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Long-Stay, >120 daysVerified 13 Apr 2026Switzerland Work Permit for long-term employment (>120 days). The process MUST be initiated by the Swiss employer via cantonal authorities. Once you hold your own offer, sponsorship or admission, SureshotVisa prepares and files the visa application for you — we are not a recruiting agent, so the offer itself has to be yours.
What it costs
Exact embassy fee, VFS charge and our service fee are confirmed for your case before you pay anything.
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SureshotVisa guides you through the Switzerland work-permit route and, once you hold your own job offer, prepares and files the visa application — we are not a recruiting agent, so the offer must be yours. The permit itself is initiated by your Swiss employer with the Cantonal Migration Authority. We also file Switzerland Tourist, Visitor, Business, Student and Family Reunification visas.
Check the official requirements
Guide last reviewed 2026-04-13. Fees, documents and appointment rules can change.
A Switzerland Work Permit (Long-Stay, Type D) is for Indian citizens taking up employment in Switzerland for more than 120 days. Since 20 January 2014, the procedure MUST be initiated by your prospective Swiss employer through the competent Cantonal Migration Authority in Switzerland — NOT by the applicant at VFS or the Embassy. Initial requests submitted directly to VFS / Embassy will be declared INADMISSIBLE. The visa is only stamped after a positive cantonal decision (cantonal authorization) has already been issued.
What it costs
Paid directly to Switzerland / VFS — these are not our service fee, and we never mark them up.
Figures per VFS Global, last verified 13 Apr 2026. Fees change without notice — the official page is final.
All VISA fees and service charges payable in Cash / Card / Online. Fees are non-refundable regardless of visa outcome. Online payment refund processing: 5–7 working days. POS refund processing: 21 working days. A bank charge is deducted on refunds. Fees subject to change without notice as per current exchange rate.
Flights · Hotels · Insurance · Itinerary
Switzerland applies the Schengen rules, so travel insurance is not a nice-to-have — it is a legal condition of the visa.
2 of 4 are compulsory for Switzerland
Where people slip: Flying into one city and out of another with nothing showing how you travel between them. Officers read the whole route, and an unexplained gap reads as a plan that does not hold together.
Book for ₹708 (+₹472 per family member)Where people slip: Free-cancellation bookings are accepted, but if the entire file is free-cancellation the officer sees a trip nobody has committed to. Some of it should be real spend.
Confirmed hotel booking, ₹590 per hotel: message us firstWhere people slip: Buying cover for the adults and forgetting the children. Every traveller needs their own EUR 30,000, infants included — a real refusal we have seen on a family of four.
What a Schengen policy must showWhere people slip: Spending more nights in another Schengen country than in Switzerland. That gets a file rejected before it is even assessed.
The letter your itinerary attaches toWe can arrange the flight reservation, the hotel and the itinerary for your Switzerland file — each sold separately.
We are a B2B travel agency as well as a visa consultancy, working with partners including Riya Travel — so the flight reservation and the confirmed hotel booking both come from us, and you deal with one team. Every booking is a real one under your own name. We do not sell travel insurance: buy the policy directly from an insurer.
None of them is part of our visa fee: each is bought on its own, at the price below, with or without our visa service.
Flight reservation ₹708 (+₹472 per extra family member) · Confirmed hotel booking ₹590 per hotel · Travel itinerary ₹1,499. GST included.
Delivery. Usually within 30 minutes during office hours, Mon–Sat 10:00–18:00 IST. Confirmed hotel bookings are not bought online: message us first on WhatsApp or email info@sureshotvisa.com with the city, dates and travellers.
Tell us your dates — we will say which of these you actually need
What to gather
Having a document isn't the same as presenting it right — that's the part we handle.
The Swiss employer must have a confirmed job offer for you — this is the prerequisite for everything that follows.
The Swiss employer submits a work permit application at the Cantonal Migration Authority (in the Canton where the job is located). Without this authorization, your visa application is INADMISSIBLE.
Official document issued by the Canton confirming approval. Only after receiving this can the visa application proceed.
Issued by the Canton (German, French, or Italian language document)
Valid minimum 3 months beyond intended stay; at least 2 blank pages
35–40mm, colour, not older than 6 months
Payable at time of submission
Minimum €30,000 coverage valid across all Schengen states
Since the cantonal authorization already contains all application details, the standard Type D visa application form is NOT required for the visa stamping step. This is unusual — other Type D visas require the form.
May submit initial visa request at the Swiss Embassy Delhi in person.
Painters, sculptors, authors, actors, movie/theatre professionals, singers, stage interpreters, composers, disc-jockeys, circus artists, variety artists etc. Activities less than 8 months.
For a complementary education activity at a recognized University or Higher Education institution in Switzerland. Must submit application personally at the Embassy.
Use this checklist when your Swiss employer has already secured cantonal authorization. Download the latest version from the VFS Global Switzerland website.
Only for the special exception categories listed above (cabaret dancers, artists, post-graduates). Download from VFS.
Required · optional / if applicable
6 steps from intake to approval — never as linear as government sites pretend.
Secure a job offer from a Swiss employer
The process cannot begin without a confirmed job offer. Your Swiss employer must be prepared to initiate the cantonal work permit application.
Swiss employer submits cantonal authorization request
The employer applies at the competent Cantonal Migration Authority (in the Canton where the job is located). This is the MAIN decision — it cannot be bypassed. Processing time varies by Canton and occupation.
Wait for cantonal decision
The Canton assesses the job offer against quota restrictions, labour market tests, and other criteria. A POSITIVE decision issues the cantonal authorization document (Ermächtigung / Autorisation / Autorizzazione).
Submit visa stamping request at Swiss Embassy Delhi / VFS
Once cantonal authorization is granted, submit the authorization document + passport + photos + fee at VFS India or Swiss Embassy Delhi. No visa application form required at this stage.
Embassy stamps Type D visa
Visa stamping typically takes ~15 calendar days after submission. Collect your passport with the Type D visa.
Travel to Switzerland and register at the Canton
After arrival, you must register at the Cantonal Migration Office within 14 days. They issue your work residence permit (typically Permit B or L depending on contract duration).
Biometrics and the visit to the visa centre are yours to attend in person — no consultancy can do those for you. How we work
What works
6 levers that flip a borderline case.
What kills cases
Top 3 refusal triggers we see.
Each link opens the official Switzerland page on VFS Global (we never host third-party forms): pick your visa category there and use its "Download Form" section for the current version.
We're actively building per-visa quizzes. For now, the best way to assess your eligibility for Work Permit (Long-Stay, >120 days) is a 1-on-1 consultation with our team.
A consultant at our licensed firm replies today
Every case here is different
There is no honest standard answer for Switzerland work permit (long-stay, >120 days) — the route depends on who is sponsoring you, what the employer has already started, and which region is processing it. So rather than publish generic answers that may not fit your case, we would rather read your actual situation. Send us what you have: an offer letter, an email from the employer, or just the facts as they stand. A consultant at our licensed firm will tell you straight what is possible, what is not, and what it would take.
A consultant at our licensed firm replies today
Reviewed by Sherbir Singh Grewal, SureshotVisa — a government-licensed consultancy (Licence 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024). Verify us.
Source & Disclaimer
Data on this page is sourced from the official VFS Global Switzerland website and Embassy of Switzerland. Last verified 2026-04-13. Always verify with the official embassy before applying — fees and requirements change without notice.
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