A Third-Country Worker Needs a Job, a Flat, a Canton and a Place in the Year's Quota
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Dominican Republic on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Dominican Republic to Switzerland · Residency through work
Switzerland admits a worker from outside the EU and EFTA under four conditions at once, and all four are in the Foreign Nationals Act. The job has to be in the overall economic interest; the employer has to apply, because the worker cannot; no suitable candidate can be found among residents or nationals of a state Switzerland has a free-movement agreement with; and the person has to be an executive, a specialist or otherwise qualified. Two more follow: pay and conditions must be those customary for the place, the occupation and the sector, and the person must have a flat appropriate to their needs. Then there is the quota. The Federal Council may cap first-time short-stay and residence permits for work and set separate ceilings for the Confederation and the cantons, and it does: the ordinance fixes 4,000 short-stay permits and 4,500 residence permits for the calendar year 2026, split canton by canton in a table that gives Zurich 399 of the short-stay ones and Appenzell Innerrhoden three.
At a glance
- Who applies
- The employer
AIG article 11(3) for employed work: the permit is applied for by the employer, at the authority competent for the intended place of work.
- Who may be admitted at all
- Executives, specialists and other qualified workers
AIG article 23(1). Article 23(3) lists five exceptions, among them investors and entrepreneurs who preserve or create jobs.
- Short-stay permits for third-country workers, 2026
- 4,000 in total - 2,000 for the cantons and 2,000 for the Confederation
VZAE Annex 1 number 1, in the version of the ordinance of 19 November 2025 in force since 1 January 2026. Annex 1 number 2 states the ceilings apply from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.
- Residence permits for third-country workers, 2026
- 4,500 in total - 1,250 for the cantons and 3,250 for the Confederation
VZAE Annex 2 number 1, same amending ordinance. Annex 2 number 2 gives the same calendar-year period.
- Where the number lives
- Annexes 1 and 2 to the VZAE, replaced by a Federal Council ordinance each year
The current annexes were substituted by the ordinance of 19 November 2025 (AS 2025 780). The number is therefore not in the Act and not in an administrative decision: it is in the ordinance, and it is re-enacted annually.
- Largest and smallest cantonal share, short-stay permits 2026
- Zurich 399, Appenzell Innerrhoden 3
VZAE Annex 1 number 1 letter a, the table of 26 cantonal ceilings. The quota is divided before anyone applies, so the answer to "is there room" depends on which canton the job is in.
- Separate quota for United Kingdom nationals, 2026
- 1,400 short-stay permits and 2,100 residence permits, released quarterly
VZAE Annexes 1 number 7 and 2 number 7, for British nationals not covered by the Agreement of 25 February 2019 on acquired rights. Switzerland is the only country in this corpus with a quota written for one named third country.
- Short-stay permit
- Up to one year, extendable to two
AIG article 32. A change of job is possible only for important reasons, and the permit can only be issued again after an appropriate break in the stay.
- Residence permit
- More than one year, time-limited and renewable
AIG article 33. Length on issue and renewal takes the person's integration into account.
- Settlement permit
- Ten years, or five with proof of the local national language
AIG article 34(2)(a) and 34(4). The ten-year route needs the last five of them continuously on a residence permit; the five-year route needs good spoken command of the national language of the place of residence and the integration criteria of article 58a.
