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Immigration & Residency

Immigration and residence steps depend on nationality, current country of residence, funding, appointment type, and contract duration. Begin with your assigned UNIGE HR liaison and the official authorities. Start early: the paperwork typically takes 3–4 months before you can even apply for the visa.

Do not treat personal accounts as current instructions

The accounts further down this page were written by colleagues describing what happened in their own cases, at a particular time, under a particular appointment type. They are useful for knowing what to expect and what tends to go wrong. They are not authoritative procedure, and details change. Confirm every step with your HR liaison and the OCPM.

The two things you need

The process has two distinct parts, and confusing them causes a lot of unnecessary worry:

  1. A visa — what lets you enter the country. Obtained from a Swiss representation in your current country of residence, before you travel.
  2. A residency permit — what lets you stay. Applied for after you arrive, through the OCPM (Office cantonal de la population et des migrations, the Geneva canton immigration office).

Common shape of the process

The order and the required forms must be confirmed for your own case, but broadly:

  1. You apply for the position through the UNIGE HR system; the employer selects you as the candidate.
  2. Your UNIGE liaison helps you prepare the permit application, and the employer prepares the work contract details.
  3. The liaison submits the application to the OCPM on your behalf. Processing takes roughly 3–4 months.
  4. Once approved, you receive an entry authorisation and are directed to the responsible Swiss consulate to obtain your visa before travelling.
  5. On arrival, you register your address and return the requested confirmation documents within 14 days.
  6. You watch your physical post, pay the permit fee, attend a biometrics appointment when called, and receive the permit card.
  7. You complete related onboarding — health insurance within 90 days, payroll registration.

Your salary is set during this process, from your CV

Salaries are based on your job class and years of experience (typically years since your last degree) and are not really negotiable. They are determined through an HR and OCPM evaluation of your CV, so it is important that the information on it is accurate and complete. Ask the employer which class your position falls in; Niveau corresponds to years of experience. See the OCPM salary scale.

The forms you will hear about

Form What it is
Form M Application for a residence permit, with or without gainful activity. Used for employed appointments.
Form E The equivalent used for students and post-doctoral researchers, including scholarship holders.
Form AL Attestation du logeur — the landlord's or host's certificate, used to establish your residence when you do not have a standard lease in your own name.
Autorisation habilitant à délivrer un visa The letter confirming the OCPM approved your application; you present it to the consulate to collect your visa.
Confirmation des données The form you complete and return to the OCPM after arriving, giving your Geneva address.

Filling in Form M

Two things that trip people up: leave the Section 8 proxy blank, and enter your contract start date as the date of establishing residence in Geneva.

Prepare these documents early

Depending on the case, you may be asked for:

  • a valid passport, plus colour copies of the bio page and signature page;
  • passport photographs — expect to need around 6, with your surname and first name written on the back;
  • a CV in UNIGE format, work certificates, and a full publication list;
  • images of your degree diplomas — originals are not usually required;
  • a letter of motivation, addressed to the OCPM where required, explaining the purpose and duration of the appointment or training;
  • appointment, scholarship, or funding evidence;
  • proof of accommodation: a copy of your rental agreement, or Form AL accompanied by a copy of the host's own lease or property deed and a copy of their ID; a hotel reservation may be accepted. If your Geneva address is genuinely not yet known, the address field may be left blank — but the date of establishing residence in Geneva remains mandatory, and the address must be supplied later on the confirmation des données;
  • for non-EU/EFTA nationals already living in an EU/EFTA country, a copy of the European residence document.

Worth having on hand for other Swiss administrative procedures, though not needed for the permit itself: an image of your birth certificate, and of your social security card if you have one.

Send these through approved channels only

Identity and immigration documents contain sensitive personal information. Do not email them to unofficial addresses or upload them to unapproved services. See Security & Confidentiality.

After you arrive: the 14-day clock

Within 14 days of arriving in Geneva you must:

  1. Complete Form AL to establish your residency in the canton. If you are in a short-term rental, confirm before you book that the landlord or host is willing to complete Form AL — without it you cannot establish residency. They will need to supply several documents, including a copy of their ID and a copy of their lease (or a utility bill plus a written attestation that you are staying there, though that is not formally listed as an option).
  2. Complete and send the confirmation des données and the required documents to the OCPM.
  3. Send a copy of that package and the proof of mailing to your UNIGE liaison.

The UNIGE Welcome Center can help with all of this.

The OCPM communicates only by post

You will not get email confirmation of your permit status. The OCPM writes to the address on your Form AL. Watch your post and respond promptly — see Post and address registration.

The letters usually arrive in this order:

  1. A bill for the permit, payable online — a few weeks after you submit the confirmation des données.
  2. An invitation to schedule a biometrics appointment at the OCPM office in Meyrin — about a week after you pay.
  3. Your residency card — one to two weeks after the biometrics appointment.

Colleagues' accounts

The following are first-hand accounts from GDD colleagues. Names have been removed. Treat them as what one person experienced, not as instructions.

US citizen hired as a Scientific Collaborator

Documents prepared initially: around 6 passport photos; copies of the passport bio and signature pages; a CV in UNIGE format; a full publication list; a job motivation letter; images of the original undergraduate and graduate diplomas (original copies were not needed).

