Where is my legal address?

Where is my legal address?

"I've often been asked whether I'm domiciled in Switzerland. What does it mean to be domiciled in Switzerland? Is it enough to have an address there?

Annie, Thônex

Domicile establishes a person's connection with a certain territorial area and is used in particular to establish the jurisdiction of authorities and courts, as well as to bind a person to a country in order to determine the law applicable to a legal relationship. In principle, everyone is free to settle wherever they wish and to set up a so-called "voluntary" domicile. Under Swiss law, article 23 of the Civil Code states that a person's domicile is the place where he or she resides with the intention of settling there. To be domiciled in Switzerland, therefore, you not only need to have the intention of settling there permanently, but this intention must also be apparent from your behaviour.

As far as the temporal element is concerned, it is not necessary for a person to intend to stay in a given place indefinitely. Rather, the decisive factor is the fact that he or she establishes the centre of his or her personal and professional relationships in that place. The Federal Court has held that the criterion of the place where family and friends live takes precedence over that of the place of work, especially if the professional activity is only temporary. Taking part in sporting activities, going to the doctor's or the hairdresser's are all indications that a domicile has been established there. It should also be noted that an interruption in the stay is possible, without resulting in the loss of the domicile, if the person concerned keeps his or her centre of life in the same place.

Swiss law also enshrines the principle of unity of domicile, i.e. that no person may have more than one domicile at the same time. Therefore, when the conditions for a voluntary domicile within the meaning of article 23 paragraph 1 of the Civil Code (CC) appear to be fulfilled in several places, only the place with which the individual has the closest ties should be considered as his domicile.

Therefore, if you only have an address in Switzerland, but your family lives abroad and you also work abroad, the authorities will most likely not consider you to be domiciled in Switzerland. The same will apply if you work and live in Switzerland during the week, but return to your family abroad every weekend. If, on the other hand, you spend more time in the canton than is strictly necessary for your professional activity and also enjoy a social and leisure life there, you will be considered to be domiciled in Geneva.