A new customer portal for work permits in the Canton of Zurich

Companies in the Canton of Zurich now apply for work permits entirely digitally – through the dedicated workpermit.services.zh.ch application, guided from the first step to the official decision.

The starting point

Foreign nationals covered by the provisions for third-country nationals require a work permit in Switzerland. The same applies to employees of companies based in the EU/EFTA who are posted to Switzerland for more than 90 days per calendar year. Responsibility for these applications lies with the companies – and for them, the cantonal transaction platform ZHservices had so far offered no digital service.

The solution

Through the dedicated workpermit.services.zh.ch application, companies submit their work permit applications digitally – the first service on ZHservices aimed at business customers. The customer portal guides those responsible within the companies through the entire application process. It covers electronic data exchange with the responsible authority in the Office for Economic Affairs as well as digital delivery of the decision and the invoice to the customer.

The entire specification was developed together with the Office for Economic Affairs, Work Permits division: functional requirements were defined in workshops, business scenarios and mockups were produced. “Because we develop customer portals ourselves and had already delivered a digital project with ZHservices, we knew the ZHservices design system inside out. And from experience we know exactly what end users want and need. That allows us to offer applicants the ideal user interface here too,” explains xappido project lead Lea.

On the basis of the functional requirements, a particularly user-friendly, clearly structured and intuitive interface was created. A particular highlight of the collaboration: the client invited the xappido team on site to gain an in-depth look at how work permits are handled in practice.

The result

The customer portal is in use – from submitting the application to the digital decision, with no switch back to paper. For companies that means a clearly guided and traceable route through the entire application process.

“I am very proud that xappido ag was able to deliver such a useful digital service. The feedback from applicants has been consistently positive,” says Lea.

As solution partner to the Canton of Zurich, xappido is expanding the digital offering on ZHservices step by step – with solutions that make dealing with the authorities noticeably easier for people and companies.