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Practical, source-backed guides for cross-border workers in Switzerland. Explore permits, health insurance, tax, salary and work, with authorities and checked dates shown on every guide.
Every published guide in one searchable, sortable list.
15 guides
Salary & employmentYour Swiss employment contract: probation, notice, holiday and overtimeA Swiss employment contract combines legal defaults with terms the contract or collective agreement may change. Read it in layers: first the probation and ending rules, then paid holiday and working time, and finally salary terms such as a 13th payment. All countries Checked 6 September 2026
Paperwork & administrationChanges you must report across the borderA G permit records a Swiss job and a home abroad, so a change on either side can make the record stale. Switzerland provides the common starting point—the canton of work issued the permit—but the form, deadline and person who submits it can differ by canton and nationality. All countries Checked 6 September 2026
Health insuranceWhat Swiss basic health insurance covers, and what you paySwiss basic insurance has one legal benefit catalogue, but a covered treatment can still leave part of the bill with you. The useful distinction is between what the policy covers, how the invoice moves and how deductible and co-payment are applied. All countries Checked 6 September 2026
Salary & employmentSwiss pension: the first and second pillarTwo pension systems sit behind the deductions on a Swiss payslip. One records your state-pension insurance; the other builds an occupational balance that must follow you when employment changes. Knowing which is which tells you what to keep and whom to contact. All countries Checked 6 September 2026
Work & permitsWhen your Swiss job ends as a cross-border workerThe end of a Swiss job starts two different tracks: Switzerland supplies the employment record, while complete unemployment is handled by the country where you live. This sequence helps you secure the evidence before those tracks separate. All countries Checked 6 September 2026
Salary & employmentYour first Swiss payslip explainedYour first Swiss payslip is longer than you expect, and half of it is abbreviations. It reads much better in blocks, though — gross pay, then state social insurance, then pension and accident cover, then tax — with the amount that lands in your bank left until last. That figure is the end of the payslip, not the end of the story: as a France resident, some of your real costs never appear on it at all. France Checked 27 August 2026
TaxesCross-border telework: tax and social security are two different testsHere is the trap: a homeworking pattern can be perfectly fine for tax and still need a separate social-security decision. They are two different tests, with two different percentages, run by two different sets of rules. Work out both before you agree a regular pattern — not after your first year on it. France Checked 27 August 2026
Salary & employmentHow to evaluate a Swiss job offer when you live in FranceThe salary in the offer letter is almost never the number to hold against the net pay on your current payslip. The two are built from different parts: different deductions, a pension whose value stays invisible until you ask, and a set of costs — health insurance, tax, currency, the commute — that never touch a Swiss payslip at all. This walks you through building a comparison that actually holds up, on one annual basis, in francs and in hours. France Checked 27 August 2026
TaxesWhere your Swiss salary is taxed when you live in FranceA Swiss salary is not automatically taxed in Switzerland. Which country gets it depends first on the canton you work in — and then on whether the 1983 frontier agreement covers you and whether your actual working week keeps you inside it. Two people on the same salary can end up on different routes. France Checked 27 August 2026
Getting startedStarting a Swiss job while living in France: your first 30 daysYour first month is about starting the right processes, not finishing them. Three things genuinely matter now — the G permit, the three-month health-insurance choice and your tax route — and everything else can wait its turn. Keep proof of every submission as you go, and day 30 will find you with no surprises rather than no paperwork. France Checked 26 August 2026
Everyday cross-border lifeHow your Swiss salary reaches your euro accountA Swiss salary and a euro household create a short chain: the money arrives in CHF, you convert what you need, then you spend EUR. Each link in that chain has its own cost and its own delay, and they are easy to miss because none of them is labelled. This maps the whole route so you can compare it properly. All countries Checked 25 August 2026
Paperwork & administrationBuild your cross-border paperwork fileCross-border life means the same handful of documents get asked for again and again, by authorities on both sides, usually at short notice. Half an hour spent building a proper file now saves you the familiar scramble later — and stops originals, working copies and expired decisions from turning into one undifferentiated pile. All countries Checked 25 August 2026
Work & permitsThe Swiss G permit, explainedYou have a Swiss job offer and no intention of moving house. The G permit is the document that lets you do exactly that — work in Switzerland while your home stays where it is. Here is who it is for, how long it lasts, and which parts change with your nationality and your contract. All countries Checked 25 August 2026
Health insuranceChoose your health-insurance route as a France residentAs a France resident starting Swiss work, you get a genuine choice between two health-insurance systems — and a short window in which to make it. This walks you through the procedure: who to contact, what the deadline really is, and what to compare. It deliberately does not tell you which route is cheaper for your household, because that depends on facts only you have. France Checked 25 August 2026
Getting startedRegistering as a cross-border worker in BaselYour first weeks in a Basel job put you in front of four different authorities, and none of them mentions the others. Nothing here is difficult on its own — the hard part is knowing what has to happen before what. This guide walks that sequence, from working out which permit route is yours through to your first salary arriving correctly. The tax and insurance choices specific to your country come afterwards, and they are their own decisions. All countries Checked 25 August 2026A Swiss employment contract combines legal defaults with terms the contract or collective agreement may change. Read it in layers: first the probation and ending rules, then paid holiday and working time, and finally salary terms such as a 13th payment.
A G permit records a Swiss job and a home abroad, so a change on either side can make the record stale. Switzerland provides the common starting point—the canton of work issued the permit—but the form, deadline and person who submits it can differ by canton and nationality.
Swiss basic insurance has one legal benefit catalogue, but a covered treatment can still leave part of the bill with you. The useful distinction is between what the policy covers, how the invoice moves and how deductible and co-payment are applied.
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