[pjmlp]

When I was at CERN, it was before Schengen became a thing, so as Portuguese I had the same VISA issues as someone else coming out of the other side of the planet.

Worse, being at CERN wasn't a plus for the hiring process, I would need to apply to the position as if still living in Portugal, as my VISA was tied to CERN directly with a three month deadline to leave Switzerland after the contract duration.

It also did not help, that my fellow country folks do not have a positive image across the country, for various kind of reasons, which is another issue I experienced while living there, like being refused entry in clubs when showing a Portuguese ID card.

Eventually I moved back to another EU country, still I do visit Switzerland, from time to time.

Pity that right wing movements are taking off all over the place.

[hocuspocus]

Schengen is not FoM. Visa isn't an acronym. And CERN workers are on diplomatic permits anyway.

[pjmlp]

Lost me on the reply.

[hocuspocus]

You're throwing a lot of words that you don't understand nor have much relevance to the topic.

Before bilateral agreements and the freedom of movement, not Schengen which was ratified much later and is completely irrelevant here, you needed a work permit, not a visa (lowercase), which anyway at CERN is the equivalent of a diplomatic permit given to all international and tax-exempt NGOs in Geneva/Switzerland. And of course you lose your CDL permit quickly after your contract expires.

Getting a B permit before FoM would specifically not have been as hard for you as for someone from another continent.

[pjmlp]

Getting a B permit in 2003 - 2004 was indeed hard enough experience that I ended up not staying there and refuse any job offer from Swiss companies to this day, regardless of the Swiss friendships I managed to make there.

My stay at CERN was temporary, and every single company where I had an interview clearly communicated to me that the paperwork to get a B permit instead of a Swiss national, or a foreigner with existing permit.

The need to switch permit status from the CERN diplomatic one into a B one, killed all conversations.

But lets be pedantic in the meaning of words instead, which I used for folks that never lived in Switzerland, that is what is relevant for the whole discussion about foreigners how experience Switzerland.

[hocuspocus]

Bilateral agreements were signed in 1999 and freedom of movement enacted in 2002 so you must not have looked very hard. Also claiming that immigration from a country like Portugal was hard before FoM is extremely funny given the number of Portuguese immigrants in Romandie.

Words have a meaning and bringing diplomatic permits to the topic when they follow their own rules and are specifically outside any immigration quota is not particularly helpful.

[pjmlp]

It wasn't me that wasn't looking very hard, because apparently those bilateral agreements didn't cut it.

Yes, there are plenty of us in Suisse Romande, yet not everyone is welcomed, and plenty don't have it easy.

There are plenty of ways of folks land there, and true not everyone behaves the way they should.

But lets leave at this, because the discussion won't lead to any constructive place.