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Federal Act on Foreign Nationals and Integration

English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.

The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation,

on the basis of Article 121 paragraph 1 of the Federal Constitution2, and having considered the Dispatch of the Federal Council dated 8 March 20023,

decrees:

Chapter 1 Subject Matter and Scope of Application

Art. 1 Subject matter  

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

Art. 2 Scope of application  

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


1 SR 0.142.112.681
2 SR 0.632.31; the Pro­tocol of 21 June 2001, which is an in­teg­ral part of the Agree­ment ap­plies to re­la­tions between Switzer­land and Liecht­en­stein.
3 In­ser­ted by Art. 127 be­low (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a). Amended by No I of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).
4 In­ser­ted by No 1 of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS20085407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).

Chapter 2 Principles of Admission and Integration

Art. 3 Admission  

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.

Art. 4 Integration  

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.

Chapter 3 Entry and Exit

Art. 5 Entry requirements  

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 66abis of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code (SCC)2 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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.

34

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


1 Amended by No IV 3 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).
2 SR 311.0
3 SR 321.0
4 Re­pealed by Art. 127 be­low, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a).
5 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a).

Art. 6 Issue of the visa  

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


1 The name of this ad­min­is­trat­ive unit was amended by Art. 16 para. 3 of the Pub­lic­a­tions Or­din­ance of 17 Nov. 2004 (AS 2004 4937), in force since 1 Jan. 2015. This amend­ment has been made throughout the text.
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).
3 SR 172.021
4 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 (Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes re­lat­ing to the Visa In­form­a­tion Sys­tem) (AS 2010 2063; BBl 2009 4245). Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).
5 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a).

Art. 7 Crossing the border and border controls  

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


1 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a).
2 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
3 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2016/399 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 9 March 2016 es­tab­lish­ing a Com­munity Code on the rules gov­ern­ing the move­ment of per­sons across bor­ders (Schen­gen Bor­ders Code), OJ. L 77 of 23.3.2016, p. 1; last amended by Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/458, OJ. L 74 of 18.03.2017, p. 1.
4 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 of the FD of 13 June 2008 on the Ap­prov­al and the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the European Com­munity on the Ac­cept­ance of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code (AS20085629 5405 Art. 2 let. b). Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).

Art. 8  

1 Re­pealed by Art. 127 be­low, with ef­fect from 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a).

Art. 9 Authorities responsible for border controls  

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.

Chapter 4 Permit and Notification Requirements

Art. 10 Permit requirement for period of stay without gainful employment  

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.

Art. 11 Permit requirement for period of stay with gainful employment  

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.

Art. 12 Registration requirement  

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.

Art. 13 Permit and registration procedures  

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.

Art. 14 Derogations from the permit and the registration requirement  

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

Art. 15 Notice of departure  

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.

Art. 16 Notification requirement in the case of commercial accommodation  

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

Art. 17 Regulation of the period of stay until the permit decision  

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.

Chapter 5 Admission Requirements

Section 1 Admission for a Period of Stay with Gainful Employment

Art. 18 Salaried employment  

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.
Art. 19 Self-employment  

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.

1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).
2 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).

Art. 20 Limitation measures  

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.

Art. 21 Precedence  

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

1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).
2 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).
3 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Sim­pli­fied Ad­mis­sion for For­eign Na­tion­als with Uni­versity De­grees), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5957; BBl 2010 427 445).

Art. 21a Measures for persons seeking employment  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).

Art. 22 Salary and employment conditions  

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.

Art. 23 Personal requirements  

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.
Art. 24 Accommodation  

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

Art. 25 Admission of cross-border commuters  

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.

Art. 26 Admission for cross-border services  

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.

Art. 26a Admission of caregivers and teachers  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Section 2 Admission for Residence without Gainful Employment

Art. 27 Education and training  

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


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Sim­pli­fied Ad­mis­sion for For­eign Na­tion­als with Uni­versity De­grees), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5957; BBl 2010 427 445).
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Sim­pli­fied Ad­mis­sion for For­eign Na­tion­als with Uni­versity De­grees), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5957; BBl 2010 427 445).
3 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Sim­pli­fied Ad­mis­sion for For­eign Na­tion­als with Uni­versity De­grees), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5957; BBl 2010 427 445).

Art. 28 Retired persons  

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.
Art. 29 Medical treatment  

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

Art. 29a Persons seeking employment  

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


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).

Section 3 Derogations from the Admission Requirements

Art. 30  

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.


