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

of 16 December 2005 (Status as of 17 December 2022)

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).

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  

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

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

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

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

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

4 SR 0.142.112.681

5 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.

6 In­ser­ted by Art. 127 be­low (AS 2008 5405Art. 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

7 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 (AS 2008 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

Chapter 2 Principles of Admission and Integration

Art. 3 Admission  

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

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

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

Art. 4 Integration  

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

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

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

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

Chapter 3 Entry and Exit

Art. 5 Entry requirements  

1 For­eign na­tion­als who wish to enter Switzer­land:

a.
must have a re­cog­nised iden­tity doc­u­ment for cross­ing the bor­der and a visa, if re­quired;
b.
must have the re­quired fin­an­cial means for the peri­od of stay;
c.
must not pose a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or to Switzer­land’s in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions; and
d.8
must not be sub­ject to a meas­ure ban­ning them from entry or an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code (SCC)9 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis of the Mil­it­ary Crim­in­al Code of 13 June 192710 (MCC).

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

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

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

8 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).

9 SR 311.0

10 SR 321.0

11 Amended by No I of the FA of 21 June 2019, in force since 1 Dec. 2019 (AS 2019 3539; BBl 2019 175).

12 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405Art. 2 let. a).

Art. 6 Issue of the visa  

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

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

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

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

13 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.

14 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).

15 SR 172.021

16 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).

17 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405Art. 2 let. a).

Art. 7 Crossing the border and border controls 18  

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

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

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

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

18 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405Art. 2 let. a).

19 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 13. Novem­ber 2019 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard and re­peal­ing Reg­u­la­tions (EU) No 1052/2013 and (EU) No 2016/1624, last amended by OJ L 295 of 14.11.2019, p. 1.

20 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 1 Oct. 2021 re­lat­ing to the ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard, in force since 1 Sept. 2022 (AS 2022 462; BBl 2020 7105).

21 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).

22 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) 2017/2225, OJ. L 327 of 9.12.2017, p. 1.

23 Amended by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

24 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 (AS 2008 56295405Art. 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. 825  

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

Art. 9 Authorities responsible for border controls  

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

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

Chapter 4 Permit and Notification Requirements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art. 12 Registration requirement  

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

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

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

Art. 13 Permit and registration procedures  

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

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

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

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  

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

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

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.26
they have an ad­equate and in­de­pend­ent source of in­come; and
d.27
the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 20 and 23–25 are met.

26 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).

27 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  

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

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

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

Art. 21 Precedence  

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

2 Do­mest­ic em­ploy­ees in­clude:

a.
Swiss na­tion­als;
b.
per­sons with a set­tle­ment per­mit;
c.
per­sons with a res­id­ence per­mit au­thor­ising them to work;
d.28
tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons;
e.29
per­sons who have been gran­ted tem­por­ary pro­tec­tion and have a per­mit en­titling them to take up em­ploy­ment.
3 For­eign na­tion­als with a Swiss uni­versity de­gree may be ad­mit­ted in derog­a­tion from para­graph 1 if their work is of high aca­dem­ic or eco­nom­ic in­terest. They shall be tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted for a peri­od of six months fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of their edu­ca­tion or train­ing in Switzer­land in or­der to find suit­able work.30

28 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).

29 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).

30 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 427445).

Art. 21a Measures for persons seeking employment 31  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

31 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 and compensation for expenses incurred by posted employees 32  

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

a.
the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor are sat­is­fied; and
b.
the level of com­pens­a­tion un­der para­graph 2 is cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor.

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

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

32 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Ar­range­ments and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 April 2020 (AS 2019 1413, 2020 881; BBl 2018 1685).

Art. 23 Personal requirements  

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

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

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

a.
in­vestors and en­tre­pren­eurs who main­tain ex­ist­ing jobs or cre­ate new jobs;
b.
re­cog­nised per­sons from the world of sci­ence, cul­ture and sport;
c.
per­sons with spe­cial pro­fes­sion­al know­ledge or skills, provided there is a need for their ad­mis­sion;
d.
per­sons who are part of an ex­ec­ut­ive trans­fer between in­ter­na­tion­ally act­ive com­pan­ies;
e.
per­sons whose activ­ity in Switzer­land is in­dis­pens­able for eco­nom­ic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness re­la­tion­ships.
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  

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

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

2 Art­icles 20, 23 and 24 are not ap­plic­able.

Art. 26 Admission for cross-border services  

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

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

Art. 26a Admission of caregivers and teachers 33  

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

a.
are fa­mil­i­ar with the so­cial and leg­al value sys­tem in Switzer­land and are cap­able of im­part­ing this know­ledge to the for­eign na­tion­als that they care for and teach; and
b.
they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of work.

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

33 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  

1 For­eign na­tion­als may be ad­mit­ted for edu­ca­tion or train­ing pur­poses if:34

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.35
they ful­fil the per­son­al and edu­ca­tion­al re­quire­ments for the planned edu­ca­tion or train­ing course.

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

3 A con­tin­ued stay in Switzer­land fol­low­ing com­ple­tion or dis­con­tinu­ation of the edu­ca­tion or train­ing course is gov­erned by the gen­er­al ad­mis­sion re­quire­ments con­tained in this Act.36

34 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 427445).

35 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 427445).

36 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 427445).

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 37  

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

37 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  

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

a.
reg­u­late the em­ploy­ment of for­eign na­tion­als ad­mit­ted un­der the pro­vi­sions on fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion, un­less they have a right to work (Art. 46);
b.
take ac­count of ser­i­ous cases of per­son­al hard­ship or im­port­ant pub­lic in­terests;
c.
reg­u­late the peri­od of stay of foster chil­dren;
d.
pro­tect per­sons from ex­ploit­a­tion who are par­tic­u­larly at risk in view of their work;
e.38
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.39
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.40
...
j.
per­mit au-pair work­ers re­cruited through a re­cog­nised or­gan­isa­tion, to stay in Switzer­land peri­od of stay for edu­ca­tion and train­ing;
k.
fa­cil­it­ate the re-ad­mis­sion of for­eign na­tion­als who held a res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit;
l.
reg­u­late the em­ploy­ment and the par­ti­cip­a­tion in em­ploy­ment pro­grammes of asylum seekers (Art. 43 of the Asylum Act of 26 June 199841, AsylA), tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons (Art. 85) and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion (Art. 75 AsylA).

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

38 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).

39 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).

40 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 427445).

41 SR 142.31

Section 4 Stateless Persons

Art. 31  

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

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

3 State­less per­sons in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 1 and 2 and state­less per­sons who are sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icles 66a or 66abis SCC42 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC43, or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act may work any­where in Switzer­land.44 Art­icle 61 AsylA45 ap­plies by ana­logy.46

42 SR 311.0

43 SR 321.0

44 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

45 SR 142.31

46 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  

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

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

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

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

Art. 33 Residence permit  

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

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

3 It is sub­ject to a time lim­it and may be ex­ten­ded, provided there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 para­graph 147.

4 When the res­id­ence per­mit is gran­ted or ex­ten­ded, the in­teg­ra­tion of the per­son con­cerned will be taken in­to ac­count to de­term­ine the peri­od of valid­ity.48

5 The grant­ing and ex­ten­sion of the res­id­ence per­mit may be linked to the con­clu­sion of an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment if there is a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a.49

47 Term in ac­cord­ance with 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.

48 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).

49 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 Settlement permit  

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

2 For­eign na­tion­als may be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if:

a.
they have resided in Switzer­land for a min­im­um of ten years in total on the basis of a short stay or res­id­ence per­mit and have held a res­id­ence per­mit without in­ter­rup­tion for the last five years;
b.50
there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 or 63 para­graph 2; and
c.51
they are in­teg­rated.

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

4 For­eign na­tion­als may be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if they have resided in Switzer­land for the past five years without in­ter­rup­tion while hold­ing a res­id­ence per­mit, if they meet the re­quire­ments of para­graph 2 let­ters b and c, and if they are able to com­mu­nic­ate well in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence.52

5 Tem­por­ary peri­ods of stay, in par­tic­u­lar for edu­ca­tion or train­ing (Art. 27), do not count to­wards the un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of stay in the last five years in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 2 let­ter a and 4.Peri­ods of stay for edu­ca­tion or train­ing (Art. 27) are in­cluded if the per­son con­cerned, after their com­ple­tion, held a set­tle­ment per­mit for an un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of two years.53

6 If the set­tle­ment per­mit has been re­voked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 63 para­graph 2 and re­placed by a res­id­ence per­mit, the set­tle­ment per­mit may be gran­ted again at the earli­est five years after in­teg­ra­tion has been suc­cess­ful.54

50 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).

