Federal Act
on Foreign Nationals and Integration
(Foreign Nationals and Integration Act, FNIA)¹

This Act reg­u­lates the entry and exit, res­id­ence and fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion of for­eign na­tion­als in Switzer­land. In ad­di­tion, it reg­u­lates en­cour­aging their in­teg­ra­tion.

¹ This Act ap­plies to for­eign na­tion­als, provided no oth­er pro­vi­sions of the fed­er­al law or in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies con­cluded by Switzer­land ap­ply.

² For cit­izens of mem­ber states of the European Com­munity (EC), their fam­ily mem­bers, and em­ploy­ees pos­ted to Switzer­land by em­ploy­ers res­id­ent or with their re­gistered of­fice in these states, this Act ap­plies only to the ex­tent that the Agree­ment of 21 June 1999⁴ between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion on the one hand and the European Com­munity and their Mem­ber States on the oth­er hand on Free­dom of Move­ment does not con­tain any dif­fer­ent pro­vi­sions or that this Act provides for more ad­vant­age­ous pro­vi­sions.

³ For cit­izens of mem­ber states of the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation (EFTA),their fam­ily mem­bers, and em­ploy­ees pos­ted to Switzer­land by em­ploy­ers res­id­ent or with their re­gistered of­fice in these states, this Act ap­plies only to the ex­tent that the Agree­ment amend­ing the Con­ven­tion es­tab­lish­ing the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation from 21 June 2001⁵ does not con­tain any dif­fer­ent pro­vi­sions or that this Act provides for more ad­vant­age­ous pro­vi­sions.

⁴ The pro­vi­sions on the visa pro­ced­ure and on entry and exit ap­ply only in­so­far as there are no pro­vi­sions to the con­trary in the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments.⁶

⁵ The Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex 1 No. 1.⁷

¹ The ad­mis­sion of gain­fully em­ployed for­eign na­tion­als is al­lowed in the in­terests the eco­nomy as a whole; the chances of last­ing in­teg­ra­tion in the Swiss em­ploy­ment mar­ket as well as in the so­cial en­vir­on­ment are cru­cial. Switzer­land’s cul­tur­al and sci­entif­ic needs shall be ap­pro­pri­ately taken ac­count of.

² For­eign na­tion­als shall also be ad­mit­ted if in­ter­na­tion­al law ob­lig­a­tions, hu­man­it­ari­an grounds or the unity of the fam­ily so re­quires.

³ In de­cid­ing on the ad­mis­sion of for­eign na­tion­als, ac­count shall be taken of Switzer­land's demo­graph­ic and so­cial de­vel­op­ment.

¹ The aim of in­teg­ra­tion is the co-ex­ist­ence of the res­id­ent Swiss and for­eign pop­u­la­tion on the basis of the val­ues of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion and mu­tu­al re­spect and tol­er­ance.

² In­teg­ra­tion should en­able for­eign na­tion­als who are law­fully res­id­ent in Switzer­land for the longer term to par­ti­cip­ate in the eco­nom­ic, so­cial and cul­tur­al life of the so­ci­ety.

³ In­teg­ra­tion re­quires will­ing­ness on the part of the for­eign na­tion­als and open­ness on the part of the Swiss pop­u­la­tion.

⁴ For­eign na­tion­als are re­quired to fa­mil­i­ar­ise them­selves with the so­cial con­di­tions and way of life in Switzer­land and in par­tic­u­lar to learn a na­tion­al lan­guage.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als who wish to enter Switzer­land:

a.

must have a re­cog­nised iden­tity doc­u­ment for cross­ing the bor­der and a visa, if re­quired;

b.

must have the re­quired fin­an­cial means for the peri­od of stay;

c.

must not pose a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or to Switzer­land’s in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions; and

d.⁸

must not be sub­ject to a meas­ure ban­ning them from entry or an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code (SCC)⁹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 1927¹⁰ (MCC).

² They must provide a guar­an­tee that they will leave Switzer­land if only a tem­por­ary peri­od of stay is planned.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ex­cep­tions to the entry re­quire­ments in para­graph 1 on hu­man­it­ari­an or na­tion­al in­terest grounds or on the basis of in­ter­na­tion­al ob­lig­a­tions.¹¹

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the re­cog­nised iden­tity doc­u­ments for cross­ing the bor­der.¹²

¹ Visas are is­sued by the Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tion abroad on be­half of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­tons or by an­oth­er au­thor­ity ap­poin­ted by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² In the case of a re­fus­al of the visa for a peri­od of stay not re­quir­ing a per­mit (Art. 10), the com­pet­ent for­eign rep­res­ent­a­tion shall is­sue a de­cision on a stand­ard form on be­half of the State Sec­ret­ari­at for Mi­gra­tion (SEM)¹³ or the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs (FD­FA). The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide that oth­er of­fices of the FD­FA may also is­sue de­cisions on be­half of the FD­FA.¹⁴

^2bis A writ­ten ob­jec­tion may be filed against this de­cision with the rel­ev­ant au­thor­ity (SEM or FD­FA) with­in 30 days. Art­icle 63 of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968¹⁵ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.¹⁶

³ To cov­er any res­id­ence, su­per­vi­sion and re­turn costs, a form­al ob­lig­a­tion lim­ited in time, the de­pos­it of a surety bond or oth­er types of guar­an­tee may be re­quired.¹⁷

¹ Entry and exit are gov­erned by the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments.

^1bis The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall work with the European Uni­on agency re­spons­ible for the sur­veil­lance of the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders. This co­oper­a­tion shall in par­tic­u­lar in­volve the de­vel­op­ment of plan­ning in­stru­ments for the agency based on Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896¹⁹.²⁰

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates pos­sible checks on per­sons at the bor­der in ac­cord­ance with these Agree­ments. If entry is re­fused, the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the bor­der con­trol shall is­sue a re­mov­al or­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64.²¹

³ If checks at the Swiss bor­der are tem­por­ar­ily re­in­tro­duced in ac­cord­ance with the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code²² and entry is re­fused, the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the bor­der con­trols shall is­sue a reasoned and ap­peal­able de­cision on a form in ac­cord­ance with An­nex V Part B of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code.²³ The re­fus­al of entry may be en­forced im­me­di­ately. An ap­peal has no sus­pens­ive ef­fect.²⁴

¹ The can­tons carry out checks on per­sons on their sov­er­eign ter­rit­ory.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the fed­er­al checks on per­sons car­ried out in the bor­der zone in con­sulta­tion with the bor­der can­tons.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als do not re­quire a per­mit for any peri­od of stay without gain­ful em­ploy­ment of up to three months; if the visa in­dic­ates a short­er peri­od of stay, then this peri­od ap­plies.

² A per­mit is re­quired for for­eign na­tion­als in­tend­ing a longer peri­od of stay without gain­ful em­ploy­ment. They must ap­ply to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the planned place of res­id­ence for this per­mit be­fore en­ter­ing Switzer­land. Art­icle 17 para­graph 2 re­mains re­served.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als who wish to work in Switzer­land re­quire a per­mit ir­re­spect­ive of the peri­od of stay. They must ap­ply to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the planned place of em­ploy­ment for this per­mit.

² Gain­ful em­ploy­ment is any salar­ied or self-em­ployed activ­ity that is nor­mally car­ried out for pay­ment, ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er pay­ment is made.

³ In the case of salar­ied em­ploy­ment, the ap­plic­a­tion for a per­mit must be sub­mit­ted by the em­ploy­er.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als who re­quire a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit, must re­gister with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at their place of res­id­ence in Switzer­land be­fore the ex­piry of the peri­od of stay not re­quir­ing a per­mit or be­fore they take up em­ploy­ment.

² For­eign na­tion­als must re­gister with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the new place of res­id­ence if they move to an­oth­er com­mune or to an­oth­er can­ton.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the time lim­its for re­gis­tra­tion.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als must pro­duce a val­id iden­tity doc­u­ment at the time of re­gis­tra­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the ex­cep­tions and the re­cog­nised iden­tity doc­u­ments.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may re­quire an ex­tract from the re­gister of con­vic­tions in the ap­plic­ant's coun­try of ori­gin or nat­ive coun­try as well as fur­ther doc­u­ments that are ne­ces­sary for the pro­ced­ure.

³ Re­gis­tra­tion may only be car­ried out if all the doc­u­ments in­dic­ated by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity as ne­ces­sary for grant­ing the per­mit are provided.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may lay down more fa­vour­able pro­vi­sions on the per­mit and the re­gis­tra­tion re­quire­ment, in par­tic­u­lar to fa­cil­it­ate tem­por­ary cross-bor­der ser­vices.

For­eign na­tion­als who hold a per­mit must give no­tice of de­par­ture to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the place of res­id­ence if they move to an­oth­er com­mune or to an­oth­er can­ton or if they move abroad.

Any per­son who ac­com­mod­ates for­eign na­tion­als for com­mer­cial gain must provide the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity with their par­tic­u­lars.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als who have entered the coun­try law­fully for a tem­por­ary peri­od of stay and who sub­sequently ap­ply for longer peri­od of stay must wait for the de­cision abroad.

² If the ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments are clearly ful­filled, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may per­mit the ap­plic­ant to re­main in Switzer­land dur­ing the pro­ced­ure.

For­eign na­tion­als may be ad­mit­ted to work as an em­ploy­ee if:

a.

this is in the in­terests of the eco­nomy as a whole;

b.

an ap­plic­a­tion from an em­ploy­er has been sub­mit­ted; and

c.

the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 20–25 are ful­filled.

For­eign na­tion­als may be ad­mit­ted to work on a self-em­ployed basis if:

a.

this is in the in­terests of the eco­nomy as a whole;

b.

the ne­ces­sary fin­an­cial and op­er­a­tion­al re­quire­ments are ful­filled;

c.²⁶

they have an ad­equate and in­de­pend­ent source of in­come; and

d.²⁷

the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 20 and 23–25 are met.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may lim­it the num­ber of first-time short stay and res­id­ence per­mits (Art. 32 and 33) for work pur­poses. It shall con­sult the can­tons and the so­cial part­ners be­fore­hand.

² It may define quotas for the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons.

³ SEM may, with­in the fed­er­al quota lim­its, grant first-time short stay and res­id­ence per­mits or in­crease the can­ton­al quotas. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the needs of the can­tons and over­all eco­nom­ic in­terests.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als may be per­mit­ted to work only if it is proven that no suit­able do­mest­ic em­ploy­ees or cit­izens of states with which an agree­ment on the free move­ment of work­ers has been con­cluded can be found for the job.

² Do­mest­ic em­ploy­ees in­clude:

a.

Swiss na­tion­als;

b.

per­sons with a set­tle­ment per­mit;

c.

per­sons with a res­id­ence per­mit au­thor­ising them to work;

d.²⁸

tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons;

e.²⁹

per­sons who have been gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion and have a per­mit en­titling them to take up em­ploy­ment.

³ For­eign na­tion­als with a Swiss uni­versity de­gree may be ad­mit­ted in derog­a­tion from para­graph 1 if their work is of high aca­dem­ic or eco­nom­ic in­terest. They shall be ad­mit­ted for a peri­od of six months fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of their edu­ca­tion or train­ing in Switzer­land in or­der to find suit­able work.^{30 31}

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall in­tro­duce meas­ures to make full use of the Swiss em­ploy­ment mar­ket po­ten­tial. It shall con­sult the can­tons and so­cial part­ners be­fore­hand.

² In the event of an above-av­er­age level of un­em­ploy­ment in spe­cif­ic pro­fes­sions, areas of em­ploy­ment or eco­nom­ic re­gions, tem­por­ary meas­ures shall be taken to as­sist per­sons who are re­gistered with pub­lic em­ploy­ment agen­cies as seek­ing em­ploy­ment. The meas­ures may be re­stric­ted to spe­cif­ic eco­nom­ic re­gions.

³ In the pro­fes­sions, areas of em­ploy­ment or eco­nom­ic re­gions with an above-av­er­age level of un­em­ploy­ment, em­ploy­ers must no­ti­fy the pub­lic em­ploy­ment agen­cies of va­cant po­s­i­tions. Ac­cess to in­form­a­tion about the no­ti­fied va­can­cies shall be re­stric­ted for a lim­ited peri­od to per­sons re­gistered with pub­lic em­ploy­ment agen­cies in Switzer­land.

⁴ The pub­lic em­ploy­ment agency shall with­in a short peri­od of time provide the em­ploy­ers with the rel­ev­ant de­tails of per­sons re­gistered as seek­ing em­ploy­ment. The em­ploy­er shall in­vite suit­able can­did­ates for an in­ter­view or an aptitude test. The res­ults shall be com­mu­nic­ated to the pub­lic em­ploy­ment agen­cies.