1 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 23 Dec. 2011 on Ex­tra-Pro­ced­ur­al Wit­ness Pro­tec­tion, in force since 1 Jan. 2013 (AS 2012 6715; BBl 2011 1).
2 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 20 June 2014 on Con­tinu­ing Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing, in force since 1 Jan. 2017 (AS 2016 689; BBl 2013 3729).
3 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Sim­pli­fied Ad­mis­sion for For­eign Na­tion­als with Uni­versity De­grees), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5957; BBl 2010 427 445).
4 SR 142.31

Section 4 Stateless Persons

Art. 31  

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 66abis SCC1 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC2 may work any­where in Switzer­land. Art­icle 61 AsylA3 ap­plies by ana­logy.4


1 SR 311.0
2 SR 321.0
3 SR 142.31
4 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).

Chapter 6 Regulation of the Period of stay

Art. 32 Short stay permit  

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.

Art. 33 Residence permit  

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


1 Word­ing amended by No IV 3 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721). This amend­ment has been made throughout the text.
2 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
3 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 34 Permanent residence permit  

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


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
3 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
4 Amended by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Sim­pli­fied Ad­mis­sion for For­eign Na­tion­als with Uni­versity De­grees), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5957; BBl 2010 427 445).
5 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 35 Cross-border commuter permit  

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.

Art. 36 Place of residence  

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.

Art. 37 Change of the place of residence to another canton  

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.

Art. 38 Gainful employment  

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.

Art. 39 Employment of cross-border commuters  

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.

Art. 40 Permit-granting authority and preliminary decision based on the employment market  

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.

Art. 41 Identity cards  

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


1 Amended by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).
2 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).
3 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).

Art. 41a Security and reading of the data chip  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).

Art. 41b Office issuing biometric identity cards  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).
2 SR 120.4

Chapter 7 Family Reunification

Art. 42 Family members of Swiss nationals  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 43 Spouses and children of persons with 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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 SR 831.30

Art. 44 Spouses and children of persons with a 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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 SR 831.30

Art. 45 Spouses and children of persons with a short stay permit  

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.

1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 SR 831.30

Art. 45a Annulment of marriage  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 on Meas­ures against Forced Mar­riages, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2013 (AS 2013 1035; BBl 2011 2185).
2 SR 210

Art. 46 Employment of spouses and children  

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.

Art. 47 Time limit for family reunification  

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.

Art. 48 Children fostered with a view to adoption  

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.

Art. 49 Exemptions from requirement of cohabitation  

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.

Art. 49a Exception to the requirement of proof of language proficiency  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 50 Dissolution of the family household  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 Amended by No I 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 on Meas­ures against Forced Mar­riages, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2013 (AS 2013 1035; BBl 2011 2185).

Art. 51 Expiry of the right to family reunification  

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.

1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 52 Registered partnership  

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

Chapter 8 Integration

Section 1 Encouraging Integration

Art. 53 Principles  

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.


1 Amended by No III 1 of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 53a Target groups  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 54 Integration support within standard structures  

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.

1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 55 Specific approaches to integration support  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 55a Measures for persons with special integration needs  

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


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 56 Allocation of tasks  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 57 Provision of information and advice  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 58 Financial contributions  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 SR 142.31

Section 2 Integration Requirements

Art. 58a Integration criteria  

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.

Art. 58b Agreements and recommendations relating to integration  

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.

Chapter 9 Travel Documents and Ban on Travel

Art. 59 Issue of travel documents  

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 66abis SCC5 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC6 does not have a right to travel doc­u­ments.7

48

5 and 6 …9


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
2 Ex­pres­sion in ac­cord­ance with No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561). This amend­ment has been made throughout the text.
3 SR 0.142.30
4 SR 0.142.40
5 SR 311.0
6 SR 321.0
7 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
8 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), with ef­fect from 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
9 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 2 of the FD of 13 June 2008 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU on Bio­met­ric Pass­ports and Travel Doc­u­ments (AS 2009 5521, 2011 4033; BBl 2007 5159). Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), with ef­fect from 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).

Art. 59a Data chip  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
2 SR 142.51
3 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 2 of the FD of 13 June 2008 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU on Bio­met­ric Pass­ports and Travel Doc­u­ments, in force since 1 Oct. 2011 (AS 2009 5521, 2011 4033; BBl 2007 5159).

