Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration

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

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

²For 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 1999¹ 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.

³For 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 2001² does not con­tain any dif­fer­ent pro­vi­sions or that this Act provides for more ad­vant­age­ous pro­vi­sions.

⁴The 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.³

⁵The Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex 1 No. 1.⁴

¹The 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.

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

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

¹The 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.

²In­teg­ra­tion 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.

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

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

¹For­eign 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.¹

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)² or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 1927³ (MCC).

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

³…⁴

⁴The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the re­cog­nised iden­tity doc­u­ments for cross­ing the bor­der.⁵

¹Visas 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.

²In 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)¹ 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.²

^2bisA 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 1968³ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.⁴

³To 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.⁵

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

²The 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 64.²

³If checks at the Swiss bor­der are tem­por­ar­ily re­in­tro­duced in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 27, 28 or 29 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code³ 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. The re­fus­al of entry may be en­forced im­me­di­ately. An ap­peal has no sus­pens­ive ef­fect.⁴

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

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

¹For­eign 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.

²A 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.

¹For­eign 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.

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

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

¹For­eign na­tion­als who re­quire a short stay, res­id­ence or per­man­ent res­id­ence 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.

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

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

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

²The 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.

³Re­gis­tra­tion 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.

¹For­eign 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.

²If 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.¹

they have an ad­equate and in­de­pend­ent source of in­come; and

d.²

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

¹The 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.

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

³The 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.

¹For­eign 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.

²Do­mest­ic em­ploy­ees in­clude:

a.

Swiss na­tion­als;

b.

per­sons with a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit;

c.

per­sons with a res­id­ence per­mit au­thor­ising them to work.

d.¹

tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons;

e.²

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

³For­eign 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 tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted for a peri­od of six months fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of their edu­ca­tion or train­ing in Switzer­land in or­der to find suit­able work.³

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

²In 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.

³In 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.

⁴The 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.

⁵Where 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.

⁶The 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.

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

⁸If 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.

For­eign na­tion­als may only be ad­mit­ted in or­der to work if the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor are sat­is­fied.

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

²In 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.

³By 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.

¹For­eign 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.

²Art­icles 20, 23 and 24 are not ap­plic­able.

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

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

¹For­eign 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.

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

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

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.²

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

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

³A 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.³

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.

¹Derog­a­tions 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.¹

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.²

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.³

…

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 per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit;

l.

reg­u­late the em­ploy­ment and the par­ti­cip­a­tion in em­ploy­ment pro­grammes of asylum seekers (Art. 43 of the Asylum Act of 26 June 1998⁴, AsylA), tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons (Art. 85) and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion (Art. 75 AsylA).

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

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

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

³State­less per­sons in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 and state­less per­sons who are sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icles 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC² may work any­where in Switzer­land. Art­icle 61 AsylA³ ap­plies by ana­logy.⁴

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

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

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

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

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

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

³It is sub­ject to a time lim­it and may be ex­ten­ded, provided there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 para­graph 1¹.

⁴When the res­id­ence per­mit is gran­ted or ex­ten­ded, the in­teg­ra­tion of the per­son con­cerned will be taken in­to ac­count to de­term­ine the peri­od of valid­ity.²

⁵The 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.³

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

²For­eign na­tion­als may be gran­ted a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit if:

a.

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

b.¹

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

c.²

they are in­teg­rated.

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

⁴For­eign na­tion­als may be gran­ted a per­man­ent res­id­ence 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.³

⁵Tem­por­ary 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 per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit for an un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of two years.⁴

⁶If the per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit has been re­voked in terms of Art­icle 63 para­graph 2 and re­placed by a res­id­ence per­mit, the per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit may be gran­ted again at the earli­est five years after in­teg­ra­tion has been suc­cess­ful.⁵

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

²Per­sons 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.

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

⁴After 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 per­mit, a res­id­ence or a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit are free to choose their place of res­id­ence with­in the can­ton that gran­ted the per­mit.

¹Per­sons 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.

²Per­sons 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.

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

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

¹Per­sons 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.

²Per­sons 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.

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

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

¹Per­sons 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.

²Per­sons 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 can­tons.

³Per­sons 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.

¹The 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).

²If 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.

