New 2023 Quotas Released for Switzerland

In June 2022, we provided an overview of the number of quotas available for EU and non-EU citizens who wish to work and live in Switzerland. Read our previous blog on this topic here. This blog provides an update of the quotas available for 2023 which were recently confirmed by the Federal Council. 

In October 2022, Switzerland had received 9,467 foreign nationals who have an established permanent residence, more compared to the 8,239 registered in 2021. This means that the percentage of the foreign population in Switzerland rose by 9% compared to last year.

The percentage of non-permanent moves into Switzerland has also risen considerably at 31.2% compared to last year, versus a 13.4% of departures registered this year compared to last year.

If you have been following our coverage of this topic, you are likely aware of Switzerland’s quota system. Understanding how this system works is important, as for some nationalities, access to the Swiss employment market can be rather limited.  

For those reading our blog for the first time, if you wish to work and live in Switzerland for more than four months, you must apply for a permit that is, in essence, a quota permit (except for EU 27/EEA on local employment). Depending on your nationality, there are two types of quota permits: L-permits and B-permits.

Quotas for Non-EU Nationals

For the calendar year 2022, the Swiss Federal Council released a number of L-(4,000) and B-(4,500) permits for non-EU nationals, which were divided between the Cantons and the Federal Authority.

In the past two years, however, the quotas have not been fully used, a situation that was mainly impacted in 2020 and 2021 by the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of October 2022, the total number of quotas still available in the Cantons were of 716 L-permits and 441 B-permits for non-EU/EFTA nationals. The federal reserve still had 550 L-permits and 672 B-permits in addition to the previous year's reserve (1,062 L and 916 B-permits).

For UK nationals, at the end of October 2022, 21% of the short-term L-permit quota and 26% of the B-permit quota were used. The total quotas still available in the Cantons amounted to 1,111 L-permits and 1,550 B-permits.

On 23 November 2022, the State Secretariat for Migration published the new quotas available for 2023. It is therefore confirmed that Switzerland is keeping the maximum number of quotas for 2023 at the same level as 2022. This decision considered the economic needs and the current utilization of the 2022 quotas and was a result of the consultation that was undertaken with the Cantons and social partners.

In 2023, Switzerland-based companies will have again 4,500 B-permits and 4,000 L-permits for non-EU national employees at their disposal. These quotas are released annually.

According to the Federal Council's decision, a maximum of 3,500 UK nationals can be recruited again in 2023: 2,100 with a B-permit and 1,400 with an L-permit.

Quotas for EU Nationals on Assignment

The number of quotas released for EU/EFTA nationals on assignment in Switzerland is also the same as in 2022.

EU/EFTA nationals will have 3,000 L-permits and 500 B-permits at their disposal. The total number of quotas still available in 2022 in the Cantons are of 1544 L-permits and 238 B-permits.

Quotas for EU/EFTA nationals on assignment will be released as usual on a quarterly basis.

Quotas for Croatian Nationals

The Federal Council of Switzerland decided on the 16th of November to re-introduce quotas for Croatian nationals for 2023, as the number of Croatian nationals in Switzerland during 2022 surpassed the threshold defined in the relevant legal regulations.

Since January 2022, Croatian nationals benefited from the Free Movement of Persons agreement, meaning they were not subject to quotas to work in Switzerland. Between January and October 2022, Switzerland issued 2,413 B-permits to Croatian nationals, despite the threshold for 2022 being set at 178. These numbers met the conditions provided for by the Free Movement of Persons Agreement and allows Switzerland to unilaterally invoke the safeguard clause. 

The number of new quotas available for the year 2023 for Croatian nationals is set at 1150 B-permits and 1007 L-permits.

Need to know more?

For any questions or enquiries related to the newly-introduced quotas, please contact Senior Immigration Manager Ana Bessa Santos at [email protected] or your contact on the Fragomen Swiss Immigration team. Following this blog post, we will keep you updated with any developments surrounding the available quotas.

This blog was published on 6 December 2022, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please visit our dedicated COVID-19 site, subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.