Requirements
- An application made by the employer, not by the worker
- A job that serves the overall economic interest of Switzerland
- Proof that no suitable worker was found in Switzerland or in a state covered by a free-movement agreement
- Status as an executive, a specialist or another qualified worker, with qualifications, adaptability, language and age suggesting lasting integration
- Pay and working conditions customary for the place, the occupation and the sector
- A flat appropriate to the holder's needs
- A unit of the canton's or the Confederation's quota for the year
- A labour-market pre-decision by the competent cantonal authority, where there is no right to work
Country-level policy
No country in this corpus distributes migration decisions the way Switzerland does, and nothing else about the Swiss system makes sense without it. The Confederation writes the Act and the ordinances; the cantons grant the permits. Article 40(1) of the Foreign Nationals Act says the permits under articles 32 to 35 and 37 to 39 are granted by the cantons, reserving federal competence for the quota, for derogations from the admission conditions and for the approval procedure. Where there is no right to work, the labour-market pre-decision is a cantonal act too. The federal migration secretariat sits behind it rather than in front: the Federal Council decides which cases must be submitted to it for approval, and it may refuse approval of a cantonal decision, time-limit it, or attach conditions. The same split runs through naturalisation, where the Confederation authorises and the canton decides, through health insurance, where the cantons enforce the duty and may reduce premiums, and through the quota itself, which is divided among the twenty-six cantons before anyone applies.
Swiss federal law is published simultaneously in German, French and Italian, and for enactments the three versions are binding in the same way. No version prevails, which is the opposite of the arrangement in Malta, where the Constitution makes the Maltese text prevail over the English. That decides what this site quotes and how: any one of the three is the law, so the quotations in these records are in German, and the French and Italian versions of the same articles say the same thing with equal force. The second question the publication Act settles is the status of the platform. Article 1a says publication happens centrally through one publicly accessible online platform; article 15 then says the version published in the official compilation is authoritative for federal enactments, and that the version published on the publication platform is authoritative. Swiss consolidated texts are therefore not unofficial in the way Austria's RIS consolidations are, where the authentic text is only the one in the federal gazette.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Dominican Republic
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Ausländerinnen und Ausländer können zur Ausübung einer Erwerbstätigkeit nur zugelassen werden, wenn nachgewiesen wird, dass keine dafür geeigneten inländischen Arbeitnehmerinnen und Arbeitnehmer oder Angehörige von Staaten, mit denen ein Freizügigkeitsabkommen abgeschlossen wurde, gefunden werden können.»Our translation - not official
Foreign nationals may be admitted to gainful employment only if it is shown that no suitable domestic workers, or nationals of states with which a free-movement agreement has been concluded, can be found.
The priority rule, and the sentence that makes the free-movement agreement part of the test for everyone else: a Union or EFTA national counts as a candidate who has to be preferred.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Kurzaufenthalts- und Aufenthaltsbewilligungen zur Ausübung einer Erwerbstätigkeit können nur Führungskräften, Spezialistinnen und Spezialisten und anderen qualifizierten Arbeitskräften erteilt werden.»Our translation - not official
Short-stay and residence permits for gainful employment may be granted only to executives, specialists and other qualified workers.
A closed qualification filter at the top of the Act. Paragraph 2 adds that qualification, occupational and social adaptability, language skills and age must make lasting integration likely.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Ausländerinnen und Ausländer können zur Ausübung einer Erwerbstätigkeit nur zugelassen werden, wenn sie über eine bedarfsgerechte Wohnung verfügen.»Our translation - not official
Foreign nationals may be admitted to gainful employment only if they have a flat appropriate to their needs.
A whole article of the Act, four lines long, making housing a condition of a work permit. Few countries in this corpus state one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Der Bundesrat kann die Zahl der erstmaligen Kurzaufenthalts- und Aufenthaltsbewilligungen (Art. 32 und 33) zur Ausübung einer Erwerbstätigkeit begrenzen.»Our translation - not official
The Federal Council may limit the number of first-time short-stay and residence permits (articles 32 and 33) for gainful employment.