⁵ Where va­cant po­s­i­tions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 are filled by per­sons re­gistered as seek­ing em­ploy­ment with pub­lic em­ploy­ment agen­cies, it is not re­quired to no­ti­fy the pub­lic em­ploy­ment agency of the va­cant po­s­i­tions.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify ad­di­tion­al ex­cep­tions to the ob­lig­a­tion to give no­tice of va­cant po­s­i­tions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3, in par­tic­u­lar in or­der to take ac­count of the spe­cial situ­ation of fam­ily busi­nesses or in re­la­tion to per­sons who pre­vi­ously worked for the same em­ploy­er; be­fore is­su­ing the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions, it shall con­sult the can­tons and so­cial part­ners. Fur­ther­more, it shall reg­u­larly draw up lists of pro­fes­sions and areas of em­ploy­ment with above-av­er­age levels of un­em­ploy­ment in which the ob­lig­a­tion to give no­tice of va­cant po­s­i­tions ap­plies.

⁷ If the re­quire­ments of para­graph 2 are met, a can­ton may re­quest the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to in­tro­duce an ob­lig­a­tion to give no­tice of va­cant po­s­i­tions.

⁸ If the meas­ures un­der para­graphs 1–5 do not achieve the de­sired ef­fect or should new prob­lems arise, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, hav­ing con­sul­ted the can­tons and so­cial part­ners, shall sub­mit pro­pos­als for ad­di­tion­al meas­ures to the Fed­er­al As­sembly. In the event of ser­i­ous prob­lems, in par­tic­u­lar prob­lems caused by cross-bor­der com­muters, a can­ton may re­quest the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to in­tro­duce fur­ther meas­ures.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als may only be ad­mit­ted in or­der to work if:

a.

the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor are sat­is­fied; and

b.

the level of com­pens­a­tion un­der para­graph 2 is cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor.

² The em­ploy­er shall com­pensate em­ploy­ees pos­ted to Switzer­land for ex­penses they in­cur in provid­ing a cross-bor­der ser­vice or in con­nec­tion with a post­ing as part of an op­er­a­tion­al trans­fer, such as travel ex­penses and board and lodging. These com­pens­a­tion pay­ments are not re­garded as part of the salary.

³ In the case of long-term post­ings, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue pro­vi­sions on the dur­a­tion of the ob­lig­a­tion to com­pensate un­der para­graph 2.

¹ Short stay and res­id­ence per­mits for work pur­poses may only be gran­ted to man­agers, spe­cial­ists and oth­er qual­i­fied work­ers.

² In de­cid­ing wheth­er to grant res­id­ence per­mits, the pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fic­a­tions of ap­plic­ants and their pro­fes­sion­al and so­cial ad­apt­ab­il­ity, lan­guage skills and age must also in­dic­ate that there is a pro­spect of last­ing in­teg­ra­tion in the Swiss job mar­ket and the so­cial en­vir­on­ment.

³ By way of derog­a­tion from para­graphs 1 and 2, the fol­low­ing ap­plic­ants may be ad­mit­ted:

a.

in­vestors and en­tre­pren­eurs who main­tain ex­ist­ing jobs or cre­ate new jobs;

b.

re­cog­nised per­sons from the world of sci­ence, cul­ture and sport;

c.

per­sons with spe­cial pro­fes­sion­al know­ledge or skills, provided there is a need for their ad­mis­sion;

d.

per­sons who are part of an ex­ec­ut­ive trans­fer between in­ter­na­tion­ally act­ive com­pan­ies;

e.

per­sons whose activ­ity in Switzer­land is in­dis­pens­able for eco­nom­ic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness re­la­tion­ships.

For­eign na­tion­als may only be ad­mit­ted in or­der to work if suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion for them is avail­able.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als may only be ad­mit­ted as cross-bor­der com­muters in or­der to work if:

a.

they have a per­man­ent right of res­id­ence in a neigh­bour­ing state and they have had their place of res­id­ence for a min­im­um of six months in the neigh­bour­ing bor­der zone; and

b.

they work with­in the Swiss bor­der zone.

² Art­icles 20, 23 and 24 are not ap­plic­able.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als may only be ad­mit­ted to provide a tem­por­ary cross-bor­der ser­vice if their activ­ity is in the gen­er­al in­terests of the eco­nomy.

² The re­quire­ments of Art­icles 20, 22 and 23 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als may be ad­mit­ted as re­li­gious care­givers or teach­ers or as teach­ers of their nat­ive lan­guage and cul­ture if, in ad­di­tion to meet­ing the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 18–24, they:

a.

are fa­mil­i­ar with the so­cial and leg­al value sys­tem in Switzer­land and are cap­able of im­part­ing this know­ledge to the for­eign na­tion­als that they care for and teach; and

b.

they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of work.

² In de­cid­ing wheth­er to grant short stay per­mits, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may derog­ate from the re­quire­ment un­der para­graph 1 let­ter b.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als may be ad­mit­ted for edu­ca­tion or train­ing pur­poses if:³⁵

a.

the man­age­ment of the edu­ca­tion­al es­tab­lish­ment con­firms that the per­son con­cerned is eli­gible for edu­ca­tion or train­ing;

b.

suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion is avail­able;

c.

the re­quired fin­an­cial means are avail­able; and

d.³⁶

they ful­fil the per­son­al and edu­ca­tion­al re­quire­ments for the planned edu­ca­tion or train­ing course.

² In the case of minors, their su­per­vi­sion must be guar­an­teed.

³ A con­tin­ued stay in Switzer­land fol­low­ing com­ple­tion or dis­con­tinu­ation of the edu­ca­tion or train­ing course is gov­erned by the gen­er­al ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments con­tained in this Act.³⁷

For­eign na­tion­als who are no longer gain­fully em­ployed may be ad­mit­ted if:

a.

they have reached a min­im­um age set by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

b.

they have spe­cial per­son­al re­la­tions to Switzer­land; and

c.

they have the re­quired fin­an­cial means.

For­eign na­tion­als may be ad­mit­ted for med­ic­al treat­ment. Fin­an­cing and re­turn must guar­an­teed.

For­eign na­tion­als resid­ing in Switzer­land solely in or­der to seek em­ploy­ment, and their fam­ily mem­bers, are not en­titled to so­cial as­sist­ance.

¹ Derog­a­tions from the ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments (Art. 18–29) are per­mit­ted in or­der to:

a.

reg­u­late the em­ploy­ment of for­eign na­tion­als ad­mit­ted un­der the pro­vi­sions on fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion, un­less they have a right to work (Art. 46);

b.

take ac­count of ser­i­ous cases of per­son­al hard­ship or im­port­ant pub­lic in­terests;

c.

reg­u­late the peri­od of stay of foster chil­dren;

d.

pro­tect per­sons from ex­ploit­a­tion who are par­tic­u­larly at risk in view of their work;

e.³⁹

reg­u­late the peri­od of stay of vic­tims and wit­nesses of traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings and of per­sons who are co­oper­at­ing with the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies as part of a wit­ness pro­tec­tion pro­gramme or­gan­ised by Swiss or for­eign au­thor­it­ies or by an in­ter­na­tion­al crim­in­al court;

f.

per­mit peri­ods of stay as part of re­lief and de­vel­op­ment pro­jects in the in­terests of eco­nom­ic and tech­nic­al co­oper­a­tion;

g.⁴⁰

fa­cil­it­ate in­ter­na­tion­al eco­nom­ic, sci­entif­ic and cul­tur­al ex­change as well as ba­sic and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing;

h.

sim­pli­fy the trans­fer of seni­or man­age­ment staff and es­sen­tial spe­cial­ists with­in in­ter­na­tion­ally act­ive com­pan­ies;

i.⁴¹

...

j.

per­mit au-pair work­ers re­cruited through a re­cog­nised or­gan­isa­tion, to stay in Switzer­land peri­od of stay for edu­ca­tion and train­ing;

k.

fa­cil­it­ate the re-ad­mis­sion of for­eign na­tion­als who held a res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit;

l.

reg­u­late the em­ploy­ment and the par­ti­cip­a­tion in em­ploy­ment pro­grammes of asylum seekers (Art. 43 of the Asylum Act of 26 June 1998⁴², AsylA), tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons (Art. 85) and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion (Art. 75 AsylA).

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall es­tab­lish the gen­er­al con­di­tions and reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure.

¹ Any per­son re­cog­nised as state­less by Switzer­land has the right to a res­id­ence per­mit in the can­ton in which they are law­fully resid­ing.

² If the state­less per­son sat­is­fies the cri­ter­ia in Art­icle 83para­graph 7, the pro­vi­sions on tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons of Art­icle 83 para­graph 8 ap­ply.

³ State­less per­sons in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 and state­less per­sons who are sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icles 66a or 66a^bis SCC⁴³ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC⁴⁴, or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act may work any­where in Switzer­land.⁴⁵ Art­icle 61 AsylA⁴⁶ ap­plies by ana­logy.⁴⁷

¹ The short stay per­mit is gran­ted for lim­ited peri­ods of stay of up to one year.

² It is gran­ted for a spe­cif­ic pur­pose of stay and may be made sub­ject to ad­di­tion­al con­di­tions.

³ It may be ex­ten­ded by up to two years. A change of job is only pos­sible for good cause.

⁴ The short stay per­mit may only be gran­ted again after an ap­pro­pri­ate in­ter­rup­tion of stay in Switzer­land.

¹ The res­id­ence per­mit is gran­ted for peri­ods of stay with of more than a year.

² It is gran­ted for a spe­cif­ic pur­pose of stay and may be made sub­ject to ad­di­tion­al con­di­tions.

³ It is sub­ject to a time lim­it and may be ex­ten­ded, provided there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 para­graph 1⁴⁸.

⁴ When the res­id­ence per­mit is gran­ted or ex­ten­ded, the in­teg­ra­tion of the per­son con­cerned will be taken in­to ac­count to de­term­ine the peri­od of valid­ity.⁴⁹

⁵ The grant­ing and ex­ten­sion of the res­id­ence per­mit may be linked to the con­clu­sion of an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment if there is a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a.⁵⁰

¹ The set­tle­ment per­mit is gran­ted for an un­lim­ited dur­a­tion and without con­di­tions.

² For­eign na­tion­als may be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if:

a.

they have resided in Switzer­land for a min­im­um of ten years in total on the basis of a short stay or res­id­ence per­mit and have held a res­id­ence per­mit without in­ter­rup­tion for the last five years;

b.⁵¹

there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 or 63 para­graph 2; and

c.⁵²

they are in­teg­rated.

³ The set­tle­ment per­mit may be gran­ted after a short­er qual­i­fy­ing peri­od if there is good cause.

⁴ For­eign na­tion­als may be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if they have resided in Switzer­land for the past five years without in­ter­rup­tion while hold­ing a res­id­ence per­mit, if they meet the re­quire­ments of para­graph 2 let­ters b and c, and if they are able to com­mu­nic­ate well in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence.⁵³

⁵ Tem­por­ary peri­ods of stay, in par­tic­u­lar for edu­ca­tion or train­ing (Art. 27), do not count to­wards the un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of stay in the last five years in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 2 let­ter a and 4.Peri­ods of stay for edu­ca­tion or train­ing (Art. 27) are in­cluded if the per­son con­cerned, after their com­ple­tion, held a set­tle­ment per­mit for an un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of two years.⁵⁴

⁶ If the set­tle­ment per­mit has been re­voked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 63 para­graph 2 and re­placed by a res­id­ence per­mit, the set­tle­ment per­mit may be gran­ted again at the earli­est five years after in­teg­ra­tion has been suc­cess­ful.⁵⁵

¹ The cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit is gran­ted for em­ploy­ment in a bor­der zone (Art. 25).

² Per­sons with a cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit must re­turn to their place of res­id­ence abroad at least once a week; the cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit may be made sub­ject to ad­di­tion­al con­di­tions.

³ It is sub­ject to a time lim­it and may be ex­ten­ded.

⁴ After an un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of em­ploy­ment of five years, the hold­er has the right to ex­tend a cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit, provided there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 para­graph 1.

Per­sons with a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit are free to choose their place of res­id­ence with­in the can­ton that gran­ted the per­mit.

¹ Per­sons with a short stay per­mit or a res­id­ence per­mit who would like to re­lo­cate their place of res­id­ence to an­oth­er can­ton must ap­ply for the ap­pro­pri­ate per­mit from the new can­ton be­fore­hand.

² Per­sons with a res­id­ence per­mit are en­titled to move to an­oth­er can­ton provided they are not un­em­ployed and there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 para­graph 1.

