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Your rights as the spouse of a Swiss citizen
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Your rights if you have married a Swiss
If you have married a Swiss, you are entitled to an authorization for residence (B permit) . You may also engage in profit-earning activity with authorization from the Aliens Police. Maximum limits on foreign workers admitted every year do not affect your case. You are assimilated into the native workforce.
Following an uninterrupted stay of five years in Switzerland, you are entitled to a permanent establishment permit (C permit).

If the authorities are able to prove that you have entered into marriage with a Swiss for the purposes of circumventing entry and residency requirements (marriage of convenience), you will no longer be entitled to authorization for residence.

If you are prohibited from entering Switzerland, this prohibition will not necessarily be lifted through marriage. The Aliens Police make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Your entitlement to residence and permanent establishment may even be revoked subsequent to marriage if there is a basis for deportation.

You have the possibility of being joined in Switzerland by your minor children (born out of wedlock or from a previous marriage). You must acquire authorization from the Aliens Police prior to their entry into Switzerland. Adoption by the Swiss spouse is possible following two years of marriage, insofar as the child has lived with the new family during this time.

Divorce
The authorization for residence (B permit) is issued to the foreign spouse for the purposes of living in matrimony. Authorization for residence extension is therefore at issue in the case of divorce. In this regard, no general rule has been established. The Aliens Police makes its decisions on a case-by-case basis, while considering the following criteria: length of stay in Switzerland, personal relations in Switzerland (namely, if there are children), professional situation, integration level and personal behavior. However, the issue of wrongs is not a determining factor.
In the event that only separation occurs, you maintain your entitlement to the authorization for residence.
In all cases, you may extend your stay in Switzerland if you have obtained a permanent establishment permit (C permit) prior to the marriage’s dissolution.


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