51 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).

52 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).

53 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 427445).

54 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  

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

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

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

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

Art. 36 Place of residence  

Per­sons with a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment 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  

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

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

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

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

Art. 38 Gainful employment  

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

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

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

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

Art. 39 Employment of cross-border commuters  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art. 41 Identity cards  

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

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

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

4 The iden­tity card may carry a data chip. This con­tains the por­trait pho­to­graph and fin­ger­prints of the hold­er and the data con­tained in the ma­chine-read­able zone.55

5 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil spe­cifies which per­sons are is­sued with an iden­tity card with a data chip and which data must be stored on the chip.56

6 SEM spe­cifies the form and the con­tent of iden­tity cards. It may del­eg­ate the pro­duc­tion of iden­tity cards wholly or partly to third parties.57

55 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 201051).

56 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 201051).

57 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 201051).

Art. 41a Security and reading of the data chip 58  

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

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

58 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 201051).

Art. 41b Office issuing biometric identity cards 59  

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

a.
they have the re­quired spe­cial­ist know­ledge and qual­i­fic­a­tions;
b.
they guar­an­tee the se­cure, high qual­ity and punc­tu­al pro­duc­tion of iden­tity cards in ac­cord­ance with the spe­cific­a­tions;
c.
they guar­an­tee com­pli­ance with the data pro­tec­tion re­quire­ments; and
d.
they have suf­fi­cient fin­an­cial re­sources.

2 Be­ne­fi­cial own­ers, share­hold­ers and mem­bers of the board or an equi­val­ent man­age­ment body, ex­ec­ut­ive man­agers and oth­er per­sons who have or could have a sig­ni­fic­ant in­flu­ence on the un­der­tak­ing or pro­duc­tion of for­eign na­tion­al iden­tity cards must be of good repu­ta­tion. Se­cur­ity screen­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 of the Or­din­ance of 19 Decem­ber 200160 on Per­son­nel Se­cur­ity Screen­ing may be car­ried out.

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

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

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

59 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 201051).

60 [AS 2002 377; 2005 4571; 2006 4177Art. 13, 4705No II 1; 2008 4943No I 3, 5747An­nex No 2; 2009 6937An­nex 4 No II 2. AS 2011 1031Art. 31 para. 1]. See now the O of 4 March 2011 (SR 120.4).

Chapter 7 Family Reunification

Art. 42 Family members of Swiss nationals  

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

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

a.
the spouse and the re­l­at­ives in the des­cend­ing line who are un­der 21 or who are de­pend­ants;
b.
the re­l­at­ives of either spouse in the as­cend­ing line who are de­pend­ants.

3 After a law-abid­ing and un­in­ter­rup­ted peri­od of stay of five years, a for­eign spouse is en­titled to be gran­ted a set­tle­ment per­mit if the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met.61

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

61 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 settlement permit 62  

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

a.
they live with that per­son;
b.
suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion is avail­able;
c.
they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;
d.
they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence; and
e.
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 200663 on Be­ne­fits sup­ple­ment­ary to the Old Age, Sur­viv­ors’ and In­valid­ity In­sur­ance (SBA) or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

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

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

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

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

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

62 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).

63 SR 831.30

Art. 44 Spouses and children of persons with a residence permit 64  

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 SBA65 or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

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

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

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

64 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).

65 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;
c.
they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance; and
d.66
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits ac­cord­ing to the SBA67 or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

66 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).

67 SR 831.30

Art. 45a Annulment of marriage 68  

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 Code69 (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.

68 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).

69 SR 210

Art. 46 Employment of spouses and children  

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

Art. 47 Time limit for family reunification  

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

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

3 The time lim­its for fam­ily mem­bers of:

a.
Swiss na­tion­als in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 42 para­graph 1 be­gin on their entry or with the con­sti­tu­tion of the fam­ily re­la­tion­ship;
b.
for­eign na­tion­als be­gin with the grant­ing of a res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit or with the con­sti­tu­tion of the fam­ily re­la­tion­ship.

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

Art. 48 Children fostered with a view to adoption  

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

a.
their ad­op­tion is planned in Switzer­land;
b.
the re­quire­ments un­der civil law for the ad­op­tion of foster chil­dren are ful­filled; and
c.
their entry for the pur­pose the ad­op­tion was law­ful.

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

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 70  

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

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

70 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  

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

a.71
the mar­riage las­ted at least three years and the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met; or
b.
im­port­ant per­son­al reas­ons make an ex­ten­ded res­id­ency in Switzer­land ne­ces­sary.

2 There are im­port­ant per­son­al reas­ons in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter b in par­tic­u­lar if a spouse has been the vic­tim of mar­it­al vi­ol­ence or did not marry of his or her own free will and so­cial re­in­teg­ra­tion in the coun­try of ori­gin ap­pears to be ser­i­ously pre­ju­diced.72

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

71 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).

72 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  

1 The rights in terms of Art­icle 42 ex­pire if:

a.
they are ex­er­cised un­law­fully, in par­tic­u­lar to cir­cum­vent the reg­u­la­tions of this Act and of its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on ad­mis­sion and res­id­ence;
b.
there are grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 63.

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

a.
they are ex­er­cised un­law­fully, in par­tic­u­lar to cir­cum­vent the reg­u­la­tions of this Act and of its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on ad­mis­sion and res­id­ency;
b.73
there are grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 or 63 para­graph 2.

73 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 74

74 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. 53 Principles 75  

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

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

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

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

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

75 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 76  

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

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

76 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 77  

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.

77 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 78  

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.

78 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 79  

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.

79 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 80  

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

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

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

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

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

80 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 81  

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

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

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

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

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

81 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 82  

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

2 The con­tri­bu­tions for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons, re­cog­nised refugees and vul­ner­able per­sons with res­id­ence per­mits whose so­cial as­sist­ance costs are re­im­bursed to the can­tons by the Con­fed­er­a­tion un­der Art­icle 87 of this Act and Art­icles 88 and 89 of the AsylA83 shall be gran­ted to the can­tons as flat-rate pay­ments for in­teg­ra­tion or fund­ing for can­ton­al in­teg­ra­tion pro­grammes. They may be made de­pend­ent on the achieve­ment of so­cio-polit­ic­al goals and be re­stric­ted to spe­cif­ic groups.

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

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

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

82 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).

83 SR 142.31

Section 2 Integration Requirements84

84 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. 58a Integration criteria  

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

a.
re­spect for pub­lic safety, se­cur­ity and or­der;
b.
re­spect for the val­ues of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;
c.
lan­guage skills; and
d.
par­ti­cip­a­tion in work­ing life or ef­forts to ac­quire an edu­ca­tion.

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

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

Art. 58b Agreements and recommendations relating to integration  

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

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

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

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

Chapter 9 Travel Documents and Ban on Travel 85

85 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. 59 Issue of travel documents 86  

1 SEM may is­sue travel doc­u­ments87 to for­eign na­tion­als without iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments.

2 For­eign na­tion­als are en­titled to travel doc­u­ments if:

a.
they meet refugee status in ac­cord­ance with the Agree­ment of 28 Ju­ly 195188 on the Leg­al Status of Refugees;
b.
they are re­cog­nised as state­less per­sons by Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with the Treaty of 28 Septem­ber 195489 on the Leg­al Status of State­less Per­sons;
c.
they do not have iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments but hold a set­tle­ment per­mit.

3 Any per­son who has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad, or who rep­res­ents a threat to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, or who is sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abisSCC90 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC91 does not have a right to travel doc­u­ments.92

4 ...93

5and6 ...94

86 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).

87 Term 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.

88 SR 0.142.30

89 SR 0.142.40

90 SR 311.0

91 SR 321.0

92 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).

93 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).

94 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 95  

1 Travel doc­u­ments for for­eign na­tion­als may be fur­nished with a data chip. The data chip may con­tain a di­git­al­ised fa­cial im­age, the fin­ger­prints of the hold­er and fur­ther per­son­al data, as well as de­tails of the travel doc­u­ment. The data spe­cified in Art­icle 4 para­graph 1 let­ter g of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 June 200396 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 200197 (IDA) ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

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

95 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).

96 SR 142.51

97 SR 143.1

Art. 59b Biometric data 98  

1 The task of re­cord­ing bio­met­ric data and for­ward­ing iden­tity card data to the is­su­ing body may be del­eg­ated wholly or in part to third parties. Art­icle 6a IDA99 ap­plies by ana­logy.

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

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

98 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).

99 SR 143.1

Art. 59c Travel ban for refugees 100  

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

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

100 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Ar­range­ments and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 April 2020 (AS 2019 1413, 2020 881; BBl 2018 1685).

