Moving to Switzerland from Ireland

Irish citizens can live in Switzerland by right, under the free movement arrangements between the EU, EEA and Switzerland. A couple who both hold Irish passports do not need to qualify through a work, income or investment route, though registration and other local rules still apply. Check the official requirements before you move.

If one of you holds a different passport, that partner's position can differ. For people without a right of residence, our residency index rates Switzerland 40/100 (possible, with conditions). Realistic self-funded routes are residence without gainful activity for the financially independent (open to EU/EFTA on a sufficient-means test, but restricted to applicants 55+ with cantonal discretion for non-EU) and the lump-sum (expenditure-based) taxation permit for the wealthy, while ordinary work permits for non-EU nationals are quota-limited and employer-driven.

For short visits, Irish passport holders can visit visa-free, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit or a right of residence.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold Irish passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. Geneva

   72% match

   Est. cost

   €4,657/mo

   Avg temp

   12°C

   Safety index

   78/100

2. 2

   2. Basel

   71% match

   Est. cost

   €4,629/mo

   Avg temp

   12°C

   Safety index

   78/100

3. 3

   3. Bern

   69% match

   Est. cost

   €4,547/mo

   Avg temp

   10°C

   Safety index

   78/100

4. 4

   4. Zürich

   69% match

   Est. cost

   €4,815/mo

   Avg temp

   11°C

   Safety index

   78/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €4,547 a month in Bern to €4,815 in Zürich. For comparison, we estimate €4,127 a month in Dublin. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Switzerland is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); Ireland is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in Ireland after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

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• Moving to Switzerland from New Zealand

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding Irish passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.