Newland Chase

Corporate immigration from a global network

Newland Chase is the corporate immigration arm of the CIBT group, a firm specializing in managing immigration and visa needs for multinational companies and individuals with complex, multi-jurisdictional moves. The Geneva office at 12 rue de l'Arquebuse, 1204 Geneva, represents Newland Chase's Swiss footprint. Unlike solo practitioners or boutique immigration counsel, Newland Chase operates as part of a large global network: the firm describes itself as having "1,700+ expert immigration and visa professionals" spread across multiple continents. This scale matters for someone moving to Switzerland as part of a multinational corporate transfer or for a company seeking to move employees across borders. Newland Chase can coordinate your arrival into Switzerland and your colleagues' outbound assignments to 190 countries in parallel. The firm is built specifically around corporate immigration and the patterns of multinational employee movement.

What it does for someone arriving as part of a corporate move

Newland Chase's model is built around supporting corporate clients managing inbound and outbound immigration simultaneously. For inbound to Switzerland, the firm handles everything from initial visa assessment through application, submission, and ongoing compliance monitoring. They manage short-term work authorization, temporary residency, long-term work authorization, permanent residency, and citizenship pathways. They also handle accompanying family members' permits and visas, which is crucial for executives or professional transfers where spouse and children are relocating together. The family-member coordination matters because each family member may require a different permit category, and the firm sees the family as a unit rather than processing each person separately. The firm's own words capture the scope: "With offices in Geneva, Newland Chase Switzerland provides corporations and individuals operating in Switzerland with complete support for all their immigration and visa needs, inbound to Switzerland and outbound to more than 190 countries around the world." This both-directions capability is uncommon; most Swiss immigration counsel focuses on inbound only.

The Geneva team and local expertise

Newland Chase's Switzerland leadership brings a mix of legal, consulting, and government experience. Notably, one member of the leadership team is a former officer of the Cantonal Migration Authorities in Geneva, giving the firm institutional knowledge of how cantonal authorities operate, how to navigate their particular bureaucratic procedures, and who the decision-makers are. This is not just theoretical knowledge but operational insight from someone who has worked inside the Swiss immigration system. Several team members are themselves migrants, which the firm emphasizes as creating empathy for the immigration experience, understanding not just the rules but the actual transition challenge, stress, and documentation hassles. The team is multilingual: in addition to English, members communicate in German, French, Spanish, and Italian. This multilingual capability means if your spouse does not speak English, the firm can still communicate directly, reducing misunderstandings in a high-stakes process.

Named team members visible on the site include María López (Immigration Service Delivery Country Lead, Switzerland), who leads the Swiss operation; Audrey Lelong (Service Operation Manager); and immigration consultants including Jessica Ortega Benitez, Axelle Floret, Lennart Hilsberg, Aglaïa Kolbig, Leonie Kortmann, and Pauline Lefebvre. The visible team roster suggests a substantial local office with enough staff to manage multiple concurrent files. You can contact the team at +41 (0)22 884 1875 or through their website contact form.

How they work: process and approach

Newland Chase positions its approach as "consultative" and emphasizes "large case management experience" combined with "key relationships with the authorities." Their services include strategic guidance on immigration options before you move, comprehensive pre-planning of assignments, completion of all in-country requirements, and ongoing compliance monitoring. This pre-move strategic discussion is valuable because permit strategy can affect your tax residency status and future mobility options, and getting those decisions right at the outset saves complications later. For business travelers, they offer separate management of visa requirements across multiple countries and tracking of stays for legal compliance. The firm also offers "Immigration Policy & Compliance" advisory services, helping your company develop immigration policies, ensure sponsorship compliance, educate in-house teams on requirements, and track immigration trends affecting your workforce. They are equipped to manage both individual relocation and company-wide mobility programs.

Services by arrival category

The firm breaks down services by arrival type. For someone on a business visa, entering for meetings, conferences, seminars, limited sales activities, or contract negotiations, Newland Chase handles visa applications and compliance tracking across destinations. For work authorization, they manage applications for both short-term and long-term permits under Swiss and other jurisdictions' rules and quotas. They understand local quota timing, which matters because some permit categories have annual limits that fill up, and knowing quota status can affect when you submit your application. For students, they offer education immigration services. For private clients including families and retirees, they provide individual and family relocation support. The firm also handles document legalization (Hague Apostille and similar certifications) and visa processing, services most applicants do not directly see but that underlie the permits themselves, getting your home-country documents legally validated for use in Switzerland, for example.

Scale and global advantage

The firm's scale, 1,700+ professionals globally, gives them insight into immigration trends and policy changes across multiple countries simultaneously. If Switzerland is tightening work authorization rules or changing permit categories, Newland Chase is likely seeing that before a solo practitioner would. This also means if you have a complex situation they have likely handled similar cases before. The global network means if your move is part of a series of assignments, Switzerland for two years, then Singapore, then the UK, Newland Chase can coordinate across all three moves using the same system and often the same relationship manager, providing continuity and strategic alignment across your career.

What the firm does not disclose

The site does not publish fees, retainer structures, or typical costs for different services. It is unclear whether they offer flat-fee, hourly, or project-based pricing, or what budget you should plan for a straightforward work permit application versus a complex corporate transfer with multiple family members and tax coordination. The firm also does not list specific turnaround times for different applications or detail exactly which services they handle in-house versus through local partners. A conversation with the firm would be necessary to establish timelines and costs.

Who Newland Chase suits

Newland Chase works best for someone relocating to Switzerland as part of a multinational corporate assignment, especially if your company or family members are simultaneously managing moves to other countries. It is valuable if you want continuity across multiple international assignments and want one firm coordinating global strategy. It is also valuable if you need the former Cantonal Migration Authority officer's expertise in navigating Geneva's specific procedural quirks. It suits you if you value a large firm's institutional knowledge and global network over a solo practitioner's hands-on relationship. It suits you less well if you are an individual making a straightforward move on your own dime, costs are geared to corporate clients. The firm's multilingual team and international background make it useful if your move involves non-English-speaking family members or you are coming from a less common country of origin where general guidance online is sparse or unreliable.