Starting a Company in Switzerland as a Foreigner: How It Works

Switzerland is one of Europe’s most attractive locations for starting a business – and in principle, it is open to foreigners too. But: legally, there is a big difference between “being a shareholder” and “working self-employed in Switzerland”. This article untangles the rules on residency and permits and shows you the solutions that work in practice.

The core rule: one person with signing authority resident in Switzerland

For the GmbH (Swiss LLC) and AG (Swiss stock corporation), the rule is: at least one person who can represent the company must be resident in Switzerland. This is prescribed by the Swiss Code of Obligations (Art. 718 para. 4 CO for the AG, Art. 814 para. 3 CO for the GmbH).

What matters is what this rule does not require:

• The founders or shareholders do not have to live in Switzerland. You can hold 100% of the shares from abroad.
• The person with signing authority does not have to be a Swiss citizen – residency is enough.
• It does not have to be the founder personally: a managing director (GmbH), a board member or a director (AG) with Swiss residency and sole signing authority (or two persons with joint signing authority) satisfies the requirement.

This means forming a company from abroad is always structurally possible – the only questions are who takes on the local role and whether you yourself are allowed to work in Switzerland.

Permits: who is allowed to be self-employed in Switzerland?

Here you need to separate two levels: company law (see above) and immigration law – i.e. the question of whether you personally may be gainfully employed in Switzerland.

Situation	Self-employment possible?
EU/EFTA with a B permit	Yes, thanks to the free movement of persons
EU/EFTA with a C permit	Yes, without restriction
Third country with a C permit	Yes
Third country, married to a Swiss citizen or C permit holder	Yes
Third country with a B permit	Only with a special permit, restrictive
No Swiss residence status	No (but formation via local representation is possible)

EU/EFTA citizens

Thanks to the free movement of persons, as an EU/EFTA citizen you can take up self-employment in Switzerland with a B permit. For this, you must demonstrate that your activity secures your livelihood (business plan, orders, accounts). If you move to Switzerland to start the company, you apply for the permit with proof of the planned self-employed activity.

Third-country nationals

Considerably more restrictive: as a third-country national, you generally need a C permit (settlement) for self-employment – or you are married to a Swiss citizen or a person with a C permit. With a mere B permit, self-employment is only possible via a laborious application that must demonstrate an overall economic interest – the hurdles are high.

Cross-border commuters

Cross-border commuters from EU/EFTA states (G permit) can also carry out a self-employed activity in Switzerland without relocating. Important: the G permit does not satisfy the company-law residency requirement – as the sole person with signing authority of a GmbH/AG, a cross-border commuter domiciled abroad does not qualify. In that case, someone with residency in Switzerland is additionally required.

Sole proprietorship: in practice only with Swiss residency

A sole proprietorship is not a legal entity – it is its owner. That is why the residency problem cannot be solved here with a local director: the owner personally needs, in practice, residency in Switzerland and a permit that allows self-employment. If you live abroad and want to start a company in Switzerland, the route practically always runs via a GmbH or AG. Our article GmbH or sole proprietorship explains the differences between the legal forms.

Solutions if you have no Swiss residency

1. A Swiss co-founder

The simplest solution: a co-founder resident in Switzerland takes on a role with signing authority (management or board of directors). Free of charge and straightforward – but it requires trust and a clean contractual arrangement.

2. A fiduciary as local director (fiduciary director)

If you have no Swiss partner, a fiduciary (trustee/accountant) takes on the mandate as director, managing director or board member with signing authority. This is an established service and usually costs around CHF 3’000–6’000 per year, depending on the liability risk, industry and scope. The fiduciary bears personal responsibility (e.g. for social insurance contributions and taxes) – which is why they will vet your business model before accepting the mandate.

3. Domicile service

In addition to the person, your company needs a legal domicile in Switzerland. If you have no business premises of your own, fiduciaries and business centers offer a domicile address (c/o address) – usually for a few hundred to a good thousand francs per year, depending on the provider and scope of services.

The underestimated hurdle: the bank account

To form a GmbH or AG, you need a capital deposit account – and this is where many foreign founders fail first. Swiss banks are cautious with beneficial owners who are not resident in Switzerland: tightened compliance checks, long processing times, sometimes blanket rejections of certain countries of origin.

What improves your chances:

• A local director and a plausible, documented business model with a connection to Switzerland
• A fiduciary as a door-opener who brings established banking relationships
• Flexibility in choosing a bank – also consider cantonal banks and fintech providers

You can read more about the process in the article Depositing share capital: the capital deposit account.

Online platform or fiduciary?

Online formation platforms are designed for standard cases with Swiss residency. Forming a company as a foreigner without Swiss residency is exactly the case where a fiduciary beats the online platform: you need a local director anyway, support with bank compliance, often a domicile – services that a fiduciary delivers from a single source and a platform does not cover. You can find the detailed trade-off in the article Fiduciary or online formation.

If, on the other hand, you already live in Switzerland (e.g. as an EU citizen with a B permit), the low-cost online route is open to you just like to any Swiss resident.

Conclusion

Starting a Swiss company as a foreigner is doable – the hurdles are the residency requirement, the permit and the bank account. EU/EFTA citizens resident in Switzerland can form a company practically as easily as locals. Without Swiss residency, the route runs via a GmbH/AG plus local representation – with a fiduciary as director from around CHF 3’000 per year.

Find out which route fits your situation: our provider comparison calculator takes your place of residence into account and recommends the right provider – from online platform to fiduciary.