A national of a third country who wants to found and personally run a company in Switzerland needs a separate residence-law basis for this; incorporating the company itself (e.g. a GmbH or AG) does not automatically entitle you to residence.
Legal basis: Art. 19 AIG
For third-country nationals who want to take up self-employment, the authorities examine three groups of requirements:
Financial and operational requirements (Art. 19 lit. b AIG): Sufficient equity, a viable business plan and plausible financing must be proven.
Personal requirements (Art. 23 AIG): Professional qualification and aptitude to actually run the project yourself.
As with the other third-country permits, this category is also subject to the annual quotas (Art. 20 AIG) and to priority for domestic and EU/EFTA workers; there is no legal entitlement to a permit.
What the authorities specifically require
- Business plan with realistic turnover and staffing projections
- Proof of equity or financing
- CV and proof of qualifications of the applicant
- If the company is already incorporated: commercial register extract and proof of operating activity
The application is submitted to the cantonal office for economic affairs, which makes a labour-market preliminary decision before the actual residence permit can be issued.
EU/EFTA nationals: considerably simpler
This elaborate procedure does not apply to nationals of Germany, France and other EU/EFTA states; on the basis of the Agreement on Free Movement of Persons they can in principle settle directly in Switzerland as self-employed persons, without a quota check or proof of overall economic interest.
How we support you
We first check whether your project realistically meets the requirements of Art. 19 AIG, and we support the preparation of the documents and communication with the competent office for economic affairs.
Planning to found a company in Switzerland?
Without obligation, we check whether your project meets the requirements for a permit.
Request a confidential initial consultation