Switzerland · Work authorisation

Young professional (trainee) permit under a bilateral exchange agreement

Issued by The competent authority in your own country, which forwards the application to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) for approval. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
8
Possible outcomes
4
Last checked
2026-09-14

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

The one Swiss route where you are the applicant. It exists only for nationals of the fifteen countries Switzerland has signed a trainee exchange agreement with, and its point is that it is granted regardless of the labour market situation — the precedence test that governs the ordinary permit does not run here. What you pay for that is a ceiling: eighteen months in total, in the field you trained in, and nothing in the instructions describes a continuation beyond it.

Qualification

What it wants from your degree

Completed occupational training — an apprenticeship, a university of applied sciences or a university — plus a job in Switzerland in the field you trained in, and an age within the range published for your own country.

The procedure

8 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Check your nationality against the list first, because everything else depends on it. Switzerland has trainee exchange agreements with Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, San Marino, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine and the USA. Without one of those passports this route does not exist for you.
  2. Check the age limits, which are published per country. The general range is 18 to 35; it is 20 to 30 for Australia, and 18 to 30 for New Zealand and Russia.
  3. Find the position yourself. SEM states that finding a placement is essentially your own responsibility, and that you may not be staying in Switzerland while the application runs.
  4. Get the contract right, because the permit is granted on the strength of it: a written employment contract with an integrated training plan, signed by both sides, covering the job and schedule, the duration, salary, trial period and notice, working hours and holidays, health and accident insurance, and travel expenses. SEM publishes a standard form you can print.Your pay follows local and sectoral rates for someone starting their career, set by the collective employment agreement where the sector has one, and by cantonal guidelines and professional association recommendations where it does not.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. File the application with the competent authority in your own country, not with a Swiss canton and not with SEM. It goes in with two signed originals of the official form, two copies of the contract, a copy of your diploma, a current CV, copies of employment certificates where you have them, and the identity pages of your passport, in German, French or English. That authority then forwards the complete file to SEM for approval.Depending on local practice your own authority may also ask for certified documents or a certificate of good character.

Close any gaps

  1. Know the limits that ride along with the permit. You have to work in the field you trained in; part-time work and self-employment are not allowed; you may not be leased out to another firm; and where an employer takes on several trainees they may not exceed 5% of its workforce.

Register and start working

  1. Wait for the approval before you travel. Nationals of Australia, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand and San Marino receive a pre-authorisation and enter without a visa; nationals of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Tunisia, Ukraine and the USA receive an authorisation for the issuance of a visa and must collect it from the Swiss representation for their country of residence.
  2. Register with the residents' registration office where you will live in Switzerland within 14 days of entering. Only then may you start work.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Fees

Application
The federal instructions publish no fee for the procedure. Your own country's competent authority handles the filing, and any charge for certifying documents comes from it rather than from Switzerland

Timeframes

Processing
4 to 8 weeks, published country by country in the federal instructions — 4 to 8 weeks for Argentina, 6 to 8 for the Philippines
Maximum duration
18 months in total, counting every stay taken under the agreement together
Extension request
In writing, about two months before the current permit expires

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into Switzerland and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

2 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-09-14, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route Switzerland opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

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