Family reunification

In principle, most people living in Switzerland are able to have their family join them, in line with the human right to a private life. The rules governing family reunification are set out in articles 42 to 52 of the Swiss Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration (FNIA), which was updated in 2016 to include more specific conditions around integration. In summary, your spouse/registered partner and children can obtain Swiss permits, but what kind of permit they get and the eligibility criteria depend on your status.

If you are a Swiss citizen

Your non-Swiss spouse/registered partner and unmarried children aged between 12 and 17 are eligible for residence (B) permits, renewable for as long as you live under the same roof, or until the age of 18 in the case of children. If you have children under the age of 12, they will be eligible for C permits immediately upon their arrival in Switzerland.

In addition, if you have children aged 18 to 20 or stepchildren/grandchildren under 21 years of age living in an EU or EFTA country with a long-term authorisation, they will also be eligible for renewable B permits. The same applies to any children, stepchildren, grandchildren aged 21 or over and to your parents, parents-in-law or grandparents if they live in an EU/EFTA country if you can guarantee that they will be provided for. Under this EU/EFTA rule, your family members are not obliged to live with you and there is no deadline for requesting the permits.

Our top tip: Your spouse and children under 18 can also invoke this rule to get around those obligations if they currently live in an EU/EFTA country.

If your spouse/registered partner already held a residence (B) permit before your marriage, they will be able to renew it under family reunification rules without having to fulfil any other conditions that applied when they first moved here, as long as you still live together.

The requirement to live together can be waived in certain circumstances if living apart is unavoidable for reasons outside your control (e.g. for work).

When do we have to apply?

Unless exceptional circumstances apply or unless they currently live in the EU/EFTA, you must request permits for your family members within the following deadlines:

• Spouse/partner: within five years of them arriving in Switzerland or of your marriage (whichever is later);
• Children under the age of 12: within five years of them arriving in Switzerland or of their birth (whichever is later);
• Children over 12: within 12 months of them arriving in Switzerland.

If you are a non-EU/EFTA citizen with…

…settled status (C permit)

Your non-Swiss spouse/registered partner and unmarried children under 18 years of age have a legal right to live in Switzerland provided the following conditions are fulfilled:

• You live together in suitable accommodation;
• They are not dependent on state welfare;
• You don’t receive any supplementary benefits on top of the standard pension or disability benefits;
• In the case of a spouse/partner, they must also be able to communicate in the local language of your place of residence or have signed up for a language support programme.

Each of these conditions is explained in more detail below.

In some cases, if the authorities have reason to doubt that they will achieve a minimum level of integration, your family members may have to sign an integration agreement.

Assuming they meet these criteria, your spouse/partner and any children aged 12 to 17 will receive a residence (B) permit, which will be renewed for as long as all these conditions are met (or until the age of 18 in the case of children). If your children are under the age of 12 when they arrive, they will be granted settled status (C permit) immediately.

…a residence permit (B permit)

You can request a residence permit for your spouse/registered partner and unmarried children under the age of 18, subject to the following conditions:

• You live together in suitable accommodation;
• They are not dependent on state welfare;
• You don’t receive any supplementary benefits on top of the standard pension or disability benefits;
• In the case of a spouse/partner, they must also be able to communicate in the local language of your place of residence or have signed up for a language support programme.

Each of these conditions is explained in more detail below.

In some cases, if the authorities have reason to doubt that they will achieve a minimum level of integration, your family members may have to sign an integration agreement.

Note that this kind of family reunification is a privilege as opposed to a right, so their permits are not guaranteed even if they meet all of these criteria. If they are successful, your family members will be granted B permits, renewable for as long as the conditions above are met (or until the age of 18 in the case of children).

…a short-term permit (L permit)

You can apply for short-term permits for your spouse/registered partner and/or unmarried children under the age of 18, subject to the following conditions:

• You live together in suitable accommodation;
• They are not dependent on state welfare;
• You don’t receive any supplementary benefits on top of the standard pension or disability benefits.

Each of these conditions is explained in more detail below.

Note that this kind of family reunification is a privilege as opposed to a right, so their permits are not guaranteed even if they meet all of these criteria.

When do we have to apply?

Unless exceptional circumstances apply, you must request permits for your family members within the following deadlines:

• Spouse/partner: within five years of you gaining residency or of your marriage (whichever is later).
• Children under the age of 12: within five years of you gaining residency or of their birth (whichever is later).
• Children over 12: within 12 months of you gaining residency.

Details of conditions

Suitable accommodation

“Suitable accommodation” essentially means somewhere big enough for the family that meets all building, fire and safety regulations.

Our top tip: For a family home, the number of rooms (not bedrooms) should be no more than one less than the number of people. For example, a family of two adults and three children should live in a house or flat or at least four rooms – but note that in Switzerland, the number of rooms does not include the kitchen or bathrooms/washrooms, so a four-room flat, for example, has a lounge and three bedrooms, or a lounge, two bedrooms and a dining room/study. (In Geneva, kitchens are counted as rooms for most purposes, but since migration is governed by federal law, the national norm is used to judge whether a residence is big enough).

The requirement to live together can be waived (unless you hold a short-term permit, in which case no exceptions are made) if living apart is unavoidable for reasons beyond your control (e.g. for work).

Non-reliance on social welfare

To satisfy this condition, you will need to demonstrate that you can provide for your family in the long-term so that they will not end up having to apply for welfare benefits from the canton or state. In theory, the authorities can take into account financial resources of your family members, but in practice they tend to look only at your own personal wealth and income. On the other hand, they sometimes make exceptions if you don’t currently have quite enough but they believe that your financial situation is likely to improve in the foreseeable future.

