STUDENT PERMITS – DO YOU NEED ONE?

Verbier student permits

 

SHOULD YOU GET A STUDENT PERMIT?

AND WILL YOU NEED ONE?

 

Student Permits became something we needed to learn about as soon as the UK left the EU.

That’s because until that date, trainees could stay in Switzerland and get a work permit after their course as long as they held an EU passport.

But British trainees became “Third Nation Nationals” as when Brexit happened, as there wasn’t a new deal to take the place of the old EU-Swiss one.

You could say they fell into a Black Hole – not EU members, but not complete outsiders. And the only legal position was to get treated as Third Nation Nationals.

And that in turn meant they have a maximum of 90 days in Switzerland and the Schengen Area (in a rolling 180 day period). Read more about the way to calculate it here.

 


 

SO CAN YOU GET A STUDENT PERMIT?

You can – but you don’t need one for a normal course.

A ten week course is, for example, 71 days. And you can stay in the Schengen Area (which Switzerland is a part of) for 90 days.

So you simply don’t need a permit.

In fact, the Swiss won’t issue one for any educational stay under 90 days long.

But if you take an extended course, which is usually about 100 days, you can apply.

For the purpose we run extended courses with extra shadowing and extra training to help you get to the next level – and fulfil the Student Permit requirements.

 


 

WHAT’S THE BENEFIT?

Well, when you are on a Student Permit you are temporarily resident in Switzerland.

That means the whole Schengen 90 days rule (which, yes, gets very confusing) simply doesn’t apply.

The clock is stopped or the duration of the permit.

So whatever you do before or after the course, whilst you’re on the course you don’t have to count days. So you could – for example – stay longer after the course.

 


 

SO WHAT NEXT?

If you really need a permit then we can help you get it arranged.

But remember you must extend your course to be eligible for the permit.

 


 

 

MORE EMPLOYMENT BLOGS

 

STUDENT PERMIT INFO