Cross-border

Working a winter season in Switzerland while living in Haute-Savoie: permit, tax, insurance and unemployment

October 2026·13 min read

Updated 20 October 2026.

Every winter, many people from the Chablais cross the border to work the season: ski lifts, ski schools, restaurants and hotels in Champéry, Morgins, Les Crosets, Champoussin or Torgon, shops in Monthey, or Vaud resorts such as Villars, Les Diablerets and Leysin. From Châtel or Abondance, Switzerland is a few minutes away. But on paper, a four- or five-month season takes almost as many steps as a year-round job, plus a few traps that come with short contracts.

This guide is for EU nationals who keep their home in Haute-Savoie. It goes through what to check before, during and after the season, each time with a link to the official source (listed at the end). The rules change from year to year: check them again when you sign your contract.

First: "cross-border worker" does not mean the same thing everywhere

This is where most mistakes start. Each area uses its own definition:

For the work permit (Swiss law): you are a cross-border commuter if you go back to your home in France at least once a week.
For social security (EU rules, which decide health insurance and unemployment benefits): you are a frontier worker if you return home "as a rule daily or at least once a week".
For income tax (the 1983 Franco-Swiss agreement, which covers Valais and Vaud): you must go home every day "as a general rule". A few nights in Switzerland are tolerated, but no more than one per working week and, for a seasonal worker, no more than 20 % of the days worked.

In practice: if you sleep in staff housing at the resort during the week and go home at weekends, you are still a cross-border worker for the permit and for social security, but not for tax. Decide where you will sleep before you sign: everything else follows from that.

The permit: a G permit beyond 3 months, a simple notification below

Contract of more than 3 months (a full season, December to April): you need a cross-border commuter permit (G permit). For a contract of less than a year, it is valid for the length of the contract. The application is made before you start work, to the canton where you work: in Valais, the Service de la population et des migrations; in Vaud, the Service de la population. The form is signed by you and by the employer; ask your employer who submits it.

Contract of 3 months or less (the Christmas holidays, cover in February): no permit. Your employer must notify you online no later than the day before your first day of work. This notification procedure is limited to 3 months or 90 working days per calendar year.

Sleeping in Switzerland during the week is allowed with a G permit, as long as you go home at least once a week. You must then register with the municipality where you stay during the week. No other permit is needed.

Moving to Switzerland for the season, without going home every week, is a different situation: you get an L permit (short stay, for a contract of 3 months to a year) and you are no longer a cross-border worker. The tax, health insurance and unemployment rules change, and this article does not cover them.

British and other non-EU nationals

Since Brexit, British nationals living in France no longer benefit from free movement. A new British cross-border commuter must hold a lasting right of residence in France, have lived in the border zone for at least six months and work in the Swiss border zone; the employer must also show that no one could be found on the Swiss labour market. Those who were already working in Switzerland as cross-border commuters before 1 January 2021 keep acquired rights. But according to the State Secretariat for Migration, that right ends if the person loses their job in Switzerland, and it only continues after a change of employer "without interruption". What this means at the end of a season is not written anywhere: ask the canton before your contract ends.

Tax: Valais and Vaud, with or without the 2041-AS

In Switzerland, each canton sets its own taxes, and where you pay tax depends on the canton you work in. In Geneva and the other cantons outside the agreement, your salary is taxed at source in Switzerland. In the eight cantons of the 1983 agreement, it is taxed in France, unless you are a Swiss national working for a Swiss public employer, or you don't return to France every day: in both cases, tax is deducted at source in Switzerland.

Valais and Vaud are two of the eight cantons covered by the 1983 Franco-Swiss agreement, with Bern, Solothurn, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Neuchâtel and Jura. If you meet the daily-return condition, your Swiss salary is taxed only in France, provided your employer has received in time the 2041-AS certificate of residence stamped by the French tax office.

The nights rule, seasonal version

For a year-round cross-border worker, the limit is 45 nights a year in Switzerland. For a seasonal worker, impots.gouv.fr is clear: the limit is 20 % of the days worked. The French tax authority's reference text adds that you must not exceed one night per working week. As an example (our own calculation): for 100 days worked in the season, that is 20 nights at most. For a season spread over two calendar years, no text says whether the 20 % is counted per year or over the whole season.

