Moving to Geneva from the UK: permits and the paperwork
Moving · 9 min read · Reviewed
The single most important thing to understand about moving to Switzerland from Britain is that free movement ended. Since Brexit, UK citizens are third-country nationals in Swiss law — the same category as Americans, Australians and Indians — and that changes the process completely from what it was before 2021.
The practical consequence is that you cannot move to Geneva and then look for work. Your employer applies for your permit, from inside Switzerland, before you arrive, and the application has to clear a cantonal authority and a federal one. Nothing else in the move can be finalised until it does.
This guide sets out the order things actually happen in. It is orientation rather than advice: rules change, quotas move, and the answer for a UN staff member, a CERN researcher and a bank employee are three different answers. Check the State Secretariat for Migration and your cantonal office before relying on anything here.
The permit, and who applies for it
For most British arrivals the answer is a B permit, sponsored by a Swiss employer. Your employer applies to the Geneva cantonal migration office (OCPM); you do not apply yourself and you cannot start the process from the UK on your own. Expect six to twelve weeks, and expect it to be the long pole in the whole move.
The employer has to show that the role could not reasonably be filled from Switzerland or the EU/EFTA, and that your qualifications and salary meet the threshold for a skilled third-country hire. In practice this means the route is open to specialists, and considerably harder for generalist or junior roles than it was when free movement applied.
There are quotas. Britain has had its own annual allocation of L and B permits since Brexit, separate from the general third-country quota, and it has consistently been undersubscribed — over a thousand L and sixteen hundred B permits were still free late in the year. The direction of travel is towards folding the UK allocation into the general non-EU quota, which would make it tighter. Neither the quota nor its future is something you can influence; what you can do is not treat the permit as a formality.
You cannot self-apply. If a relocation service or a landlord asks for your permit before your employer has filed, the answer is that the sequence does not work that way — the job comes first, then the permit, then the flat.
The permits you will hear named
Four come up constantly in Geneva and they are not interchangeable.
What each one means
- B permit — residence permit tied to employment, typically issued for one year and renewable. The standard outcome for a sponsored hire, and the one that makes you a Swiss resident for tax and health insurance.
- L permit — short-term, usually up to twelve months, for fixed-term assignments. Fewer rights attached and harder to convert.
- C permit — settlement, after five or ten years depending on nationality and integration criteria. Not something you arrive on.
- G permit — the cross-border commuter permit, for people who live in France or another EU state and work in Switzerland. This is the one that makes living in Annemasse or Ferney-Voltaire possible, and it is worth its own guide.
- Ci permit — for spouses and children of international civil servants, which in Geneva is a very large group. It carries the right to work, which an ordinary dependant permit may not.
The order things have to happen in
Geneva's housing market is tight enough that this sequence matters. A landlord will ask for your permit, an employment contract, a recent salary slip and often a debt-collection extract before considering you, and you will be competing against dozens of applicants for a decent flat.
That produces a well-known chicken-and-egg problem for new arrivals — no permit without a job, no flat without a permit, no address to put on the permit application. The usual resolution is a serviced flat or a sublet for the first two or three months, which is expensive and worth budgeting for from the start rather than discovering.
The realistic sequence
- Secure the job offer. Nothing starts before this.
- Employer files the permit application with the cantonal office. Six to twelve weeks.
- Arrange temporary accommodation for the first two to three months. Budget for it.
- Arrive, then register with your commune within fourteen days. This is a legal obligation, not a formality.
- Take out LAMal health insurance within three months, backdated to your arrival date.
- Open a Swiss bank account — which is far easier once you have a permit and a registered address.
- Start looking for a permanent flat with permit, contract and salary slips in hand.
What surprises British arrivals most
Health insurance is private, compulsory, per person and not deducted from your salary. It is the single largest budgeting error British arrivals make, because nothing in the UK experience prepares you for a household bill of over a thousand francs a month before anyone has been ill. It has its own guide here.
The rental deposit is up to three months' rent, held in a blocked account, on top of the first month. On a modest two-bed that is a five-figure sum unavailable to you for the length of the tenancy.
Registering with your commune within fourteen days of arrival is a legal requirement with a fine attached, and it is also the gate to almost everything else — the health insurance, the bank account, the residence permit card itself.
And the flat market is genuinely difficult. Geneva's vacancy rate has sat below half a percent for years. Expect to lose several applications before one lands, and expect to be asked for documents that no British landlord would ask for.
Common questions
Can a British citizen still move to Switzerland after Brexit?
Yes, but as a third-country national rather than under free movement. In practice that means an employer must sponsor a work permit before you move, the role must meet a skilled-worker threshold, and the permit is subject to quota. Britons who were already resident before free movement ended are covered by the separate UK–Swiss Citizens' Rights Agreement.
Can I move to Geneva and then look for a job?
Not on a work permit. Your employer applies for it on your behalf from inside Switzerland, so the job has to come first. You can visit visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180 under the Schengen rules, but that is a visit, not a job search with a right to start work.
How long does a Swiss work permit take?
Typically six to twelve weeks from the employer filing to a decision, and it can run longer if the cantonal and federal stages both query the file. Plan the rest of the move around it rather than assuming it will land on time.