Chapter 10 End of the Period of Stay

Section 1 Return and Reintegration Assistance

Art. 60  

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

2 The fol­low­ing per­sons may claim re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance:

a.
per­sons who left their nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin due to a ser­i­ous gen­er­al danger, in par­tic­u­lar due to war, civil war, or a situ­ation of gen­er­al vi­ol­ence or were un­able to re­turn there for the dur­a­tion of the danger, provided their res­id­ency was reg­u­lated in ac­cord­ance with this Act and they have been re­quired to leave Switzer­land;
b.
per­sons covered by Art­icle 30 para­graph 1 let­ters d and e;
c.101
tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons who have left Switzer­land of their own vo­li­tion or whose tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion has been re­voked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 84 para­graph 2.

3 Re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance in­cludes:

a.
re­turn coun­selling in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA102;
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.103

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

101 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).

102 SR 142.31

103 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 104

104 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).

Art. 61 Expiry of permits  

1 A per­mit ex­pires:

a.
on no­tice of de­par­ture abroad;
b.
on the grant of a per­mit in an­oth­er can­ton;
c.
on the ex­piry of the term of valid­ity of the per­mit;
d.
on ex­pul­sion in terms of Art­icle 68;
e.105
on the hold­er be­com­ing sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a SCC106 or Art­icle 49a MCC107;
f.108
on the en­force­ment of an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66abis SCC or 49abis MCC.

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

105 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).

106 SR 311.0

107 SR 321.0

108 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 109  

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

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

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

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

5 Para­graphs 1–4 do not ap­ply in the event of ter­min­a­tion of em­ploy­ment due to tem­por­ary un­fit­ness for work be­cause of ill­ness, ac­ci­dent or in­valid­ity, nor in the case of per­sons who hold a right to re­main un­der the Agree­ment of 21 June 1999110 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 1960111 es­tab­lish­ing the European Free Trade As­so­ci­ation (EFTA Con­ven­tion).

109 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).

110 SR 0.142.112.681

111 SR 0.632.31

Art. 62 Revocation of permits and other rulings 112  

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

a.
or their rep­res­ent­at­ive in the per­mit pro­ced­ure makes false state­ments or con­ceals ma­ter­i­al facts;
b.
has been giv­en a long cus­todi­al sen­tence or has been made sub­ject to a crim­in­al meas­ure in terms of Art­icles 59­–61 or 64 of the SCC113;
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.114
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 2014115;
g.116
does not com­ply with an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment without due cause.

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

112 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).

113 SR 311.0

114 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).

115 SR 141.0

116 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 FA Draft­ing Com­mit­tee of 10 Aug. 2018, pub­lished on 18 Sept. 2018 (AS 2018 3213).

Art. 63 Revocation of a settlement permit  

1 A set­tle­ment per­mit may be re­voked only if:

a.117
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.118
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 2014119;
e.120
...

2 A set­tle­ment per­mit may be re­voked and re­placed by a res­id­ence per­mit if the res­id­ence cri­ter­ia re­ferred to in Art­icle 58a have not been met.121

3 Re­voc­a­tion is not per­mit­ted if jus­ti­fied solely by con­vic­tion for an of­fence for which a sen­tence or meas­ure has been im­posed, where the court has re­frained from im­pos­ing an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land.122

117 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).

118 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).

119 SR 141.0

120 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).

121 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).

122 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 123  

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

a.
a for­eign na­tion­al does not pos­sess a re­quired per­mit;
b.
a for­eign na­tion­al does not ful­fil or no longer ful­fils the entry re­quire­ments (Art. 5);
c.
a for­eign na­tion­al is re­fused a per­mit, or the per­mit is re­voked or not ex­ten­ded fol­low­ing a per­mit­ted peri­od of stay.

2 Where for­eign na­tion­als who are il­leg­ally res­id­ent in Switzer­land hold a val­id res­id­ence doc­u­ment for an­oth­er State that is bound by one of the Schen­gen-As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments124 (a Schen­gen State), they must be re­ques­ted without any form­al pro­ced­ure to pro­ceed im­me­di­ately to that State. If they fail to com­ply with this re­quest, an or­der in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 must be is­sued. If im­me­di­ate de­par­ture is re­quired on grounds of pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, an or­der must be is­sued without a pri­or re­quest to leave.

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

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

5 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the role, re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and du­ties of the rep­res­ent­at­ive men­tioned in para­graph 4.125

123 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).

124 These Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex 1 No 1.

125 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 126  

1 If a dif­fer­ent state that is bound by one of the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments (para. 4) is re­spons­ible for con­duct­ing an asylum pro­ced­ure on the basis of Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No. 604/2013127 (Dub­lin State), SEM shall is­sue a re­mov­al or­der against a per­son who is resid­ing il­leg­ally in Switzer­land.128

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

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

3bis In the case of un­ac­com­pan­ied minors, Art­icle 64 para­graph 4 ap­plies.129

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

126 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 (AS 2008 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937). 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).

127 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.

128 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).

129 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 130  

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

130 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 131  

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

a.
they are be­ing re­ad­mit­ted by Bel­gi­um, Ger­many, Es­to­nia, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Lux­em­bourg, the Neth­er­lands, Nor­way, Aus­tria, Po­land, Sweden, Slov­akia, Slov­e­nia, Spain or Hun­gary on the basis of a read­mis­sion agree­ment;
b.132
they have been re­fused entry pre­vi­ously in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code133.

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

131 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).

132 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).

133 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 3.

Art. 64d Departure deadline and immediate enforcement 134  

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

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

a.
the per­son con­cerned rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;
b.
spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that the per­son con­cerned in­tends to evade de­port­a­tion;
c.
an ap­plic­a­tion for a per­mit is re­fused on the basis that it is clearly un­jus­ti­fied or an ab­use of pro­ced­ure;
d.
the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­ad­mit­ted by a State un­der Art­icle 64c para­graph 1 let­ter a on the basis of a read­mis­sion agree­ment;
e.135
the per­son con­cerned was pre­vi­ously re­fused entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code136 (Art. 64c para. 1 let. b);
f.
the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­moved un­der the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments (Art. 64a).

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

a.
The per­son fails to co­oper­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 90.
b.
The per­son’s pre­vi­ous con­duct leads to the con­clu­sion that they wish to defy of­fi­cial or­ders.
c.
The per­son enters Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry.137

134 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).

135 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).

136 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 3.

137 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 138  

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

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

138 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 139  

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

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

139 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 140  

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

2 The au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the bor­der con­trol shall on SEM’s be­half is­sue a reasoned and ap­peal­able de­cision with­in 48 hours on a form in ac­cord­ance with An­nex V Part B of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code141. 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.142

2bis An ap­peal may be filed against SEM’s ob­jec­tion de­cision with­in 48 hours of no­ti­fic­a­tion there­of. The ap­peal does not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect. The ap­pel­late au­thor­ity shall de­cide on the ap­peal with­in 72 hours.143

3 Per­sons sub­ject to a re­mov­al or­der are per­mit­ted to re­main in the air­port in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zone for a max­im­um of 15 days in or­der to pre­pare for their on­ward jour­ney, provided de­port­a­tion (Art­icle 69) or de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion or co­er­cive de­ten­tion (Art. 76, 77 and 78) is not ordered. The pro­vi­sions on tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion (Art­icle 83) and on the fil­ing of an asylum ap­plic­a­tion (Art­icle 22 AsylA144) are re­served.145

140 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 56295405Art. 2 let. b; BBl 2007 7937).

141 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.

142 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).

143 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).

144 SR 142.31

145 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. 66146  

146 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 147  

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

a.
the re­mov­al or­der may be en­forced im­me­di­ately in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64d para­graph 2 let­ters a–c;
b.
the per­son does not leave by the ap­poin­ted dead­line;
c.
the per­son has vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad; or
d.
the per­son has been con­victed of an of­fence or of an at­temp­ted of­fence un­der Art­icle 115 para­graph 1, 116, 117 or 118.148

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

a.
have in­curred so­cial as­sist­ance costs;
b.
have had to be taken in­to de­ten­tion in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture or pending de­port­a­tion or have been placed in co­er­cive de­ten­tion (Art. 75–78).149

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

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

5 The au­thor­ity is­su­ing the ban on entry may by way of ex­cep­tion re­frain from im­pos­ing a ban on entry on hu­man­it­ari­an grounds or for oth­er good cause or re­voke the ban per­man­ently or tem­por­ar­ily. In reach­ing its de­cision, the au­thor­ity must in par­tic­u­lar con­sider wheth­er grounds for is­su­ing the ban on entry and the need to pro­tect pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der and to safe­guard Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity out­weigh the private in­terests of the per­son con­cerned in not be­ing sub­ject to the ban.150

147 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).

