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Unemployment as a cross-border worker: where to register, who pays and how much?
If you lose your job altogether, you register in France, with France Travail, and it is France that pays you — based on your Swiss salary, as certified by form PD U1.
If your employer cuts your hours without dismissing you, it works the other way round: Swiss unemployment insurance pays, and you stay in your job.
You have paid into Swiss unemployment insurance for years, and yet it is not the scheme that will pay your benefit. That is the European rule: when you lose your job completely, the country you live in pays.
The minimum worked over 24 months
That is 6 months, or 910 hours. A 36-month reference period if you are 55 or over.
How long the benefit lasts before 55
22.5 months between 55 and 56, 27 months from 57.
Full or partial unemployment: two different countries
| Your situation | Who pays | Where you register |
|---|---|---|
| Losing your job completely Dismissal, end of contract |
France | France Travail, in your département |
| Reduced working hours You stay employed |
Switzerland | Nothing to do: your employer files the claim |
The conditions
- Live in France.
- Register with France Travail within 12 months of the end of your contract.
- Have worked at least 130 days or 910 hours over the last 24 months, or over 36 months if you are 55 or over.
- Have lost your job involuntarily. Resigning gives you no right to benefit, unless you have an approved retraining or business start-up plan, after five years of continuous work.
- Be fit for work, actively looking, and under the legal retirement age.
How the benefit is worked out
France Travail starts from the average of your gross Swiss salaries over the last 24 months, converted into euros. Severance pay and holiday pay are left out of the calculation.
| Item | What you need to know |
|---|---|
| Basis of calculation | Your gross Swiss salaries over 24 months, converted into euros |
| Tapering | Up to −30% from the 7th month for high salaries under 55 |
| Floor | €92.57 gross per day at the very least |
| Waiting period | 7 days, plus deferrals for holiday pay and for severance above the legal minimum |
| Economic conditions | When national unemployment is low, the duration is cut by 25%, with a floor of 182 days |
A Swiss salary gives you a high French benefit — but if you are under 55 and earn well, it drops by up to 30% from the seventh month.
In other words, the first six months do not give you the right ballpark. Build your budget on the figure that comes after, not the one you start with.
What to do, in order
-
Register with France Travail as soon as your contract ends
Do not wait until you have all your Swiss paperwork: registering is what opens your rights, and the supporting documents can follow.
-
Ask your Swiss unemployment fund for form PD U1
This is the document that certifies your insurance periods and your salaries in Switzerland. Without it, France Travail cannot work anything out. You apply to the fund in the canton where you used to work.
-
Draw up your personalised plan for getting back into work
It is updated at least every three months, and it comes with regular job-search activity.
They can be topped up again after at least six months of work in the twenty-four months before the end of your last contract — thirty-six months if you are 55 or over.
The European reform: what will change, and when
On 7 July 2026 the European Parliament adopted a revision of the rules. The idea: after at least 22 weeks of unbroken work in a country, it would from then on be that country of employment that pays the benefit, under its own rules. Below that threshold, the country of residence would stay responsible.
The text has not yet been published in the Official Journal of the Union, and the Council still has to approve it. More to the point, Switzerland is not bound by it mechanically: that would take a decision by the joint committee, and Bern has made no commitment.
So for cross-border workers in Switzerland, the current rules still apply. Be wary of articles that announce the change as if it were already here.
Ask for your PD U1 before you even leave the company, or in the days that follow. It is the document that most often holds up the first payment: it comes from a Swiss fund, it travels by post, and it can take weeks.
Keep your last twelve payslips too: they let France Travail get on with it while the U1 is on its way.
The three most common mistakes
- Registering as unemployed in Switzerland. When you lose your job completely, it is France that pays, however many years you paid into the Swiss scheme.
- Waiting for the PD U1 before registering. Registering opens your rights; the document can arrive afterwards.
- Budgeting on the first six months. Tapering changes everything from the seventh.
How much would you get, with your salary, your age and your years of service?
Heidi's cross-border mode works it out and lists your deadlines.
The questionnaire, the rules that apply to you, the thresholds and the deadlines are free. The figures — net pay, the cascade, the cost of the commute — are in Heidi Plus.
Read next
- Retirement as a cross-border worker: AVS, the second pillar and the second right to choose
- Family allowances for cross-border workers: Switzerland or France?
- What happens to my second pillar when I leave my Swiss job?
- G permit: conditions, going home and changing employer
- How much do you take home in Switzerland as a cross-border worker?
- Who gets my taxes as a cross-border worker: France or Switzerland?
Sources
- Frontaliers Grand Est — Conditions for granting unemployment benefit to cross-border workers in Switzerland
- Frontaliers Grand Est — The European reform of unemployment benefit for cross-border workers
- Frontaliers Grand Est — Form PD U1
Written by the Heidi team and updated on 13 November 2026. The amounts and durations come under French unemployment insurance rules and change over time; the European reform adopted in July 2026 does not apply to Switzerland as at this date. The decision rests with France Travail.