Friday, August 7, 2009

How do I get a work permit for Switzerland


How do I get a work permit for Switzerland?
I am a teacher by profession and would like to work in France or Switzerland. Most of the recruiting agencies abroad are looking for people who already hold a permit or who is European. Can someone please advise me how to apply for a work permit on my own? Thanks in advance for your responses. I am a primary school teacher. At the present moment I am teaching English in Istanbul, Turkey. There are a few international schools who are looking for classroom and English teachers throughout Europe.
Immigration - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
I am french and I lived in switzerland and now i live close to the franco swiss border in France. First of all in your question, you did not specify what you teach or wether you speak fluently french or german (in switzerland the two main languages are german and french). In France if you want to be a permanent teacher (meaning you can' t be fired, you can not be unemployed) in high school or in middle school and you teach some general subjects like history geography math or litterature, philosophy , you have to be a citizen of an european country and you have to take a national exam (CAPES), or you can apply for a job as a substitute teacher but you still have to be an european. Otherwise I heard if you teach some specific subjects, you are not required to be an european and therefore you can apply for a work permit, not sure though. About Switzerland , I can tell you that they are very strict on immigration for non european citizen. Except Ireland and UK many countries in Europe are very protective with their job markets, I would suggest you either to marry a french man (you get the french citizenship after 2 years one of the easiest with british one, swiss citizenship 10 years, german citizenship 7 years) , or you go there and get a student visa (university is free in France ) and after you get permanent residence and you have to wait for 5 years. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me Life in Swiss is quite expensive but they make so much money. Life in France is great, but you pay a lot of taxes , get ripped off in some way but in return, free healthcare, free university, huge governement benefits;
2 :
1. You do not specify your nationality but I assume that you are Turkish. 2. For Switzerland you can not as a foreigner apply for a work permit on your own but a potential employer has to get one for you. So the process is as follows: you see a job advert for a job in Switzerland, you apply for it, the employer thinks that you are the right person and THEN he has to get a permit for you from the foreigner's police. And only after the employer has done his bit, you might get a work permit, it is not guaranteed.