148 Amended by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

149 Amended by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

150 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  

1 fed­pol may or­der the ex­pul­sion of a for­eign na­tion­al in or­der to safe­guard the in­tern­al or the ex­tern­al se­cur­ity of Switzer­land; it shall con­sult the FIS be­fore­hand.151

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

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

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

151 Amended by No I 2 of the O 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).

Art. 68a Alert in the Schengen Information System 152  

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

a.
a re­mov­al or­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64;
b.
an ex­pul­sion or­der in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 68;
c.
an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC153 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC154 where en­force­ment has been ordered;
d.
a re­mov­al or­der where en­force­ment has been ordered in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 44 and 45 AsylA155.

2 Data on third-coun­try cit­izens against whom bans on entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 67 and 68 para­graph 3 and an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land have been is­sued shall entered by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the SIS provided the re­quire­ments of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2018/1861156 have been met.

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

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

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

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

152 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FedD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Coun­cil of Europe Con­ven­tion on the Pre­ven­tion of Ter­ror­ism and its Ad­di­tion­al Pro­tocol and the Strength­en­ing of Crim­in­al Justice In­stru­ments for com­bat­ing Ter­ror­ism and Or­gan­ised Crime (SIS), para. 3 and 5 in force since 1 Ju­ly 2021 and para. 1, 24 and 6 in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

153 SR 311.0

154 SR 321.0

155 SR 142.31

156 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2018/1861 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 28 Novem­ber 2018 on the es­tab­lish­ment, op­er­a­tion and use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS) in the field of bor­der checks, and amend­ing the Con­ven­tion im­ple­ment­ing the Schen­gen Agree­ment, and amend­ing and re­peal­ing Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 1987/2006, last amended by OJ. L 312 of 7.12.2018, p. 14.

Art. 68b Competent authority 157  

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

2 If the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Cus­toms and Bor­der Se­cur­ity158 and the can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for con­trolling the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders or in Switzer­land es­tab­lish that a third-coun­try na­tion­al sub­ject to an alert from an­oth­er Schen­gen State for the pur­pose of re­turn has not com­plied with their ob­lig­a­tion to re­turn, they shall no­ti­fy the SIRENE Of­fice.

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

157 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

158 The name of this ad­min­is­trat­ive unit was changed in ap­plic­a­tion of Art. 20 para. 2 of the Pub­lic­a­tions Or­din­ance of 7 Oct. 2015 (SR 170.512.1).

Art. 68c Exit and confirmation of return 159  

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

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

159 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

Art. 68d Deletion of Swiss alerts in the SIS 160  

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

a.
the per­son sub­ject to the alert has left the Schen­gen area from an­oth­er Schen­gen State;
b.
the de­cisions have been re­voked or can­celled; or
c.
it is known that the per­son con­cerned has be­come a cit­izen of an EU/EFTA State.

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

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

a.
the term of the ban on entry or of the or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land has ex­pired;
b.
the de­cisions have been re­voked or can­celled; or
c.
it is known that the per­son con­cerned has be­come a cit­izen of an EU/EFTA State.

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

160 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

Art. 68e Disclosure of SIS data to third parties 161  

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

2 SEM may trans­mit these data and in­form­a­tion to a third coun­try if, in re­la­tion to the re­turn of a per­son from a third coun­try who is stay­ing il­leg­ally in Switzer­land, this per­son is to be iden­ti­fied or is­sued with a travel doc­u­ment or iden­tity doc­u­ment, provided the State is­su­ing the alert has giv­en its con­sent and the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 15 of the Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2018/1860162 have been met.

161 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

162 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2018/1860 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 28 Novem­ber 2018 on the use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem for the re­turn of il­leg­ally stay­ing third-coun­try na­tion­als, last amended by OJ. L 312 of 7.12.2018, p. 1.

Section 4 Deportation and International Return Interventions 163

163 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. 69 Ordering deportation  

1 The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall de­port for­eign na­tion­als if:

a.
they fail to com­ply with the de­par­ture dead­line;
b.
if their re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion may be en­forced im­me­di­ately;
c.164
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 SCC165 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC166 has been is­sued.

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

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may post­pone de­port­a­tion for an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od if spe­cial cir­cum­stances such as the ill-health of the per­son con­cerned or a lack of trans­port so re­quire. The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall con­firm the post­pone­ment of de­port­a­tion to the per­son con­cerned in writ­ing.167

4 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall en­sure be­fore the de­port­a­tion of un­ac­com­pan­ied for­eign minors that he or she will be re­turned in the State of re­turn to a fam­ily mem­ber, a nom­in­ated guard­i­an or re­cep­tion fa­cil­it­ies that guar­an­tee the pro­tec­tion of the child.168

164 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).

165 SR 311.0

166 SR 321.0

167 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).

168 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  

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

2 If the court of first in­stance has is­sued a de­cision, the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity may or­der a search of a dwell­ing or of oth­er premises if it is sus­pec­ted that a per­son sub­ject to a re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der may be hid­ing there, or that travel and iden­tity doc­u­ments re­quired for the pro­ced­ure and en­force­ment are hid­den there.169

169 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

Art. 71 Federal support for the implementation authorities  

1 The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice (FD­JP) shall sup­port the can­tons re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or the ex­pul­sion of for­eign na­tion­als or the en­force­ment of an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC170 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC171, in par­tic­u­lar by:172

a.
as­sist­ing in ob­tain­ing travel doc­u­ments;
b.
mak­ing travel ar­range­ments;
c.173
en­sur­ing co­oper­a­tion between the can­tons con­cerned and the FD­FA.

2 In ful­filling its tasks un­der para­graph 1, in par­tic­u­lar let­ters a and b, the FD­JP may work with the European Uni­on agency re­spons­ible for the sur­veil­lance of the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders.174

170 SR 311.0

171 SR 321.0

172 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).

173 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).

174 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 1 Oct. 2021 re­lat­ing to the ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard, in force since 1 Sept. 2022 (AS 2022 462; BBl 2020 7105).

Art. 71a International return interventions 175  

1 SEM and the can­tons shall work to­geth­er in the case of in­ter­na­tion­al re­turn in­ter­ven­tions on the basis of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896176; they shall provide the re­quired per­son­nel. The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall make com­pens­at­ory pay­ments to the can­tons for these in­ter­ven­tions. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the amount and mod­al­it­ies of these com­pens­at­ory pay­ments.177

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

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

175 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).

176 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 1bis.

177 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FD of 1 Oct. 2021 re­lat­ing to the ad­op­tion of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2019/1896 on the European Bor­der and Coast Guard, in force since 1 Sept. 2022 (AS 2022 462; BBl 2020 7105).

Art. 71abis Supervision of deportation procedures and international return interventions 178  

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

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

178 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 179  

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

a.
the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion;
b.
em­ploy­ees of SEM who are re­spons­ible for the cent­ral­ised or­gan­isa­tion and co­ordin­a­tion of the com­puls­ory ex­e­cu­tion of re­mov­al and ex­pul­sion or­ders;
c.
the med­ic­al pro­fes­sion­als re­spons­ible on be­half of SEM for med­ic­al su­per­vi­sion on ex­e­cu­tion of re­mov­al and ex­pul­sion or­ders at the time of de­par­ture.

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

179 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 COVID-19 test on deportation 180  

1 In or­der to en­sure the en­force­ment of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC181 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC182, for­eign na­tion­als are re­quired to un­der­go a COV­ID-19 test if this is ne­ces­sary in or­der to com­ply with the entry re­quire­ments of the per­son's nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin or of the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State or the re­quire­ments of the air­line con­cerned.

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

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

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

180 Amended by No I of the FA of 1 Oct. 2021, in force since 2 Oct. 2021 to 31 Dec. 2022 (AS 2021 587; BBl 2021 1901), ex­ten­ded from 17 Dec. 2022 to 30 June 2024 in ac­cord­ance with No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2022 (Cov­id-19 Test on De­port­a­tion) (AS 2022 818; BBl 2022 1359).

181 SR 311.0

182 SR 321.0

Section 5 Coercive Measures

Art. 73 Temporary detention  

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

a.
to no­ti­fy them of a de­cision in con­nec­tion with their res­id­ence status;
b.
to de­term­ine their iden­tity or na­tion­al­ity, as far as their per­son­al co­oper­a­tion is re­quired.

2 The 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.

3 If a per­son is de­tained, they must:

a.
be in­formed of the reas­on for their de­ten­tion;
b.
be per­mit­ted to con­tact the per­sons guard­ing them if they re­quire help.

