Working in Switzerland: commute or relocate?

Anyone starting at a Swiss hospital from Germany or Austria has two routes open under immigration law: move their home to Switzerland, or keep it in the neighbouring country and travel in for their shifts. How far apart home and workplace lie differs everywhere along the border. What is the same everywhere, though, is the system behind permits G and B: who needs which one, who files the application, and that both require a signed employment contract.

G or B: what separates the two permits

Under immigration law, everything turns on where a national of an EU or EFTA state lives. Move to Switzerland and you normally receive a residence permit B, the Aufenthaltsbewilligung B. Keep your home just across the border and travel in for your shifts and you need a cross-border commuter permit G, the Grenzgängerbewilligung G. Both require a signed employment contract; without one, neither can be applied for.

The commuter permit assumes that you return to your home abroad regularly. How that is handled in detail is a question for the cantonal migration office. After some years of living in Switzerland a settlement permit C also comes into view; it is not needed in order to be employed, but it matters for how you are taxed.

Who files the application

The authority is the cantonal migration office in both cases, with the State Secretariat for Migration behind it. The route to it differs:

• Cross-border commuter permit G. The employer normally files the application with the migration office of the canton the workplace lies in.
• Residence permit B. You register at your new municipality after the move, and it forwards the application. The deadline for registering is short, so the trip to the residents' office belongs in the first days after the move.

Cantons differ in the papers they ask for and in how long they take. The migration office tells you what your canton requires; your future hospital's HR department tells you what timing it is working to.

The journey across the border

The border with Germany and with Austria is long, and it looks different at every point. In some places the crossing sits in a built-up area and is made on foot or by bicycle, with trains and buses to a timetable. In others it is country roads, the nearest station is far off, and in winter altitude comes into it. What counts for your journey is therefore the actual connection between home and hospital, not the border as such.

Three things hold everywhere:

• A trial run at the real hour. Travel the route at the times you will actually be travelling. An early start is usually straightforward; late-afternoon traffic queues at many crossings routinely, and for how long depends on which crossing and which day of the week.
• Shifts and nights. If you drive home at night, trains and buses are often no help. What decides it then is whether a drive at that hour stays bearable over years.
• Winter. A route that takes half an hour in summer takes longer in snow and darkness.

Tax and health insurance in principle

We quote no figures here, because every one of them comes out differently in an individual case. The mechanics, though, are manageable.

Tax. If you live abroad and work in Switzerland, income tax is normally deducted at source as Quellensteuer: your employer takes it straight off the salary. The rate depends on the canton, on the level of income and on the family situation. How the right to tax is divided between Switzerland and the country you live in is governed by a double taxation agreement; what follows from that for your return at home is for the tax office there or a tax adviser to answer. If you move to Switzerland, tax is likewise deducted at source until you hold a settlement permit C.

Health insurance. In Switzerland it is compulsory, taken out per person and paid privately; it does not come off the salary, and there is no free cover for family members of the kind German employees are used to. For cross-border commuters, which system you belong to is a question of its own: depending on the country you live in there are choices, to be exercised within a deadline after you take up the post. A missed deadline here becomes expensive later, so it belongs on the list for the first few weeks.

What actually decides it

Both routes work in law. The decision is made elsewhere:

• Family. If a partner is settled in a job where you live now, much speaks for commuting. If they were looking for something new in any case, the sums change.
• School. Changing school is a bigger break for a child than the move itself. A change in the middle of the school year wants planning well ahead.
• Housing. Around the larger hospitals housing is tight. The search is best begun as soon as the contract is signed, and some hospitals help with it; ask about that in the interview.
• The journey itself. Two trips a day add up over a year to more than the map suggests.

A choice between the two routes exists only for those who live close enough to the border. Over a greater distance the post works only with a move, and that belongs on the table early rather than in the contract negotiation.

We talk both routes through with you before you commit, and work an offer through with you on the basis of the one you choose. Only the migration office responsible gives binding information about your permit.