COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Frontier workers to the ‘European Esta’: British Embassy in Switzerland answers Brexit questions

It’s been just under a month since the United Kingdom officially left the European Union, but questions remain for many.

Published: 26 February 2020 19:11 CET

Frontier workers to the 'European Esta': British Embassy in Switzerland answers Brexit questions

Photo: ODD ANDERSEN / AFP

While Switzerland isn’t a member of the bloc, there are still implications for people who live and work in Switzerland.

Early in February, the British Embassy in Switzerland answered some frequently asked questions about the process and everything that was changing. Here are some of the most pressing questions, while a full list of the questions can be found here.

When the European “Esta” comes into effect will we have to apply for it in order to go into France or Germany? Do we have to keep all receipts to prove we have only been 90 days in the Schengen area?

ETIAS (the European “Esta”) is due to be introduced during 2021, and the scheme will cover all countries within the Schengen Area. You can find further information here.

Once the scheme comes into operation, UK visitors to the Schengen Area will need to obtain an ETIAS. UK nationals resident in the Schengen Area (e.g. resident in Switzerland) should not need to obtain an ETIAS for travel to another country within the Schengen Area.

READ: What Brits in Switzerland need to know about Brexit

READ: 'Doors will close for Brits in EU': Why the UK's post-Brexit immigration plan has sparked alarm

What will be the future situation for British Frontalier workers? I live in France and work in Geneva as an International fonctionaire (CERN). My two daughters are presently studying in the UK and may want to work in this area after university. As there a very few jobs in France in this border area they would want to apply to work in Switzerland as frontalier workers but this will be post Brexit. What would their situation be? Would it be better to move to Switzerland?

UK nationals who are currently frontier working in Switzerland are protected by our Citizens’ Rights Agreement, which will apply from 1 January 2021.

If your daughters apply for a Swiss frontier worker permit (G permit) before 31 December 2020, then they will also be covered by the Citizens’ Rights Agreement. If they apply after this period, then they will have to fulfil the requirements for third country nationals

READ: Five things you should know if you're a cross-border worker in Switzerland

After the transition period, will UK citizens on an EU B permit be able to retain it until the expiry date, or will they have to switch to the one year B permit?

Your B permit remains valid, and you can renew it when it expires as usual. This is protected by our Citizens’ Rights Agreement which will enter into force on 1 January 2021. If you are eligible and fulfil the requirements for a C permit, you will be able to apply for one at the migration authority in your place of residence

A practical question: my C-permit says “EU-EFTA”. Do we need to get a new one or does the current one remain valid until the “Kontrollfrist”. At my local Kreisbüro they were unable to answer the question last week.

You don’t need to get a new permit. Your current permit remains valid, and you should renew it when it expires as now. The EU/EFTA branding doesn’t affect the validity of your permit.

There are some linguistic requirements for C permit renewals for 3rd party nationals (at least here in Zurich). Will those apply to Brits with C permits after Brexit? My German is still so bad – it's easy to live in Zurich in English.

Starting on 1 January 2019, new provisions for work and residence permits entered into force in Switzerland. This is however unrelated to Brexit but is rather a matter of Swiss domestic legislation.

For UK nationals in possession of a Swiss B or C permit, nothing changes for renewal of those permits until the end of the transition period (31 December 2020). For all new C permits (i.e. conversion from a B to C permit), the proof of language skills (in the language of the place of residence) from an accredited institution applies as of 1 January 2020. You can find a list of accredited institutions here.

READ: How have Switzerland's tougher language requirements for work permits affected foreign citizens?

At EU and Swiss airport immigration, do I now have to go through 'other nationalities' because I am not Swiss and we are now not in EU?

Current arrangements for travel in the EU will not change during the transition period which lasts until 31 December 2020. UK nationals will be able to use the EU immigration lines or e-gates, and they will not have their passports stamped.

What is likely to happen with the rights of British citizens past 31 Dec 2020 in Switzerland? Are there other agreements in negotiation right now? What happens to the upcoming permit renewals post 2020? Would British citizens be still eligible for a C permit after 5 years?

The rights of UK nationals in Switzerland, and indeed Swiss citizens in the UK, are protected by our Citizens’ Rights Agreement which will come into force from 1 January 2021. This means you will be able to renew your permit when it expires, as usual.

This includes renewal of L, G, B and C permits. Switching from a B to C permit falls under Swiss domestic law.

UK nationals covered by our Citizens’ Rights Agreement are eligible to apply for a C permit after 5 years, subject to fulfilling the integration criteria.

From 1 January 2020 this includes a proof of language skills (A2 spoken and A1 written) from an accredited institution. You can find a list of accredited institutions here.

Do Swiss hospitals still accept the EHIC card? If so up until when will it be accepted?

Your EHIC remains valid. There will be no changes to healthcare access for UK nationals visiting or living in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland before 1 January 2021.

The UK’s agreement temporarily protects EHIC and S2 for UK nationals who find themselves in another Member State on 31 December 2020.

