Switzerland — founder
Switzerland — Switzerland Self-Employment Permit
Guide last reviewed: . Check the linked official guidance for current rules and application availability.
Requirements we check
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1 more requirement for Switzerland Self-Employment Permit
- ✓See every requirement this route actually checks
- ✓Find out which ones you already meet
- ✓Get your single highest-impact next action
The full guide
Switzerland is genuinely one of the harder self-employment routes in this dataset for a non-EU/EFTA national — approval is discretionary, two-tiered (your canton decides first, then the federal State Secretariat for Migration/SEM confirms), and your application is assessed against the same national third-country quota pool as ordinary employed workers (8,500 permits for 2026: 4,500 B residence permits and 4,000 L short-stay permits). There is no single fixed minimum-capital figure published nationally — each canton assesses case-by-case, so what clears in Zug may not clear in Geneva. The real test is whether cantonal and federal officials judge your specific business to be in Switzerland's overall economic interest.
Processing: Roughly 2–6 weeks for the cantonal decision
The full guide is locked
See exactly what Switzerland Self-Employment Permit requires
- ✓Every document you'll need, with what assessors actually look for
- ✓The real stage-by-stage process, with fees and processing times
- ✓Common pitfalls that actually cause refusals for this route
- ✓See if YOU qualify — your real fit score, not a generic checklist
This is everything your application involves. Start a plan to get it done.
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- Relocation planning guide
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- Relocation budget calculator
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Pasage provides immigration pathway information and preparation help based on official public criteria. We are not immigration lawyers, regulated advisers, or agents, and we do not guarantee any visa outcome. Rules and thresholds change — always confirm against the official source linked above before you apply.