In Switzerland, many people talk about a “work permit”, but legally that is not the term used by the authorities. What exists are residence permits such as L, B, C or G, and depending on your situation that same permit also includes the authorization to carry out professional activity.
This is not just a wording issue. It is the source of a lot of confusion. Some people look for a separate document, as if they first had to obtain a “work licence” and only then deal with residence status. In practice, for EU/EFTA citizens the normal process is to have a clear basis for staying, register with the commune, and let the file move through the cantonal authority.
That is why permit G is not a “work permit” in the classic sense, but a permit for frontier workers who live outside Switzerland and work inside it. The same applies to L, B or C permits: they are residence titles with employment effects, not an independent paper created only to authorize a job.
For third-country nationals the system is stricter and usually requires prior authorizations, but the underlying logic does not change: the right to work is tied to residence status and the relevant administrative decision, not to a separate document with that name.
The key idea is this: in Switzerland it is not very useful to ask only “how do I get a work permit?”. The real question is which type of residence permit fits your case, what requirements your canton applies, and at what point you can start working legally.