They will be able to complete any treatment they are undergoing or have access to ‘needs arising’ treatment through their EHIC in that Member State, until they return to the UK. This includes people on holiday. EHIC is only valid for temporary stays, however, such as a holiday.

If you are resident in Switzerland, you must take out compulsory insurance with a Swiss health insurance company no later than three months after arriving or beginning to work in Switzerland.

For more information and useful links, visit our Living in Guide.

From 1 January 2021, our UK-Swiss citizens’ rights agreement protects social security arrangements for UK nationals resident in Switzerland; this means reciprocal healthcare arrangements will continue for people such as UK state pensioners, or students on a course of study.

Can we now have access to our private pension if we move back to the UK as no longer in EU?

Your access to your private pension will not be affected by the UK leaving the EU.

Private pensions are ultimately treated as the property of the individual scheme member, and private property is protected by international law.

We fully expect that people will continue to be able to access their pension savings or pension rights. If you are returning to the UK permanently, you should contact the international pension centre to move your pension to the UK.

If you choose to stay in Switzerland, your rights will be protected under our Citizens’ Rights Agreement, which will apply from 1 January 2021.

Social security coordination rules will continue to apply to those covered by the agreement, and we will continue to aggregate social security contributions.

The UK government has confirmed lifelong uprating of UK state pension for recipients in Switzerland, and the right to export relevant benefits to Switzerland and the UK will generally continue as now.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Times; color: #0000e9; -webkit-text-stroke: #0000e9}
p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Times; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
p.p7 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p8 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {font-kerning: none}

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

With the German far right coming out on top in two state elections earlier this month, the socialist-led national Berlin government has reimposed border controls on Western frontiers that are supposed to see freedom of movement in the European Union’s Schengen zone.

The Netherlands government, which includes the party of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, announced Wednesday that it had requested from Brussels an opt-out from EU rules on asylum, with Prime Minister Dick Schoof declaring that there was an asylum “crisis”.

Meanwhile, new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the left-wing Labour Party paid a visit to Rome for talks with Italian counterpart Georgia Meloni, whose party has neo-fascist roots, to discuss the strategies used by Italy in seeking to reduce migration.

Far-right parties performed strongly in June European elections, coming out on top in France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections which resulted in right-winger Michel Barnier, who has previously called for a moratorium on migration, being named prime minister.

We are witnessing the “continuation of a rightward shift in migration policies in the European Union,” said Jerome Vignon, migration advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute think-tank.

It reflected the rise of far-right parties in the European elections in June, and more recently in the two regional elections in Germany, he said, referring to a “quite clearly protectionist and conservative trend”.

Strong message

“Anti-immigration positions that were previously the preserve of the extreme right are now contaminating centre-right parties, even centre-left parties like the Social Democrats” in Germany, added Florian Trauner, a migration specialist at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Dutch-speaking university in Brussels.

While the Labour government in London has ditched its right-wing Conservative predecessor administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, there is clearly interest in a deal Italy has struck with Albania to detain and process migrants there.

Within the European Union, Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian applicants, while laws have appeared authorising pushbacks at the border in Finland and Lithuania.

Under the pretext of dealing with “emergency” or “crisis” situations, the list of exemptions and deviations from the common rules defined by the European Union continues to grow.

All this flies in the face of the new EU migration pact, agreed only in May and coming into force in 2026.

In the wake of deadly attacks in Mannheim and most recently Solingen blamed on radical Islamists, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government also expelled 28 Afghans back to their home country for the first time since the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Such gestures from Germany are all the more symbolic given how the country since World War II has tried to turn itself into a model of integration, taking in a million refugees, mainly Syrians in 2015-2016 and then more than a million Ukrainian exiles since the Russian invasion.

Germany is sending a “strong message” to its own public as well as to its European partners, said Trauner.

The migratory pressure “remains significant” with more than 500,000 asylum applications registered in the European Union for the first six months of the year, he said.

‘Climate on impunity’

Germany, which received about a quarter of them alone, criticises the countries of southern Europe for allowing migrants to circulate without processing their asylum applications, but southern states denounce a lack of solidarity of the rest of Europe.

The moves by Germany were condemned by EU allies including Greece and Poland, but Scholz received the perhaps unwelcome accolade of praise from Hungarian right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Moscow’s closest friend in the European Union, when he declared “welcome to the club”.

The EU Commission’s failure to hold countries to account “only fosters a climate of impunity where unilateral migration policies and practices can proliferate,” said Adriana Tidona, Amnesty International’s Migration Researcher.

But behind the rhetoric, all European states are also aware of the crucial role played by migrants in keeping sectors going including transport and healthcare, as well as the importance of attracting skilled labour.

“Behind the symbolic speeches, European leaders, particularly German ones, remain pragmatic: border controls are targeted,” said Sophie Meiners, a migration researcher with the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Even Meloni’s government has allowed the entry into Italy of 452,000 foreign workers for the period 2023-2025.

“In parallel to this kind of new restrictive measures, they know they need to address skilled labour needs,” she said.