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Last time I tried to get a gig in Switzerland as a freelancer, they told me there is no such thing as a freelancer there, every one must be hired. That's absol

Last time I tried to get a gig in Switzerland as a freelancer, they told me there is no such thing as a freelancer there, every one must be hired. That's absolutely wrong, you've been lied to. Which part of Switzerland was it?

languagewars 10y ago
I think they meant that there isn't really a freelancer visa, so most people would have a chicken and egg problem. AFAIK you can run your own business with a B permit which is in turn justified by income/employment in that business, but you would usually transition from a permit through another employer or other types of visas (family, student, etc.) I think waiting until you had a C permit would be more common, especially if your only connection with Switzerland is employment.
- ccozan 10y ago
  I wouldn't need a visa as a German ( or any other EU national ). If I want to work ( as employed ), I would need an "Aufenthaltsbewilligung".
  - languagewars 10y ago
    If you are from the EU then you could currently use your right to a resident permit based on right to travel and probably transition to a B based on self-employment before your time was up. But as noted in the article, you could run into trouble since the vote indicated quotas that would somehow reduce residents in that group, while the treaties don't allow such a control. So some kind of odd technicality could develop. If you are German then no one should have told you there's no possibility of freelancing, but it might make more sense to first take on enough Swiss customers freelancing from Germany, or as a commuter to Basel, etc. I would just recommend being conservative about maintaining a reasonable/stable salary sourced from Switzerland when renewing a residence permit. If you really mean contractor gigs from abroad, everyone I met doing that actually works permanently for a placement agency, and most of them are not very nice. IMO it is just as easy (or hard) to find a job directly and better.
    - ccozan 10y ago
      Thank you for the insight. It was hard to find this kind of information at that time. I tried directly and also over an agency, but in both cases the requirement was to hire me, with the previous mentioned "limitation". Since I had no clear source of information, I gave them credit and didn't pursue the matter. Even if the money was really really good ( 10k+ euro monthly ).
ccozan 10y ago
That was Zuerich. They told me, there is no such thing a service contract between an individual and a company. I must be either hired or I need to have my own company. I am not inventing this, simply repeating what the companies said, and they really meant it.
- uola 10y ago
  That presumably just means that you have to register as a sole proprietor. Some countries have special freelancer/self-employed tax categories (or whatever), others don't.
- lordnacho 10y ago
  That's totally wrong. You can be a sole proprietor for basically nothing. There's also two forms of limited companies requiring 20K/100K of capital. The 100 is actually 50K because you only have to pay up half of it upfront. I found quite often when the Swiss explain something, they explain it with a degree of confidence that is not merited by the actual facts. They cut a few corners here and there to make it easy to explain.

languagewars 10y ago

I think they meant that there isn't really a freelancer visa, so most people would have a chicken and egg problem. AFAIK you can run your own business with a B permit which is in turn justified by income/employment in that business, but you would usually transition from a permit through another employer or other types of visas (family, student, etc.) I think waiting until you had a C permit would be more common, especially if your only connection with Switzerland is employment.

ccozan 10y ago
I wouldn't need a visa as a German ( or any other EU national ). If I want to work ( as employed ), I would need an "Aufenthaltsbewilligung".
- languagewars 10y ago
  If you are from the EU then you could currently use your right to a resident permit based on right to travel and probably transition to a B based on self-employment before your time was up. But as noted in the article, you could run into trouble since the vote indicated quotas that would somehow reduce residents in that group, while the treaties don't allow such a control. So some kind of odd technicality could develop. If you are German then no one should have told you there's no possibility of freelancing, but it might make more sense to first take on enough Swiss customers freelancing from Germany, or as a commuter to Basel, etc. I would just recommend being conservative about maintaining a reasonable/stable salary sourced from Switzerland when renewing a residence permit. If you really mean contractor gigs from abroad, everyone I met doing that actually works permanently for a placement agency, and most of them are not very nice. IMO it is just as easy (or hard) to find a job directly and better.
  - ccozan 10y ago
    Thank you for the insight. It was hard to find this kind of information at that time. I tried directly and also over an agency, but in both cases the requirement was to hire me, with the previous mentioned "limitation". Since I had no clear source of information, I gave them credit and didn't pursue the matter. Even if the money was really really good ( 10k+ euro monthly ).

ccozan 10y ago

That was Zuerich. They told me, there is no such thing a service contract between an individual and a company. I must be either hired or I need to have my own company. I am not inventing this, simply repeating what the companies said, and they really meant it.

uola 10y ago
That presumably just means that you have to register as a sole proprietor. Some countries have special freelancer/self-employed tax categories (or whatever), others don't.
lordnacho 10y ago
That's totally wrong. You can be a sole proprietor for basically nothing. There's also two forms of limited companies requiring 20K/100K of capital. The 100 is actually 50K because you only have to pay up half of it upfront. I found quite often when the Swiss explain something, they explain it with a degree of confidence that is not merited by the actual facts. They cut a few corners here and there to make it easy to explain.