The UK Department for Business & Trade confirmed on 28 October 2025 that London and Bern have agreed a further four-year extension of the UK-Switzerland Services Mobility Agreement (SMA), pushing its expiry date to 31 December 2029. The SMA allows UK-based professionals to enter Switzerland visa-free for up to 90 days per calendar year to deliver services, while Swiss service suppliers can access the UK market for up to 12 months under a streamlined Service Supplier visa route.
The arrangement eliminates economic-interest tests and work-permit bureaucracy during the initial 90-day period, covering high-value sectors such as finance, consulting, legal services, IT and the creative industries. In 2024, services trade between the two countries was worth more than £18 billion; the extension secures short-term mobility that underpins roughly 130,000 UK jobs and a comparable number in Switzerland’s export-oriented services economy.
For employers, the key takeaway is predictability: human-resources teams can plan project-based travel up to 2029 without fearing quota caps or sudden visa fees. Nevertheless, compliance teams should remind travellers that the 90-day allowance resets annually but still counts days spent in Switzerland for other Schengen purposes. Companies should also watch ongoing free-trade-agreement (FTA) negotiations where a permanent mobility chapter is expected to replace the SMA—potentially with new data-sharing or social-security provisions.
Swiss start-ups and SMEs gain continued friction-free access to the UK’s sophisticated client base, while British firms can keep dispatching troubleshooters and consultants to Swiss sites—a competitive edge at a time when the EU is tightening rules on short-term business visitors from third countries under the upcoming Entry/Exit System.
The arrangement eliminates economic-interest tests and work-permit bureaucracy during the initial 90-day period, covering high-value sectors such as finance, consulting, legal services, IT and the creative industries. In 2024, services trade between the two countries was worth more than £18 billion; the extension secures short-term mobility that underpins roughly 130,000 UK jobs and a comparable number in Switzerland’s export-oriented services economy.
For employers, the key takeaway is predictability: human-resources teams can plan project-based travel up to 2029 without fearing quota caps or sudden visa fees. Nevertheless, compliance teams should remind travellers that the 90-day allowance resets annually but still counts days spent in Switzerland for other Schengen purposes. Companies should also watch ongoing free-trade-agreement (FTA) negotiations where a permanent mobility chapter is expected to replace the SMA—potentially with new data-sharing or social-security provisions.
Swiss start-ups and SMEs gain continued friction-free access to the UK’s sophisticated client base, while British firms can keep dispatching troubleshooters and consultants to Swiss sites—a competitive edge at a time when the EU is tightening rules on short-term business visitors from third countries under the upcoming Entry/Exit System.