Art. 59b Biometric data  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
2 SR 143.1

Chapter 10 End of the Period of Stay

Section 1 Return and Reintegration Assistance

Art. 60  

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;
abis.
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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
2 SR 142.31
3 Amended by No IV 2 of the FA of 16 Dec. 2005, in force since 1 Jan. 2008 (AS 2006 4745, 2007 5573; BBl 2002 3709).

Section 2 Expiry and Revocation of Permits and Expiry of Right of Residence

Art. 61 Expiry of permits  

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 66abis SCC or 49abis 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.


1 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975). Amended by No IV 3 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).
2 SR 311.0
3 SR 321.0
4 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 61a Expiry of the right of residence of EU and EFTA citizens  

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).


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).
2 SR 0.142.112.681
3 SR 0.632.31

Art. 62 Revocation of permits and other rulings  

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.


1 Amended by No IV 3 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).
2 SR 311.0
3 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the Swiss Cit­izen­ship Act of 20 June 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 2561; BBl 2011 2825).
4 SR 141.0
5 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821). Cor­rec­tion by the Fed­er­al As­sembly Draft­ing Com­mit­tee of 10 Aug. 2018, pub­lished on 18 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3213).

Art. 63 Revocation of the permanent residence permit  

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


1 Amended by No IV 3 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).
2 In­ser­ted by An­nex No II 1 of the Swiss Cit­izen­ship Act of 20 June 2014, in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 2561; BBl 2011 2825).
3 SR 141.0
4 Ori­gin­ally: let. d. Re­pealed by No IV 3 of the FA of 19 June 2015 (Amend­ment to the Law of Crim­in­al Sanc­tions), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 1249; BBl 2012 4721).
5 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
6 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Section 3 Procedures to Remove and Keep People Away

Art. 64 Removal order  

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


1 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 These Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex No 1.
3 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).

Art. 64a Removal under the Dublin Association Agreements  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No 1 of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS20085407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937). Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 Coun­cil Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 604/2013 of 26 June 2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an asylum ap­plic­a­tion lodged in one of the Mem­ber States by a third-coun­try na­tion­al; (new ver­sion), Amended by OJ L 180 of 29.6.2013, p. 31.
3 Amended by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
4 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).

Art. 64b Removal order on standard form  

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


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 64c Removal without formal procedure  

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).


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).
3 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 3.

Art. 64d Departure deadline and immediate enforcement  

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

1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).
3 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 3.
4 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).

Art. 64e Obligations on giving notice of a removal order  

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

a.
to re­port to an au­thor­ity reg­u­larly;
b.
to provide ap­pro­pri­ate fin­an­cial se­cur­ity;
c.
to hand in travel doc­u­ments.

1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 64f Translation of the removal order  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 65 Refusal of entry and removal at the airport  

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


1 Amended by Art. 2 of the FD of 13 June 2008 on the Ap­prov­al and the Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the European Com­munity on the Ac­cept­ance of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5629 5405 Art. 2 let. b; BBl 2007 7937).
2 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2016/399 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 9 March 2016 es­tab­lish­ing a Com­munity Code on the rules gov­ern­ing the move­ment of per­sons across bor­ders (Schen­gen Bor­ders Code), OJ. L 77 of 23.3.2016, p. 1; last amended by Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/458, OJ. L 74 of 18.03.2017, p. 1.
3 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
4 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
5 SR 142.31
6 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).

Art. 66  

1 Re­pealed by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 67 Ban on entry  

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


1 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 Ex­pres­sion in ac­cord­ance with No I 1 para. 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 on Meas­ures against Forced Mar­riages, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2013 (AS 2013 1035; BBl 2011 2185).
3 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 68 Expulsion  

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.


1 Amended by No I 2 of the Or­din­ance of 12 Dec. 2008 on the Amend­ment of Stat­utory Pro­vi­sions due to the Trans­fer of the In­tel­li­gence Units of the Ser­vice for Ana­lys­is and Pre­ven­tion to the DDPS, in force since 1 Jan. 2009 (AS 2008 6261).

Section 4 Deportation and International Return Interventions

Art. 69 Ordering deportation  

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 66abis SCC2 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
2 SR 311.0
3 SR 321.0
4 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
5 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 70 Search  

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.


1 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

Art. 71 Federal support for the implementation authorities  

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 66abis SCC1 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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.

1 SR 311.0
2 SR 321.0
3 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).
4 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).

Art. 71a International return interventions  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC-Re­turn Dir­ect­ive (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EG) (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881). Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).
2 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2016/1624 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 14 Septem­ber 2016 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard and amend­ing Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2016/399 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil and re­peal­ing Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 863/2007 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil, Coun­cil Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 2007/2004 and Coun­cil De­cision 2005/267/EC, Amended by OJ. L 251 of 16.9.2016, p.1.

