Access to entry scores 18, the lowest of anyone: there is no visa for remote work, self-employment is closed to third-country nationals, and there is no shortage occupation list to make hiring easier.
Switzerland is stable: quotas and rules stay the same for years and are announced in advance, and we found no retroactive tightening in the past two years. But the door for non-EU nationals is narrow. Local workers have priority, vacancies in occupations with high unemployment must first be reported locally, there is no shortage list to ease hiring, and the 8,500-permit quota is frozen despite business lobbying. The pay bar for the job is more than double an income of $2,500-3,900 a month, so for someone earning that much the employment route is effectively closed, even with a willing employer.
The state has no deadlines to meet: neither the act nor its ordinance sets a time limit for a decision, on the work route or the family route, and the only remedy is a complaint about delay. Refusal statistics for this route are not published.
Pressure on people who already live there is built into the law, though decisions are individual and can be appealed. Receiving social assistance is in itself a ground to revoke or downgrade a status, the canton of Zurich has a dedicated instruction on it, and the Federal Commission on Migration calls the lifelong threat of revocation unacceptable. Since 2019 a permanent C permit can be downgraded back to a one-year B if integration criteria are not met.
After job loss a non-EU national has no guaranteed time to look for work: the six-month rule in the law applies only to EU and EFTA citizens, and renewal without a job is at the canton's discretion. Changing employer needs a new cantonal permit with the conditions checked again, but a B holder has the right to move to another canton unless unemployed. While a renewal is pending you may live and work. Registering with the municipality within 14 days is mandatory, and state school is free for all resident children.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
No visa for short stays, up to 90 days in 180, as across the Schengen area. Work goes through the same quota, but the C permit is available after 5 years instead of 10.
Work under the free movement agreement, outside quotas and without a labour market test; after job loss the law gives 6 months to find a new one.
A separate quota for 2026: 2,100 B and 1,400 L permits, so Switzerland is more accessible to them than to other non-EU nationals.
Switzerland is not in the EU and grants its own protection status S. On 19 August 2026 the Federal Council decided not to lift it before 4 March 2028. Since November 2025 new S status goes only to people whose last residence was in occupied regions or combat zones, and since 20 August 2026 new applications are accepted only from those who have met their military obligations; existing holders are not affected. From March 2027 cantons will set support levels for S holders themselves.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no closure of the B permit by nationality, and the quota is the same. Banking has friction: the sanctions cap of CHF 100,000 on deposits does not apply to holders of a Swiss or EU residence permit, but banks play it safe, accounts of legal residents have been blocked by mistake, and some banks take no new clients with Russian passports.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no closure by nationality: the quota and conditions are the same as for all non-EU nationals.
The place interval 69-83 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Family rights: 85 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 72.2. The weakest is Access to entry: 18 against 65.7. Above the world average: 3 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
The law sets no deadline. The employer files with the canton; if the quarter's quota is used up, the file waits for the next tranche, then SEM approval and a D visa follow.
For a non-EU national, practically no: self-employment sits in the same quota and must benefit the economy, and there is no digital nomad visa. Study remains an option.
Cantonal fees for issuing and renewing a B permit are CHF 65-200 per adult, plus the biometric card. We have not verified Zurich's exact 2026 tariff, so we give no family total.
Yes. Non-EU nationals have no guaranteed time to find a new job, and receiving social assistance can be grounds for revocation. Since 2019 a permanent C permit can be downgraded to B for failing integration criteria.
A C permit after 10 years, or 5 for citizens of certain countries. Citizenship also after 10 years of residence and only with a C permit; you need B1 spoken and A2 written and a test, and dual citizenship is allowed.
The rules are stable and predictable, and family members can work at once. But entry for non-EU nationals is narrow, the state has no deadlines, and status can be lost over welfare or downgraded for weak integration.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.