Registered Partnership/Konkubinatsvertrag

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hi Everyone,

My long-term boyfriend and I are applying for a Konkubinatsvertrag in Sankt Gallen. I will give a bit of background to clarify our situation-- I am a professional musician, originally from New York, but I have a Daueraufenthaltstitel in Austria (permanent residency) where I have lived and worked for 6 years. He is an Austrian national working as a surgeon in SG and has held his own permit in Switzerland for several years now.

We're all good with the paperwork, but we have some questions for anyone who has gone through the process before, as we have some concerns. By applying for this type of permit, are we then subjecting ourselves to potential middle-of-the-night visits from the police to make sure we are really living together? As an orchestral musician, I am often on tour and sometimes working in Vienna, so my boyfriend has the fear that the police might come check on us when I am not home, and I want to reassure his anxieties. Is this even something that they would do?

We have heard some horror stories from a friend in Austria who married someone from Africa, and their lives were greatly disturbed, so it would be nice to know how this will all go in practice. Thank you in advance for the information!

2
If you apply for a permit here (through your registered partnership) you will forfeit the Austrian one.

3
Thank you for your response I have already asked here in Austria, and that is fortunately not the case.

4

What permit do you have in Austria? Because it sounds very strange that you wouldn’t have to give up the Austrian one if you get a Swiss one.

And no, it’s unlikely that the police will come knocking on your door in the middle of the night.

5
I went through the process a while ago.

No middle of the night visits - but it's a financial commitment. If the relationship falls apart, he's responsible for you. Meaning - he will need to pay housing, food, etc - and eventually, tickets "back home" for you.

Also, it's a residence permit; so if you travel (for work), you will need to check that:

a- you are allowed to work on your permit (some are restricted and do not allow you to work)

b- you cannot stay abroad more than a certain period before you lose it

Of course, you will need to declare your work income in your annual (Swiss) tax returns, and be taxed accordingly.

6
With registered partnership your Swiss pernit will be based on family reunification by which in theory you do open yourselves to random checks but that doesnt happen , never happened in our case and we lived all over Switzerland though always together. Unless there is a red flag they let you in peace.

7
Such checks are, indeed, possible. They're just not that common, but yes, the do happen.

With or without such checks, it's worth noting that the Swiss concept of registration is not just a paper claim. The permit is granted, or not granted, based on the assessment of whether or not an address is, in reality, the "middlepoint" of your life .

This concept can include such factors as, for example, where you actually sleep at night use your cosmetics and toiletries store your possessions, both those in the cellar, the old sentimental stuff and also everyday objects of use in the home pay tax have a rental contract have a work contract store the tools/equipment and documentation of your trade buy your compulsory medical insurance see your family doctor (GP) register your phone subscription register your membership of any professional or or recreational organisation receive your post participate in local activities, whether that's a conversation with the neighbours, being a regular in a shop or joining some local club or society.

8

This reply surprised me, so I had a look, and found this: Dieser Aufenthaltstitel erlischt, wenn sich die/der Fremde länger als zwölf aufeinander folgende Monate außerhalb des EWR-Gebietes aufhält und wird gegenstandslos, wenn sie oder er sich seit sechs Jahren nicht mehr in Österreich niedergelassen hat. https://www.oesterreich.gv.at/themen…gelassen%20hat .

If you are outside of the EWR (of which Switzerland is not a member) for longer than 12 consecutive months, your permanent residence in Austria automatically expires.

9
Would getting a permit in Switzerland mean that as well? Having a residency in 2 countries is what several people have, but isn‘t OP from the US?

10

Thank you to you and everyone here for your input! I thought I would post this information here, as many have asked about my permanent residency (Daueraufenthalt) in Austria. I hope this can also be of help to someone else in the future–

There is no automatic exchange of residency permit details or residency registration documents within the EU, the EEA or with Switzerland, so the Austrian authorities do not know where in Europe I still hold other permits or registrations, unless they specifically search for this actively in the European EKIS-database, but this is normally only done if I am suspicious of a severe criminal offence.

The permanent residency permit “Daueraufenthalt EU” does allows pretty long absences from Austria where I can really cancel ALL ties to Austria if I wanted to – I don ́t even have to have a Nebenwohnsitz then in Vienna anymore during these times. But these times strongly distinguish between leaving Austria but staying in the EEA or leaving the EEA totally, and in this case Switzerland is NOT automatically included in the EEA or EU-definition unfortunately. In Switzerland I could stay for a maximum of 12 months continuously, then I would need to return to Austria (within the EEA it would be up to 6 years).

However, I do NOT have to return to Austria permanently again after those 12 months, there has been a decision of the European High Court in 2020 (actually against the MA35 of Austria) which says that any provable presence of the 3rd-country national anywhere on the territory of the European Union, even if its just for a few days, is enough to “renew” these 12 months. Here you can read more about this case in English: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/docume…st&cid=9330035

The important part is at the very bottom:
“On those grounds, the Court (Third Chamber) hereby rules: Article 9(1)(c) of Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents must be interpreted as meaning that any physical presence of a long-term resident in the territory of the European Union during a period of 12 consecutive months, even if such a presence does not exceed, during that period, a total duration of only a few days, is sufficient to prevent the loss, by that resident, of his or her right to long-term resident status under that provision.”

So basically because I have an Austrian “Daueraufenthalt EU," I can live in Switzerland as much as you want to without losing my right to residency in Austria, as long as I make sure you stay somewhere in the EU for a few days at least once a year and can prove this with travel-documents, hotel-reservations, etc. For me, this is not a problem at all, as I work regularly in Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein with various orchestras-- immer unterwegs!

Hope this clarifies matters for those curious or anyone else who needs to know for themselves!

11
Thank you for the detailed information! I am confident that I meet these criteria.

12
Awesome, thank you so much for sharing your experience!

13
Thank you for sharing! Yes, this is an excellent point, I will verify if I am still allowed to engage in self-employment as a freelance musician. I am already allowed to now with only my Austrian permit (I just have to submit an A1 form to the Swiss orchestras I play with), so I would imagine that I wouldn't lose the right to do this by having residency in Switzerland...I will verify this at the Amt