Art. 71abis Supervision of deportation procedures and international return interventions  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).

Art. 71b Disclosure of medical data for the assessment of fitness to travel  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 3101, 2017 6171; BBl 2014 7991).

Art. 72  

1 Re­pealed by No IV 2 of the FA of 16 Dec. 2005, with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2008 (AS2006 4745, 2007 5573; BBl 2002 3709).

Section 5 Coercive Measures

Art. 73 Temporary detention  

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.

Art. 74 Restriction and exclusion orders  

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.


1 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
3 SR 142.31
4 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
5 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).

Art. 75 Detention in preparation for departure  

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 66abis SCC1 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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 66abis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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.


1 SR 311.0
2 SR 321.0
3 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).
4 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).
5 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC) (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881). Re­pealed by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675)

Art. 76 Detention pending deportation  

1If the court of first in­stance has is­sued an ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der or an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC1 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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 66abis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC must be taken without delay.13


1 SR 311.0
2 SR 321.0
3 Amended by No IV 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
4 Amended by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
5 Re­pealed by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, with ef­fect from 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).
6 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
7 SR 142.31
8 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
9 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC) (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881). Re­pealed by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), with ef­fect from 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
10 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
11 Amended by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
12 Amended by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
13 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).

Art. 76a Detention under the Dublin procedure  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
2 See foot­note to Art. 64a para. 1.
3 SR 142.31
4 Com­mis­sion Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 1560/2003 of 2 Sept. 2003 lay­ing down de­tailed rules for the ap­plic­a­tion of Coun­cil Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 343/2003 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an asylum ap­plic­a­tion lodged in one of the Mem­ber States by a third-coun­try na­tion­al, OJ L 222 of 5.9.2003, p. 3.

Art. 77 Detention pending deportation due to lack of cooperation in obtaining travel documents  

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.

Art. 78 Coercive detention  

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 66abis SCC1 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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.

1 SR 311.0
2 SR 321.0
3 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).
4 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
5 Amended by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).

Art. 79 Maximum term of detention  

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.

1 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 80 Detention order and detention review  

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 1bis 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.

1 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
2 SR 142.31
3 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
4 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
5 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC) (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881). Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
6 Second sen­tence amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 March 2015 (AS 2015 533; BBl 2014 3373).

Art. 80a Detention order and detention review under the Dublin procedure  

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 1bis 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.

24

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 3bis 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.


1 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
2 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
3 SR 142.31
4 Re­pealed by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, with ef­fect from 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).
5 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 March 2019 (AS 2016 3101, 2018 2855; BBl 2014 7991).

Art. 81 Conditions 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

1 Amended by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 18 June 2010 on the Ad­op­tion of the EC Dir­ect­ive on the Re­turn of Il­leg­al Im­mig­rants (Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5925; BBl 2009 8881).
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
3 Amended by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).
4 Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 16 Dec. 2008 on com­mon stand­ards and pro­ced­ures in Mem­ber States for re­turn­ing il­leg­ally stay­ing third-coun­try na­tion­als, Amended by OJ L 348 of 24.12.2008, p. 98.
5 See foot­note to Art. 64a para. 1.
6 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
7 SR 0.107
8 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I 1 of the FD of 26 Sept. 2014 (Ad­op­tion of R[EU] No 604/2013 es­tab­lish­ing the cri­ter­ia and mech­an­isms for de­term­in­ing the Mem­ber State re­spons­ible for ex­amin­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2015 (AS 2015 1841; BBl 2014 2675).

Art. 82 Funding by the Confederation  

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.

1 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).
2 SR 341
3 SR 142.31

Chapter 11 Temporary Admission

Art. 83 Order for temporary admission  

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 66abis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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


1 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325). See also the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sion to this amend­ment at the end of the text.
2 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325). See also the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sion to this amend­ment at the end of the text.
3 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).
4 SR 311.0
5 SR 142.31
6 SR 321.0
7 In­ser­ted by An­nex No I of the FA of 20 March 2015 (Im­ple­ment­a­tion of Art. 121 para. 3-6 Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion on the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als con­victed of cer­tain of­fences), in force since 1 Oct. 2016 (AS 2016 2329; BBl 2013 5975).
8 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 84 Termination of temporary admission  

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.


