Me and my company is trying to find an answer for this question, even after contacting Zürich and Basel AWA and they could not answer it.
My company's address is in Zürich, we are a tech consultancy. The thing is: my job will be done in Basel-Stadt, for our client.
From there, where should I apply for my work permit?
First I thought should be in Zürich because of my company's address, but I am not going to do any job performance or activity in Zürich, because I am not going to work on the main office. The face-to-face work will be done in Basel-Stadt.
We saw in the Basel Work Permit that we can put the address from our company in Zürich, and choose the option of local employment in Basel.
Because yes, I do work for this company, but it is not physically my place of work - my local employment.
I would ask a professional. Be aware though that if you are non-EU and the permit is for Zurich, then you also have to live in Zurich and commute to the client.
That is the point why I think should be done for Basel. Because the work will be done in Basel. The company is from Zurich, but my face-to-face work will be done in Basel.
We asked a lot of people from AWA and all they say is: read the website. and there is nothing on their website
Besides of that, my company wrote an explanation of work to complement the application and saying why should be done in Basel.
With that said, the B permit allows you to work in any canton. So, no one cares if your employer is located in ZH and the effective place of work is in another canton.
Take a look at art. 38.2 of the Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration. Residence permit = B type permit
I also verified the FR version of the law and it’s the same idea. Autorisation de séjour = B type permit. I was reminded that translation of Swiss laws to English are only informative, not binding
Your job is in Zürich as there is where you have a work contract. If your job tells you to work onsite with a client, your work place is still with your employer if the client does not pay you directly.
When I first came to Switzerland, when B permits were subject to quotas for everyone, my employer based in BS applied for my permit. I could live in BL or AG or SO. But the application was BS.
So it seems likely that it's ZH for you. Unless you're an EU citizen, in which case take the contract to your community's townhall and apply there, because for EU citizens the company doesn't apply for you - you do it (automatic acceptance).
On my contract, is tied that I will need to work 100% on Basel on-site. They are opening the filial there.
That is my doubt here when I called Zurich and Basel AWA, because the responsibility for non-eu is the local of employment. That would be Basel, as my commitment and my work contract is telling specifically to work 100% in Basel.
What they are doing is putting an explanation of work on my application. What I am afraid of putting in any of them, is on the final of the day, we get a negative response on my case because of canton error
I thought that aswell. From my point of compliance view, what I think is that is some “gap” on Switzerland law. When you point out it is your “local of employment” because not necessarily your local of employment will be your main office. I can imagine that coming from HR agencies
So when they are telling “local of employment” and not putting any details but only this mention, which is pretty general, it is almost a Gap from compliance view.
Anyways, we are going to put the details on my application. Fingers crossed here
I will need to live in Basel. We are opening a filial and I will be the project Manager. Our datacenters are based in Basel, and I will be working from there.
The company address is from Zurich, but all my 100% work will be done in Basel.
You are allowed to live and work in different cantons (as long as you get permission from the authorities), that is not the issue. You should in any case get a residence permit for Basel as that is for sure where you will live. The question is which AWA has jurisdiction to decide whether you have a right to work or not.
As far as I'm aware, this is irrelevant to either you or your employer. As I understand it, they need to file the application for a permit in the canton where you will live . The Migrationsamt will then forward this application to the relevant AWA for initial authorization, then it's sent back to migration if the work authorization is granted, before going up to the federal SEM for final approbation.
For the work permit we asked both. Zürich and Basel did not know what to respond. But here is the thing:
Today we arranged a physical address in Basel - it is a co-working office. Based on the law, the local of employment, Arbeitsort, place of work or whatever - it is where you are physically doing your activities.
On our logistic, how can Zürich be responsible for my work if I will be working physically in Basel? Also, I will need to be close to our datacenters placed in Basel. The temporary rent is also in Basel. On the application we putted one document just to explain the work I will be doing and the place, the datacenters, our storage in Basel aswell...
From here, me and my company decided to apply in Basel. A little afraid? Yes, because if we receive a negative because of the error for the canton I will be really pissed. But that’s it