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

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

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

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

⁴The 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.¹

⁵The Fed­er­al Coun­cil spe­cifies which per­sons are is­sued with an iden­tity card with a data chip and which data must be stored on the chip.²

⁶The SEM spe­cifies the form and the con­tent of iden­tity cards. It may del­eg­ate the pro­duc­tion of iden­tity cards wholly or partly to third parties.³

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

²The 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.

¹The 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.

²Be­ne­fi­cial 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 2001² on Per­son­nel Se­cur­ity Screen­ing may be car­ried out.

³The 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.

⁴The 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.

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

¹The 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.

²For­eign 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 per­man­ent res­id­ence 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.

³After a law-abid­ing and un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of stay of five years, a for­eign spouse is en­titled to be gran­ted a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit if the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met.¹

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

¹The for­eign spouse and un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 of a per­son with a per­man­ent res­id­ence 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 2006² 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.

²In 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.

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

⁴The 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.

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

⁶Chil­dren un­der twelve are en­titled to be gran­ted a per­man­ent res­id­ence 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 SBA² or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

²In 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.

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

⁴The 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; and

c.

they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance.

d.¹

the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits ac­cord­ing to the SBA² 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 Code² (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 per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit or a res­id­ence per­mit (Art. 42-44) may work on a salar­ied or self-em­ployed basis any­where in Switzer­land.

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

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

³The 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 per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit or with the con­sti­tu­tion of the fam­ily re­la­tion­ship.

⁴A 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.

¹Foster 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.

²If 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 per­man­ent res­id­ence 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.

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

²The 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.

¹After 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.¹

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.

²There 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.²

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

¹The 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.

²The 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.¹

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.

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

²They 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.

³They 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.

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

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

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

²Pri­or­ity 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.

¹The 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.

²The 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 the SEM in activ­it­ies that may have an im­pact on in­teg­ra­tion.

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

⁴The 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 the SEM's con­tact points for in­teg­ra­tion is­sues and shall en­sure there is an ex­change of in­form­a­tion and ex­per­i­ences with the com­munes.

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

¹The 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.

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

³The 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.

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

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

¹The 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.

²The 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 AsylA² 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.

³The 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.

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

⁵The 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.

¹When 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.

²Due 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.

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

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

²In 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.

³If 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.

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

¹The SEM may is­sue travel doc­u­ments² to for­eign na­tion­als without iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments.

²For­eign na­tion­als are en­titled to travel doc­u­ments if:

a.

they meet refugee status in ac­cord­ance with the Agree­ment of 28 Ju­ly 1951³ on the Leg­al Status of Refugees;

b.

they are re­cog­nised as state­less per­sons by Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with the Treaty of 28 Septem­ber 1954⁴ on the Leg­al Status of State­less Per­sons;

c.

they do not have iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments but hold a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit.

³Any 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^bis SCC⁵ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC⁶ does not have a right to travel doc­u­ments.⁷

⁴…⁸

⁵ and 6 …⁹

¹Travel 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 2003² 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 2001 (IDA) ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.³

²The 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.

¹The 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 IDA² ap­plies by ana­logy.

²SEM 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.

³The 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.

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

²The 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.¹

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.

³Re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance in­cludes:

a.

re­turn coun­selling in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA²;

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.³

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

¹A 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.¹

on the hold­er be­com­ing sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a SCC² or Art­icle 49a MCC³;

f.⁴

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

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

¹The 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.

²If 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.

³There 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.

⁴In 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.

⁵Para­graphs 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 1999² 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 1960³ es­tab­lish­ing the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation (EFTA Con­ven­tion).

¹The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may re­voke per­mits, with the ex­cep­tion of the per­man­ent res­id­ence 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 SCC²;

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.³

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 2014⁴.

g.⁵

does not com­ply with an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment without due cause.

²Re­voc­a­tion 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.

¹The per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit may be re­voked only if:

a.¹

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.²

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 2014³;

e.⁴

...

²The per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit may be re­voked and re­placed by a res­id­ence per­mit if the res­id­ence cri­ter­ia re­ferred to in Art­icle 58a have not been met.⁵

³Re­voc­a­tion 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.⁶

¹The 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.

²Where 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 Agree­ments² (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.

³An 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.

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

⁵The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the role, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and du­ties of the rep­res­ent­at­ive men­tioned in para­graph 4.³

¹If 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. 604/2013² (Dub­lin State), the SEM shall is­sue a re­mov­al or­der against a per­son who is resid­ing il­leg­ally in Switzer­land.³

²An 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.

