If you are a citizen of a country that doesn’t belong to either the European Union or EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), you will have to meet a number of conditions to get a work permit in Switzerland.
This article outlines all the steps you need to take to (perhaps) obtain the Swiss visa and work permit:
READ ALSO: What do third-country nationals need to do to move to Switzerland?
If you are successful in your quest, your work permit may be tied to a specific company, in which case you can’t just switch from one employer to another in the same way as people from the EU/EFTA can.
That’s the general rule, but there are exceptions
According to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), holders of a short-term L residence permit may be allowed to change jobs “if they cannot continue to work for their current employer or if they cannot reasonably be expected to do so”.
“However, they must remain within the same sector as well as the same profession, and the change of job will be permitted only if it has not been necessitated by the employee’s own behaviour” – in other words, if you were not fired because of your poor performance or misconduct (if that’s the case, you will not be allowed to seek another job or remain in Switzerland).
As for holders of B permits, they can change employers without further authorisation, unless their work permit was granted for a specific job “and is expressly linked to a condition relating to the labour market”, SEM said.
This means that if you were hired for a specific post because no Swiss or EU/EFTA candidates could be found to fill it, you are basically stuck in that position.
In any case, applications for job changes should be sent to the competent cantonal authority.
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Another exception: C permit holders
If you are a third-country national but have a permanent residency status in Switzerland, then you can change jobs at will, without having to seek special permissions from the authorities – pretty much the same way as Swiss citizens and people from the EU/EFTA do.
In fact, C permit is an “equaliser” in a sense that once you receive it (after five years of residency if you come from the EU, EFTA or North America, and 10 years from elsewhere), you are on par with every other permanent resident, regardless of their nationality.
One definite ‘no-no’
What you definitely should not do if you are a citizen of a third country and get a B or L authorisation for specific work, is not to show up at the job for which you received the permit and look for another employment instead.
Not only will another company not hire you, but you will be also ordered to leave the country asap.
