What to keep in your cross-border paperwork file
Which confirmations the Swiss and French sides ask for again, and why collecting them from the first day saves repeating a step later. This guide covers what to keep and where each document comes from — it does not tell you what to declare or how you will be taxed.
1Step 1Start the file before your first day
Your employment contract is the document every later step asks for, so the file starts there rather than after the first payslip. Everything below is something you will be asked to produce a second time, often by the administration of the other country.
2Step 2Keep the permit decision, not only the card
The cross-border permit is applied for by your employer in the canton where you work, and the decision letter records which authority issued it. Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft run separate migration offices with separate forms, so the letter is what tells you, later, which office to go back to.
3Step 3Keep the health insurance confirmation
Whichever system you end up insured in, the confirmation is the document that proves your cover to both administrations, and it is requested again later. Keep it with the permit decision rather than filed separately — the two are usually asked for together.
4Step 4Keep the French-side registration receipts
Working in Switzerland while living in France puts you under a coordinated set of rules rather than one country's, so a receipt from a French office can be what unblocks a Swiss step and the other way round. Keep the receipt even when the process appeared to complete on the spot.
5Step 5Keep everything in one place, in the language it was issued
Do not replace an original with your own translation; keep the issued document and add a note of what it is if that helps you find it. One folder, added to as each confirmation arrives, is the whole method — the cost of this guide being wrong for you is small, and the cost of hunting for a two-year-old letter is not.