Want to be back in CH

Hello,

My husband and I would like to move our family of four soon to be family of five to Switzerland. I'm Swiss-Canadian currently living in the US. I miss the mountains, culture, and general way of life. We think raising our young family in CH would be great for our kids and family.

The challenge will be finding a job for my husband. This forum will hopefully help with that and permit questions we have.

If anyone has any pointers where to start our search they'd be greatly appreciated. He has 10+ years in the Oil and Gas industry working as an engineer. He's interested in working on the finance side of the industry. He speaks French but not German.

Thank you,

breitmitch

So, move to the French speaking part of Switzerland?

If you check the forum you can find a very clear section that says "jobs". Might want to start there?

Also do try the search function as it will be a tad more difficult if your husband is not Swiss. You would have to come here and apply for family reunification (Medea correct me if I am wrong).

Yes, the main problem you’re going to hit is that you either need to have a job first or sufficient finances to support your family once you arrive or your husband is going to have to find a job himself, which is difficult as a non-EU national.

Ideally if you have the funds you should all move here together and apply for family reunification permits for them all. If your children have been registered at the Swiss embassy they’re fine for travelling, but your husband will need a Type D visa to be able to enter Switzerland long term legally, i.e. for more than the 90 day tourist limit. The permit means your husband effectively becomes an EU national for hiring purposes, bypassing the non-EU hiring criteria outlined here.

https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home…zulassung.html

Instead he would just need to find an employer and present his new employment contract to the cantonal migration office to get the work part of his residence permit activated.

Oil and gas aren’t big industries here, though natural gas does seem to be becoming more popular. What qualifications does he have for moving over to the financial side of the business? Switzerland does love it’s university degrees so an employer may well be looking for him to have a degree in finance.

A couple of websites for jobs:

www.jobs.ch
www.jobup.ch

More on Swiss returning home here:

http://aso.ch/files/webcontent/recht…_with_logo.pdf

https://www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam…izer-v6_EN.pdf

Also don’t let your daydreams/memories get in the way of reality. It may not be easy to adjust.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/coming-h…attle/41091306

I suggest you get hold of a copy of “Living and Working in Switzerland” by David Hampshire. It’s full of useful info and you can order it from your local bookshop or via the internet.

How old are the kids and do they speak a Swiss language? Depending on their ages changing to a different schooling system may not be too difficult - say up to age 9/10 - but after that it’s much harder, especially if they don’t have the Swiss language to start with.

Another point you’re going to have to consider, assuming he’s an American and also if you hold a Green Card, is that US citizens/Green Card holders have to file US tax returns no matter where they live in the world and could owe US tax on top of Swiss ones. Start your research on that here:

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Inter…-Aliens-Abroad

Due to the US’s FATCA law, trying to get a bank account outside of the US is difficult for Americans and Green Card holders. He’ll need to sign a W-9 form to allow the bank to send his account info on to the IRS and if any accounts in his name or that he has signing rights on come to over the aggregate amount of $10,000 per year, they’ll also need to be reported on a FBAR form. Depending on what level he’s looking at on the finance side of his industry he may find himself locked out of a job because the employer would not want an account he has signing rights on having to be reported - and yes, that would be required if he holds such a position.

If you don’t hold a Green Card, then it’s best if you can keep any bank accounts separate. And you will probably have trouble getting a mortgage if you’re thinking along those lines. The American taint touches everything banking-wise here.

Geneva would be the place to start then for anyone searching for jobs in Oil & Gas Industry. Oil companies are also more used to the permit hurdle to bring in people even from outside European Union.

I work for the industry myself and can say even if the job market has slowed down there are still places for experienced people, especially in Geneva.

Other Commodities "hubs" would be Zug and well..Lugano sort of.

SwissLinx and Emea recruitment are two companies who often headhunt people for commodities industry. Good luck with the search!

Including the above informative post, there is plenty to find using a search (use the google powered one top left)

Engineering is in a bad way in Switzerland presently but there are plenty of companies and I know plenty of engineers with little or no german working in Zurich and Baden.

GE

ABB

Bombardier

Pöyry

Wärtsilä

Hitaachi

to name a few to look at.

The oil and gas industry in CH is mostly based in Geneva (with some in the canton of Vaud). One quarter of the world's oil is traded through CH (mostly in the Swiss French area but also some in Zurich and Zug).

Your husband is probably looking for something in the area of oil and gas exploration and development. There are these types of companies but they tend to be very discrete so he should have his LinkedIn profile up to date and he should start networking for all he is worth. Given current oil prices there is less activity than in the past.

Finding these companies will be a bit of a challenge but I am sure there is some sort of association that they all belong to. And he could talk with people in the industry about which headhunters are most active. He should also check if there are industry meetings in CH that the companies might attend. A good way to network.

Good luck with the move.

I'd like to thank you all for the information. This gets us rolling in the right direction to achieve our goal.

I have read the family reunification permit mentioned often in other posts and will look more into that as a step one of many steps. This is a one to two year plan which should give us enough time to look into every detail carefully.

To answer some questions and concerns put forward;

-My children are young, four and under. That 's why we're giving this a time frame of 1-2 years so we can move before my daughter begins grade school. Does anyone know at what age grade school begins in CH?

-my husband and I are both Canadian and are living in the US under work visa's therefore don't have to worry about paying dual taxes-Luckily that doesn't apply to us.

-thank you for the job search links. They've already proved useful. He currently is in production which is obviously hurting but has worked in many different areas in the industry. The finance angle would be a new side that he's interested in.

It was great news to learn Geneva is the center for Oil and Gas in CH as knowing French makes that a bonus.

We have a lot of work and we'll no doubt have future questions for you all.

Cheers,

Breitmitch

Kindergarten begins at 4, primary at 6.

ftp://ftp.ge.ch/oofp/guide_fp_en04.pdf

Kindergarten is usually only mornings with maybe one afternoon a week. Your children will normally go to the school nearest to where you live, choice doesn’t exist in Switzerland unless you’re prepared to pay for a private school.

Young children seem to pick up a new language quite quickly and the schools here are very good at providing extra help with learning the relevant Swiss language, but obviously if you can start them off beforehand it will make things a bit easier.

If you can manage to move here on your savings and get your permits then it will be much easier for your husband to get a job here. The general figure to work to is CHF100 per person per day. You might be able to reduce that a little, but with 3 young children I’d say at least CHF400 per day so you’re looking at around CHF145,000-150,000 in savings to cover you for a year. I would check with the Geneva migration office to get a more accurate figure of what they’d be looking for.

Office cantonal de la population et des migrations (OCPM)
Service Étrangers et Confédérés
Rte de Chancy 88
1213 Onex
tél. : 022 546 47 95
fax : 022 546 48 10
Internet

I would also contact the Swiss consulate in Atlanta which covers the Texas area for more information/advice.

Consulate General of Switzerland
1349 W Peachtree Street NW
Suite 1000
Atlanta, GA 30309
United States of America
Tel.
+1 404 870 2000

                                Fax 
                                                                        +1 404 870 2011 

[email protected]
Website