1 Amended by No I 2 of the Or­din­ance of 12 Dec. 2008 on the Amend­ment of Stat­utory Pro­vi­sions due to the Trans­fer of the In­tel­li­gence Units of the Ser­vice for Ana­lys­is and Pre­ven­tion to the DDPS, in force since 1 Jan. 2009 (AS 2008 6261).
2 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

Art. 85 Regulation of temporary admission  

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

63

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


1 SR 142.31
2 Second sen­tence in­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).
3 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
4 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
5 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
6 SR 831.30
7 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
8 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
9 SR 210
10 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 on Meas­ures against Forced Mar­riages, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2013 (AS 2013 1035; BBl 2011 2185).

Art. 85a Right to work  

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.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 86 Social assistance and health insurance  

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 66abis SCC3 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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 66abis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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.


1 SR 142.31
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
3 SR 311.0
4 SR 321.0
5 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
6 SR 832.10

Art. 87 Federal subsidies  

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 66abis SCC6 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis 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


1 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Jan. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).
2 SR 142.31
3 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 3101, 2017 6171; BBl 2014 7991).
4 In­ser­ted by No IV 2 of the FA of 16 Dec. 2005, in force since 1 Jan. 2008 (AS2006 4745, 2007 5573; BBl 2002 3709).
5 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 (AS 2016 3101, 2017 6171; BBl 2014 7991). Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685)
6 SR 311.0
7 SR 321.0
8 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 3101, 2017 6171; BBl 2014 7991).
9 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015, in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2016 3101, 2017 6171; BBl 2014 7991).

Art. 88 Special charge on assets  

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 2nd 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.


1 Amended by No. I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2018 (AS 2017 6521; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
2 SR 142.31

Art. 88a Registered partnerships  

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


1 In­ser­ted by No I 1 of the FA of 15 June 2012 on Meas­ures against Forced Mar­riages, in force since 1 Ju­ly 2013 (AS 2013 1035; BBl 2011 2185).

Chapter 12 Obligations

Section 1 Obligations of Foreign Nationals, Employers and Recipients of Services

Art. 89 Possession of a valid identity document  

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

Art. 90 Obligation to cooperate  

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.
Art. 91 Duty of care of employers and of recipients of services  

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.

Section 2 Obligations of Carriers

Art. 92 Duty of care  

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.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).

Art. 93 Obligation to provide assistance and to cover costs  

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.


1 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405 Art. 2 let. a).
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).
3 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).
4 SR 142.31
5 Amended by No I of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).

Art. 94 Cooperation with the authorities  

1The air car­ri­ers shall co­oper­ate with the com­pet­ent fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies. The mod­al­it­ies of this co­oper­a­tion may be stip­u­lated in the op­er­at­ing li­cence or in an agree­ment between the SEM and the car­ri­er.

2The fol­low­ing may also be stip­u­lated in the op­er­at­ing li­cence or agree­ment in par­tic­u­lar:

a.
spe­cial meas­ures by air car­ri­ers to en­sure com­pli­ance with the duty of care un­der Art­icle 92;
b.
the in­tro­duc­tion of flat-rate pay­ments in­stead of sub­sist­ence and care costs un­der Art­icle 93.

3If spe­cial meas­ures un­der para­graph 2 let­ter a are stip­u­lated, the op­er­at­ing li­cence or the agree­ment may provide that any amount that an air car­ri­er must pay un­der Art­icle 122a para­graph 1 be re­duced by up to a half.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).

Art. 95 Other carriers  

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make oth­er com­mer­cial car­ri­ers sub­ject to Art­icles 92-94, 122a and 122c if Swiss na­tion­al bor­ders be­come a Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­der. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 26 of the Con­ven­tion of 19 June 19902 im­ple­ment­ing the Schen­gen Agree­ment (Schen­gen Con­ven­tion).


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 20 June 2014 (Vi­ol­a­tions of the Duty of Care and to Re­port by Air Car­ri­ers, In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 Oct. 2015 (AS 2015 3023; BBl 2013 2561).
2 Con­ven­tion of 19 June 1990 im­ple­ment­ing the Schen­gen Agree­ment of 14 June 1985 between the Gov­ern­ments of the States of the Be­ne­lux Eco­nom­ic Uni­on, the Fed­er­al Re­pub­lic of Ger­many and the French Re­pub­lic on the gradu­al ab­ol­i­tion of checks at their com­mon bor­ders, OJ. L 239 of 22.9.2000, p. 19.