Two details matter at a resort:

The canton of Vaud expects at least 4 returns home a week for a full-time job.
Renting accommodation in Switzerland, or having exclusive use of it, creates a presumption that you are not a cross-border worker. A staff room therefore raises the question, and no text deals with this exact case. If you keep a room at the resort, keep a note of your trips home.

The 2041-AS: before your first day, then before 1 January

Before the season: request the certificate through the secure messaging of your impots.gouv.fr account, with your employment contract and proof of address. Give the stamped 2nd and 3rd copies to your employer before your first day of work.
A season over two calendar years: the certificate is valid for one calendar year. For a season from December 2026 to April 2027, you need one for 2026, then a new one for 2027, to hand in before 1 January 2027. The first two certificates are done "manually" (the year you start and the following year): for a season that starts in December, they come a few weeks apart.
A new employer: the certificate names your employer. If you change resort or employer from one season to the next, plan for a new certificate.
If the certificate arrives too late, the employer must deduct tax at source. You can ask for a correction until 31 March of the following year: in Valais, by passing the certificate to your employer or with a request for a new calculation; in Vaud, through a correction list filed by the employer.
French tax is not deducted by the Swiss employer: you pay a monthly instalment ("acompte contemporain"), which you can adjust under "Prélèvement à la source" in your online account. In the spring, you declare this income on form 2047-SUISSE, ticking the "CAS 1" box.

If you sleep in Switzerland during the week

Without a daily return, you are taxed at source in Valais or Vaud, like anyone who works in Switzerland during the week or for short periods without living there. You still declare this income in France, on the 2047-SUISSE, ticking "CAS 2A": it counts towards your French tax, but a tax credit equal to the corresponding French tax prevents you from paying twice.

Health insurance: a choice within 3 months, possibly every winter

From the start of the contract, you come under Swiss health insurance (LAMal), even for a contract of less than 3 months. Like any cross-border worker living in France, you can choose French health insurance instead: this is the right of option (droit d'option).

Deadline: 3 months from the start of your work in Switzerland.
How: fill in the form "Choix du système d'assurance-maladie", have your CPAM complete part 6, then send it to the authority of the canton where you work. In Valais, that is the municipality where you work; in Vaud, the Office vaudois de l'assurance-maladie (OVAM) in Lausanne.
With no form within 3 months, you are automatically enrolled in LAMal. Simply staying with the CPAM does not count as a choice: the written request is essential.

And the following season?

In principle, the choice is final. The 2016 Franco-Swiss agreement does, however, allow it to be made again when a "new triggering event" occurs, from a limited list: starting work in Switzerland, going back to work in Switzerland after a period of unemployment, moving to France, retiring. The form even has a box "I am making this choice again, because I am going back to work in Switzerland". On the other hand, moving from one contract to another without a period of unemployment does not reopen the choice.

For a seasonal worker who is unemployed in France between two winters, each new season therefore seems to open a new 3-month deadline. But no official source mentions seasonal workers explicitly. Each season, ask your municipality of work (Valais) or the OVAM (Vaud) whether you need to file the form again, rather than assuming last year's choice still applies. The case of an off-season with neither a job nor benefits is not settled by the texts.

What each option costs

LAMal: a monthly premium per person, which does not depend on your salary, at the rate the insurer sets for residents of France. With the S1 form from your insurer, you also register with the CPAM so you can be treated in France.
French system: a contribution to the Urssaf of 8 % of your income from two years earlier, after an allowance of 25 % of the social security ceiling. If you are only affiliated for part of the year, it is calculated pro rata to the days worked in Switzerland. After you are affiliated, you have 20 days to declare your income to the Urssaf.

Accidents: LAA cover, whatever your health insurance

Every employee working in Switzerland is compulsorily insured against accidents (LAA), from the start of the contract and at the latest from the moment they set off for work. This insurance stays Swiss even if you chose French health insurance: the right of option only covers illness.

Occupational accidents: the employer pays the premium.
Non-occupational accidents (a fall while skiing on your day off, an accident at home): you are covered if you work at least 8 hours a week for that employer. The premium is in principle paid by you, deducted from your salary. Below 8 hours, only accidents on the way between home and work are covered, as occupational accidents.
A non-occupational accident is reported to your employer in Switzerland.
At the end of the season, cover stops at the end of the 31st day after your right to a salary ends. The insurer must offer you an extension agreement (assurance par convention), which extends cover for up to 6 months: ask your employer before your last day.

