NAT is kicked out from Switzerland

[darmstadt]

Amidst your eternal cliches and unsubstantiated sweeping generalisations I will try an fathom a point or two.

They are privatising everything because the public sector are so useless. As for lurching to the right we need a lot more of it. Scotlands problem will be that it will not stimulate entrepreneurial activity.

Surely then they should privatise government (although it seems to be already run by big business anyway) as ultimately they're responsible for the public sector?

[Sysman]

* Strictly speaking, only EU people on either permanent contracts or temporary contracts lasting more than 1 year get a 5 year B. EU people doing typical contracts of 6 months or so have always been stuck with L permits matching their contract duration until they reach 5 years and can swap direct to a C.

When I went through the process you could only stay on an L for a maximum of 18 months, after which you got a B. There were (still are?) two flavours of B, one for contractors and the other for permies. The contractor version was limited to the duration of the contract and it wasn't valid for other contracts. With the permie version you could apply for other jobs without needing to go through the whole application process again. This was before the EU bilateral accord kicked in - I am not sure if the difference persists.

One advantage of having a B of either flavour was that you weren't going to get hammered for silly money on car insurance. I held off getting a car here until I'd got mine.

[petergriffin]

Belgium has been sending people home for the last three years. It's an option that already exists.



Belgium sends

Actually Belgium, like any other EU nation, cannot send any EU citizen home. What they do, they can terminate their residence permit. In practice that means you're out of the system and cannot get back into work legally.

They are starting to do the same here in Cloggers starting from South Holland.

Belgium has actually abused this measure, they have effectively made people believe they had been expelled. As most of these EU citizens were poor South or East Europeans with little or no command of the language(s), they just left. Many are challenging these decisions. There's a high profile case of an Italian woman who was actually working full-time, but was considered a 'burden' because her job was subsidised by the state.

In UK this is practically not enforceable because the concept of residence permit for EU citizens doesn't exist. If this or any UK government decided to introduce it, they should do so for UK citizens too and nobody would accept it (see the failure of introduction of identity cards).

[alreadypacked]

In UK this is practically not enforceable because the concept of residence permit for EU citizens doesn't exist. If this or any UK government decided to introduce it, they should do so for UK citizens too and nobody would accept it (see the failure of introduction of identity cards).

If the UK government said you need an idenitity card to collect benfits, things may have been different.

[SueEllen]

If the UK government said you need an idenitity card to collect benfits, things may have been different.

Benefits include child benefit.

Remember "hard working families" received child benefit so that wouldn't work.

[The Spartan]

I had an L permit when I worked in Zurich though I know other contractors who had B permits but like you said their's was a flavour of the B permit that only lasted as long as their contracts.

Where I worked it was noticeable that the majority of the people were foreigners but then it's no different than where I work now in London

[GreyWolf]

When I went through the process you could only stay on an L for a maximum of 18 months, after which you got a B. There were (still are?) two flavours of B, one for contractors and the other for permies. The contractor version was limited to the duration of the contract and it wasn't valid for other contracts. With the permie version you could apply for other jobs without needing to go through the whole application process again. This was before the EU bilateral accord kicked in - I am not sure if the difference persists.

One advantage of having a B of either flavour was that you weren't going to get hammered for silly money on car insurance. I held off getting a car here until I'd got mine.

I am four years and nine L permits into my Swiss experience. Next year I will have the pleasure of arguing with the Kreisburo about getting a C. The rules say I can have one but other people in the same situation have had to take it to the Migrationsamt to get them to overrule the Kreisburo.

It is very annoying - harder to get a flat, can't get a contract mobile, can't get a proper credit card. Non-EU are still limited to a maximum 2 years on an L then they automatically go to a B so I'm actually in a worse position than a non-EU person in some ways.

The thing I have learnt in my four years here is that there are rules and there is reality and they're not the same. Germanic efficiency my ****.

[doodab]

Germanic efficiency my ****.

They aren't German. The Germans make BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches and the best beer in the world. The Swiss make cuckoo clocks.

[Mich the Tester]

They aren't German. The Germans make BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches and the best beer in the world. The Swiss make cuckoo clocks.

...and precision instrumentation, particle accelerators, industrial machines and some very nice salad dressing.

http://www.swissmade.com/en/web/thom...or_salads.html

[GreyWolf]

They aren't German. The Germans make BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches and the best beer in the world. The Swiss make cuckoo clocks.

Well, actually, they don't. Cuckoo clocks come from the Black Forest.

Famous for one thing and they don't even do that.