Austria separates settlement from permanent residence. Switzerland publishes one federal floor and then lets individual cantons set a higher one — and several do.
The Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte Plus, which you move onto after roughly 21 of the last 24 months on a standard RWR Card, needs A2 German — Module 1 of the Integration Agreement, via an ÖIF certificate or a qualifying prior education. That’s a settled-worker status, not full permanent residence.
The actual PR title — Daueraufenthalt–EU, after five years — needs Module 2 of the Integration Agreement: B1 German, plus proof of secure income, health insurance, and housing.
Citizenship (Staatsbürgerschaft) currently needs B1 plus a basic civics test, generally after 10 years (6 years for a spouse of an Austrian national or proven exceptional integration; 15 or 30-year alternative tracks exist with less proof required the longer you wait). A 2026 government programme reportedly plans to raise the citizenship bar to B2, bundled with a new mandatory course — not yet in force as of today, worth checking again before you plan around it.
Switzerland’s own federal foreign-affairs department states the floor plainly: for the standard 10-year settlement permit (Permit C), oral A2, written A1. Apply early (after 5 years) and the bar rises slightly to oral B1, written A1. For naturalisation, the federal minimum is oral B1, written A2.
Those are federal floors. Cantons can and do go higher. Schwyz, Nidwalden and Thurgau reportedly require B1 written / B2 spoken for naturalisation — materially above the national number — and Aargau has proposed raising its own bar further. A parliamentary motion to raise the federal floor itself to B2 spoken / B1 written was still pending as of the most recent reporting found. Check your specific canton before you plan around the federal number — it may simply not be the number that applies to you.
Switzerland assesses language via fide, its own national reference framework — a Sprachpass that assesses, not strictly pass/fails, levels A1 through B1 in speaking and writing. Goethe-Institut and TCF certificates are accepted as equivalents, including above B1.
Citizenship residency: a flat 10 years nationwide (cut from 12 in 2018), of which 3 of the last 5 must be in Switzerland; years aged 8–18 count double. Cantons and communes can add a further 2–5 years of local residency on top.