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Comment by s3nnyy | Hacker News Reader

Switzerland is happiest country once again!

If you look for a tech-job in Zurich, check out my story "8 reasons why I moved to Switzerland to work in IT" on https://medium.com/@iwaninzurich/eight-reasons-why-i-moved-t... or send me a mail to the address in my HN-profile.

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I just read (and enjoyed) your article. I loved Zurich when I visited, but I don't speak the language. Are there opportunities there for coders who only speak English?

Yes. A big part of the better ones. (Google, IBM, Microsoft, startups, universities)

Literally every single one of your comments in the past month is an ad for your little travel thing.

I wonder if that's a bannable offense, or if it's just ridiculously annoying

The general Swiss populace is quite xenophobic though, even if you're a high-performer.

At least in Zurich, I doubt that this is the case as 30% of its population hold a foreign passport. There is no other city I know of that has such a huge percentage of foreigners.

All other cities in Switzerland are rather small and by European or North American standards you wouldn't even call them cities but villages. If you go to a village anywhere you will get xenophobic vibes and I think this is where Switzerland bad PR comes from.

Over 50% of Torontonians were born outside of Canada. Not sure if there are any other major cities that top that.

Are there opportunities for living there long term, or only for just working there?

In terms of living, it is great if you want to settle down and create a family. The only long term issue is that it is hard to learn the local language and get really integrated. This is because it is a dialect of German. First, you have to learn German, even though people on the streets speak Swiss German which is quite different. Once you learn German, you have to learn Swiss German.

I was more concerned about entering and staying in the country (I've always believed that Switzerland sounded like a great country to live in). My information may be out of date, but I thought that permanent immigration to Switzerland was nearly impossible. From looking online I don't really see any evidence to the contrary but it's hard to tell. Settling down and starting a family implies a level of stability where said family can stick around for 10+ years and won't get kicked out due to, say, me losing a job.

It depends on the country where you come from. If you are from the older countries in European Union/EFTA then, once you get a job, your permit is not tied to your job and you have enough time to look for another job if you want to switch. You can even get unemployment benefits after completing 1 year (but I would advise not to if you want a C permit). Things are much harder if you come from a non european country. Then I think for the first couple of years your residence permit is tied to your employer. Once you are past the first years though, the conditions improve a lot but you are still in disadvantage compared to Europeans.

If you want more information, I would suggest to look up the conditions for L, B, and C permits depending on your country of origin.

Once you have a C permit, you are pretty much settled in and almost like a Swiss person (apart from voting). On B permit, you have less freedom, but I have not faced any practical issues so far (but I am young, without family, and European).

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