Swiss Immigration Update - Switzerland releases work permit quotas for 2024 - Review 2023 and pre-view of upcoming changes in 2024 - Tax and Legal blog

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The Swiss government has set work permit quotas for non-EU nationals, UK nationals and for EU nationals on assignment. Furthermore, Croatian nationals will again be subject to Swiss quotas as of 2024.

Overview

In order to further promote the Swiss economy, qualified professionals from non-EU/EFTA countries should continue to be allowed to work in Switzerland.

As the 2023 quotas were not exhausted, the same maximum number of quotas will be available in 2024. Please find the official announcement of the Swiss Federal Council here.

Work Permit Quotas 2024

Quotas for Non-EU Nationals :
For the year 2024 the Swiss Federal Council approved again 8,500 quotas for specialists from non-EU countries:

4,500 long-term B permits and 4,000 short-term L permits.

Quotas for EU/ EFTA Nationals on Assignment :
Alike the year 2023, the Swiss Federal Council approved again 3,500 quotas for assignees from EU/ EFTA countries for the year 2024:

3,000 L permits and 500 B permits.

Quotas for UK Nationals:
The Agreement on Free Movement of Persons (AFMP) is not applicable to UK nationals since 2021. From a Swiss immigration perspective, UK nationals also fall under the category of third-country nationals, with the difference that they receive separate quotas.

For the year 2024 the Swiss Federal Council approved again 3,500 quotas for specialists from the UK:

2’100 long-term B permits and 1’400 short-term L permits.

Quotas for Croatian nationals:
The Swiss Federal Council announced that the last year’s introduction of the Swiss quotas for the Croatian nationals will be prolonged and extended until 2025, due to the high demand of permits for Croatian nationals. The full freedom of movement for Croatian nationals will therefore come back into force again in the year 2025 on a trial basis. The transitional agreement for Croatian nationals run over a period of 10 years, which will end 31 December 2026.

For the year 2024 the Swiss Federal Council has approved the following quotas for specialists from Croatia:

1,204 long-term B permits and 1,053 short-term L permits.

The extension of the protection status S
It was published by the Federal Council that the protection status for Ukrainian refugees will be extended until 4 March 2025. The Council has also defined a target for labour market integration, which is set at 40% of persons capable of employment with protection status S working in Switzerland by the end of 2024. The extension of the protection status provides clarity not only for the 66,000 Ukrainians (as October 2023) with the protection status, but also for companies who have employed Ukrainian nationals on S permits in the past.

Deloitte's View

Conclusions and recommendations
The statistics show at the end of October 2023 that only about half of the EU/EFTA assignment quotas have been used (49% of the L permits / 52% of the B permits). For the quotas for third-country nationals, it is 68% of the L permits and 75% of the B permits. The UK permits were exhausted by just under a quarter: 21% of L permits and 26% of B permits were used.

The fact that the quotas have not been completely exhausted in recent years is primarily due to the pandemic. Based on this the Federal Council has decided to retain the same quotas for 2024. Companies should plan their recruitment and talent strategies accordingly.

Swiss employers seeking to hire Croatian nationals in 2024 will continue to plan ahead and secure the work permit approval prior to the individual’s start date in Switzerland. In order to secure a quota it is recommended to set a start date at the beginning of a quarter, to ensure that they can obtain a quota and hence be issued a permit for Switzerland.

If you would like to discuss more on the above topics, please do reach out to our key contacts below.

Key contacts

2022-11-21_13-27-39

Jehona Islami - Director, Immigration

Jehona is a Director at Deloitte and part of the Immigration Team in Switzerland. She started her career in 2008 and has been able to gain extensive experience in the field of immigration throughout her career so far. She has been supporting both, corporates as well as private clients with their immigration needs for Switzerland. In the last few years, her focus has been on immigration advisory services mainly for private clients, but not exclusively, as well as providing support to corporate clients on best practices and compliance in immigration.

Email

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Irmak Tokay - Assistant, Immigration

Irmak is an immigration assistant within Deloitte’s Global Employer Services department. She holds the bachelor degree in international management and has started her career with Deloitte in November 2021. In her daily work, Irmak advises corporate clients on their Swiss immigration needs and provides support to ensure compliance with Swiss immigration requirements.

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