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

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

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

Art. 74 Restriction and exclusion orders  

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

a.
they do not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit and they dis­rupt or rep­res­ent a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der; this meas­ure serves in par­tic­u­lar to com­bat il­leg­al drug traf­fick­ing; or
b.183
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.184
de­port­a­tion has been post­poned (Art. 69 para. 3).

1bis The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall re­quire a per­son who is ac­com­mod­ated in a spe­cial centre un­der Art­icle 24aAsylA185 not to leave the area they were al­loc­ated to or not to enter a spe­cif­ic area.186

2 These meas­ures shall be ordered by the au­thor­ity of the can­ton that is re­spons­ible for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion. In the case of per­sons stay­ing in fed­er­al centres, the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated is re­spons­ible. The pro­hib­i­tion from en­ter­ing a spe­cif­ic area may also be is­sued by the au­thor­ity of the can­ton where this area is loc­ated.187

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

183 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).

184 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).

185 SR 142.31

186 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).

187 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  

1 To fa­cil­it­ate the con­duct of re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in which the po­ten­tial pen­alty in­cludes an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC188 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC189, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may de­tain a per­son who does not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit while pre­par­ing to de­cide on that per­son’s res­id­ence status for a max­im­um of six months if that per­son:190

a.191
re­fuses dur­ing asylum pro­ceed­ings, re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in which the po­ten­tial pen­alty in­cludes an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 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;
i.192
is a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by fed­pol or the FIS.
1bis ...193

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

188 SR 311.0

189 SR 321.0

190 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

191 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

192 In­ser­ted by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

193 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 20105925; BBl 20098881). 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  

1 If the court of first in­stance has is­sued an ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der or an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC194 or Art­icle 49aor 49abis MCC195, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may en­sure the en­force­ment of the de­cision by:196

a.
leav­ing the per­son con­cerned in de­ten­tion if, based on Art­icle 75, they are already in de­ten­tion;
b.
de­tain­ing the per­son con­cerned if:
1.197
there are grounds for do­ing so in terms of Art­icle 75 para­graph 1 let­ters a, b, c, f, g, h or i,
2.198
...
3.199
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 AsylA200,
4.
their pre­vi­ous con­duct leads to the con­clu­sion that they will re­fuse to com­ply with of­fi­cial in­struc­tions,
5.201
the de­cision to re­move the per­son con­cerned is is­sued in a fed­er­al centre and en­force­ment of the re­mov­al is im­min­ent.
6.202
...

1bis The de­ten­tion or­der in Dub­lin cases is gov­erned by Art­icle 76a.203

2 De­ten­tion in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5 may last a max­im­um of 30 days.204

3 The days in de­ten­tion count to­wards the max­im­um dur­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 79.205

4 The 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.206

194 SR 311.0

195 SR 321.0

196 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

197 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

198 Re­pealed by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, with ef­fect from 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

199 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).

200 SR 142.31

201 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).

202 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 20105925; BBl 20098881). 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).

203 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).

204 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).

205 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).

206 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 207  

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

a.
there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that the per­son in­tends to evade re­mov­al;
b.
de­ten­tion is pro­por­tion­al; and
c.
less co­er­cive al­tern­at­ive meas­ures can­not be ap­plied ef­fect­ively (Art. 28 para. 2 of the Reg­u­la­tion [EU] No 604/2013208).

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

a.
The per­son con­cerned dis­reg­ards of­fi­cial or­ders in the asylum or re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings, in par­tic­u­lar by re­fus­ing to dis­close their iden­tity, thus fail­ing to com­ply with their duty to co­oper­ate un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA209 or by re­peatedly fail­ing to com­ply with a sum­mons without suf­fi­cient ex­cuse.
b.
Their con­duct in Switzer­land or abroad leads to the con­clu­sion that they wish to defy of­fi­cial or­ders.
c.
They sub­mit two or more asylum ap­plic­a­tions un­der dif­fer­ent iden­tit­ies.
d.
They leave the area that they are al­loc­ated to or enter an area from which they are ex­cluded un­der Art­icle 74.
e.
They enter Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry and can­not be re­moved im­me­di­ately.
f.
They stay un­law­fully in Switzer­land and sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum with the ob­vi­ous in­ten­tion of avoid­ing the im­min­ent en­force­ment of re­mov­al.
g.
They ser­i­ously threaten oth­er per­sons or con­sid­er­ably en­danger the life and limb of oth­er per­sons and are there­fore be­ing pro­sec­uted or have been con­victed.
h.
They have been con­victed of a felony.
i.
They deny to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity that they hold or have held a res­id­ence doc­u­ment and/or a visa in a Dub­lin State or have sub­mit­ted an asylum ap­plic­a­tion there.
j.210
They are a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by fed­pol or the FIS.

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

a.
sev­en weeks while pre­par­ing the de­cision on re­spons­ib­il­ity for the asylum ap­plic­a­tion; this in­cludes sub­mit­ting the re­quest to take charge to the oth­er Dub­lin State, wait­ing for the re­sponse or ta­cit ac­cept­ance, and draft­ing and giv­ing no­tice of the de­cision;
b.
five weeks dur­ing pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icle 5 of Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 1560/2003211;
c.
six weeks to en­sure en­force­ment from no­tice be­ing giv­en of the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion de­cision or the date on which the sus­pens­ive ef­fect of any ap­peal against a first in­stance de­cision on re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion ceases to ap­ply and the trans­fer of the per­son con­cerned to the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State.

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

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

207 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).

208 See foot­note to Art. 64a para. 1.

209 SR 142.31

210 In­ser­ted by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

211 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  

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

a.
an en­force­able de­cision has been made;
b.
they have not left Switzer­land by the ap­poin­ted dead­line; and
c.
the can­ton­al au­thor­ity has had to ob­tain travel doc­u­ments for this per­son.

2 De­ten­tion may last a max­im­um of 60 days.

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

Art. 78 Coercive detention  

1 If a per­son does not ful­fil their ob­lig­a­tion to leave Switzer­land by the ap­poin­ted dead­line and if the leg­ally en­force­able re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der or leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC212 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC213 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.214

2 De­ten­tion may be ordered for one month. It may, however, be ex­ten­ded by two months with con­sent of the can­ton­al ju­di­cial au­thor­ity if the per­son con­cerned re­mains un­will­ing to change their con­duct and leave the coun­try. Art­icle 79 re­mains re­served.215

3 De­ten­tion and its ex­ten­sion are ordered by the au­thor­it­ies of the can­ton which is re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der. If the per­son con­cerned is already in de­ten­tion based on Art­icles 75, 76 or 77, they may be left in de­ten­tion if the re­quire­ments of para­graph 1 are ful­filled.216

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

5 The con­di­tions of de­ten­tion are gov­erned by Art­icle 81.

6 The de­ten­tion or­der is re­voked if:

a.
the per­son con­cerned is un­able to leave Switzer­land in­de­pend­ently and in the prop­er man­ner, even though they have ful­filled the ob­lig­a­tions to co­oper­ate spe­cified by the au­thor­it­ies;
b.
they leave Switzer­land as ordered;
c.
de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion is ordered;
d.
a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion is gran­ted.

212 SR 311.0

213 SR 321.0

214 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).

215 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).

216 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 217  

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

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

a.
the per­son con­cerned fails to co­oper­ate with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity;
b.
the pro­vi­sion of the doc­u­ments re­quired for de­par­ture by a State that is not a Schen­gen State is delayed.

217 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  

1 De­ten­tion shall be ordered by the au­thor­it­ies of the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der. In the case of per­sons stay­ing in fed­er­al centres, the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated is re­spons­ible for or­der­ing de­ten­tion in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture. In cases covered by Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5, de­ten­tion shall be ordered by the can­ton where the centre is loc­ated.218

1bis In cases un­der Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 5, de­ten­tion is ordered by the can­ton in which the fed­er­al centres are loc­ated; if in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 46 para­graph 1bis third sen­tence AsylA219 a can­ton oth­er than the can­ton where the centres are loc­ated is re­spons­ible for ex­ecut­ing re­mov­al, that can­ton is also re­spons­ible for or­der­ing de­ten­tion.220

2 The leg­al­ity and the ap­pro­pri­ate­ness of de­ten­tion must be re­viewed at the latest with­in 96 hours by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity on the basis of an or­al hear­ing. If de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion has been ordered in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 77, the de­ten­tion re­view pro­ced­ure shall be car­ried out in writ­ing.221

2bis In the case of de­ten­tion un­der Art­icle 76 para­graph 1 let­ter b num­ber 6, the leg­al­ity and the ap­pro­pri­ate­ness of de­ten­tion shall be re­viewed at the re­quest of the de­tain­ee by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity in a writ­ten pro­ced­ure. This re­view may be re­ques­ted at any time.222

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

4 When re­view­ing the de­cision to is­sue, ex­tend or re­voke a de­ten­tion or­der, the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity shall also take ac­count of the de­tain­ee’s fam­ily cir­cum­stances and the cir­cum­stances be­hind the en­force­ment of de­ten­tion. In no event may any de­ten­tion or­der in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture, de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion or co­er­cive de­ten­tion be is­sued in re­spect of chil­dren or young people who have not yet at­tained the age of 15.223

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

6 The de­ten­tion or­der shall be re­voked if:

a.
the reas­on for de­ten­tion ceases to ap­ply or the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der proves to be un­en­force­able for leg­al or prac­tic­al reas­ons;
b.
a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion is gran­ted;
c.
the de­tain­ee be­comes sub­ject to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or meas­ure.

