Registration

You must provide notice of your unemployment in person - depending on the canton, this is done either in your municipality of residence or at the responsible regional employment centre (RAV). You should provide notice of your unemployment as early as possible, but no later than on the first day for which you wish to claim unemployment insurance benefits. Upon providing notification, you will be informed about the next steps to be taken and you can freely select your unemployment insurance fund. You need to take the following documents with you:

• OASI card or health insurance card
• Official piece of personal identification (identity card, passport, driver’s licence etc.)
• Residence permit or foreign national’s permit for foreign citizens
• If your canton requires you to initially register directly at the RAV: certificate of residence or residence confirmation from your municipality of residence

Depending on the canton, you will first of all be invited to an information day or directly to a consultation and review meeting.  

Please bring the following documents to your first consultation and review meeting:

• “Registration with municipality of residence” form, if the initial registration is not carried out at the RAV
• Foreign national’s permit for foreign citizens
• OASI-DI insurance card or health insurance card
• Contract of employment, letter of dismissal, certificates covering personal education and training
• Application documents (CV, diplomas, references, letter of motivation), proof of efforts undertaken to find work since being dismissed (contacts, applications, interviews etc.)
• “PD U2” form if, as a citizen of an EU/EFTA country, you are already receiving unemployment benefits from an EU/EFTA country and are looking for a job in Switzerland.  

The RAV can already help you look for a job during your notice period to try to avoid you becoming unemployed.  

RAV personnel consultants have a lot of contact with employers in your region and have built up trusting relationships with them. This means that in many cases, they will know about job vacancies at a very early stage. It is therefore worth getting help from your RAV!

You can obtain a list of public and private unemployment funds in your canton from your municipality of residence. You are free to choose any fund, but are then tied to this fund for the entire period. The fund will clarify your entitlement and then pay the relevant benefits each month.

In order to receive unemployment benefits (which are paid to you each month by your unemployment insurance fund), you must provide the fund you choose with the following documents:

• The “Application for unemployment benefits” form
• A copy of your RAV registration documents
• Employer confirmations from the last two years

Always submit the necessary documents as early as possible and in full, so that your unemployment insurance fund can determine and pay out the benefits to which you are entitled as quickly as possible.