³ Per­sons with a set­tle­ment per­mit are en­titled to move to an­oth­er can­ton, provided there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 63.

⁴ No per­mit is re­quired for a tem­por­ary stay in an­oth­er can­ton.

¹ Per­sons with a short stay per­mit who are ad­mit­ted in or­der to be self-em­ployed or to en­gage in salar­ied em­ploy­ment may work as au­thor­ised any­where in Switzer­land. A change of job may be ap­proved, if there is good cause and the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 22 and 23 are ful­filled.

² Per­sons with a res­id­ence per­mit who are ad­mit­ted in or­der to be self-em­ployed or to en­gage in salar­ied em­ploy­ment may work any­where in Switzer­land. They re­quire no ad­di­tion­al au­thor­isa­tion to change jobs.

³ Per­sons with a res­id­ence per­mit may be au­thor­ised to be­come self-em­ployed if the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 19 let­ters a and b are ful­filled.

⁴ Per­sons with a set­tle­ment per­mit may be self-em­ployed or en­gage in salar­ied em­ploy­ment any­where in Switzer­land.

¹ Per­sons with a cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit may work tem­por­ar­ily out­side the bor­der zone. If they want to move the fo­cus of their em­ploy­ment to the bor­der zone of an­oth­er can­ton, they must ap­ply for a per­mit from the new can­ton be­fore­hand. After work­ing for an un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of five years, cross bor­der com­muters are en­titled to change can­tons.

² Per­sons with a cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit may be au­thor­ised to change jobs if the re­quire­ments in terms of Art­icles 21 and 22 are ful­filled. After work­ing for an un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of five years, cross bor­der com­muters are en­titled to change jobs.

³ Per­sons with a cross-bor­der com­muter per­mit may be au­thor­ised to be­come self-em­ployed, if the re­quire­ments in terms of Art­icle 19 let­ters a and b are ful­filled.

¹ The per­mits in terms of Art­icles 32–35 and 37–39 are gran­ted by the can­tons. The Con­fed­er­a­tion re­mains re­spons­ible for quotas (Art. 20) as well as for derog­a­tions from the ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments (Art. 30) and for the ap­prov­al pro­ced­ure (Art. 99).

² If a for­eign na­tion­al is not en­titled to work, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity is re­quired to is­sue a pre­lim­in­ary de­cision based on the em­ploy­ment mar­ket in or­der to au­thor­ise em­ploy­ment, a change of job, or a change to self-em­ploy­ment.

³ If a can­ton sub­mits an ap­plic­a­tion to grant a short stay or res­id­ence per­mit in terms of the fed­er­al quotas, SEM shall is­sue a pre­lim­in­ary de­cision based on the em­ploy­ment mar­ket.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als nor­mally re­ceive a cor­res­pond­ing iden­tity card with the per­mit.

² Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons (Art. 83) an iden­tity card that in­dic­ates their leg­al status.

³ Iden­tity cards for per­sons with a set­tle­ment per­mit are is­sued for five years for con­trol pur­poses.

⁴ The iden­tity card may carry a data chip. This con­tains the por­trait pho­to­graph and fin­ger­prints of the hold­er and the data con­tained in the ma­chine-read­able zone.⁵⁶

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil spe­cifies which per­sons are is­sued with an iden­tity card with a data chip and which data must be stored on the chip.⁵⁷

⁶ SEM spe­cifies the form and the con­tent of iden­tity cards. It may del­eg­ate the pro­duc­tion of iden­tity cards wholly or partly to third parties.⁵⁸

¹ The data chip must be pro­tec­ted against coun­ter­feit­ing and its un­au­thor­ised read­ing. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the tech­nic­al re­quire­ments.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is au­thor­ised to enter in­to agree­ments with the states bound by any of the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments and with oth­er states on the read­ing of the fin­ger­prints stored on the data chip, provided the states con­cerned guar­an­tee a level of data pro­tec­tion equi­val­ent to that in Switzer­land.

¹ The of­fice en­trus­ted with is­su­ing bio­met­ric iden­tity cards and the gen­er­al con­tract­ors con­cerned must prove that:

a.

they have the re­quired spe­cial­ist know­ledge and qual­i­fic­a­tions;

b.

they guar­an­tee the se­cure, high qual­ity and punc­tu­al pro­duc­tion of iden­tity cards in ac­cord­ance with the spe­cific­a­tions;

c.

they guar­an­tee com­pli­ance with the data pro­tec­tion re­quire­ments; and

d.

they have suf­fi­cient fin­an­cial re­sources.

² Be­ne­fi­cial own­ers, share­hold­ers and mem­bers of the board or an equi­val­ent man­age­ment body, ex­ec­ut­ive man­agers and oth­er per­sons who have or could have a sig­ni­fic­ant in­flu­ence on the un­der­tak­ing or pro­duc­tion of for­eign na­tion­al iden­tity cards must be of good repu­ta­tion. Se­cur­ity screen­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 of the Or­din­ance of 19 Decem­ber 2001⁶¹ on Per­son­nel Se­cur­ity Screen­ing may be car­ried out.

³ SEM may at any time re­quest the doc­u­ments ne­ces­sary to veri­fy com­pli­ance with the re­quire­ments lis­ted in para­graphs 1 and 2. If the is­su­ing of­fice is part of a cor­por­ate group, the re­quire­ments ap­ply to the en­tire group.

⁴ The pro­vi­sions of para­graphs 1–3 ap­ply to ser­vice pro­viders and sup­pli­ers if the products or ser­vices provided are es­sen­tial for the pro­duc­tion of the identi­fy cards.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the ad­di­tion­al re­quire­ments to be met by the is­su­ing of­fice, gen­er­al con­tract­ors, ser­vice pro­viders and sup­pli­ers.

¹ The for­eign spouse and un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 of a Swiss na­tion­al who live with the Swiss na­tion­al are en­titled to be gran­ted a res­id­ence per­mit and to have their res­id­ence per­mit ex­ten­ded.

² For­eign fam­ily mem­bers of Swiss na­tion­als are en­titled are en­titled to be gran­ted a res­id­ence per­mit and to have their res­id­ence per­mit ex­ten­ded if they are in the pos­ses­sion of a set­tle­ment per­mit from a coun­try with which an agree­ment on the free move­ment of per­sons has been con­cluded. Fam­ily mem­bers are:

a.

the spouse and the re­l­at­ives in the des­cend­ing line who are un­der 21 or who are de­pend­ants;

b.

the re­l­at­ives of either spouse in the as­cend­ing line who are de­pend­ants.

³ After a law-abid­ing and un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of stay of five years, a for­eign spouse is en­titled to be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met.⁶²

⁴ Chil­dren un­der twelve are en­titled to be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit.

¹ The for­eign spouse and un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 of a per­son with a set­tle­ment per­mit are en­titled to be gran­ted a res­id­ence per­mit and to have their res­id­ence per­mit ex­ten­ded provided:

a.

they live with that per­son;

b.

suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion is avail­able;

c.

they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;

d.

they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence; and

e.

the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 2006⁶⁴ on Be­ne­fits sup­ple­ment­ary to the Old Age, Sur­viv­ors’ and In­valid­ity In­sur­ance (SBA) or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

² In or­der to ob­tain a res­id­ence per­mit, it is suf­fi­cient to re­gister for a lan­guage sup­port pro­gramme as an al­tern­at­ive to meet­ing the re­quire­ment set out in para­graph 1 let­ter d.

³ In the case of un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der the age of 18, the re­quire­ment in para­graph 1 let­ter d does not ap­ply.

⁴ The grant­ing and ex­ten­sion of the res­id­ence per­mit may be linked to the con­clu­sion of an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment if there is a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a.

⁵ After a law-abid­ing and un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of stay of five years, spouses are en­titled to be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met.

⁶ Chil­dren un­der twelve are en­titled to be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit.

The for­eign spouse and un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 of a per­son with a res­id­ence per­mit may be gran­ted a res­id­ence per­mit or an ex­ten­sion there­of if:

a.

they live with the per­mit hold­er;

b.

suit­able hous­ing is avail­able;

c.

they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;

d.

they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence; and

e.

the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits ac­cord­ing to the SBA⁶⁶ or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

² In or­der to ob­tain a res­id­ence per­mit, it is suf­fi­cient to re­gister for a lan­guage sup­port pro­gramme as an al­tern­at­ive to meet­ing the re­quire­ment set out in para­graph 1 let­ter d.

³ In the case of un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der the age of 18, the re­quire­ment laid out in para­graph 1 let­ter d does not ap­ply.

⁴ The grant­ing and ex­ten­sion of the res­id­ence per­mit may be linked to the con­clu­sion of an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment if there is a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a.

The for­eign spouses and un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 of a per­son with a short stay per­mit may be gran­ted a short stay per­mit, if:

a.

they live with the per­mit hold­er;

b.

suit­able hous­ing is avail­able;

c.

they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance; and

d.⁶⁷

the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits ac­cord­ing to the SBA⁶⁸ or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

If, on as­sess­ing the re­uni­fic­a­tion of spouses in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 42–45, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies have reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds un­der Art­icle 105 num­bers 5 or 6 of the Civil Code⁷⁰ (CC) for the mar­riage to be an­nulled, they shall re­port this to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity un­der Art­icle 106 CC. The re­quest for the re­uni­fic­a­tion of spouses is sus­pen­ded un­til this au­thor­ity makes its de­cision. If the au­thor­ity raises an ac­tion for an­nul­ment, the re­quest is sus­pen­ded un­til a leg­ally bind­ing judg­ment has been is­sued.

The spouse and chil­dren of a Swiss na­tion­al or of a per­son with a set­tle­ment per­mit or a res­id­ence per­mit (Art. 42–44) may work on a salar­ied or self-em­ployed basis any­where in Switzer­land.

¹ The right to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion must be ex­er­cised with­in five years. Chil­dren over twelve must be re­uni­fied with their fam­ily with­in twelve months.

² The fore­go­ing time lim­its do not ap­ply to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 42 para­graph 2.

³ The time lim­its for fam­ily mem­bers of:

a.

Swiss na­tion­als in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 42 para­graph 1 be­gin on their entry or with the con­sti­tu­tion of the fam­ily re­la­tion­ship;

b.

for­eign na­tion­als be­gin with the grant­ing of a res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit or with the con­sti­tu­tion of the fam­ily re­la­tion­ship.

⁴ A sub­sequent fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion shall be au­thor­ised only if there are im­port­ant fam­ily reas­ons there­for. If ne­ces­sary, chil­dren over 14 shall be con­sul­ted on fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

¹ Foster chil­dren are en­titled to re­ceive a res­id­ence per­mit and to have their res­id­ence per­mit ex­ten­ded if:

a.

their ad­op­tion is planned in Switzer­land;

b.

the re­quire­ments un­der civil law for the ad­op­tion of foster chil­dren are ful­filled; and

c.

their entry for the pur­pose the ad­op­tion was law­ful.

² If the ad­op­tion falls through, the foster chil­dren are en­titled to an ex­ten­sion of their res­id­ence per­mit and, five years after entry, they are en­titled to be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit.

The re­quire­ment of co­hab­it­a­tion in terms of Art­icles 42–44 does not ap­ply if good cause is shown for liv­ing sep­ar­ately and the fam­ily house­hold con­tin­ues to ex­ist.

¹ The re­quire­ment of Art­icles 43 para­graph 1 let­ter d and 44 para­graph 1 let­ter d may be waived where there is good cause.

² The fol­low­ing shall be re­garded as good cause, in par­tic­u­lar: a dis­ab­il­ity, ill­ness or oth­er re­stric­tion lead­ing to a sub­stan­tial impair­ment of the abil­ity to learn a lan­guage.

¹ After the dis­sol­u­tion of the mar­riage or of the fam­ily house­hold, the right of a spouse and the chil­dren to be gran­ted a res­id­ence per­mit and to have their res­id­ence per­mit ex­ten­ded in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 42 and 43 sub­sists if:

a.⁷²

the mar­riage las­ted at least three years and the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met; or

b.

im­port­ant per­son­al reas­ons make an ex­ten­ded res­id­ency in Switzer­land ne­ces­sary.

² There are im­port­ant per­son­al reas­ons in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter b in par­tic­u­lar if a spouse has been the vic­tim of mar­it­al vi­ol­ence or did not marry of his or her own free will and so­cial re­in­teg­ra­tion in the coun­try of ori­gin ap­pears to be ser­i­ously pre­ju­diced.⁷³

³ The time lim­it for be­ing gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit is gov­erned by Art­icle 34.