218 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).

219 SR 142.31

220 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).

221 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).

222 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).

223 Second sen­tence amended by No I of the FA of 26 Sept. 2014, in force since 1 March 2015 (AS 2015 533; BBl 20143373).

Art. 80a Detention order and detention review under the Dublin procedure 224  

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

a.225
in the case of per­sons ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre: the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing re­mov­al un­der Art­icle 46 para­graph 1bis third sen­tence AsylA226, and in oth­er cases the can­ton in which the fed­er­al centre is loc­ated;
b.
in the case of per­sons that have been al­loc­ated to a can­ton or res­id­ent in a can­ton who have not sub­mit­ted an asylum ap­plic­a­tion (Art. 64a): the can­ton con­cerned.

2 ...227

3 The leg­al­ity and ap­pro­pri­ate­ness of de­ten­tion shall be re­viewed at the re­quest of the de­tain­ee by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity in a writ­ten pro­ced­ure. This re­view may be re­ques­ted at any time.228

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

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

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

7 The de­ten­tion or­der shall be re­voked if:

a.
the reas­on for de­ten­tion ceases to ap­ply or the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion or­der proves to be un­en­force­able for leg­al or prac­tic­al reas­ons;
b.
a re­quest for re­lease from de­ten­tion is gran­ted;
c.
the de­tain­ee be­comes sub­ject to a cus­todi­al sen­tence or meas­ure.

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

224 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).

225 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).

226 SR 142.31

227 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).

228 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 229  

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

2 De­ten­tion shall take place in de­ten­tion fa­cil­it­ies in­ten­ded for the en­force­ment of pre­par­at­ory de­ten­tion, de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion and co­er­cive de­ten­tion. If this not pos­sible in ex­cep­tion­al cases, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause of in­suf­fi­cient ca­pa­city, de­tained for­eign na­tion­als must be ac­com­mod­ated sep­ar­ately from per­sons in pre-tri­al de­ten­tion or who are serving a sen­tence.230

3 The needs of vul­ner­able per­sons, un­ac­com­pan­ied minors and fam­il­ies with minor chil­dren must be taken in­to ac­count in the de­ten­tion ar­range­ments.231

4 The de­ten­tion ar­range­ments are oth­er­wise gov­erned by:

a.
Art­icle 16 para­graph 3 and 17 of Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC232 for re­turns to a third coun­try;
b.
Art­icle 28 para­graph 4 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013233 for Dub­lin trans­fers;
c.234
in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 37 of the Con­ven­tion of 20 Novem­ber 1989235 on the Rights of the Child.236

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

a.
the per­son con­cerned ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by the po­lice or pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies poses a spe­cif­ic risk to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; and
b.
oth­er meas­ures have failed or are not avail­able.237

6 If the re­stric­tions un­der para­graph 5 prove in­ad­equate to counter the risk to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der sol­it­ary con­fine­ment.238

229 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).

230 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).

231 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).

232 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.

233 See foot­note to Art. 64a para. 1.

234 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).

235 SR 0.107

236 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).

237 In­ser­ted by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

238 In­ser­ted by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

Art. 82 Funding by the Confederation 239  

1 The Con­fed­er­a­tion may wholly or par­tially fin­ance the con­struc­tion or es­tab­lish­ment of can­ton­al de­ten­tion centres that are used ex­clus­ively for de­tain­ing per­sons in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture or pending de­port­a­tion, or pla­cing per­sons in co­er­cive de­ten­tion or for short-term de­ten­tion and which are of a cer­tain size. The cal­cu­la­tion of con­tri­bu­tions and the pro­ced­ure are gov­erned mu­tatis mutandis by Sec­tions 2 and 6 of the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984240 on Fed­er­al Sub­sidies for the Ex­e­cu­tion of Sen­tences and Meas­ures.

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

a.
asylum seekers;
b.
refugees and oth­er for­eign na­tion­als who are de­tained in con­nec­tion with the re­voc­a­tion of tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion;
c.
for­eign na­tion­als whose de­ten­tion has been ordered by SEM in con­nec­tion with a re­mov­al or­der;
d.
refugees who are ex­pelled in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65 AsylA241.

239 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

240 SR 341

241 SR 142.31

Chapter 11 Temporary Admission

Art. 83 Order for temporary admission  

1 If the en­force­ment of re­mov­al is not pos­sible, not per­mit­ted or not reas­on­able, SEM shall or­der tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion.242

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

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

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

5 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate nat­ive coun­tries or coun­tries of ori­gin or areas of these coun­tries to which re­turn is reas­on­able.243 If for­eign na­tion­als be­ing re­moved come from one of these coun­tries or from a mem­ber state of the EU or EFTA, en­force­ment of re­mov­al is reas­on­able.244

5bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall peri­od­ic­ally re­view the de­cision un­der para­graph 5.245

6 Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion may be re­ques­ted by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

7 Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion shall not be ordered in terms of para­graphs 2 and 4 if the per­son re­moved:246

a.247
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 SCC248;
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.249
has made their re­mov­al im­possible by their own con­duct.

8 Refugees for whom there are reas­ons for re­fus­ing asylum in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 53 and 54 AsylA250 shall be gran­ted tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion.

9 Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion shall not be gran­ted or shall ex­pire if an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC251, or an ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act be­comes leg­ally en­force­able.252

10 The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies may con­clude in­teg­ra­tion agree­ments with tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons if there is a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a.253

242 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

243 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325). See also the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sion to this amend­ment at the end of the text.

244 Second sen­tence amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

245 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325). See also the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sion to this amend­ment at the end of the text.

246 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

247 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).

248 SR 311.0

249 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

250 SR 142.31

251 SR 321.0

252 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 I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

253 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  

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

2 SEM shall re­voke tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion and or­der the en­force­ment of re­mov­al if the re­quire­ments no longer met.254

3 At the re­quest of the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, fed­pol or the FIS, 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 7.255

4 Tem­por­ary 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.256

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

254 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

255 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).

256 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

Art. 85 Regulation of temporary admission  

1 The 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.

2 For the al­loc­a­tion of tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons, Art­icle 27 AsylA257 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

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

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

5 Tem­por­ar­ily 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.258

6 ...259

7 Spouses 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;
c.
the fam­ily does not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;
d.260
they can com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at the place of res­id­ence; and
e.261
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing an­nu­al sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits un­der the SBA262 or would not be en­titled to re­ceive such be­ne­fits be­cause of fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

7bis In 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.263

7ter In 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.264

8 If, on as­sess­ing the re­uni­fic­a­tion of spouses in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 42–45, SEM has reas­on to be­lieve that there are grounds un­der Art­icle 105 num­bers 5 or 6 CC265 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.266

257 SR 142.31

258 Second sen­tence in­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

259 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).

260 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).

261 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).

262 SR 831.30

263 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).

264 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).

265 SR 210

266 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 267  

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

2 The 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.

3 The 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.

4 The 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.

5 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the com­pet­ent su­per­vis­ory bod­ies.

6 It shall reg­u­late the re­port­ing pro­ced­ure.

267 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  

1 The can­tons shall reg­u­late the terms and the pay­ment of so­cial as­sist­ance and emer­gency aid for tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons. The pro­vi­sions of Art­icles 80a–84 AsylA268 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.269

1bis The 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.270
refugees sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC271 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC272, or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act;
c.
state­less per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 31 para­graphs 1 and 2; and
d.273
state­less per­sons sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC, or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act.

2 In 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 1994274 on Health In­sur­ance ap­ply.

268 SR 142.31

269 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).

