight rule").

The centre-of-life Swiss thing is more subjective and would be based on your job, clubs you're a member of, family, etc. So having a job, apartment, paying taxes and deductions will get you a long way to that centre of life.

13

Then explain why someone’s permit would become invalid after 6 months if they don’t return to Switzerland within that timescale.

14
The rules for the permits - which are more thought of for someone taking a leave of absence. Quotas would also likely drive this.

I know someone who could not effectively return from an EU country for around six months of the past year; no issues there.

15
Switzerland does not regard residence as fulfilled only where your papers are, e.g. rental contract and medical insurance, but must see evidence of the "centrepoint" of your life.

Although it was started about a different set of circumstances, please see this thread, and the similar threads to which it links, and their explanations of the centrepoint.

https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...itzerland.html

16
There is also helpful information (and an erroneous post by me, corrected by others) about how long one may be out of Switzerland without jeopardising one's B permit, over here on this other thread, started with similar questions by someone with a similar username to yours.

https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...itzerland.html

17

Well, I expect covid is giving the cantonal migration offices a headache in more ways than one; they’re probably being a bit more lenient atm. But EU is not non-EU which is what the UK is now. The OP should fall under the new agreements since they’ve been here for 3 years, but I still would try and keep any journeys outside of Switzerland to the minimum and for the shortest periods possible just to be on the safe side.

18
There are many people with residency permits whose centre of life never was and never will be in Switzerland. Centre of life comes into play in some contexts but it doesn't necessitate the level of caution that you're advocating.

19
Could you elaborate, please? What kinds of people have permits, but can get away with no centrepoint in Switzerland, and how do they do that?

20
Weekly workers for example for whom it's assumed have no centre of life ("domicile") in Switzerland and whose "residence" is based solely upon having a work contract. Plus anyone else who meets the criteria for requiring a residence permit I suppose.