Visa Authorization letter from Switzerland

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hello,

Just got approval for work permit from Federal Migration Office. The Canton approval took 3 weeks and the Federal one 2 weeks. I am a non-EU national.

My company said now that I have to wait for the Visa Authorization Letter to go collect the Visa at the embassy.

Anybody knows how long it takes to receive such letter? Does the permit type (L or B) appears on the letter?

Thanks guys,

Paulo

2
I am in the same situation as you (Non-EU, Work permit approved at the canton and federal level, waiting for the visa authorization). HR tells me it should not take long for this authorization (The federal approval came last week) and they expect the visa authorization to be issued some time this week. HR also tells me that they will be able to let me know the type of permit once this authorization is issued. This is canton Zurich btw, so I don't know if things work differently in different cantons. Let me know when your authorization gets in !

3

I don’t think it takes long for the visa authorisation letter to be sent. It’s the process for having the permit approved in the first place that can take time. You should hear in the next week/10 days I would think.

4
We emailed the consulate general in out home country and politely informed them that we were aware that the work and residency permits had been approved in Switzerland, and gave them all our current contact information (email, telephone numbers, home address). This meant that instead of sending a letter from their office to our address (which is given by the employer as part of the visa process), they emailed us when the approval came through.

We could then go the next day with all the correct paperwork and get the visas added to our passports in a matter of hours. From memory they needed passports, birth certificates and our marriage certificate (family with children).

They told us this sped up the process a few days because once the electronic notification is transmitted from Switzerland to our home country, it takes them a few days to get the letter ready and send by post, whereas email took a few seconds...

In our case, it was critical because we had about a 10 day (and narrowing fast) gap between when the permits came through and when we needed to be on the plane...and our one way flights were not refundable....

5
Thanks Swisspea...I was under the impression the letter would be received by the company in Switzerland. From your post, I gather that the Authorization Letter will be sent to my current address? Does the company gets a copy?

6
I was advised to call consulate and ask if they received info about my permit (once it was approved ofc). I called 3 days after paper confirmation was received by employer - consulate knew about me by then. You come, fill in the questionnaire, provide some docs, get your passport "stamped". Then you come to CH, book the date for biometrics, provide additional docs and get your plastic card delivered by mail

I don't remember permit type written anywhere before i actually got it, might be i was simply overwhelmed

7
Thanks Cheezecake, just verify my application and my address in the USA is missing my apartment number.....

Do you guys know if the company receives a copy of the Authorization Letter?

8
My authorization letter took about a week after the step you are at, and with that I could go to any Swiss embassy to have the Visa granted (I dropped it off at 11 and picked the Visa up at 3 in the afternoon the same day).

9
Have an update and a question. So our visa authorization letter finally came through about 10 days after the federal approval of the work permit. However, there are a couple of mistakes in the names on authorization letters. My wife's last name is misspelled and one of my son's last and first names are interchanged. I talked to my company's HR and they insist that the mistakes should not be a problem and I should go ahead and apply for the visas. Anyone else ever had a similar issue ? and did it work for you ? I really don't want to do a 22 hour round trip drive only to find having to apply again !

10
I would contact the embassy you will be getting the visa through to ask (send them legible photocopies of the approval and your passports). If you're in the US they will probably allow you to just mail all of the documents in instead of making the long round trip. It seems like most of the websites say that isn't possible, but if you ask they actually prefer it.

11
Thanks, actually I have to go to Washington anyhow for something other than this so I thought I would go and submit the docs at the embassy as well. I have emailed the embassy but they take atleast a day to reply and I am supposed to leave tomorrow morning. So I thought I would ask if anyone here had had a similar issue. My company's HR seems pretty confident that misspellings should not be an issue which seems a bit strange to me. Maybe Swiss bureaucracy is very flexible !!

12
I didn't have any misspellings, but I can tell you the embassy I went to (the netherlands) did not seem concerned about anything, except the €60 fee. Print out a list with each of your names spelled correctly and include that, and capitalize the last names (they often invert names here compared the way I would write them in the US).

Like this:

John DOE

Jane DOE

Michael DOE

-or-

DOE John

DOE Jane

DOE Michael

13
Hello,

just received the Visa Letter from my company, after 15 days of Federal approval. They sent the Visa Letter to my Embassy, but the Embassy failed to foward that to me. My company had to request a duplicata in Switzerland.

By the way, my letter says my admission code is 1402, anybody knows if thats a B or a L permit?

Thanks guys,

14
Congrats ! My code is 2001 Kurzaufenthalter which is an L permit so you must have a B. Good for you !!

Also, to give an update on our misspelled names, we did not face any issues and got our passports back with the visas(and correct names on the visas ) within a week of submitting all the other documents.

15
Thanks, just got my Visa from The Atlanta Consulate. Went there in the morning (was the only customer there). They took my documents and printed my Visa in 30 minutes. Very quick.

Regards everybody,

16
Hi all

I have a further question on the "Code d'admission" on the Visa Authorization Letter (or, Autorisation Habilitat Les Représentations Suisses à Délivrer un Visa (AE)).

I applied for a family reunion visa for my wife and daughter, both of which have been approved.

The authorizaiton letter however states the following Code d'admission (which is, I understand, a reference to the permit as stated in one of the above posts)

1. for the 6 year old daughter - 4002 (which is code for permit type Regroupement Familial) and I am quite clear about this

2. But for my wife, it states 3618 - I know this is a long term renewable permit and does not fall under the Regroupement Familial pcategory (but don't have any other information).

Can anyone help?

My questions are the following:

1. Where can I find additional info about these code types? (Google hasn't been very helpful)

2. If you know about this particular code (3618) - Does this type of permit allow Activité Lucrative (for me this is a tentative yes)? Does this enable moving to another Canton for the purposes of work? Does this permit come under the Quota system? Anything else you think I am missing or something I may have got wrong in my earlier assumptions?

Thanks for letting me know - appreciate any advice you can give on the matter.

Thanks!

Manjith

For instance, is this

17
A quick update for those who are interested.

Spoke to a person at the Federal Office of Immigration today morning. The guy said the decision to allocate a specific code d' admission is made at the Canton level and advised me to go to the Service De La Population office at av. de Beaulieu 19.

I went there later in the morning today and to cut a long story short - it was a mistake on their side and they were kind enough to remedy it on the spot. The Code D' Admission has now been reset to the right number (from 3618 back to 4001) - which is indicative of family reunion. 3618, on the other hand implies a short term permit that is given to spouses of L type permit holders.

The great thing is, regardless of this change in detail, the officials at Service De La Population waived the need for additional application processing.

Had this not been the case, the whole process of applying for a visa (getting the backend permit approval etc.) would have had to be repeated, which may have meant another several months.

Hope this info may prove useful to someone along the line.

Cheers!

18
Hi Folks

Im non EU and the HR has already applied for me and my family permit.

But at the same time they sent me the contract to sign which begins from mid January. Im wondered if by that time I will be in Zurich or not? Should I do something and begin any process at the embassy here or just wait till they get the authorization letteŕ?

Thanks

19
Ask HR? They should know what the status is of the permit approval and can tell you what to do when.

20
Hi folks

I just noticed that i have received the letter from the canton but the HR told me we now have to wait for SEM approval. Does anybody know how long this step would take?

Thanks