270 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

271 SR 311.0

272 SR 321.0

273 Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

274 SR 832.10

Art. 87 Federal subsidies  

1 The Con­fed­er­a­tion pays the can­tons:

a.275
a flat-rate pay­ment for every tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 88 para­graphs 1 and 2 and 89 AsylA276;
b.277
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.278
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.279
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 or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC280 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC281 or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act.

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

3 Flat-rate pay­ments in terms of para­graph 1 let­ters a and b are made for a max­im­um of sev­en years after entry.282

4 Flat-rate pay­ments in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter d are made for a max­im­um of five years after re­cog­ni­tion of state­less­ness.283

275 Amended by An­nex No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Jan. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

276 SR 142.31

277 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).

278 In­ser­ted 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).

279 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2015 (AS 2016 3101, 2017 6171; BBl 2014 7991). Amended by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

280 SR 311.0

281 SR 321.0

282 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).

283 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 284  

1 Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons shall be sub­ject to the ob­lig­a­tion to pay the spe­cial charge on as­sets in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 86 AsylA285. The pro­vi­sions of the 2nd sec­tion of Chapter 5, Chapter 10 and Art­icle 112a of the AsylA ap­ply.

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

284 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).

285 SR 142.31

Art. 88a Registered partnerships 286  

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

286 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  

1 Be­fore 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.

2 Any 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 287

287 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

Art. 92 Duty of care 288  

1 Air 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.

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

288 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 289  

1 The 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.290

2 The 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.

3 If the air car­ri­er is un­able to provide evid­ence that it has ful­filled its duty of care, it must ad­di­tion­ally bear:291

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.

4 Para­graph 3 does not ap­ply if the per­son be­ing trans­por­ted has been gran­ted entry to Switzer­land in terms of Art­icle 22 AsylA292. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for fur­ther ex­cep­tions, in par­tic­u­lar for ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances such as war or nat­ur­al dis­asters.293

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

6 It may re­quest se­cur­ity for the pay­ment of costs.

289 Amended by Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405Art. 2 let. a).

290 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).

291 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).

292 SR 142.31

293 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

Art. 94 Cooperation with the authorities 294  

1 The 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 SEM and the car­ri­er.

2 The 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.

3 If 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.

294 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 295  

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 1990296 im­ple­ment­ing the Schen­gen Agree­ment (Schen­gen Con­ven­tion).

295 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).

296 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 Operators297

297 Inserted by Annex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325). See also the transitional provisions to this Amendment at the end of this text.

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  

1 In ex­er­cising dis­cre­tion, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall take ac­count of pub­lic in­terests and per­son­al cir­cum­stances as well as the in­teg­ra­tion of for­eign na­tion­als.298

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

298 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 299  

1 The 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.

2 Oth­er 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.

3 The 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.300
a claim for un­em­ploy­ment be­ne­fit;
dter.301
a claim for sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits in ac­cord­ance with the SBA302;
dquater.303
dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures by school au­thor­it­ies;
dquin­quies.304
meas­ures taken by child and adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies;
e.305
oth­er de­cisions in­dic­at­ing a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a;
f.306
...

4 If 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.307

299 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.

300 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).

301 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).

302 SR 831.30

303 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).

304 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).

305 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).

306 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).

307 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  

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

2 The 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 2007308.309

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

308 SR 192.12

309 Amended by Art. 35 of the Host State Act of 22 June 2007, in force since 1 Jan. 2008 (AS 20076637; BBl 20068017).

Art. 98a Use of police control and restraint techniques and police measures by the enforcement authorities 310  

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 2008311 ap­plies.

310 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 2 of the Use of Force Act of 20 March 2008, in force since 1 Jan. 2009 (AS 20085463; BBl 20062489).

311 SR 364

Art. 98b Delegation of duties to third parties in the visa procedure 312  

1 The FD­FA in con­sulta­tion with 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.

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

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

312 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 20635761; BBl 2009 4245).

Art. 98c Cooperation and coordination with fedpol 313  

1 SEM shall work with fed­pol with­in the scope of its stat­utory du­ties in re­la­tion to com­bat­ing ter­ror­ism.

2 It shall co­ordin­ate the meas­ures with­in its sphere of re­spons­ib­il­ity with fed­pol’s pre­vent­ive po­lice and ad­min­is­trat­ive meas­ures.

313 In­ser­ted by No I 2 of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 on Po­lice Coun­terter­ror­ism Meas­ures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2021 565; 2022 300; BBl 2019 4751).

Art. 98d Security duties of the migration authorities 314  

SEM and the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies that are re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act shall as­sess with­in the scope of their du­ties and re­spons­ib­il­it­ies wheth­er for­eign na­tion­als pose a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity or its in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions. In the case of po­lice alerts, fed­pol shall be no­ti­fied. If re­quired, fur­ther can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies that are in­volved may be no­ti­fied.

314 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

Art. 99 Approval procedure 315  

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

2 SEM 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.

315 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 316  

1 The 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.

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude agree­ments with for­eign states or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions on:317

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 a set­tle­ment per­mit is gran­ted;
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.

3 In 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.318

4 The re­spons­ible de­part­ments may enter in­to agree­ments with for­eign au­thor­it­ies or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions on the tech­nic­al im­ple­ment­a­tion of agree­ments in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2.319

5 Un­til 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.320

316 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

317 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

318 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

319 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 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937).

320 In­ser­ted by No 1 of the FA of 13 June 2008 (Amend­ments in im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Schen­gen and Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments), (AS 2008 54075405Art. 2 let. c; BBl 20077937). 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 321  

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

2 Doc­u­ment­a­tion 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.

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

321 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 Federal Commission on Migration 322323  

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

2 The 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.

3 It 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.

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

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

322 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).

323 The name was amended on 1 Jan. 2016 pur­su­ant to Art. 20 para. 2 of the Pub­lic­a­tions Or­din­ance of 7 Oct. 2015 (SR 170.512.1).

Chapter 14 Data Processing and Data Protection 324

324 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).

Section 1 General 325

325 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. 101 Data processing 326  

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.

326 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 327  

1 When veri­fy­ing entry re­quire­ments and in pro­ced­ures con­cern­ing for­eign na­tion­als, the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may in in­di­vidu­al cases col­lect and re­cord bio­met­ric data per­tain­ing to for­eign na­tion­als for iden­ti­fic­a­tion pur­poses. For spe­cif­ic cat­egor­ies of per­sons, col­lec­tion and re­cord­ing may be car­ried out sys­tem­at­ic­ally.328

1bis If 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.329

2 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the cat­egor­ies of per­sons for which data may be re­cor­ded sys­tem­at­ic­ally and which bio­met­ric data shall be col­lec­ted in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1, and shall reg­u­late ac­cess to this data.330

327 Amended by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

328 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Ar­range­ments and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 April 2020 (AS 2019 1413, 2020 881; BBl 2018 1685).

329 In­ser­ted by An­nex No 1 of the FA of 14 Dec. 2012, in force since 1 Feb. 2014 (AS 2013 43755357; BBl 2010 4455, 2011 7325).

330 Amended by No I of the FA of 14 Dec. 2018 (Pro­ced­ur­al Ar­range­ments and In­form­a­tion Sys­tems), in force since 1 April 2020 (AS 2019 1413, 2020 881; BBl 2018 1685).

Art. 102a Biometric data for identity cards 331  

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

2 The task of re­cord­ing bio­met­ric data and for­ward­ing iden­tity card data to the is­su­ing body may be del­eg­ated wholly or in part to third parties.332

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may pro­cess bio­met­ric data already re­cor­ded in ZEMIS in or­der to is­sue or re­new a travel doc­u­ment.333

4 The 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.334

331 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 201051).

332 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).

333 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).

334 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 335  

1 The 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.

2 The 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.

335 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 201051).

Section 2 Passenger Data, Monitoring and Controls at Airports and Air Carriers' Duty to provide Data 336

336 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. 103 Monitoring of arrivals at the airport  

1 The ar­rival of flight pas­sen­gers may be mon­itored us­ing tech­nic­al iden­ti­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures. The au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for bor­der con­trols (Art. 7 and 9) shall use the col­lec­ted data:337

a.
to de­term­ine the air car­ri­er in­volved and the place of de­par­ture of for­eign na­tion­als who do not ful­fil the entry re­quire­ments;
b.
to check all in­com­ing per­sons against the data stored in the search sys­tems.

2 The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies shall no­ti­fy the FIS if they dis­cov­er a spe­cif­ic threat to in­tern­al or the ex­tern­al se­cur­ity dur­ing this mon­it­or­ing. They may for­ward the cor­res­pond­ing data with the re­port.338

3 The col­lec­ted data must be erased with­in 30 days. If it is re­quired for pending crim­in­al, asylum pro­ceed­ings or pro­ceed­ings un­der the law on for­eign na­tion­als, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for spe­cif­ic data to be stored for a longer peri­od.