³The 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.

^3bisIn the case of un­ac­com­pan­ied minors, Art­icle 64 para­graph 4 ap­plies.⁴

⁴The 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.

¹For­eign 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.²

they have been re­fused entry pre­vi­ously in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code³.

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

¹On 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.

²The 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.²

the per­son con­cerned was pre­vi­ously re­fused entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code³ (Art. 64c para. 1 let. b);

f.

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

³The 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.⁴

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.

¹The 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.

²If 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.

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

²The 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 Code². 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.³

^2bisAn 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.⁴

³Per­sons 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 AsylA⁵) are re­served.⁶

¹The 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 is en­forced im­me­di­ately in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64d para­graph 2 let­ters a-c;

b.

the per­son does not leave by the dead­line set.

²It² may or­der a ban on entry against for­eign na­tion­als who:

a.

have vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ent a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad;

b.

have in­curred so­cial as­sist­ance costs;

c.

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

³The 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.

⁴The 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.

⁵The 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 se­cur­ity out­weigh the private in­terests of the per­son con­cerned in not be­ing sub­ject to the ban.³

¹fed­pol 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.¹

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

³An 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.

⁴If 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.

¹The 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.¹

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 SCC² or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC³ has been is­sued.

²In 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.

³The 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.⁴

⁴The 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.⁵

¹Dur­ing 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.

²If 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.¹.

The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice (FD­JP) shall sup­port the can­tons re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing the re­mov­al or the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als or the en­force­ment of an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC², in par­tic­u­lar by:³

a.

as­sist­ing in ob­tain­ing travel doc­u­ments;

b.

mak­ing travel ar­range­ments;

c.⁴

en­sur­ing co­oper­a­tion between the can­tons con­cerned and the FD­FA.

¹The SEM and the can­tons shall work to­geth­er in the case of in­ter­na­tion­al re­turn in­ter­ven­tions on the basis of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2016/1624².

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

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

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

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

¹The 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 the 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 the SEM for med­ic­al su­per­vi­sion on ex­e­cu­tion of re­mov­al and ex­pul­sion or­ders at the time of de­par­ture.

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

¹The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton may de­tain per­sons without a short stay, res­id­ence or per­man­ent res­id­ence 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.

²The per­son may be de­tained only for the dur­a­tion of the re­quired co­oper­a­tion or ques­tion­ing and the re­quired trans­port if ne­ces­sary, and for a max­im­um of three days.

³If 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.

⁴If 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.

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

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

¹The 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 per­man­ent res­id­ence 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.¹

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.²

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

^1bisThe com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall re­quire a per­son who is ac­com­mod­ated in a spe­cial centre un­der Art­icle 24a AsylA³ not to leave the area they were al­loc­ated to or not to enter a spe­cif­ic area.⁴

²These 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.⁵

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

¹To fa­cil­it­ate the con­duct of re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in which the po­ten­tial pen­alty in­cludes an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC², the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may de­tain a per­son who does not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit, dur­ing the pre­par­a­tion of the de­cision on res­id­ence status for a max­im­um of six months if they:³

a.⁴

re­fuse dur­ing asylum pro­ceed­ings, re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings or 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.

^1bis...⁵

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

¹If 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 SCC¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC², the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may en­sure the en­force­ment of the de­cision by:³

a.

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

b.

de­tain­ing the per­son con­cerned if:

1.⁴

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

2.⁵

…

3.⁶

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 AsylA⁷,

4.

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

5.⁸

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

6.⁹

…

^1bisThe de­ten­tion or­der in Dub­lin cases is gov­erned by Art­icle 76a.¹⁰

²De­ten­tion in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5 may last a max­im­um of 30 days.¹¹

³The days in de­ten­tion count to­wards the max­im­um dur­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 79.¹²

⁴The 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.¹³

¹The 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 der Reg­u­la­tion [EU] No 604/2013²).

²The 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 AsylA³ 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.

³The 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 1560/2003⁴;

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.

⁴If 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.

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

¹The 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.

²De­ten­tion may last a max­im­um of 60 days.

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

¹If 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 SCC¹ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC² 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.³

²De­ten­tion 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.⁴

³De­ten­tion 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.⁵

⁴The 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.