What happened:

  1. Applied for the position through the UNIGE HR system; the employer then selected them as the candidate.
  2. The UNIGE liaison helped prepare the permit application (Form M) while the employer prepared the work contract details.
  3. The liaison submitted Form M to the OCPM. Processing took roughly 3–4 months.
  4. The liaison relayed the OCPM's approval, which came with an Autorisation habilitant à délivrer un visa letter and a Confirmation des données form. A personal email also arrived from the Swiss Consulate in San Francisco, directing them where to collect the visa. Because the timeline was urgent they booked an appointment to collect it in person; the usual route is to mail the documents in and have them returned. Documents required for visa collection: the letter, the passport, a copy of the passport bio page, 2 passport photos, the visa fee, and — for non-US citizens — a copy of the US visa or a notarised copy of permanent residency.
  5. On first entry to Switzerland or the EU for work purposes, they showed the visa to the immigration officer and carried a copy of the Autorisation habilitant letter as backup.
  6. Within 14 days of arriving: completed Form AL, returned the Confirmation des données package to the OCPM, and sent a copy plus proof of mailing to the UNIGE liaison.
  7. Watched for OCPM letters — the permit bill, then the biometrics appointment in Meyrin, then the card.
  8. Within 90 days of starting employment: registered for health insurance, with help from the Welcome Center.

Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship recipient, non-EU / non-Swiss citizen

The UNIGE HR liaison asked for the following documents for the permit:

  • Form E, dated and signed by the candidate, with PhD student / post-doctoral researcher checked at point 1.
  • A colour photocopy of a valid identity document.
  • 6 passport-sized photos (original photos), with surname and first name written on the back.
  • A letter of motivation addressed to the OCPM, explaining the purpose and duration of the training or specialisation.
  • An updated CV, work certificates, and diplomas.
  • A copy of the rental agreement, or the landlord's certificate / subtenant entry (Form AL) with a copy of the landlord's own rental agreement or property deed and a copy of their ID; or a copy of a hotel reservation. If the Geneva address was still unknown, the Address in Geneva (if already known) section could be left blank — except the date of residence in Geneva, which remains mandatory — and the address supplied later on the confirmation des données.
  • For non-EU/EFTA nationals already residing in an EU/EFTA country, a copy of the European residence document.

The liaison submitted the request on their behalf. Processing took roughly 3–4 months.

US citizen hired as a postdoc

This account is more detailed on the mechanics, and covers the visa and the permit separately.

The process had two components: a visa to enter the country, and a residency permit obtained after arrival. The visa itself came in two parts.

Visa, part 1 — HR paperwork (about 2 months)

Mostly a matter of being available to fill in paperwork as HR emails it. Once you are in the UNIGE system, HR sends an application d'engagement. Notes on it:

  • They entered their US address, stated they did not have a work permit, and that they would be living in Switzerland (Geneva canton).
  • International hires may hit a problem with the AVS number and tax withholding: you need an AVS number to complete the tax withholding form, but you do not have one yet. They completed the AVS form on the application portal, and the Swiss government replied the next morning saying they had no AVS number. Their HR contact told them to print that email as a PDF and attach it to the tax withholding form and the AVS verification, since both are required fields. After submitting, HR sent a demande de certificat d'assurance to complete. Check with your own HR contact, who may advise differently.
  • Form E was straightforward; you will need to ask the person hiring you about fields specific to the position.

HR also sends assorted documents in the meantime, such as the cahier des charges, most of which your supervisor completes and you simply sign. After that there is a waiting period — about 1 month in this case — before the canton of Geneva issues an entry permit by email.

Visa, part 2 — obtaining the visa (about 1 week)

The entry permit comes with instructions. They mailed to the consulate: passport, a copy of the passport, the printed entry permit, passport photos, a money order for the visa fee, and a return mailing slip.

  • The return postage is the confusing part. You pay for the postage used to mail your passport back and enclose it. Using the USPS website to produce a return shipping label, they were told to put their own address as both the sending and the receiving address. They printed and paid for that label and enclosed it.
  • Postdocs pay the visa fee. Students do not — but postdocs count as non-students even if the cantonal entry permit gives the reason for stay as études.
  • Money orders can be bought at USPS; put the consulate address on it.
  • Find your consulate through the Swiss representations directory. Most US states have a consulate, but only a few process visas — check which consular district you fall in.
  • The visa came back within a week, though the stated processing time is 5 business days.

The visa carries a date range within which you may enter. In this case it was 20 February – 19 May, received on 19 January, so the plane ticket could be booked around those dates.

Residency permit (7 weeks after arrival)

The email from the canton of Geneva had a CONFIRMATION DES DONNEES document attached. This must be mailed to the OCPM within 14 days of arriving in Geneva.

  • Step 1. Complete the confirmation des données with your address details and mail it to the address at the bottom of the document, enclosing a copy of your passport and the bail à loyer (lease agreement). Send it by lettre recommandée, which is tracked, so you can confirm it arrived.
  • Step 2. After a few weeks, a physical letter arrives from the OCPM with a QR code for paying the permit fee online. The OCPM website does not say so, but paying triggers the next letter — this step requires trusting the process.
  • Step 3. One to two weeks later, a letter arrives with a link and code for scheduling the OCPM appointment. In this case appointments were available immediately.
  • Step 4. The biometrics appointment — the only in-person visit to the OCPM office. It was quick: show the passport, have a photo and fingerprints taken, sign some documents. This is normally the last step before the permit.
  • Step 5. The residency permit arrived by post one week later.

Total time from entering Switzerland to receiving the permit: 7 weeks. This may have been faster than typical because of the time of year.

Type of permit: they received a B permit, the work permit associated with residency of a year or more. Postdocs are sometimes given L permits (under a year), so do not assume a B permit is certain.

Authoritative starting points

Content still to validate

Before this page is approved, the owner should obtain current, role-specific checklists from UNIGE HR for:

  • EU/EFTA and non-EU/EFTA hires;
  • students, scholarship recipients, postdocs, and scientific collaborators;
  • people applying from outside their country of citizenship;
  • accompanying family members;
  • short contracts and renewals.

The colleagues' accounts above should stay clearly marked as dated personal experience rather than being merged into the core procedure.