Hi everyone, my wife and I are in a somewhat unusual situation and we’re trying to understand, in practical terms, what our options are and what the possible legal consequences could be (B permit, renewal, facilitated naturalization, etc.). My wife (24) is a Swiss citizen. I (25) am an Italian citizen living in Canton Ticino with a B permit through family reunification. My wife is currently pregnant and we are expecting our baby in September. We are both students (enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in Italy near the border). Despite our age, we still haven’t completed a first professional qualification/degree, mainly because over the past few years I’ve had significant health issues that prevented me from continuing my studies or working. This also led to periods where we lived abroad with my family. In practice, we have not worked in recent years, we don’t have any qualifications beyond a high school diploma, and up until now we have been supported financially by my parents. Unfortunately, for various reasons, they will soon no longer be in a position to support us. My wife’s parents, on the other hand, are both Swiss and live in Ticino, but due to family issues they have had no contact with her for years and have not provided any financial support (and will not do so in the future). We have tried reading the regulations on social assistance and welfare support in Ticino and Switzerland, but it’s really hard to understand what would actually apply in our case, especially since I am not Swiss and only hold a B permit. What we are trying to understand in particular is what types of support we might be eligible for, and especially which types of support could put my permit renewal (or later my facilitated naturalization application) at risk. I’m going to try to summarize what we’ve understood so far and where our doubts are, and if anyone has direct experience or concrete information it would really help us. From what we understand, we probably wouldn’t qualify for student grants/scholarships because under the rules we wouldn’t be considered “independent,” since we have not worked in Ticino for two years earning more than 2,500 CHF per month. In addition, my wife’s parents would not cooperate in submitting an application for her, and in any case their income is too high for a grant to be awarded. At the same time, they are not legally required to support her because she did not follow a linear path toward a professional qualification after finishing high school. What seems clearer is the health insurance premium reduction: since we have no income, we should qualify for the maximum reduction. Then there are child-related benefits such as API and AFI. Here we are not sure whether these could be a problem for maintaining or renewing my B permit. There are also residency requirements: from what we’ve read, in a two-parent household, to apply the Swiss parent must have been resident for 3 years and the foreign parent for 5 years. In our case, we have not lived continuously in Ticino/Switzerland over the past 3 years, but we believe we understood that if the Swiss parent can prove they lived in Ticino for 10 consecutive years, then the waiting period does not apply. If that’s correct, my wife should qualify, since she lived in Ticino from birth until age 20. Another major area of doubt is disability insurance (IV/AI). My health problems started in 2022 while I was living in Ticino (so I was subject to AHV/AVS and IV/AI), but I never took steps to apply for AI. I have been subject to and contributing to AI for about half of 2022, half of 2023, and from summer 2025 onward. From what we understand, normally to access certain benefits you need to have paid contributions for at least 3 years, which I have not yet done, but I don’t know whether there are exceptions for disabling conditions that began at a young age. In general, it also seems the AI process is long, and it’s unclear what kind of concrete support one could realistically receive. We also haven’t fully understood how supplementary benefits (PC) work, whether you can access them immediately once an AI decision is made, and what kind of financial support would be realistic in our situation. Especially because I have never worked before, I don’t know whether I would actually be entitled to a cash benefit. On top of that, for me it would be extremely important to be able to continue studying and complete my bachelor’s degree. From what we’ve read, AI tends to create an integration plan, and in some cases, when a person has not yet completed a first professional qualification, that plan can include studying. However, I don’t know whether they would consider it acceptable for me to attend a bachelor’s program at an Italian university near the border. From what we understand, money received from AI (and presumably also PC) should not be considered “social assistance” and therefore should not affect either the renewal of my B permit or naturalization, but we are not completely sure. As a last resort, we’re also wondering whether we might have to consider applying for social assistance. Our fear is that by doing so, the authorities could terminate my permit or decide not to renew it. At the same time, we wonder whether in our case it could be considered “acceptable” (even if obviously not ideal) if we relied on assistance for a limited period, for example 2–3 years, while completing our bachelor’s degrees and then looking for work afterwards. At the moment, without any professional qualification, even if we try, it is very difficult to find a job that would allow us to support ourselves. We also don’t know how much having a Swiss minor child would influence these decisions. On the one hand, it seems logical that the authorities would prefer not to split families or force a Swiss mother and Swiss child to leave Ticino. On the other hand, we have also read cases where they argue that a small child with dual citizenship can adapt elsewhere, so it may not be a sufficient obstacle. We also wonder whether receiving social assistance would allow us to continue studying, or whether it would push us immediately into job searching, even though realistically there is little chance without a first qualification. As for the renewal of my B permit, it would expire in summer 2030. From what we understand, the authorities would not be happy if I relied on social assistance, but it also seems possible they would still renew it (maybe year by year), since we would have a Swiss minor child and not renewing my permit would mean splitting the family or forcing us to move abroad if we want to stay together—although, as mentioned above, it still wouldn’t be a guarantee. Finally, regarding facilitated naturalization, from what we understand the federal rule is that you must not have received social assistance in the three years before the application. We also read that if you received social assistance and don’t want to wait three years, you can repay the amounts received in order to “reset” the count. In our situation, if we ended up applying for some of the benefits mentioned above, would it still be possible or likely that after completing our studies, finding work, becoming financially independent, and waiting three years before applying, my naturalization application would still be approved? Or, even if the assistance was received several years earlier, does receiving support for a long period tend to lead to refusal anyway? If anyone has direct experience or practical information (especially about AI/PC and what is truly considered “social assistance” for B permit renewal and naturalization), it would really help us. Thank you very much in advance! submitted by /u/FragrantOcelot312
Originally posted by u/FragrantOcelot312 on r/Switzerland