⁵The con­di­tions of de­ten­tion are gov­erned by Art­icle 81.

⁶The 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.

¹De­ten­tion 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.

²The 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.

¹De­ten­tion 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.¹

^1bisIn cases un­der Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5, de­ten­tion is ordered by the can­ton in which the the fed­er­al centres are loc­ated; if in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 46 para­graph 1^bis third sen­tence AsylA² a can­ton oth­er than the can­ton where the centres are loc­ated is re­spons­ible for ex­ecut­ing re­mov­al, that can­ton is also re­spons­ible for or­der­ing de­ten­tion.³

²The 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.⁴

^2bisIn 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.⁵

³The 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.

⁴When 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 15.⁶

⁵The 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.

⁶The 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.

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

a.²

in the case of per­sons ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre: the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing re­mov­al un­der Art­icle 46 para­graph 1^bis third sen­tence AsylA³, 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…⁴

³The 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.⁵

⁴The 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.

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

⁶In 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.

⁷The 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.

⁸When 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.

¹The 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.

²De­ten­tion 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.²

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

⁴The de­ten­tion ar­range­ments are oth­er­wise gov­erned by:

a.

Art­icle 16 para­graph 3 and 17 of Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC⁴ for re­turns to a third coun­try;

b.

Art­icle 28 para­graph 4 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013⁵ for Dub­lin trans­fers.

c.⁶

in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 37 of the Con­ven­tion of 20 Novem­ber 1989⁷ on the Rights of the Child.⁸

¹The 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 1984² 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 the SEM in con­nec­tion with a re­mov­al or­der;

d.

refugees who are ex­pelled in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65 AsylA³.

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

²En­force­ment 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.

³En­force­ment 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.

⁴En­force­ment 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.

⁵The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate nat­ive coun­tries or coun­tries of ori­gin or areas of these coun­tries to which re­turn is reas­on­able. If for­eign na­tion­als be­ing re­moved or ex­pelled come from one of these coun­tries or from a mem­ber state of the EU or EFTA, en­force­ment of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion is reas­on­able.¹

^5bisThe Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall peri­od­ic­ally re­view the de­cision un­der para­graph 5.²

⁶Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion may be re­ques­ted by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

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

a.³

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 SCC⁴;

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.

has made their re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion im­possible due to their own con­duct.

⁸Refugees for whom there are reas­ons for re­fus­ing asylum in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 53 and 54 AsylA⁵ shall be gran­ted tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion.

⁹Tem­por­ary 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 MCC⁶ be­comes leg­ally en­force­able.⁷

¹⁰The 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.⁸

¹The SEM peri­od­ic­ally ex­am­ines wheth­er the re­quire­ments for tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion are still met.

²The SEM shall re­voke tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion and or­der the en­force­ment of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion if the re­quire­ments no longer met.

³At the re­quest of the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, fed­pol or the FIS, the SEM may re­voke tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion due to the un­reas­on­able­ness or im­possib­il­ity of en­force­ment (Art. 83 paras 2 and 4) and or­der the en­force­ment of re­mov­al if there are grounds in terms of Art­icle 83 para­graph 7.¹

⁴Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion ex­pires in the event of defin­it­ive de­par­ture, an un­au­thor­ised stay abroad of more than two months, or on the grant­ing of a res­id­ence per­mit.²

⁵Ap­plic­a­tions for a res­id­ence per­mit made by tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted for­eign na­tion­als who have resided in Switzer­land for more than five years are closely ex­amined with re­gard to in­teg­ra­tion, fam­ily cir­cum­stances and the reas­on­able­ness of re­turn to the coun­try of ori­gin.

¹The per­mit for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons (Art. 41 para. 2) is is­sued by the can­ton of res­id­ence for a max­im­um of twelve months for con­trol pur­poses and is ex­ten­ded sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of Art­icle 84.

²For the al­loc­a­tion of tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons, Art­icle 27 AsylA¹ ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

³Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons must sub­mit their ap­plic­a­tion to move to an­oth­er can­ton to the SEM. The SEM shall make a fi­nal de­cision sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of para­graph 4 on the change of can­ton after hear­ing the can­tons con­cerned.