The power to cap. The next sentence requires the cantons and the social partners to be consulted first, and paragraph 2 lets the Federal Council set separate ceilings for the Confederation and for the cantons.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1. Die Höchstzahlen für Kurzaufenthaltsbewilligungen für Personen nach Artikel 19 werden insgesamt auf 4000 festgesetzt:»Our translation - not official
1. The maximum numbers of short-stay permits for persons under article 19 are fixed at 4000 in total:
Article 19 is the quota for people outside the free-movement agreement and the EFTA Convention. The annex was replaced by the ordinance of 19 November 2025, in force since 1 January 2026.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1. Die Höchstzahlen für Aufenthaltsbewilligungen für Personen nach Artikel 20 werden insgesamt auf 4500 festgesetzt:»Our translation - not official
1. The maximum numbers of residence permits for persons under article 20 are fixed at 4500 in total:
The permit for work lasting more than a year. The split that follows is 1,250 to the cantons and 3,250 to the Confederation, which is the reverse weighting of the short-stay annex.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«a. Höchstzahlen für die Kantone: 2000»Our translation - not official
a. Maximum numbers for the cantons: 2000
Followed immediately by the table of 26 cantonal figures, then by "b. Höchstzahl für den Bund: 2000". The federal half exists to balance economic and labour-market needs between cantons, and the SEM may distribute it on request.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Die Höchstzahlen für Kurzaufenthaltsbewilligungen für Personen nach Artikel 19 b werden insgesamt auf 1400 festgesetzt:»Our translation - not official
The maximum numbers of short-stay permits for persons under article 19b are fixed at 1400 in total:
Article 19b is the quota for United Kingdom nationals not covered by the Swiss-British acquired rights agreement of 25 February 2019. It is released in four quarterly tranches of 350.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Besteht kein Anspruch auf die Ausübung einer Erwerbstätigkeit, so ist für die Zulassung zu einer Erwerbstätigkeit sowie den Stellenwechsel oder den Wechsel zu einer selbständigen Erwerbstätigkeit ein arbeitsmarktlicher Vorentscheid der zuständigen kantonalen Behörde erforderlich.»Our translation - not official
Where there is no entitlement to pursue gainful employment, a labour-market pre-decision by the competent cantonal authority is required for admission to employment, for a change of job and for a move to self-employment.
Two decisions, not one. The labour-market pre-decision is a cantonal act separate from the permit itself, and a change of job after admission needs it again.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
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«sie sich insgesamt mindestens zehn Jahre mit einer Kurzaufenthalts- oder Aufenthaltsbewilligung in der Schweiz aufgehalten haben und sie während den letzten fünf Jahren ununterbrochen im Besitz einer Aufenthaltsbewilligung waren»Our translation - not official
they have stayed in Switzerland for a total of at least ten years on a short-stay or residence permit and have held a residence permit continuously for the last five years
The ordinary route to the settlement permit. Paragraph 4 shortens it to five years for a person who can make themselves understood well in the national language spoken at their place of residence - the language that counts is the local one, which in Switzerland is a different language in different cantons.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
None of this applies to a national of a Union or EFTA state, whose position is set by the free-movement agreement and the EFTA Convention. Article 21(1) puts them on the other side of the test: they are among the candidates a Swiss employer has to prefer.
The quota is spent canton by canton before any application is made. The table in Annex 1 gives Zurich 399 short-stay units and Appenzell Innerrhoden three, so whether there is room is a question about the canton of the job and not about Switzerland.
The quota figures here are for the calendar year 2026 and will be replaced. The Federal Council substitutes Annexes 1 and 2 by ordinance each year, so a figure read in one year is not evidence about the next.
This record is built from the Act and its admission ordinance. Cantonal practice - how an office weighs "overall economic interest", what evidence of the job search it wants, how fast it decides - is cantonal and is not published in either instrument.
- consolidatesAusländer- und Integrationsgesetz (AIG), SR 142.20, consolidated text in force from 12 June 2026
Fedlex, Bundeskanzlei der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft · consolidated to 2026-06-12
About this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesVerordnung über Zulassung, Aufenthalt und Erwerbstätigkeit (VZAE), SR 142.201, consolidated text in force from 1 October 2026
Fedlex, Bundeskanzlei der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft · consolidated to 2026-10-01
About this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source