Switzerland is selective when you apply for residence, and your application will have to go trough municipal, cantonal and federal administrations. We can handle this procedure entirely, even in your absence, as long as you supply us with all the information and documents we need. When you first contact us, we will let you at no cost whether you can get a permit. Our policy is not to apply for permits if we think they can be refused - we would lose both time and credibility. This means that if we start an application, your chances of getting a permit are very high.

Documents
Documents of various nature are needed, such as birth certificates, resumes, passport pictures, etc... When we decide to go ahead and know in which canton you want to live, we will give you a detailed list of the documents we need.

Steps
We handle the whole application and will remove all the hassles from you. Here's an outline of the steps we will go trough together:

1. Select the canton you want to live in
2. Gather all the documents and prepare the application
3. Fill the application with the relevant administrations
4. We receive the cantonal approval after about 3-4 weeks
5. We receive the federal approval after about 6-8 weeks
6. We can collect your residence permits at the municipal level after 9-10 weeks. From this time on you are a resident of Switzerland and can enter and reside in the country as you see fit.

Timeframe
The whole application process takes about 3 month from the time we apply to the time you receive your residence permits. Please note that this delay comes from the administration, not from us, and that little can be done to speed it. Swiss administration is rather efficient, but your application has to go from one office to the other and come back the same way (7 trips in total), which explains the delay. Please also allow time for canton selection and to gather your personal documents.

 

Other pages of interest:

Lump sum taxation in Switzerland