⁴The de­cision on the change of can­ton may only be con­tested on the ground that it vi­ol­ates the prin­ciple of fam­ily unity.

⁵Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons are free to choose their place of res­id­ence with­in their cur­rent can­ton or the can­ton to which they are al­loc­ated. The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies may al­loc­ate a place or res­id­ence or ac­com­mod­a­tion to tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons who are not re­cog­nised as refugees, and who are in re­ceipt of so­cial as­sist­ance.²

⁶…³

⁷Spouses and un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 years of tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons and tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted refugees may be re­united with the tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons or refugees at the earli­est three years after the or­der for tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion and in­cluded in that or­der if:

a.

they live with the tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons or refugees;

b.

suit­able hous­ing is avail­able; and

c.

the fam­ily does not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance.

d.⁴

they can com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at the place of res­id­ence; and

e.⁵

the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing an­nu­al sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits un­der the SBA⁶ or would not be en­titled to re­ceive such be­ne­fits be­cause of fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

^7bisIn or­der to be gran­ted tem­por­ary, it is suf­fi­cient to re­gister for a lan­guage sup­port pro­gramme as an al­tern­at­ive to meet­ing the re­quire­ment set out in un­der para­graph 7 let­ter d.⁷

^7terIn the case of single chil­dren un­der the age of 18, the re­quire­ment set out in para­graph 7 let­ter d does not ap­ply. The re­quire­ment of Art­icle 49a para­graph 2 may be also waived for good cause.⁸

⁸If, on as­sess­ing the re­uni­fic­a­tion of spouses in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 42-45, the SEM has reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds un­der Art­icle 105 num­bers 5 or 6 of the Civil Code⁹ (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.¹⁰

¹Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons may work any­where in Switzer­land if the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor are sat­is­fied (Art. 22).

²The em­ploy­er must re­port the start or end of em­ploy­ment to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the place of work in ad­vance. The re­port must, in par­tic­u­lar, con­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion:

a.

the iden­tity and salary of the em­ployed per­son;

b.

the activ­ity car­ried out;

c.

the place of work.

³The em­ploy­er must in­clude a de­clar­a­tion in the re­port, stat­ing that he is aware of the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor, and that he is com­mit­ted to ob­serving them.

⁴The au­thor­ity re­ferred to in para­graph 2 shall im­me­di­ately send a copy of the re­port to the su­per­vis­ory bod­ies re­spons­ible for veri­fy­ing com­pli­ance with the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions.

⁵The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the com­pet­ent su­per­vis­ory bod­ies.

⁶It shall reg­u­late the re­port­ing pro­ced­ure.

¹The can­tons shall reg­u­late the terms and the pay­ment of so­cial as­sist­ance and emer­gency aid for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons. The pro­vi­sions of Art­icles 80a-84 AsylA¹ re­lat­ing to asylum seekers ap­ply. Sup­port for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons is nor­mally provided in the form of be­ne­fits in kind. The level of sup­port is less than that offered to per­sons res­id­ent in Switzer­land.²

^1bisThe same pro­vi­sions on so­cial as­sist­ance stand­ards ap­ply to the fol­low­ing per­sons as for refugees who have been gran­ted asylum in Switzer­land:

a.

tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted refugees;

b.

refugees sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC³ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC⁴;

c.

state­less per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 31 para­graphs 1 and 2; and

d.

state­less per­sons sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC.⁵

²In re­la­tion to com­puls­ory health in­sur­ance for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons, the cor­res­pond­ing pro­vi­sions for asylum seekers in ac­cord­ance with the AsylA and the Fed­er­al Act of 18 March 1994⁶ on Health In­sur­ance ap­ply.

¹The Con­fed­er­a­tion pays the can­tons:

a.¹

a flat-rate pay­ment for every tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 88 para­graphs 1 and 2 and 89 AsylA²;

b.³

a flat-rate pay­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 88 para­graph 3 and 89 AsylA for every tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted refugee and every state­less per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 31 para­graph 2;

c.⁴

the flat-rate pay­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 88 para­graph 4 AsylA for per­sons whose pre­lim­in­ary ad­mis­sion has been re­voked in a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision, un­less this pay­ment was made pre­vi­ously;

d.⁵

a flat-rate pay­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 88 para­graph 3 and 89 AsylA for every state­less per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 31 para­graph 1 and every state­less per­son sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 66a or 66a^bis SCC⁶ or Art­icle 49a or 49a^bis MCC⁷.