Our top tip: Having sufficient financial resources means having enough to cover the cost of your family’s accommodation (including utility charges), premiums for obligatory health insurance (LAMal) [internal link] for each family member and subsistence expenses for the whole household, defined as followed depending on the number of people:

Source: Conférence suisse des institutions de l’action sociale (in French)/Schweizerischen Konferenz für Sozialhilfe (in German)

Supplementary benefits

This condition refers to the supplementary benefits described in the federal law on benefits supplementary to old age, survivors and invalidity insurance (LPC in French/ELG in German). In summary, it means extra monetary benefits granted to recipients of the state pension or disability benefits whose financial resources are insufficient to cover their basic needs with the standard amounts.

In the context of family reunification, the authorities will also consider whether the arrival of your family members would impact your financial situation such that you would become eligible for these supplementary benefits.

Children – additional points to note

Your children’s permits are determined on the basis of their age on the day the request is submitted. If you arrive in Switzerland before your children turns 12 but he or she turns 12 before the five-year limit is up, the deadline will be 12 months from that point (i.e., the day before his or her 13^th birthday) OR five years after your arrival in Switzerland (whichever comes first).

You must be the children’s legal guardian in order to move them to Switzerland. If guardianship is shared with their other parent, who lives outside Switzerland, they will need to explicitly agree. In all cases, it must be in the children’s best interests to move to Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the right to a permit doesn’t extend to stepchildren, so if your spouse/registered partner has their own children, they will only become eligible for family reunification once their parent receives his or her own B permit.

Exception: If you are Swiss and your stepchildren live in an EU/EFTA country, they should be eligible for a residence permit, as outlined above.

My family members’ rights

Will they have the right to work?

If you are a Swiss national or a C-or B-permit holder, the permits that your family members receive will give them the right to be employed or self-employed anywhere in Switzerland, without having to fulfil any other conditions.

If, on the other hand, you hold a short-term (L) permit, your family members granted short-term residency won’t have an automatic right to work. They will nonetheless be able to apply for a work permit according to the usual rules, and, if successful, their income will be taken into account to determine whether the family’s financial resources are sufficient to meet the requirement of non-reliance on social welfare described above.

When can they move from B to C permits?

If you are Swiss or hold a C permit when your family arrive, your spouse/partner will be able to obtain settled status five years after receiving their family reunification B permit, provided they have lived with you in Switzerland the whole time (previous stays in Switzerland do not count towards this five years). They will also need to demonstrate a minimum level of integration, including demonstrating spoken proficiency of level A2 or above and written proficiency of level A1 or above in the local language. If you were already married/in a registered partnership before becoming a naturalised Swiss citizen, the five years starts from the date of your naturalisation.

If you hold a B permit when your spouse/partner arrives but later obtain a C permit yourself, he or she will be eligible for a C permit five years after you obtain yours. Any children under 12 years of age when you achieve settled status will immediately become eligible for a C permit.

Children over the age of 12 when they arrive in Switzerland or when you achieve settled status don’t have the right to a C permit via family reunification at any point, but they will be able to apply for settled status via the usual procedures (i.e. after ten years of residence, or five years if they can demonstrate that they are exceptionally well-integrated). The same applies to any other family members you bring under the Swiss-EU free movement agreement. Your spouse/partner can also apply via the normal route if it’s easier or quicker than doing so via family reunification.

What happens if the family breaks up?

If you and your spouse/registered partner separate, they and your children can keep and renew their permits under certain circumstances, namely if they are sufficiently integrated AND the marriage/partnership included at least three years spent in Switzerland; OR if there are significant personal reasons justifying your continued residence. The latter is particularly designed to allow people who left a violent relationship or a forced marriage to stay, or those who would face major obstacles if they returned to their country of origin.

Additional points to note:

• Family members are usually allowed to keep their permit if the family member on whom their permits depend dies, as long as they have already lived in the country for a reasonable amount of time.
• If no exceptional circumstances apply, the three years of marriage/partnership must have been spent in an actual relationship, i.e. not separated, even if you were still officially married. In addition, only years spent in Switzerland are counted. They don’t have to be consecutive, but it does it have to be one single marriage/partnership.
• Various factors are considered to determine whether family members are sufficiently well integrated, including whether they speak the local language, are economically active, abide by the law and respect the values of the Federal Constitution.
• Obstacles to reintegration in their country of origin are considered on a case-by-case basis, but, as a guide, single mothers who would be at risk of discrimination or forced marriage in their native country have been allowed to stay in the past, while unfortunately gay people facing the same risks have not.
• Following family breakdown, the ex-spouse/partner’s right to move from a B to a C permit is governed by the general rules rather than family reunification rules (i.e. they will become eligible after ten years instead of five, unless they are exceptionally well-integrated).

See here for more information about the legal framework around separation and divorce.

Can my family members lose their permits?

The Swiss authorities reserve the right to revoke permits granted to family members if they believe that you are abusing the right to family reunification. Examples of this are if they think it is a marriage of convenience (sham marriage) for the sole purpose of gaining residency or that your teenage children are taking advantage of family reunification to move to Switzerland before turning 18, despite you not having a close relationship, as a way to improve their job prospects.

A family member may also lose their permit under the usual provisions for revocation, including, for example, posing a threat to national security, attempting to defraud the authorities or failing to comply with the conditions of admission (notably the terms of their integration agreement). If you are a Swiss citizen, the reasons for which your family members can lose their permits are slightly more restrictive than if you yourself are a foreigner.