Professional athletes and coaches in Switzerland: permit, practice and hurdles

Do you have an offer from a Swiss club or federation, or are you negotiating right now? Then the following applies: the contract alone does not entitle you to start. Under immigration law, athletes and coaches count as persons in dependent gainful employment (Art. 1a para. 2 VZAE). As a national of a third country, you may take up your activity only once the permit has been granted.

EU/EFTA or third country?

Nationals of EU/EFTA states can rely on the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons (AFMP), and access is considerably easier for them. The rest of this article concerns third-country nationals.

The legal bases

• Recognised persons from sport: Art. 23 para. 3 lit. b AIG permits admission regardless of the usual qualification and integration criteria if it is in the interest of sport. The permit requires approval, so the SEM must agree. The requirements are specified in the SEM directives for professional athletes and coaches (no. 4.7.11).
• Short stay or residence: Short-stay permits apply to fixed-term assignments of up to one year, residence permits to longer ones (Art. 18a VZAE). Assignments of no more than four months within twelve months are not subject to the maximum numbers (Art. 19 para. 4 lit. a VZAE).
• Employment contract: The application must be accompanied by the contract or confirmation of the engagement, stating duration, terms of employment and pay (Art. 22 VZAE).

Practice is strict, above all for young talent

The directives require a high sporting standard for players. For young talents this often has a prohibitive effect: a young footballer was not granted a permit despite a five-year contract with a Swiss club, because the directives required one year of participation in national championships at the highest level (BVGer C-4813/2013). Legal scholars criticise such requirements as inappropriate, especially for juniors.

You should therefore expect to have to prove your sporting recognition: appearances and leagues, national team, titles, awards, confirmations from federations and clubs. The same principles apply to coaches; in addition, qualification and experience must be shown.

Pitfalls

• Contract without a permit condition: Sign only with a clause that makes the contract conditional on the permit being granted.
• Clearance is not a permit: Clearances from federations and transfer confirmations do not replace the immigration permit.
• Timetable too tight: Without an assurance or visa, entry for the purpose of taking up work is not possible (Art. 5 VZAE). File the application weeks before the start of the season.
• Follow-on permits: Short-stay permits may in principle be issued again only after a break of one year; there are exceptions for annually recurring activity (Art. 56 para. 1 VZAE); issuing them back to back is restricted (Art. 57 VZAE). Plan the contract duration and the type of permit together.
• Changing clubs: With a short-stay permit, changing jobs is possible only within the same industry and the same occupation, if continuing to work for the previous employer is not possible or not reasonable and the change is not due to the person's own conduct (Art. 55 VZAE). A change in the middle of the season is therefore risky.
• Family: Whether and when family members may follow depends on the type of permit, see Family reunification in Switzerland.
• Minor young athletes: Issues such as accommodation, care and schooling are added here. They should be planned for from the start.

As of October 2026. This article provides an overview and does not replace individual legal advice; practice and requirements may differ depending on the canton and the individual case. This is a translation of the German original; in case of doubt, the German version prevails.

Note: Statutes are cited by their German abbreviations (AIG = Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, VZAE = Ordinance on Admission, Residence and Gainful Activity, AsylG = Asylum Act, BüG = Citizenship Act, SR = Systematic Compilation of Federal Legislation). Fedlex links lead to the German originals.