¹ The rights in terms of Art­icle 42 ex­pire if:

a.

they are ex­er­cised un­law­fully, in par­tic­u­lar to cir­cum­vent the reg­u­la­tions of this Act and of its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on ad­mis­sion and res­id­ence;

b.

there are grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 63.

² The rights in terms of Art­icles 43, 48 and 50 ex­pire if:

a.

they are ex­er­cised un­law­fully, in par­tic­u­lar to cir­cum­vent the reg­u­la­tions of this Act and of its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on ad­mis­sion and res­id­ency;

b.⁷⁴

there are grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 or 63 para­graph 2.

The pro­vi­sions of this Chapter on for­eign spouses ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to re­gistered part­ner­ships of same-sex couples.

¹ In ful­filling their tasks, the Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes shall take ac­count of in­teg­ra­tion con­cerns and of pro­tec­tion against dis­crim­in­a­tion.

² They shall cre­ate fa­vour­able reg­u­lat­ory con­di­tions for equal op­por­tun­it­ies and for the par­ti­cip­a­tion of the for­eign pop­u­la­tion in pub­lic life. They shall make use of the po­ten­tial of the for­eign pop­u­la­tion, take ac­count of di­versity and en­cour­age in­di­vidu­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

³ They shall in par­tic­u­lar en­cour­age for­eign na­tion­als to de­vel­op their lan­guage skills and oth­er ba­sic skills, to ad­vance pro­fes­sion­ally and to take pre­vent­ive health care meas­ures; they shall also sup­port ef­forts that fa­cil­it­ate co-ex­ist­ence and mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing between the Swiss and the for­eign pop­u­la­tion.

⁴ The au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes, so­cial part­ners, non-gov­ern­ment­al or­gan­isa­tions and ex­pat­ri­ate’ or­gan­isa­tions shall co­oper­ate to en­cour­age in­teg­ra­tion.

⁵ The can­ton­al so­cial as­sist­ance au­thor­it­ies shall re­gister re­cog­nised refugees and tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons who are un­em­ployed with the pub­lic em­ploy­ment agen­cies.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine which groups of per­sons re­quire in­teg­ra­tion sup­port. It shall con­sult the can­tons and the com­mun­al as­so­ci­ations in ad­vance.

² Pri­or­ity shall be giv­en to ad­dress­ing the con­cerns re­lated to the in­teg­ra­tion of wo­men, chil­dren and young people.

In­teg­ra­tion sup­port shall be provided with­in ex­ist­ing stand­ard struc­tures at fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al level, namely:

a.

in pre-school, school and ex­tra­cur­ricular care and edu­ca­tion ser­vices;

b.

in the world of work;

c.

in so­cial se­cur­ity in­sti­tu­tions;

d.

in health­care;

e.

in spa­tial plan­ning, urb­an and neigh­bour­hood de­vel­op­ment;

f.

in sport, the me­dia and cul­ture.

The spe­cif­ic ap­proaches to en­cour­aging in­teg­ra­tion at fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al level shall com­ple­ment the in­teg­ra­tion sup­port provided in the stand­ard struc­tures in cases where such sup­port is not ac­cess­ible or where there are gaps in pro­vi­sion.

The can­tons shall provide ap­pro­pri­ate in­teg­ra­tion meas­ures for per­sons with spe­cial in­teg­ra­tion needs as soon as pos­sible. The Con­fed­er­a­tion sup­ports the can­tons in this task.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the in­teg­ra­tion policy with­in the re­mit of the Con­fed­er­a­tion. It shall en­sure that the fed­er­al of­fices, to­geth­er with the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, take meas­ures to en­cour­age in­teg­ra­tion and to pre­vent dis­crim­in­a­tion.

² SEM shall co­ordin­ate the meas­ures by the fed­er­al of­fices to en­cour­age in­teg­ra­tion and to pre­vent dis­crim­in­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar in the areas of so­cial se­cur­ity, vo­ca­tion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing, con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion, and health­care. The fed­er­al of­fices shall in­volve SEM in activ­it­ies that may have an im­pact on in­teg­ra­tion.

³ SEM shall en­sure there is an ex­change of in­form­a­tion and ex­per­i­ences with the can­tons, com­munes and oth­er parties in­volved.

⁴ The can­tons shall de­term­ine the in­teg­ra­tion policy with­in their re­mit. They shall en­sur that the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, to­geth­er with the com­pet­ent com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies, take meas­ures to en­cour­age in­teg­ra­tion and to pre­vent dis­crim­in­a­tion. They are SEM’s con­tact points for in­teg­ra­tion is­sues and shall en­sure there is an ex­change of in­form­a­tion and ex­per­i­ences with the com­munes.

⁵ In co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons, SEM shall peri­od­ic­ally re­view the in­teg­ra­tion of the for­eign pop­u­la­tion and guar­an­tee qual­ity as­sur­ance in the meas­ures to en­cour­age in­teg­ra­tion.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes shall provide in­form­a­tion and ad­vice to for­eign na­tion­als on liv­ing and work­ing con­di­tions in Switzer­land, and in par­tic­u­lar on their rights and ob­lig­a­tions.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall provide for­eign na­tion­als with in­form­a­tion on pro­grammes for en­cour­aging in­teg­ra­tion.

³ The can­tons are re­spons­ible for provid­ing ini­tial in­form­a­tion to for­eign na­tion­als who have newly ar­rived from abroad. The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall sup­port the can­tons in this task.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes shall in­form the pop­u­la­tion about in­teg­ra­tion policy and the spe­cial situ­ation of for­eign na­tion­als.

⁵ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes may del­eg­ate the tasks set out in para­graphs 1–4 to third parties.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall grant fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions to pro­mote in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 2 and 3. These con­tri­bu­tions sup­ple­ment the pay­ments made by the can­tons to pro­mote in­teg­ra­tion. It shall in par­tic­u­lar sub­sid­ise pro­jects that sup­port the ac­quis­i­tion of a na­tion­al lan­guage. Con­tri­bu­tions are nor­mally only gran­ted if the can­tons, com­munes or third parties share the costs ap­pro­pri­ately.

² The con­tri­bu­tions for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons, re­cog­nised refugees and vul­ner­able per­sons with res­id­ence per­mits whose so­cial as­sist­ance costs are re­im­bursed to the can­tons by the Con­fed­er­a­tion un­der Art­icle 87 of this Act and Art­icles 88 and 89 of the AsylA⁸⁴ shall be gran­ted to the can­tons as flat-rate pay­ments for in­teg­ra­tion or fund­ing for can­ton­al in­teg­ra­tion pro­grammes. They may be made de­pend­ent on the achieve­ment of so­cio-polit­ic­al goals and be re­stric­ted to spe­cif­ic groups.

³ The oth­er con­tri­bu­tions shall be gran­ted for fund­ing can­ton­al in­teg­ra­tion pro­grammes and pro­grammes and pro­jects of na­tion­al im­port­ance that help to pro­mote the in­teg­ra­tion of for­eign na­tion­als ir­re­spect­ive of their status. The co­ordin­a­tion and con­duct of pro­gramme and pro­ject activ­it­ies may be del­eg­ated to third parties.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall fix the level of the fed­er­al con­tri­bu­tions un­der para­graphs 2 and 3.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil, in con­sulta­tion with the can­tons, shall in­dic­ate the areas re­quir­ing aid and reg­u­late the de­tails of the pro­ced­ure un­der para­graphs 2 and 3.

¹ When as­sess­ing in­teg­ra­tion, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall take the fol­low­ing cri­ter­ia in­to ac­count:

a.

re­spect for pub­lic safety, se­cur­ity and or­der;

b.

re­spect for the val­ues of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;

c.

lan­guage skills; and

d.

par­ti­cip­a­tion in work­ing life or ef­forts to ac­quire an edu­ca­tion.

² Due ac­count shall be taken of the situ­ation of per­sons who be­cause of dis­ab­il­ity or ill­ness or oth­er im­port­ant per­son­al cir­cum­stances are un­able to meet or have dif­fi­culty meet­ing the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia re­ferred to in para­graph 1 let­ters c and d.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine which lan­guage skills are re­quired when grant­ing or re­new­ing a per­mit.

¹ The in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment sets out the ob­ject­ives, meas­ures and time frame for in­di­vidu­ally agreed in­teg­ra­tion sup­port. It also reg­u­lates fin­an­cing.

² In par­tic­u­lar, it may con­tain ob­ject­ives for ac­quir­ing lan­guage skills, for in­teg­ra­tion at school or at work, for eco­nom­ic in­teg­ra­tion and for ac­quir­ing know­ledge of liv­ing con­di­tions, the eco­nom­ic sys­tem and the leg­al sys­tem in Switzer­land.

³ If the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies re­quire the con­clu­sion of an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment, the res­id­ence per­mit shall not be is­sued or re­newed un­til the agree­ment has been con­cluded.

⁴ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may is­sue re­com­mend­a­tions to per­sons to whom Art­icle 2 para­graphs 2 and 3 and Art­icle 42 ap­ply.

¹ SEM may is­sue travel doc­u­ments⁸⁸ to for­eign na­tion­als without iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments.

² For­eign na­tion­als are en­titled to travel doc­u­ments if:

a.

they meet refugee status in ac­cord­ance with the Agree­ment of 28 Ju­ly 1951⁸⁹ on the Leg­al Status of Refugees;

b.

they are re­cog­nised as state­less per­sons by Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with the Treaty of 28 Septem­ber 1954⁹⁰ on the Leg­al Status of State­less Per­sons;

c.

they do not have iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments but hold a set­tle­ment per­mit.

³ Any per­son who has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad, or who rep­res­ents a threat to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, or who is sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bisSCC⁹¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC⁹² does not have a right to travel doc­u­ments.⁹³

⁴ ...⁹⁴

⁵and⁶ ...⁹⁵

¹ Travel doc­u­ments for for­eign na­tion­als may be fur­nished with a data chip. The data chip may con­tain a di­git­al­ised fa­cial im­age, the fin­ger­prints of the hold­er and fur­ther per­son­al data, as well as de­tails of the travel doc­u­ment. The data spe­cified in Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ter g of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 June 2003⁹⁷ on the In­form­a­tion Sys­tem on Mat­ters re­lat­ing to For­eign Na­tion­als and Asylum may also be stored on the chip. Art­icle 2a of the Fed­er­al Iden­tity Doc­u­ments Act of 22 June 2001⁹⁸ (IDA) ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the types of travel doc­u­ments for for­eign na­tion­als that will be fur­nished with a data chip and what data is to be stored there­on.

¹ The task of re­cord­ing bio­met­ric data and for­ward­ing iden­tity card data to the is­su­ing body may be del­eg­ated wholly or in part to third parties. Art­icle 6a IDA¹⁰⁰ ap­plies by ana­logy.

² SEM and the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for deal­ing with ap­plic­a­tions for the is­sue of travel doc­u­ments may pro­cess bio­met­ric data already re­cor­ded in the Cent­ral Mi­gra­tion In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (ZEMIS) in or­der to is­sue or re­new a travel doc­u­ment.

³ The bio­met­ric data re­quired for the is­sue of a travel doc­u­ment shall be up­dated every five years. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may spe­cify a short­er peri­od for the up­dat­ing of data if this is re­quired due to changes in the fa­cial fea­tures of the per­son con­cerned.

¹ Refugees are for­bid­den to travel to their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin. If there is a jus­ti­fied sus­pi­cion that this ban on travel will be dis­reg­arded, SEM may ban all refugees from the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin con­cerned from trav­el­ling to oth­er states, and in par­tic­u­lar to states neigh­bour­ing their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin.

² SEM may au­thor­ise a per­son to travel to a state sub­ject to a travel ban in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 second sen­tence if there is good cause for do­ing so.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may fa­cil­it­ate the in­de­pend­ent and prop­er exit of for­eign na­tion­als by provid­ing re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance.

² The fol­low­ing per­sons may claim re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance:

a.

per­sons who left their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin due to a ser­i­ous gen­er­al danger, in par­tic­u­lar due to war, civil war, or a situ­ation of gen­er­al vi­ol­ence or were un­able to re­turn there for the dur­a­tion of the danger, provided their res­id­ency was reg­u­lated in ac­cord­ance with this Act and they have been re­quired to leave Switzer­land;

b.

per­sons covered by Art­icle 30 para­graph 1 let­ters d and e;

c.¹⁰²

tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons who have left Switzer­land of their own vo­li­tion or whose tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion has been re­voked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 84 para­graph 2.