AVS, unemployment insurance, second pillar: what is deducted from your payslip

AVS/AI/APG (old age, disability, loss of earnings): 5.3 % of your salary in 2026, with the same amount paid by the employer.
Swiss unemployment insurance: 1.1 % of your salary (2.2 % in total, shared with the employer), even though France will pay your benefits between seasons.
Second pillar (LPP): a contract of 3 months or less is not covered. For a season agreed from the outset for more than 3 months, it applies from the first day if your salary, converted to a full year, is above CHF 22,680 (2026 threshold). A 3-month contract that is extended comes under it as soon as the extension is agreed. At the end of the contract, the pension fund transfers your savings: tell it where to pay them (usually a vested benefits account) and keep its letters. The law limits cash withdrawals.

Your AVS contributions are not refunded when you stop working in Switzerland: they remain yours and later give you the right to a Swiss pension, which is also paid in France. Switzerland requires a minimum of one year of insurance, with special rules for people who contributed in several countries without reaching one year in any of them. To check that each season has been recorded, ask a compensation office for a free individual account statement (extrait de compte individuel), giving your AVS number.

Between seasons: unemployment benefits in France

If you live in France and go home at least once a week, France Travail pays your benefits between seasons, even if your last job was in Switzerland. Your Swiss periods count thanks to the U1 form.

At the end of the season:

Ask your employer for the international employer's certificate (form 716.052).
Fill in the PD U1 request (form 716.053) and send it with the certificate to a Swiss unemployment insurance fund: if you have never been registered with one, to a fund of your choice in the canton where your last employer has its registered office (usually the canton where you worked); if a fund already handled your file in a previous season, to that one. The fund issues the U1.
Register with France Travail, online, as soon as the contract ends. You have 12 months at most, but benefits do not start before you register. The 7-day waiting period does not apply a second time if it was already applied in the previous 12 months, which matters when you register every spring.
Health insurance: LAMal ends with the contract; tell your CPAM. If you had chosen the French system, send the Urssaf or the CPAM your employer's document showing the end date of the contract and your France Travail benefit statement: the contribution is reduced pro rata.
The following season, declare your return to work in your monthly update (actualisation).

Is one season enough to qualify?

The general rule requires you to have worked at least 6 months (130 days or 910 hours) in the last 24 months. A winter season of 4 or 5 months does not reach 6 months on its own: depending on your hours, it is often the periods added up over 24 months (the previous season, a summer season, another job) that open your rights. France Travail does the calculation.

Two relaxed rules exist: since 1 April 2025, 5 months (108 days or 758 hours) are enough for people who have only worked on seasonal contracts; since 1 April 2026, 5 months are also enough for people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time. France Travail does not say whether these rules apply to a season worked in Switzerland: ask about your own case, and do not count on them in advance.

Note: if you stay in Switzerland for the whole season without going home every week, you are no longer a frontier worker under EU rules. You can then register as unemployed in Switzerland or in France, but in France you will have to prove that you did not intend to settle in Switzerland for good: find out before the season ends. As for the EU reform adopted in September 2026, which would make the country of last employment pay benefits, it does not apply to Switzerland at this stage.

A season's timeline

When you sign the contract: decide where you will sleep during the season; check the G permit application with your employer (or the notification, for a contract of 3 months or less); request your 2041-AS if you go home every day.
Before your first day: give the 2041-AS to your employer; register with the municipality if you stay in Switzerland during the week.
Within 3 months: the health insurance choice form if you want the French system; then, once affiliated, your income declaration to the Urssaf within 20 days.
Before 1 January: the 2041-AS for the new year.
At the end of the season: international employer's certificate and U1 request; registration with France Travail; change of situation with the CPAM or the Urssaf; accident extension agreement if needed.
Until the following 31 March: correction request if tax was deducted at source while you were a cross-border worker.

Official sources

Getting support

A season in Switzerland is a short contract, but it means paperwork in two countries, with deadlines that fall in the busiest part of the year: 1 January for the 2041-AS, 3 months for health insurance, the day after your contract ends for France Travail.

I am not a tax adviser, an insurance broker or a lawyer, and I cannot choose your health insurance for you. But I can help you prepare your forms, keep your season's timeline, gather the certificates and follow up with the authorities, in French or in English.

Heading off to work the season in Switzerland? Book a free initial consultation — we'll list your steps together.

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