Section 3 Obligations of Airport Operators

Art. 95a Provision of accommodation by airport operators  

Air­port op­er­at­ors are ob­liged to provide suit­able and reas­on­ably priced ac­com­mod­a­tion at the air­port for for­eign na­tion­als whose entry or on­ward jour­ney is re­fused at the air­port un­til re­mov­al or entry.

Chapter 13 Tasks and Responsibilities of the Authorities

Art. 96 Exercise of discretion  

1In ex­er­cising dis­cre­tion, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall take ac­count of pub­lic in­terests and per­son­al cir­cum­stances as well as the in­teg­ra­tion of for­eign na­tion­als.1

2If a meas­ure is com­pet­ent, but the cir­cum­stances are not ap­pro­pri­ate, the per­son con­cerned may be is­sued with a warn­ing on pain of this pen­alty.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Art. 97 Administrative assistance and disclosure of personal data  

1The au­thor­it­ies en­trus­ted with the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act shall sup­port each oth­er in the ful­fil­ment of their tasks. They shall provide the re­quired in­form­a­tion and on re­quest al­low the in­spec­tion of of­fi­cial files.

2Oth­er au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the can­tons and the com­munes are ob­liged to dis­close data and in­form­a­tion re­quired for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act at the re­quest of the au­thor­it­ies men­tioned in para­graph 1.

3The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine what data must be re­por­ted to the au­thor­it­ies men­tioned in para­graph 1 in the case of:

a.
the open­ing of crim­in­al in­vest­ig­a­tions;
b.
civil and crim­in­al judge­ments;
c.
changes in con­nec­tion with civil status or in the case of re­fus­al to per­mit a mar­riage;
d.
a claim for so­cial as­sist­ance;
dbis.2
a claim for un­em­ploy­ment be­ne­fit;
dter.3
a claim for sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits in ac­cord­ance with the SBA4;
dquater.5 dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures by school au­thor­it­ies;
dquin­quies.6 meas­ures taken by child and adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies;
e.7
oth­er de­cisions in­dic­at­ing a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a;
f.8

4If an au­thor­ity in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 re­ceives data pur­su­ant to Art­icle 26a SBA about a claim for sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits, it shall auto­mat­ic­ally no­ti­fy the body re­spons­ible for de­term­in­ing and pay­ing out the sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits of the pos­sib­il­ity that the res­id­ence per­mit will not be ex­ten­ded or will be re­voked.9


1 For data in con­nec­tion with il­leg­al em­ploy­ment, Arts. 11 and 12 of the FA of 17 June 2005 on Il­leg­al Em­ploy­ment (SR 822.41) ap­ply.
2 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
3 In­ser­ted by No III 1 of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
4 SR 831.30
5 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
6 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
7 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012 (AS 2013 4375; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325). Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
8 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007). Re­pealed by No III 1 of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), with ef­fect from 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).
9 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (Con­trolling Im­mig­ra­tion and Im­prov­ing Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Free Move­ment Agree­ments), in force since 1 Ju­ly 2018 (AS 2018 733; BBl 2016 3007).

Art. 98 Allocation of tasks  

1The SEM is re­spons­ible for all tasks that are not ex­pressly re­served to oth­er fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies or the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

2The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the entry and exit, ad­mis­sion as well as res­id­ency of the per­sons be­ne­fit­ing from priv­ileges, im­munit­ies and fa­cil­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 2 para­graph 2 of the Host State Act of 22 June 20071.2

3The can­tons shall des­ig­nate the au­thor­it­ies who are re­spons­ible for the tasks that have been en­trus­ted to them.


1 SR 192.12
2 Amended by Art. 35 of the Host State Act of 22 June 2007, in force since 1 Jan. 2008 (AS 2007 6637; BBl 2006 8017).

Art. 98a Use of police control and restraint techniques and police measures by the enforcement authorities  

The per­sons en­trus­ted with the en­force­ment of this Act may use po­lice con­trol and re­straint tech­niques and po­lice meas­ures in or­der to ful­fil their du­ties, provided it is jus­ti­fied by the leg­al in­terests to be pro­tec­ted. The Use of Force Act of 20 March 20082 ap­plies.


1 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 2 of the Use of Force Act of 20 March 2008, in force since 1 Jan. 2009(AS 2008 5463; BBl 2006 2489).
2 SR 364

Art. 98b Delegation of duties to third parties in the visa procedure  

1The FD­FA in con­sulta­tion with the SEM may au­thor­ise third parties to carry out the fol­low­ing tasks in re­la­tion to the visa pro­ced­ure:

a.
ar­range­ment of ap­point­ments with a view to grant­ing a visa;
b.
re­ceiv­ing doc­u­ments (visa ap­plic­a­tion form, pass­port, sup­port­ing doc­u­ments);
c.
char­ging of fees;
d.
re­cord­ing of bio­met­ric­al data for the cent­ral visa in­form­a­tion sys­tem;
e.
re­turn­ing pass­ports to their hold­ers at the end of the pro­ced­ure.