³ Re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance in­cludes:

a.

re­turn coun­selling in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA¹⁰³;

a^bis.

ac­cess to pro­jects in Switzer­land aim­ing to pre­serve the abil­ity to re­turn in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter b AsylA;

b.

par­ti­cip­a­tion in pro­jects in the nat­ive coun­try, coun­try of ori­gin or third coun­try that fa­cil­it­ate re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter c AsylA;

c.

fin­an­cial sup­port in in­di­vidu­al cases to fa­cil­it­ate in­teg­ra­tion or to provide med­ic­al care in the nat­ive coun­try, coun­try of ori­gin or third coun­try in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter d AsylA.¹⁰⁴

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­quire­ments and the pro­ced­ure re­gard­ing the pay­ment and ac­count­ing of the con­tri­bu­tions.

¹ A per­mit ex­pires:

a.

on no­tice of de­par­ture abroad;

b.

on the grant of a per­mit in an­oth­er can­ton;

c.

on the ex­piry of the term of valid­ity of the per­mit;

d.

on ex­pul­sion in terms of Art­icle 68;

e.¹⁰⁶

on the hold­er be­com­ing sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a SCC¹⁰⁷ or Art­icle 49a MCC¹⁰⁸;

f.¹⁰⁹

on the en­force­ment of an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a^bis SCC or 49a^bis MCC.

² If a for­eign na­tion­al leaves Switzer­land without giv­ing no­tice of de­par­ture, a short stay per­mit ex­pires after three months, and a res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit after six months. On re­quest, a set­tle­ment per­mit may re­main val­id for a fur­ther four years.

¹ The right of res­id­ence of cit­izens of EU and EFTA mem­ber states with a short-stay per­mit shall ex­pire six months after the in­vol­un­tary ter­min­a­tion of their em­ploy­ment. The right of res­id­ence of cit­izens of EU and EFTA mem­ber states with a res­id­ence per­mit shall ex­pire six months after the in­vol­un­tary ter­min­a­tion of their em­ploy­ment if em­ploy­ment ends with­in the first twelve months of their res­id­ence.

² If un­em­ploy­ment be­ne­fit con­tin­ues to be paid on ex­piry of the six-month peri­od in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1, the right of res­id­ence ex­pires when the be­ne­fit is no longer paid.

³ There is no right to so­cial as­sist­ance in the peri­od from the ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment un­til the ex­piry of the right of res­id­ence in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2.

⁴ In the event of in­vol­un­tary ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment fol­low­ing the first twelve months of res­id­ence, the right of res­id­ence of cit­izens of EU and EFTA mem­ber states with a res­id­ence per­mit ex­pires six months after the ter­min­a­tion of their em­ploy­ment. If un­em­ploy­ment be­ne­fit con­tin­ues to be paid on ex­piry of this six-month peri­od, the right of res­id­ence ex­pires six months after the be­ne­fit is no longer paid.

⁵ Para­graphs 1–4 do not ap­ply in the event of ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment due to tem­por­ary un­fit­ness for work be­cause of ill­ness, ac­ci­dent or in­valid­ity, nor in the case of per­sons who hold a right to re­main un­der the Agree­ment of 21 June 1999¹¹¹ on Free­dom of Move­ment (AFMP) between the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion on the one hand and the European Com­munity and their Mem­ber States on the oth­er or un­der the Con­ven­tion of 4 Janu­ary 1960¹¹² es­tab­lish­ing the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation (EFTA Con­ven­tion).

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may re­voke per­mits, with the ex­cep­tion of a set­tle­ment per­mit, and oth­er rul­ings un­der this Act if the for­eign na­tion­al:

a.

or their rep­res­ent­at­ive in the per­mit pro­ced­ure makes false state­ments or con­ceals ma­ter­i­al facts;

b.

has been giv­en a long cus­todi­al sen­tence or has been made sub­ject to a crim­in­al meas­ure in terms of Art­icles 59^–61 or 64 of the SCC¹¹⁴;

c.

has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;

d.

fails to ful­fil an ob­lig­a­tion linked to the de­cision;

e.

or a per­son they must care for is de­pend­ent on so­cial as­sist­ance;

f.¹¹⁵

has at­temp­ted to ob­tain Swiss cit­izen­ship un­law­fully or his or her Swiss cit­izen­ship has been re­voked based on a leg­ally bind­ing rul­ing is­sued in con­nec­tion with a de­clar­a­tion of nullity un­der Art­icle 36 of the Swiss Cit­izen­ship Act of 20 June 2014¹¹⁶;

g.¹¹⁷

does not com­ply with an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment without due cause.

² Re­voc­a­tion is not per­mit­ted if jus­ti­fied solely by con­vic­tion for an of­fence for which a sen­tence or meas­ure has been im­posed, where the court has re­frained from im­pos­ing an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land.

¹ A set­tle­ment per­mit may be re­voked only if:

a.¹¹⁸

the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 62 para­graph 1 let­ter a or b are ful­filled;

b.

the for­eign na­tion­al has ser­i­ously vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;

c.

the for­eign na­tion­al or a per­son they must care for is de­pend­ent per­man­ently and to a large ex­tent on so­cial as­sist­ance;

d.¹¹⁹

the for­eign na­tion­al has at­temp­ted to ob­tain Swiss cit­izen­ship un­law­fully or his or her Swiss cit­izen­ship has been re­voked based on a leg­ally bind­ing rul­ing is­sued in con­nec­tion with a de­clar­a­tion of nullity un­der Art­icle 36 of the Swiss Cit­izen­ship Act of 20 June 2014¹²⁰;

e.¹²¹

...

² A set­tle­ment per­mit may be re­voked and re­placed by a res­id­ence per­mit if the res­id­ence cri­ter­ia re­ferred to in Art­icle 58a have not been met.¹²²

³ Re­voc­a­tion is not per­mit­ted if jus­ti­fied solely by con­vic­tion for an of­fence for which a sen­tence or meas­ure has been im­posed, where the court has re­frained from im­pos­ing an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land.¹²³

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall is­sue an or­din­ary re­mov­al or­der if:

a.

a for­eign na­tion­al does not pos­sess a re­quired per­mit;

b.

a for­eign na­tion­al does not ful­fil or no longer ful­fils the entry re­quire­ments (Art. 5);

c.

a for­eign na­tion­al is re­fused a per­mit, or the per­mit is re­voked or not ex­ten­ded fol­low­ing a per­mit­ted peri­od of stay.

² Where for­eign na­tion­als who are il­leg­ally res­id­ent in Switzer­land hold a val­id res­id­ence doc­u­ment for an­oth­er State that is bound by one of the Schen­gen-As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments¹²⁵ (a Schen­gen State), they must be re­ques­ted without any form­al pro­ced­ure to pro­ceed im­me­di­ately to that State. If they fail to com­ply with this re­quest, an or­der in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 must be is­sued. If im­me­di­ate de­par­ture is re­quired on grounds of pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, an or­der must be is­sued without a pri­or re­quest to leave.

³ An ap­peal against or­ders un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a and b must be filed with­in five work­ing days of no­ti­fic­a­tion of the or­der. The ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect. The ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall de­cide with­in ten days on wheth­er sus­pens­ive ef­fect will ap­ply.

⁴ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall im­me­di­ately ap­point a rep­res­ent­at­ive for any un­ac­com­pan­ied minor for­eign na­tion­al to safe­guard the minor's in­terests dur­ing the re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the role, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and du­ties of the rep­res­ent­at­ive men­tioned in para­graph 4.¹²⁶

¹ If a dif­fer­ent state that is bound by one of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments (para. 4) is re­spons­ible for con­duct­ing an asylum pro­ced­ure on the basis of Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No. 604/2013¹²⁸ (Dub­lin State), SEM shall is­sue a re­mov­al or­der against a per­son who is resid­ing il­leg­ally in Switzer­land.¹²⁹

² An ap­peal must be filed with­in five work­ing days of no­ti­fic­a­tion of the or­der. The ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect. The for­eign na­tion­al may ap­ply for the or­der to be sus­pen­ded with­in the dead­line for fil­ing the ap­peal. The Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court shall de­cide on the mat­ter with­in five days of re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion. If the re­mov­al or­der is not sus­pen­ded with­in this peri­od, it may be en­forced.

³ The can­ton of res­id­ence of the for­eign na­tion­al con­cerned is re­spons­ible for the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or­der and, if ne­ces­sary, for the pay­ment and fund­ing of so­cial and emer­gency as­sist­ance.

^3bis In the case of un­ac­com­pan­ied minors, Art­icle 64 para­graph 4 ap­plies.¹³⁰

⁴ The Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex 1 no. 2.

Where a per­son has entered Switzer­land il­leg­ally, they are no­ti­fied of the re­mov­al or­der by means of a stand­ard form.

¹ For­eign na­tion­als shall be re­moved without be­ing sub­jec­ted to any form­al pro­ced­ure if:

a.

they are be­ing re­ad­mit­ted by Bel­gi­um, Ger­many, Es­to­nia, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Lux­em­bourg, the Neth­er­lands, Nor­way, Aus­tria, Po­land, Sweden, Slov­akia, Slov­e­nia, Spain or Hun­gary on the basis of a read­mis­sion agree­ment;

b.¹³³

they have been re­fused entry pre­vi­ously in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code¹³⁴.

² If re­ques­ted im­me­di­ately by the per­son con­cerned, an or­der shall be is­sued on a stand­ard form (Art. 64b).

¹ On is­su­ing the re­mov­al or­der, an ap­pro­pri­ate de­par­ture dead­line of between sev­en and thirty days must be set. A longer peri­od must be set or the de­par­ture dead­line ex­ten­ded if spe­cial cir­cum­stances such as the fam­ily situ­ation, health prob­lems or a long peri­od of stay so re­quire.

² The re­mov­al or­der must be en­forced im­me­di­ately or a de­par­ture dead­line of less than sev­en days may be set where:

a.

the per­son con­cerned rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;

b.

spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that the per­son con­cerned in­tends to evade de­port­a­tion;

c.

an ap­plic­a­tion for a per­mit is re­fused on the basis that it is clearly un­jus­ti­fied or an ab­use of pro­ced­ure;

d.

the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­ad­mit­ted by a State un­der Art­icle 64c para­graph 1 let­ter a on the basis of a read­mis­sion agree­ment;

e.¹³⁶

the per­son con­cerned was pre­vi­ously re­fused entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code¹³⁷ (Art. 64c para. 1 let. b);

f.

the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­moved un­der the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments (Art. 64a).

³ The fol­low­ing spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions in par­tic­u­lar lead to the be­lief that a per­son in­tends to evade de­port­a­tion:

a.

The per­son fails to co­oper­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 90.

b.

The per­son’s pre­vi­ous con­duct leads to the con­clu­sion that they wish to defy of­fi­cial or­ders.

c.

The per­son enters Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry.¹³⁸

On giv­ing no­tice of a re­mov­al or­der, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may re­quire the for­eign na­tion­al con­cerned:

a.

to re­port to an au­thor­ity reg­u­larly;

b.

to provide ap­pro­pri­ate fin­an­cial se­cur­ity;

c.

to hand in travel doc­u­ments.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall en­sure that, if re­ques­ted, the re­mov­al or­der is trans­lated in writ­ing or verbally in­to a lan­guage un­der­stood by the per­son con­cerned or which he or she may be as­sumed to un­der­stand.

² If no­tice is giv­en of the re­mov­al or­der by means of a stand­ard form un­der Art­icle 64b, no trans­la­tion is made. The per­son con­cerned shall be provided with an in­form­a­tion sheet with an ex­plan­a­tion of the re­mov­al or­der.

¹ If entry is re­fused at the bor­der con­trol at the air­port, the for­eign na­tion­al must leave Switzer­land im­me­di­ately.

