Settled foreign national
It seems as if these days are really eventful. Today I received the official confirmation of my rising in the Swiss “hierarchy of foreigners”. Effective today, I am a “settled foreign national” (or in official language Amtsdeutsch: Inhaber der Niederlassungsbewilligung C). This means that e.g. I will no longer be taxed according to the “withholding tax” (Quellensteuer), but just as any “real Swiss”. And also, less restrictions concerning working in Switzerland apply, but that actually doesn’t really have an impact, since effectively there are no restrictions since I am a citizen of the EU/EFTA with which Switzerland has bilateral contracts easing the transition between the jurisdictions (”Freizügigkeitsabkommen”). Also, if I’m not mistaken, this allows me to leave the country for a longer time without having to re-apply for a work permit. This may be helpful if I get the opportunity to do a job rotation to some foreign location of ABB sometime. We’ll see…