2The FD­FA and the SEM shall en­sure that the third parties to whom du­ties are del­eg­ated com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions on data pro­tec­tion and se­cur­ity.

3The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the con­di­tions un­der which third parties may be del­eg­ated du­ties in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No 1 of the FD of 11 Dec. 2009 (Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­changes of Notes re­lat­ing to the Visa In­form­a­tion Sys­tem), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 2063 5761; BBl 2009 4245).

Art. 99 Approval procedure  

1The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the cases in which short stay, res­id­ence and per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mits as well as can­ton­al pre­lim­in­ary la­bour mar­ket de­cisions shall be sub­mit­ted to SEM for ap­prov­al.

2SEM may re­fuse to ap­prove the de­cision of a can­ton­al ad­min­is­trat­ive or ap­pel­late au­thor­ity or make the de­cision sub­ject to a time lim­it or to con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).

Art. 100 International agreements  

1The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­cour­age bi­lat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al mi­gra­tion part­ner­ships with oth­er states. It may con­clude agree­ments to im­prove co­oper­a­tion in the field of mi­gra­tion as well as to re­duce il­leg­al mi­gra­tion and its neg­at­ive con­sequences.

2The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude agree­ments with for­eign states or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions on:2

a.
the re­quire­ment to ob­tain a visa and the con­duct of bor­der con­trols;
b.
the read­mis­sion and trans­it of per­sons resid­ing without au­thor­isa­tion in Switzer­land;
c.
the trans­it with po­lice es­cort of per­sons in terms of read­mis­sion and trans­it agree­ments in­clud­ing the leg­al status of per­sons ac­com­pa­ny­ing the con­trac­tu­al parties;
d.
the peri­od of res­id­ence re­quired be­fore the grant­ing of a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit;
e.
ba­sic and ad­vanced pro­fes­sion­al train­ing;
f.
the re­cruit­ment of em­ploy­ees;
g.
cross-bor­der ser­vices;
h.
the leg­al status of per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 98 para­graph 2.

3In the case of read­mis­sion and trans­it agree­ments, it may in terms of its re­spons­ib­il­it­ies grant or with­hold ser­vices and ad­vant­ages. In do­ing so, it shall take ac­count of ob­lig­a­tions un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law as well as the all the re­la­tions Switzer­land has with the af­fected state.3

4The re­spons­ible de­part­ments may enter in­to agree­ments with for­eign au­thor­it­ies or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions on the tech­nic­al im­ple­ment­a­tion of agree­ments in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2.4

5Un­til the con­clu­sion of a read­mis­sion agree­ment with­in the mean­ing of para­graph 2 let­ter b, the FD­JP may enter in­to agree­ments with the com­pet­ent for­eign au­thor­it­ies and in con­sulta­tion with the FD­FA in which or­gan­isa­tion­al is­sues con­nec­ted with the re­turn of for­eign na­tion­als to their nat­ive coun­tries and with re­turn as­sist­ance and re­in­teg­ra­tion are reg­u­lated.5


1 Amended by No I of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).
3 Amended by No I of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).
4 Amended by No I of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937).
5 In­ser­ted by No 1 of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), (AS 2008 5407 5405 Art. 2 let. c; BBl 2007 7937). Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 15 Dec. 2017 (Ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion [EU] 2016/1624 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard), in force since 15 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3161; BBl 2017 4155).

Art. 100a Use of documentation advisers  

1In or­der to com­bat il­leg­al mi­gra­tion, use may be made of doc­u­ment­a­tion ad­visers.

2Doc­u­ment­a­tion ad­visers shall in par­tic­u­lar provide sup­port in check­ing doc­u­ments to the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for bor­der con­trols, air car­ri­ers and for­eign rep­res­ent­a­tions. They shall act only in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city and shall not ex­er­cise any sov­er­eign func­tion.

3The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may enter in­to agree­ments on the use of doc­u­ment­a­tion ad­visers with for­eign States.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 18 June 2010 (Auto­mated Bor­der Con­trols, Doc­u­ment­a­tion Ad­visers, MIDES In­form­a­tion Sys­tem), in force since 1 Jan. 2011 (AS 2010 5755; BBl 2009 8881).