² The au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the bor­der con­trol shall on SEM’s be­half is­sue a reasoned and ap­peal­able de­cision with­in 48 hours on a form in ac­cord­ance with An­nex V Part B of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code¹⁴². A writ­ten ob­jec­tion may be filed with SEM against this de­cision with­in 48 hours of no­ti­fic­a­tion there­of. The ob­jec­tion does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect. SEM shall de­cide on the ob­jec­tion with­in 48 hours.¹⁴³

^2bis An ap­peal may be filed against SEM’s ob­jec­tion de­cision with­in 48 hours of no­ti­fic­a­tion there­of. The ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect. The ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall de­cide on the ap­peal with­in 72 hours.¹⁴⁴

³ Per­sons sub­ject to a re­mov­al or­der are per­mit­ted to re­main in the air­port in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zone for a max­im­um of 15 days in or­der to pre­pare for their on­ward jour­ney, provided de­port­a­tion (Art­icle 69) or de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion or co­er­cive de­ten­tion (Art. 76, 77 and 78) is not ordered. The pro­vi­sions on tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion (Art­icle 83) and on the fil­ing of an asylum ap­plic­a­tion (Art­icle 22 AsylA¹⁴⁵) are re­served.¹⁴⁶

¹ SEM shall, sub­ject to para­graph 5, or­der a ban on entry against for­eign na­tion­als who have been is­sued with a re­mov­al or­der if:

a.

the re­mov­al or­der may be en­forced im­me­di­ately in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64d para­graph 2 let­ters a–c;

b.

the per­son does not leave by the ap­poin­ted dead­line;

c.

the per­son has vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad; or

d.

the per­son has been con­victed of an of­fence or of an at­temp­ted of­fence un­der Art­icle 115 para­graph 1, 116, 117 or 118.¹⁴⁹

² A ban on entry may be ordered against for­eign na­tion­als who:

a.

have in­curred so­cial as­sist­ance costs;

b.

have had to be taken in­to de­ten­tion in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture or pending de­port­a­tion or have been placed in co­er­cive de­ten­tion (Art. 75–78).¹⁵⁰

³ The ban on entry shall be ordered for a max­im­um dur­a­tion of five years. It may be ordered for a longer peri­od if the per­son con­cerned rep­res­ents a ser­i­ous risk to pub­lic se­cur­ity or or­der.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Po­lice (fed­pol) may or­der a ban on the entry of any for­eign na­tion­al in or­der to safe­guard Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; it shall con­sult the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice (FIS) be­fore­hand. fed­pol may or­der a ban on entry for a peri­od of more than five years or in ser­i­ous cases for an un­lim­ited peri­od.

⁵ The au­thor­ity is­su­ing the ban on entry may by way of exception re­frain from im­pos­ing a ban on entry on hu­man­it­ari­an grounds or for oth­er good cause or re­voke the ban per­man­ently or tem­por­ar­ily. In reaching its decision, the authority must in particular consider whether grounds for issuing the ban on entry and the need to protect public security and order and to safeguard Switzerland’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ityoutweigh the private interests of the person concerned in not being subject to the ban.¹⁵¹

¹ fed­pol may or­der the ex­pul­sion of a for­eign na­tion­al in or­der to safe­guard the in­tern­al or the ex­tern­al se­cur­ity of Switzer­land; it shall con­sult the FIS be­fore­hand.¹⁵²

² In cases of ex­pul­sion, an ap­pro­pri­ate de­par­ture dead­line must be set.

³ An ex­pul­sion or­der shall be com­bined with a lim­ited or un­lim­ited ban on entry. The au­thor­ity is­su­ing the or­der may tem­por­ar­ily re­voke the ban on entry for good cause.

⁴ If the per­son con­cerned has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, ex­pul­sion may be en­forced im­me­di­ately.

¹ The competent authority shall enter in the Schengen Information System (SIS) the data on third-country citizens subject to any of the following return decisions:

a.

a re­mov­al or­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64;

b.

an ex­pul­sion or­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 68;

c.

an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁵⁴ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁵⁵ where en­force­ment has been ordered;

d.

a re­mov­al or­der where en­force­ment has been ordered in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 44 and 45 AsylA¹⁵⁶.

² Data on third-coun­try cit­izens against whom bans on entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 67 and 68 para­graph 3 and an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land have been is­sued shall entered by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the SIS provided the re­quire­ments of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2018/1861¹⁵⁷ have been met.

³ SEM may sup­ply bio­met­ric data to the SIS that is already avail­able in the auto­mated fin­ger­print iden­ti­fic­a­tion sys­tem un­der Art­icle 354 SCC (AFIS) or in ZEMIS. The sup­ply of data may be auto­mated.

⁴ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies for is­su­ing an alert on de­cisions in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 shall re­cord in ZEMIS the per­son­al data of the per­son to whom the alert relates. If the fa­cial im­age and the fin­ger­prints are not already avail­able, they shall re­cord these data in AFIS for de­liv­ery to the SIS or have the data re­cor­ded there by the au­thor­it­ies en­titled to do so.

⁵ In con­nec­tion with its alerts, fed­pol may sup­ply bio­met­ric data to the SIS that is already avail­able in the AFIS. The sup­ply of data may be auto­mated. If no bio­met­ric data are avail­able, fed­pol may or­der the ret­ro­act­ive re­cord­ing of the data from the au­thor­it­ies that de­tect a hit on these alerts.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure and re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for re­cord­ing and trans­mit­ting the data in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1–5 for the pur­pose of alerts in the SIS. It may provide for ex­cep­tions to the re­quire­ment to re­cord and de­liv­er data with re­gard to bio­met­ric data.

¹ Ad­di­tion­al in­form­a­tion in con­nec­tion with an alert in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 68a para­graphs 1 and 2 shall be ex­changed between the Schen­gen States via the con­tact, co­ordin­a­tion and con­sulta­tion point for the ex­change of in­form­a­tion in con­nec­tion with alerts in the SIS (SIRENE Of­fice).

² If the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity¹⁵⁹ and the can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for con­trolling the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders or in Switzer­land es­tab­lish that a third-coun­try na­tion­al sub­ject to an alert from an­oth­er Schen­gen State for the pur­pose of re­turn has not com­plied with their ob­lig­a­tion to re­turn, they shall no­ti­fy the SIRENE Of­fice.

³ If a con­sulta­tion with the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of oth­er Schen­gen States is re­quired in con­nec­tion with an alert in the SIS, this shall take place via the SIRENE Of­fice.

¹ If the third-coun­try na­tion­al sub­ject to an alert in the SIS from an­oth­er Schen­gen State for the pur­pose of re­turn leaves the Schen­gen area, the com­pet­ent bor­der con­trol au­thor­ity shall is­sue a con­firm­a­tion of re­turn to the SIRENE Of­fices. The SIRENE Of­fice shall trans­mit the con­firm­a­tion to the Schen­gen State is­su­ing the alert for the pur­pose of de­let­ing the alert for re­turn in the SIS.

² The SIRENE Of­fice shall for­ward con­firm­a­tions of re­turn from oth­er Schen­gen States to the au­thor­ity is­su­ing the alert in Switzer­land for the pur­pose of de­let­ing the alert.

¹ Alerts in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 68a para­graph 1 shall be de­leted by the au­thor­ity is­su­ing the alert as soon as:

a.

the per­son sub­ject to the alert has left the Schen­gen area from an­oth­er Schen­gen State;

b.

the de­cisions have been re­voked or can­celled; or

c.

it is known that the per­son con­cerned has be­come a cit­izen of an EU/EFTA State.

² The de­let­ing of alerts on re­turn in the SIS in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 68a para­graph 1 shall be car­ried out by the com­pet­ent bor­der con­trol au­thor­ity as soon as the per­son sub­ject to the alert leaves the Schen­gen area via Switzer­land.

³ Alerts for re­fus­al of entry or stay in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 68apara­graph 2 shall be de­leted by the au­thor­ity is­su­ing the alert as soon as:

a.

the term of the ban on entry or of the or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land has ex­pired;

b.

the de­cisions have been re­voked or can­celled; or

c.

it is known that the per­son con­cerned has be­come a cit­izen of an EU/EFTA State.

⁴ When de­let­ing alerts on re­turn in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter a or para­graph 2, if ap­plic­able an alert for re­fus­al of entry or stay shall be im­me­di­ately ac­tiv­ated in the SIS.

¹ The data stored in the SIS and the re­lated sup­ple­ment­ary in­form­a­tion shall not be trans­mit­ted to third coun­tries, in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, private bod­ies or nat­ur­al per­sons.

² SEM may trans­mit these data and in­form­a­tion to a third coun­try if, in re­la­tion to the re­turn of a per­son from a third coun­try who is stay­ing il­leg­ally in Switzer­land, this per­son is to be iden­ti­fied or is­sued with a travel doc­u­ment or iden­tity doc­u­ment, provided the State is­su­ing the alert has giv­en its con­sent and the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 15 of the Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2018/1860¹⁶³ have been met.

¹ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall de­port for­eign na­tion­als if:

a.

they fail to com­ply with the de­par­ture dead­line;

b.

if their re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion may be en­forced im­me­di­ately;

c.¹⁶⁵

they are be­ing held in de­ten­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 76 and 77 and a leg­ally bind­ing ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der or a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision on ex­pul­sion un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁶⁶ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁶⁷ has been is­sued.

² In the case of for­eign na­tion­als who are able to travel law­fully to more than one state, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may de­port them to the coun­try of their choice.

³ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may post­pone de­port­a­tion for an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od if spe­cial cir­cum­stances such as the ill-health of the per­son con­cerned or a lack of trans­port so re­quire. The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall con­firm the post­pone­ment of de­port­a­tion to the per­son con­cerned in writ­ing.¹⁶⁸

⁴ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall en­sure be­fore the de­port­a­tion of un­ac­com­pan­ied for­eign minors that he or she will be re­turned in the State of re­turn to a fam­ily mem­ber, a nom­in­ated guard­i­an or re­cep­tion fa­cil­it­ies that guar­an­tee the pro­tec­tion of the child.¹⁶⁹

¹ Dur­ing ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may ar­range for the per­son con­cerned as well as the be­long­ings they are car­ry­ing to be searched in or­der to seize travel and iden­tity doc­u­ments. The search may be con­duc­ted only by a per­son of the same sex.

² If the court of first in­stance has is­sued a de­cision, the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity may or­der a search of a dwell­ing or of oth­er premises if it is sus­pec­ted that a per­son sub­ject to a re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der may be hid­ing there, or that travel and iden­tity doc­u­ments re­quired for the pro­ced­ure and en­force­ment are hid­den there.¹⁷⁰

¹ The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice (FD­JP) shall sup­port the can­tons re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als or the en­force­ment of an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁷¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁷², in par­tic­u­lar by:¹⁷³

a.

as­sist­ing in ob­tain­ing travel doc­u­ments;

b.

mak­ing travel ar­range­ments;

c.¹⁷⁴

en­sur­ing co­oper­a­tion between the can­tons con­cerned and the FD­FA.

² In ful­filling its tasks un­der para­graph 1, in par­tic­u­lar let­ters a and b, the FD­JP may work with the European Uni­on agency re­spons­ible for the sur­veil­lance of the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders.¹⁷⁵

¹ SEM and the can­tons shall work to­geth­er in the case of in­ter­na­tion­al re­turn in­ter­ven­tions on the basis of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896¹⁷⁷; they shall provide the re­quired per­son­nel. The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall make com­pens­at­ory pay­ments to the can­tons for these in­ter­ven­tions. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the amount and mod­al­it­ies of these com­pens­at­ory pay­ments.¹⁷⁸

² The FD­JP may enter in­to agree­ments with the com­pet­ent European Uni­on agency for the sur­veil­lance of the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders re­lat­ing to the de­ploy­ment of per­son­nel from SEM and the can­tons in con­nec­tion with in­ter­na­tion­al re­turn in­ter­ven­tions and the de­ploy­ment of third parties to mon­it­or re­turns.

³ The FD­JP shall enter in­to an agree­ment with the can­tons on the mod­al­it­ies of the de­ploy­ment of per­son­nel.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure and the re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for su­per­vising de­port­a­tion pro­ced­ures and in­ter­na­tion­al re­turn in­ter­ven­tions.

² It may del­eg­ate tasks re­lat­ing to the su­per­vi­sion of de­port­a­tion pro­ced­ures and in­ter­na­tion­al re­turn in­ter­ven­tions to third parties.

¹ The at­tend­ing med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­al shall on re­quest dis­close the med­ic­al data re­quired to as­sess the fit­ness to travel of per­sons sub­ject to a leg­ally bind­ing re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der to the fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies in­so­far as these au­thor­it­ies re­quire the data to ful­fil their stat­utory du­ties:

a.

the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion;

b.

em­ploy­ees of SEM who are re­spons­ible for the cent­ral­ised or­gan­isa­tion and co­ordin­a­tion of the com­puls­ory ex­e­cu­tion of re­mov­al and ex­pul­sion or­ders;

c.

the med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­als re­spons­ible on be­half of SEM for med­ic­al su­per­vi­sion on ex­e­cu­tion of re­mov­al and ex­pul­sion or­ders at the time of de­par­ture.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the re­ten­tion and de­le­tion of the data.

¹ In or­der to en­sure the en­force­ment of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁸² or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁸³, for­eign na­tion­als are re­quired to un­der­go a COV­ID-19 test if this is ne­ces­sary in or­der to com­ply with the entry re­quire­ments of the per­son's nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin or of the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State or the re­quire­ments of the air­line con­cerned.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall in­form the per­son con­cerned in ad­vance about this re­quire­ment and about the pos­sib­il­ity of the com­puls­ory con­duct of tests un­der para­graph 3.