²The as­sump­tion of de­par­ture costs and pay­ment of re­turn as­sist­ance are gov­erned by Art­icles 92 and 93 AsylA.

³Flat-rate pay­ments in terms of para­graph 1 let­ters a and b are made for a max­im­um of sev­en years after entry.⁸

⁴Flat-rate pay­ments in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter d are made for a max­im­um of five years after re­cog­ni­tion of state­less­ness.⁹

¹Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons shall be sub­ject to the ob­lig­a­tion to pay the spe­cial charge on as­sets in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 86 AsylA². The pro­vi­sions of the 2^nd sec­tion of Chapter 5, Chapter 10 and Art­icle 112a of the AsylA ap­ply.

²The ob­lig­a­tion to pay the spe­cial charge ap­plies for a max­im­um of ten years from the date of entry.

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

For­eign na­tion­als must be in pos­ses­sion of a val­id iden­tity doc­u­ment re­cog­nised in terms of Art­icle 13 para­graph 1 dur­ing their stay in Switzer­land.

For­eign na­tion­als and third parties in­volved in pro­ceed­ings un­der this Act are ob­liged to co­oper­ate in de­term­in­ing the rel­ev­ant cir­cum­stances ne­ces­sary to ap­ply this Act. They must in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

provide ac­cur­ate and com­plete in­form­a­tion about cir­cum­stances, which are es­sen­tial for the reg­u­la­tion of the peri­od of stay;

b.

sub­mit the re­quired evid­ence without delay or make every ef­fort to ob­tain it with­in a reas­on­able peri­od;

c.

ob­tain iden­tity doc­u­ments (Art. 89) or as­sist the au­thor­it­ies in ob­tain­ing these doc­u­ments.

¹Be­fore a for­eign na­tion­al be­gins em­ploy­ment, an em­ploy­er must in­spect their iden­tity card or check with the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies to as­cer­tain that the said for­eign na­tion­al is en­titled to work in Switzer­land.

²Any per­son who ob­tains a cross-bor­der ser­vice must in­spect the iden­tity card of the per­son provid­ing the ser­vice or check with the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies to as­cer­tain that this per­son is en­titled to work in Switzer­land.

¹Air car­ri­ers trans­port­ing per­sons must take all reas­on­able meas­ures to en­sure that they only trans­port per­sons who pos­sess the re­quired travel doc­u­ments, visas and res­id­ence doc­u­ments to enter the Schen­gen area or to travel through in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zones of the air­ports.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the ex­tent of the duty of care.

¹The air car­ri­er is ob­liged at the re­quest of the com­pet­ent fed­er­al or can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies to provide im­me­di­ate as­sist­ance to any pas­sen­gers that it is car­ry­ing who are denied entry to the Schen­gen area.²

²The ob­lig­a­tion to provide as­sist­ance cov­ers:

a.

the im­me­di­ate trans­port of the per­son con­cerned from Switzer­land to their coun­try of ori­gin, to the state is­su­ing the travel doc­u­ments or to an­oth­er state where their ad­mis­sion is guar­an­teed;

b.

the un­covered costs of the re­quired at­tend­ance as well as the cus­tom­ary sub­sist­ence and care costs un­til de­par­ture from or entry in­to Switzer­land.

³If the air car­ri­er is un­able to provide evid­ence that it has ful­filled its duty of care, it must ad­di­tion­ally bear:³

a.

the un­covered sub­sist­ence and care costs that have been covered by the Con­fed­er­a­tion or the can­ton for a peri­od of stay of up to six months, in­clud­ing the costs for de­ten­tion un­der the law on for­eign na­tion­als;

b.

the at­tend­ance costs;

c.

the de­port­a­tion costs.

⁴Para­graph 3 does not ap­ply if the per­son be­ing trans­por­ted has been gran­ted entry to Switzer­land in terms of Art­icle 22 AsylA⁴. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for fur­ther ex­cep­tions, in par­tic­u­lar for ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances such as war or nat­ur­al dis­asters.⁵

⁵The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late a flat-rate charge based on the ex­pec­ted costs.

⁶It may re­quest se­cur­ity for the pay­ment of costs.