Art. 100b Commission for Migration Issues  

1The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­point an ad­vis­ory com­mis­sion com­pris­ing for­eign and Swiss na­tion­als.

2The Com­mis­sion shall deal with so­cial, eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al, polit­ic­al, demo­graph­ic and leg­al is­sues that arise from the entry, res­id­ence and re­turn of all for­eign na­tion­als, in­clud­ing asylum seekers.

3It shall work with the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the can­tons and the com­munes and with non-gov­ern­ment­al or­gan­isa­tions in­volved in mi­gra­tion mat­ters; these in­clude the can­ton­al and com­mun­al com­mis­sions for for­eign na­tion­als in­volved in in­teg­ra­tion. It shall par­ti­cip­ate in the in­ter­na­tion­al ex­change of views and ex­per­i­ences.

4The Com­mis­sion may be con­sul­ted on ques­tions of prin­ciple re­lat­ing to the pro­mo­tion of in­teg­ra­tion. It is en­titled to re­quest fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions from the SEM for con­duct­ing in­teg­ra­tion pro­jects of na­tion­al im­port­ance.

5The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may as­sign ad­di­tion­al tasks to the Com­mis­sion.


1 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion), in force since 1 Jan. 2019 (AS 2017 6521, 2018 3171; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821).

Chapter 14 Data Processing and Data Protection

Section 1 General

Art. 101 Data processing  

The SEM, the can­ton­al im­mig­ra­tion au­thor­it­ies and, where it has jur­is­dic­tion, the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court may pro­cess or in­struct someone else to pro­cess per­son­al data, in­clud­ing par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive data and per­son­al­ity pro­files of for­eign na­tion­als as well third parties in­volved in pro­ced­ures in ac­cord­ance with this Act, in­so­far as they need this data to ful­fil their stat­utory du­ties.


1 Amended by No I 1 of the Or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly of 20 Dec. 2006 on the Ad­apt­a­tion of Le­gis­la­tion to the Pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act and the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court Act, in force since 1 Jan. 2008 (AS 2006 5599, BBl 2006 7759).

Art. 102 Data collection for the purpose of identification and determining age  

1The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may or­der the col­lec­tion of bio­met­ric data in or­der to de­term­ine the iden­tity of a for­eign na­tion­al when veri­fy­ing entry re­quire­ments and in pro­ced­ures con­cern­ing for­eign na­tion­als.

1bisIf there are in­dic­a­tions that an al­leged for­eign minor has reached the age of ma­jor­ity, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may ar­range an ex­pert re­port on that per­son's age.2

2The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine which bio­met­ric data is col­lec­ted in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1, and shall reg­u­late the ac­cess to this data.3


1 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).
2 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).
3 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 4375 5357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

Art. 102a Biometric data for identity cards  

1The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may save and store the bio­met­ric data re­quired for the is­sue of the for­eign na­tion­al iden­tity cards.

2The task of re­cord­ing bio­met­ric data and for­ward­ing iden­tity card data to the is­su­ing body may be del­eg­ated wholly or in part to third parties.2

3The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may pro­cess bio­met­ric data already re­cor­ded in ZEMIS in or­der to is­sue or re­new a travel doc­u­ment.3

4The bio­met­ric data re­quired for the is­sue of an iden­tity card 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.4


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).
2 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
3 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).
4 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Reg­u­la­tions and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 June 2019 (AS 2019 1413; BBl 2018 1685).

Art. 102b Verifying the identity of the identity card holder  

1The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies are au­thor­ised to read the data stored on the chip in or­der to veri­fy the iden­tity of the hold­er or veri­fy that the doc­u­ment is genu­ine:

a.
the Bor­der Guard;
b.
the can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice;
c.
the can­ton­al and com­mun­al mi­gra­tion au­thor­it­ies.

2The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may au­thor­ise air­lines, air­port op­er­at­ors and oth­er agen­cies that must veri­fy the iden­tity of per­sons to read the fin­ger­prints stored on the data chip in or­der to carry out checks on per­sons.


1 In­ser­ted by Art. 2 No I of the FD of 18 June 2010 (De­vel­op­ment of the Schen­gen Ac­quis and In­tro­duc­tion of Bio­met­ric Data in­to For­eign Na­tion­al Iden­tity Cards), in force since 24 Jan. 2011 (AS 2011 175; BBl 2010 51).

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