³ If the per­son con­cerned re­fuses to un­der­go a COV­ID-19 test, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies for the en­force­ment of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land may con­duct the test against the per­son's will, un­less de­port­a­tion can be en­forced by oth­er less strin­gent means. While con­duct­ing the test, no force may be used that could en­danger the health of the per­son con­cerned. The com­puls­ory con­duct of COV­ID-19 tests is not per­mit­ted in the case of chil­dren and young per­sons un­der the age of 15.

⁴ The COV­ID-19 tests shall be con­duc­ted by med­ic­al per­son­nel who have been spe­cific­ally trained for the pur­pose. They shall use the least in­vas­ive form of test suit­able for the per­son con­cerned. If the per­son­nel take the view that con­duct­ing the test could harm the health of the per­son con­cerned, they shall not con­duct the test.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton may de­tain per­sons who do not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit:

a.

to no­ti­fy them of a de­cision in con­nec­tion with their res­id­ence status;

b.

to de­term­ine their iden­tity or na­tion­al­ity, as far as their per­son­al co­oper­a­tion is re­quired;

c.¹⁸⁴

in or­der to en­sure their han­dover to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies in a neigh­bour­ing State based on a read­mis­sion agree­ment.

² Per­sons may be de­tained only for the dur­a­tion of the re­quired co­oper­a­tion or ques­tion­ing and the re­quired trans­port if ne­ces­sary, or un­til their han­dover to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies in a neigh­bour­ing State, and for a max­im­um of three days.¹⁸⁵

³ If a per­son is de­tained, they must:

a.

be in­formed of the reas­on for their de­ten­tion;

b.

be per­mit­ted to con­tact the per­sons guard­ing them if they re­quire help.

⁴ If de­ten­tion is ex­pec­ted last longer than 24 hours, the per­son con­cerned shall be giv­en the op­por­tun­ity be­fore­hand to at­tend to or have someone else at­tend to ur­gent per­son­al mat­ters.

⁵ On re­quest, the com­pet­ent ju­di­cial au­thor­ity must re­view the leg­al­ity of the de­ten­tion.

⁶ The dur­a­tion of de­ten­tion shall not be de­duc­ted from the dur­a­tion of any de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion, in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture, or co­er­cive de­ten­tion.

¹ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may re­quire a per­son not to leave the area they were al­loc­ated to or not to enter a spe­cif­ic area if:

a.

they do not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit and they dis­rupt or rep­res­ent a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der; this meas­ure serves in par­tic­u­lar to com­bat il­leg­al drug traf­fick­ing; or

b.¹⁸⁶

they are sub­ject to a leg­ally bind­ing ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der and spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that the per­son con­cerned will not leave be­fore the de­par­ture dead­line or has failed to ob­serve the de­par­ture dead­line.

c.¹⁸⁷

de­port­a­tion has been post­poned (Art. 69 para. 3).

^1bis The competent cantonal authority shall require a person who is accommodated in a special centre under Article 24aAsylA¹⁸⁸not to leave the area they were allocated to or not to enter a specific area.¹⁸⁹

² These meas­ures shall be ordered by the au­thor­ity of the can­ton that is re­spons­ible for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion. In the case of per­sons stay­ing in fed­er­al centres, the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated is re­spons­ible. The pro­hib­i­tion from en­ter­ing a spe­cif­ic area may also be is­sued by the au­thor­ity of the can­ton where this area is loc­ated.¹⁹⁰

³ Ap­peals may be lodged with a can­ton­al ju­di­cial au­thor­ity against the or­der­ing of these meas­ures. The ap­peal has no sus­pens­ive ef­fect.

¹ To fa­cil­it­ate the con­duct of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in which the po­ten­tial pen­alty in­cludes an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁹¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC¹⁹², the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may de­tain a per­son who does not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit while pre­par­ing to de­cide on that per­son’s res­id­ence status for a max­im­um of six months if that per­son:¹⁹³

a.¹⁹⁴

re­fuses dur­ing asylum pro­ceed­ings, re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in which the po­ten­tial pen­alty in­cludes an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC to dis­close their iden­tity, sub­mit sev­er­al ap­plic­a­tions for asylum us­ing vari­ous iden­tit­ies or re­peatedly fail to com­ply with a sum­mons without suf­fi­cient reas­on or ig­nore oth­er in­struc­tions is­sued by the au­thor­it­ies in the asylum pro­ced­ure;

b.

leave an area al­loc­ated to them in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 74 or enter an area from which they are ex­cluded;

c.

enter Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry and can­not be im­me­di­ately re­moved;

d.

were re­moved and sub­mit­ted an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum fol­low­ing a leg­ally bind­ing re­voc­a­tion (Art. 62 and 63) or a non-re­new­al of the per­mit due to vi­ol­a­tion of or rep­res­ent­ing a threat to the pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or due to rep­res­ent­ing a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;

e.

sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum after ex­pul­sion (Art. 68);

f.

stay un­law­fully in Switzer­land and sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum with the ob­vi­ous in­ten­tion of avoid­ing the im­min­ent en­force­ment of a re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der; such an in­ten­tion shall be sus­pec­ted if it were pos­sible and reas­on­able to file the asylum ap­plic­a­tion earli­er and if the ap­plic­a­tion is sub­mit­ted in close chro­no­lo­gic­al re­la­tion to de­ten­tion, crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, the im­ple­ment­a­tion of a pen­alty or the is­sue of a re­mov­al or­der;

g.

ser­i­ously threaten oth­er per­sons or con­sid­er­ably en­danger the life and limb of oth­er per­sons and are there­fore be­ing pro­sec­uted or have been con­victed;

h.

have been con­victed of a felony;

i.¹⁹⁵

is a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by fed­pol or the FIS.

^1bis ...¹⁹⁶

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall de­cide on the res­id­ence status of the per­son held in de­ten­tion without delay.

¹ If the court of first in­stance has is­sued an ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der or an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹⁹⁷ or Art­icle 49aor 49a^bis MCC¹⁹⁸, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may en­sure the en­force­ment of the de­cision by:¹⁹⁹

a.

leav­ing the per­son con­cerned in de­ten­tion if, based on Art­icle 75, they are already in de­ten­tion;

b.

de­tain­ing the per­son con­cerned if:

1.²⁰⁰

there are grounds for do­ing so in terms of Art­icle 75 para­graph 1 let­ters a, b, c, f, g, h or i,

2.²⁰¹

...

3.²⁰²

spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that they are seek­ing to evade de­port­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause they fail to com­ply with the ob­lig­a­tion to co­oper­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 90 of this Act as well as Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a or para­graph 4 AsylA²⁰³,

4.

their pre­vi­ous con­duct leads to the con­clu­sion that they will re­fuse to com­ply with of­fi­cial in­struc­tions,

5.²⁰⁴

the de­cision to re­move the per­son con­cerned is is­sued in a fed­er­al centre and en­force­ment of the re­mov­al is im­min­ent.

6.²⁰⁵

...

^1bis The de­ten­tion or­der in Dub­lin cases is gov­erned by Art­icle 76a.²⁰⁶

² De­ten­tion in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5 may last a max­im­um of 30 days.²⁰⁷

³ The days in de­ten­tion count to­wards the max­im­um dur­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 79.²⁰⁸

⁴ The re­quired ar­range­ments for the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al, ex­pul­sion or the or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC must be taken without delay.²⁰⁹

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der the de­ten­tion of the for­eign na­tion­al con­cerned to en­sure re­mov­al to the Dub­lin State re­spons­ible for the asylum pro­ceed­ings, if in the case con­cerned:

a.

there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that the per­son in­tends to evade re­mov­al;

b.

de­ten­tion is pro­por­tion­al; and

c.

less co­er­cive al­tern­at­ive meas­ures can­not be ap­plied ef­fect­ively (Art. 28 para. 2 of the Reg­u­la­tion [EU] No 604/2013²¹¹).

² The fol­low­ing spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions sug­gest that the per­son con­cerned in­tends to evade re­mov­al:

a.

The per­son con­cerned dis­reg­ards of­fi­cial or­ders in the asylum or re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings, in par­tic­u­lar by re­fus­ing to dis­close their iden­tity, thus fail­ing to com­ply with their duty to co­oper­ate un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA²¹² or by re­peatedly fail­ing to com­ply with a sum­mons without suf­fi­cient ex­cuse.

b.

Their con­duct in Switzer­land or abroad leads to the con­clu­sion that they wish to defy of­fi­cial or­ders.

c.

They sub­mit two or more asylum ap­plic­a­tions un­der dif­fer­ent iden­tit­ies.

d.

They leave the area that they are al­loc­ated to or enter an area from which they are ex­cluded un­der Art­icle 74.

e.

They enter Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry and can­not be re­moved im­me­di­ately.

f.

They stay un­law­fully in Switzer­land and sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum with the ob­vi­ous in­ten­tion of avoid­ing the im­min­ent en­force­ment of re­mov­al.

g.

They ser­i­ously threaten oth­er per­sons or con­sid­er­ably en­danger the life and limb of oth­er per­sons and are there­fore be­ing pro­sec­uted or have been con­victed.

h.

They have been con­victed of a felony.

i.

They deny to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity that they hold or have held a res­id­ence doc­u­ment and/or a visa in a Dub­lin State or have sub­mit­ted an asylum ap­plic­a­tion there.

j.²¹³

They are a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by fed­pol or the FIS.

³ The per­son con­cerned may re­main or be placed in de­ten­tion from the date of the de­ten­tion or­der for a max­im­um dur­a­tion of:

a.

sev­en weeks while pre­par­ing the de­cision on re­spons­ib­il­ity for the asylum ap­plic­a­tion; this in­cludes sub­mit­ting the re­quest to take charge to the oth­er Dub­lin State, wait­ing for the re­sponse or ta­cit ac­cept­ance, and draft­ing and giv­ing no­tice of the de­cision;

b.

five weeks dur­ing pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icle 5 of Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 1560/2003²¹⁴;

c.

six weeks to en­sure en­force­ment from no­tice be­ing giv­en of the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion de­cision or the date on which the sus­pens­ive ef­fect of any ap­peal against a first in­stance de­cision on re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion ceases to ap­ply and the trans­fer of the per­son con­cerned to the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State.

⁴ If a per­son re­fuses to board the means of trans­port be­ing used to ef­fect the trans­fer to the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State, or if they pre­vent the trans­fer in any oth­er way through their per­son­al con­duct, they may, in or­der to guar­an­tee the trans­fer, be placed in de­ten­tion if a de­ten­tion or­der un­der para­graph 3 let­ter c is no longer pos­sible and a less re­strict­ive meas­ure will not achieve a sat­is­fact­ory res­ult. The per­son may be de­tained un­til trans­fer is again pos­sible, but no longer than six weeks. The peri­od of de­ten­tion may be ex­ten­ded with the con­sent of a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity if the per­son con­cerned re­mains un­pre­pared to modi­fy their con­duct. The max­im­um dur­a­tion of this peri­od of de­ten­tion is three months.

⁵ The days in de­ten­tion count to­wards the max­im­um dur­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 79.

¹ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may de­tain a per­son to en­sure the en­force­ment of their re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion if:

a.

an en­force­able de­cision has been made;

b.

they have not left Switzer­land by the ap­poin­ted dead­line; and

c.

the can­ton­al au­thor­ity has had to ob­tain travel doc­u­ments for this per­son.

² De­ten­tion may last a max­im­um of 60 days.

³ The re­quired ar­range­ments for the en­force­ment of the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion must be made without delay.

¹ If a per­son does not ful­fil their ob­lig­a­tion to leave Switzer­land by the ap­poin­ted dead­line and if the leg­ally en­force­able re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der or leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC²¹⁵ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC²¹⁶ can­not be en­forced due to their per­son­al con­duct, they may be de­tained to en­sure the ob­lig­a­tion to leave Switzer­land is com­plied with, provided it is not per­mit­ted to or­der de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion and a more le­ni­ent meas­ure would lead to the goal.²¹⁷

² De­ten­tion may be ordered for one month. It may, however, be ex­ten­ded by two months with con­sent of the can­ton­al ju­di­cial au­thor­ity if the per­son con­cerned re­mains un­will­ing to change their con­duct and leave the coun­try. Art­icle 79 re­mains re­served.²¹⁸

³ De­ten­tion and its ex­ten­sion are ordered by the au­thor­it­ies of the can­ton which is re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der. If the per­son con­cerned is already in de­ten­tion based on Art­icles 75, 76 or 77, they may be left in de­ten­tion if the re­quire­ments of para­graph 1 are ful­filled.²¹⁹

⁴ The first-time de­ten­tion or­der must be re­viewed at the latest after 96 hours by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity on the basis of an or­al hear­ing. At the re­quest of the de­tain­ee, the ex­ten­sion of de­ten­tion must be re­viewed by the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity with­in eight work­ing days on the basis of an or­al hear­ing. The power of re­view is gov­erned by Art­icle 80 para­graphs 2 and 4.

⁵ The con­di­tions of de­ten­tion are gov­erned by Art­icle 81.

⁶ The de­ten­tion or­der is re­voked if:

a.

the per­son con­cerned is un­able to leave Switzer­land in­de­pend­ently and in the prop­er man­ner, even though they have ful­filled the ob­lig­a­tions to co­oper­ate spe­cified by the au­thor­it­ies;

b.

they leave Switzer­land as ordered;

c.

de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion is ordered;

d.

a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion is gran­ted.

¹ De­ten­tion in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture, de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 75–77 and co­er­cive de­ten­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 78 must not to­geth­er ex­ceed the max­im­um term of de­ten­tion of six months.

² The max­im­um term of de­ten­tion may be ex­ten­ded with the con­sent of the can­ton­al ju­di­cial au­thor­ity for a spe­cif­ic peri­od, but in no case for more than twelve months and in the case of minors aged between 15 and 18, by a max­im­um of six months where:

a.

the per­son con­cerned fails to co­oper­ate with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity;

b.

the pro­vi­sion of the doc­u­ments re­quired for de­par­ture by a State that is not a Schen­gen State is delayed.

¹ De­ten­tion shall be ordered by the au­thor­it­ies of the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der. In the case of per­sons stay­ing in fed­er­al centres, the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated is re­spons­ible for or­der­ing de­ten­tion in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture. In cases covered by Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5, de­ten­tion shall be ordered by the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated.²²¹

^1bis In cases un­der Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5, de­ten­tion is ordered by the can­ton in which the fed­er­al centres are loc­ated; if in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 46 para­graph 1^bis third sen­tence AsylA²²² a can­ton oth­er than the can­ton where the centres are loc­ated is re­spons­ible for ex­ecut­ing re­mov­al, that can­ton is also re­spons­ible for or­der­ing de­ten­tion.²²³

² The leg­al­ity and the ap­pro­pri­ate­ness of de­ten­tion must be re­viewed at the latest with­in 96 hours by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity on the basis of an or­al hear­ing. If de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion has been ordered in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 77, the de­ten­tion re­view pro­ced­ure shall be car­ried out in writ­ing.²²⁴

^2bis In the case of de­ten­tion un­der Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 6, the leg­al­ity and the ap­pro­pri­ate­ness of de­ten­tion shall be re­viewed at the re­quest of the de­tain­ee by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity in a writ­ten pro­ced­ure. This re­view may be re­ques­ted at any time.²²⁵

³ The ju­di­cial au­thor­ity may dis­pense with an or­al hear­ing if de­port­a­tion is an­ti­cip­ated with­in eight days of the de­ten­tion or­der and the per­son con­cerned has ex­pressed their con­sent in writ­ing. If de­port­a­tion can­not be car­ried out by this dead­line, an or­al hear­ing must be sched­uled at the latest twelve days after the de­ten­tion or­der.

⁴ When re­view­ing the de­cision to is­sue, ex­tend or re­voke a de­ten­tion or­der, the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity shall also take ac­count of the de­tain­ee’s fam­ily cir­cum­stances and the cir­cum­stances be­hind the en­force­ment of de­ten­tion. In no event may any de­ten­tion or­der in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture, de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion or co­er­cive de­ten­tion be is­sued in re­spect of chil­dren or young people who have not yet at­tained the age of 15.²²⁶

⁵ The de­tain­ee may sub­mit a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion one month after the de­ten­tion re­view. The ju­di­cial au­thor­ity must is­sue a de­cision on the re­quest on the basis of an or­al hear­ing with­in eight work­ing days. A fur­ther re­quest for re­lease in the case of de­ten­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 75 may be sub­mit­ted after one month or in the case of de­ten­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 76, after two months.

⁶ The de­ten­tion or­der shall be re­voked if:

a.

the reas­on for de­ten­tion ceases to ap­ply or the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der proves to be un­en­force­able for leg­al or prac­tic­al reas­ons;

b.

a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion is gran­ted;

c.

the de­tain­ee be­comes sub­ject to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or meas­ure.

¹ The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies are re­spons­ible for is­su­ing de­ten­tion or­ders un­der Art­icle 76a:

a.²²⁸

in the case of per­sons ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre: the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing re­mov­al un­der Art­icle 46 para­graph 1^bis third sen­tence AsylA²²⁹, and in oth­er cases the can­ton in which the fed­er­al centre is loc­ated;

b.

in the case of per­sons that have been al­loc­ated to a can­ton or res­id­ent in a can­ton who have not sub­mit­ted an asylum ap­plic­a­tion (Art. 64a): the can­ton con­cerned.

² ...²³⁰

³ The leg­al­ity and ap­pro­pri­ate­ness of de­ten­tion shall be re­viewed at the re­quest of the de­tain­ee by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity in a writ­ten pro­ced­ure. This re­view may be re­ques­ted at any time.²³¹

⁴ The de­tain­ee may ap­ply for re­lease from de­ten­tion at any time. The ju­di­cial au­thor­ity must de­cide on the ap­plic­a­tion with­in eight work­ing days in a writ­ten pro­ced­ure.

⁵ The de­ten­tion of chil­dren and young per­sons un­der 15 years of age is not per­mit­ted.

⁶ In the case of a de­ten­tion or­der in re­spect of an un­ac­com­pan­ied minor seek­ing asylum, the rep­res­ent­at­ive un­der Art­icle 64a para­graph 3^bis of this Act or un­der Art­icle 17 para­graph 3 AsylA will be in­formed in ad­vance.

⁷ The de­ten­tion or­der shall be re­voked if:

a.

the reas­on for de­ten­tion ceases to ap­ply or the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der proves to be un­en­force­able for leg­al or prac­tic­al reas­ons;

b.

a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion is gran­ted;

c.

the de­tain­ee be­comes sub­ject to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or meas­ure.

⁸ When re­view­ing the de­cision to is­sue, ex­tend or re­voke a de­ten­tion or­der, the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity shall also take ac­count of the de­tain­ee’s fam­ily cir­cum­stances and the cir­cum­stances be­hind the en­force­ment of de­ten­tion.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that a per­son in Switzer­land des­ig­nated by the de­tain­ee is no­ti­fied. De­tain­ees may com­mu­nic­ate with their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ives as well as with their fam­ily mem­bers and con­su­lar au­thor­it­ies both verbally and in writ­ing.

² De­ten­tion shall take place in de­ten­tion fa­cil­it­ies in­ten­ded for the en­force­ment of pre­par­at­ory de­ten­tion, de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion and co­er­cive de­ten­tion. If this not pos­sible in ex­cep­tion­al cases, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause of in­suf­fi­cient ca­pa­city, de­tained for­eign na­tion­als must be ac­com­mod­ated sep­ar­ately from per­sons in pre-tri­al de­ten­tion or who are serving a sen­tence.²³³

³ The needs of vul­ner­able per­sons, un­ac­com­pan­ied minors and fam­il­ies with minor chil­dren must be taken in­to ac­count in the de­ten­tion ar­range­ments.²³⁴

⁴ The de­ten­tion ar­range­ments are oth­er­wise gov­erned by:

a.

Art­icle 16 para­graph 3 and 17 of Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC²³⁵ for re­turns to a third coun­try;

b.

Art­icle 28 para­graph 4 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013²³⁶ for Dub­lin trans­fers;

c.²³⁷

in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 37 of the Con­ven­tion of 20 Novem­ber 1989²³⁸ on the Rights of the Child.²³⁹

⁵ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der that the op­por­tun­it­ies for de­tain­ees to have con­tact with spe­cif­ic per­sons or groups either dir­ectly or via third parties be re­stric­ted if:

a.

the per­son con­cerned ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by the po­lice or pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies poses a spe­cif­ic risk to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; and

b.

oth­er meas­ures have failed or are not avail­able.²⁴⁰

⁶ If the re­stric­tions un­der para­graph 5 prove in­ad­equate to counter the risk to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der sol­it­ary con­fine­ment.²⁴¹

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may wholly or par­tially fin­ance the con­struc­tion or es­tab­lish­ment of can­ton­al de­ten­tion centres that are used ex­clus­ively for de­tain­ing per­sons in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture or pending de­port­a­tion, or pla­cing per­sons in co­er­cive de­ten­tion or for short-term de­ten­tion and which are of a cer­tain size. The cal­cu­la­tion of con­tri­bu­tions and the pro­ced­ure are gov­erned mu­tatis mutandis by Sec­tions 2 and 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984²⁴³ on Fed­er­al Sub­sidies for the Ex­e­cu­tion of Sen­tences and Meas­ures.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall con­trib­ute to the can­tons’ op­er­at­ing costs for de­tain­ing per­sons in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture or pending de­port­a­tion, or pla­cing per­sons in co­er­cive de­ten­tion by mak­ing a flat-rate daily pay­ment. The flat-rate pay­ment shall be made in the case of:

a.

asylum seekers;

b.

refugees and oth­er for­eign na­tion­als who are de­tained in con­nec­tion with the re­voc­a­tion of tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion;

c.

for­eign na­tion­als whose de­ten­tion has been ordered by SEM in con­nec­tion with a re­mov­al or­der;

d.

refugees who are ex­pelled in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65 AsylA²⁴⁴.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may con­trib­ute for a lim­ited peri­od in the form of a daily al­low­ance to the op­er­at­ing costs of the tem­por­ary de­ten­tion of per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 73 para­graph 1 let­ter c. A fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion re­quires that:

a.

the per­son con­cerned is de­tained in a can­ton­al de­par­ture centre in the bor­der zone;

b.

the num­ber of il­leg­al bor­der cross­ings and checks on per­sons in the bor­der zone con­cerned is ex­cep­tion­ally high; and

c.

the can­ton­al de­par­ture centre is used for the short-term ac­com­mod­a­tion of for­eign na­tion­als who have been de­tained on en­ter­ing the bor­der zone con­cerned il­leg­ally and whose re­mov­al without form­al pro­ced­ure has been ordered in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64c para­graph 1 let­ter a.²⁴⁵

¹ If the en­force­ment of re­mov­al is not pos­sible, not per­mit­ted or not reas­on­able, SEM shall or­der tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion.²⁴⁶

² En­force­ment is not pos­sible if the for­eign na­tion­al is un­able to travel or be brought either to their nat­ive coun­try or to their coun­try of ori­gin or a third coun­try.

³ En­force­ment is not per­mit­ted if Switzer­land’s ob­lig­a­tions un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law pre­vent the for­eign na­tion­al from mak­ing an on­ward jour­ney to their nat­ive coun­try, to their coun­try of ori­gin or to a third coun­try.

⁴ En­force­ment may be un­reas­on­able for for­eign na­tion­als if they are spe­cific­ally en­dangered by situ­ations such as war, civil war, gen­er­al vi­ol­ence and med­ic­al emer­gency in their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate nat­ive coun­tries or coun­tries of ori­gin or areas of these coun­tries to which re­turn is reas­on­able.²⁴⁷ If for­eign na­tion­als be­ing re­moved come from one of these coun­tries or from a mem­ber state of the EU or EFTA, en­force­ment of re­mov­al is reas­on­able.²⁴⁸

^5bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall peri­od­ic­ally re­view the de­cision un­der para­graph 5.²⁴⁹

⁶ Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion may be re­ques­ted by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

⁷ Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion shall not be ordered in terms of para­graphs 2 and 4 if the per­son re­moved:²⁵⁰

a.²⁵¹

has been sen­tenced to a long-term cus­todi­al sen­tence in Switzer­land or abroad or has been made sub­ject to a crim­in­al law meas­ure in terms of Art­icle 59–61 or 64 of the SCC²⁵²;

b.

has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­en­ted a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad or rep­res­en­ted a threat to in­tern­al or the ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; or

c.²⁵³

has made their re­mov­al im­possible by their own con­duct.

⁸ Refugees for whom there are reas­ons for re­fus­ing asylum in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 53 and 54 AsylA²⁵⁴ shall be gran­ted tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion.

⁹ Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion shall not be gran­ted or shall ex­pire if an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC²⁵⁵, or an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act be­comes leg­ally en­force­able.²⁵⁶

¹⁰ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies may con­clude in­teg­ra­tion agree­ments with tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons if there is a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a.²⁵⁷