4 The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pay the can­tons where the in­ter­na­tion­al air­ports are loc­ated con­tri­bu­tions to the costs of su­per­vi­sion in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.

5 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the spe­cific­a­tions that a fa­cial re­cog­ni­tion sys­tem must sat­is­fy, as well as the de­tails of the mon­it­or­ing pro­ced­ure and the passing on of in­form­a­tion to the FIS.339

337 Second sen­tence amended in ac­cord­ance with Art. 127 be­low, in force since 12 Dec. 2008 (AS 2008 5405Art. 2 let. a).

338 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).

339 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).

Art. 103a Information system on refusals of entry 340  

1 SEM shall main­tain an in­tern­al in­form­a­tion sys­tem on re­fus­als of entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65 (IN­AD Sys­tem). It shall be used when im­pos­ing pen­al­ties for vi­ol­a­tions of the duty of care un­der Art­icle 122a, and to com­pile stat­ist­ics.

2 The sys­tem shall con­tain the fol­low­ing data on per­sons who have been re­fused entry to the Schen­gen area:

a.
sur­name, first name, sex, date of birth, na­tion­al­ity;
b.
de­tails of the flight;
c.
reas­on why entry was re­fused;
d.
de­tails of pro­ceed­ings for vi­ol­a­tions of the duty of care un­der Art­icle 122a in con­nec­tion with the per­son con­cerned.

3 The data re­cor­ded in the sys­tem shall be an­onymised after two years.

4 At the bor­der cross­ing, the data con­tained in the bio­met­ric pass­port or on the par­ti­cip­a­tion card may be com­pared with the data in the com­pu­ter­ised po­lice search sys­tem (RI­POL) and the SIS.341

340 Ori­gin­ally Art. 103b. In­ser­ted 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).

341 In­ser­ted by An­nex 1 No 1 of the FD of 18 Dec. 2020 on the Ap­prov­al and Im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Ex­change of Notes between Switzer­land and the EU re­lat­ing to the Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion on the Es­tab­lish­ment, Op­er­a­tion and Use of the Schen­gen In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (SIS), in force since 22 Nov. 2022 (AS 2021 365; 2022 636; BBl 2020 3465).

Art. 103b Entry and exit system 342  

1 In ac­cord­ance with Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226343, the entry and exit sys­tem (EES) con­tains the per­son­al data of third-coun­try cit­izens who enter the Schen­gen area for a stay of a max­im­um of 90 days in any peri­od of 180 days or whose entry in­to the Schen­gen area is re­fused.

2 The fol­low­ing cat­egor­ies of data are trans­ferred via the na­tion­al in­ter­face to the EES:

a.
al­pha­nu­mer­ic­al data re­lat­ing to the third-coun­try cit­izens con­cerned and the data re­lat­ing to visas is­sued if such must be is­sued;
b.
fa­cial im­age;
c.
the time of entry in­to and exit from the Schen­gen area, the bor­der cross­ing point and the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the bor­der checks;
d.
re­fus­als of entry.

3 If third-coun­try cit­izens are visa-ex­empt, in ad­di­tion to the data un­der para­graph 2, the re­spons­ible au­thor­ity shall fin­ger­print the per­sons con­cerned and trans­fer the fin­ger­prints to the EES.

342 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

343 Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226 of the European Par­lia­ment and of the Coun­cil of 30 Novem­ber 2017 es­tab­lish­ing an Entry/Exit Sys­tem (EES) to re­gister entry and exit data and re­fus­al of entry data of third-coun­try na­tion­als cross­ing the ex­tern­al bor­ders of the Mem­ber States and de­term­in­ing the con­di­tions for ac­cess to the EES for law en­force­ment pur­poses, and amend­ing the Con­ven­tion im­ple­ment­ing the Schen­gen Agree­ment and Reg­u­la­tions (EC) No 767/2008 and (EU) No 1077/2011, last amended by OJ L 327 of 9.12.2017, p. 20.

Art. 103c Recording, consulting and processing data in the EES 344  

1 The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may enter and pro­cess data in the EES on­line in ac­cord­ance with Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226345:

a.
the Bor­der Guard and the can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for the con­trolling the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders: to ful­fil their du­ties in re­la­tion to bor­der con­trol;
b.
SEM, the Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tions abroad and the mis­sions, the can­ton­al mi­gra­tion au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for is­su­ing visas and the com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies to which the can­tons have del­eg­ated such re­spons­ib­il­it­ies: in re­la­tion to the re­voc­a­tion, can­cel­la­tion or ex­ten­sion of a visa or of a per­mit­ted stay of a max­im­um of 90 days in any peri­od of 180 days;
c.
the Bor­der Guard, the can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies and the can­ton­al and com­mun­al mi­gra­tion au­thor­it­ies: to veri­fy that a stay in Switzer­land is law­ful and to cre­ate and up­date the EES file.

2 The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may con­sult the data in the EES on­line:

a.
the Bor­der Guard and the can­ton­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for con­trolling the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders: to con­duct the con­trols at the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­der cross­ing points and on Swiss sov­er­eign ter­rit­ory;
b.
SEM, the Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tions abroad and the mis­sions, the can­ton­al mi­gra­tion au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for is­su­ing visas and the com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies to which the can­tons have del­eg­ated such re­spons­ib­il­it­ies, the FD­FA State Sec­ret­ari­at and Dir­ect­or­ate of Polit­ic­al Af­fairs, and the Bor­der Guard and the can­ton­al po­lice bor­der posts: in re­la­tion to the visa pro­ced­ure via the Cent­ral Visa In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (C-VIS) (Art. 109a);
c.
the Bor­der Guard, the can­ton­al and com­mun­al po­lice au­thor­it­ies that carry out checks on per­sons, SEM and the can­ton­al and com­mun­al mi­gra­tion au­thor­it­ies: for the pur­pose of check­ing the re­quire­ments for entry or stay in Switzer­land and in or­der to identi­fy for­eign na­tion­als who may have been re­gistered in the EES un­der an­oth­er iden­tity or who do not or no longer meet the re­quire­ments for en­ter­ing or stay­ing in Switzer­land.

3 The au­thor­it­ies un­der para­graph 2 may con­sult the data on­line that the auto­mated cal­cu­lat­or un­der Art­icle 11 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226 provides.

4 The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may re­quest EES data from the cent­ral ac­cess point un­der para­graph 5 in or­der to pre­vent, de­tect or in­vest­ig­ate ter­ror­ist or oth­er ser­i­ous of­fences:

a.
fed­pol;
b.
the FIS;
c.
the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land;
d.
the can­ton­al po­lice and pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies and the po­lice au­thor­it­ies of the cit­ies of Zurich, Win­ter­thur, Lausanne, Chi­asso and Lugano.

5 The cent­ral ac­cess point un­der Art­icle 29 para­graph 3 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226 is the fed­pol Op­er­a­tions Centre

344 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

345 See foot­note to Art. 103b para. 1.

Art. 103d Disclosure of EES data 346  

1 The data ob­tained from the EES may not in prin­ciple be dis­closed to third coun­tries, in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions, private bod­ies or nat­ur­al per­sons.

2 SEM may however dis­close data to a state that is not bound by any of the Schen­gen As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments, or an in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion lis­ted in An­nex I of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226347 if this is re­quired to prove the iden­tity of a third-coun­try cit­izen for the pur­pose of re­turn and the con­di­tions un­der Art­icle 41 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226 are met.

346 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

347 See foot­note to Art. 103b para. 1.

Art. 103e Exchange of information with EU member states that do not apply Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 348  

The EU mem­ber states in which Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226349 has not yet come in­to force or is not ap­plic­able may send their re­quests for in­form­a­tion to the au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icle 103c para­graph 4.

348 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

349 See foot­note to Art. 103b para. 1.

Art. 103f Implementing provisions on the EES 350  

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late:

a.
the units of the au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icle 103cpara­graphs 1 and 2 to which the powers men­tioned therein ap­ply;
b.
the pro­ced­ure by which the au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icle 103cpara­graph 4 re­ceive EES data;
c.
the list of data in the EES and the ac­cess rights of the au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icle 103cpara­graphs 1 and 2;
d.
the stor­age and the de­le­tion of the data;
e.
the mod­al­it­ies in re­la­tion to data se­cur­ity;
f.
co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons;
g.
re­spons­ib­il­ity for data pro­cessing;
h.
the list of of­fences un­der Art­icle 103cpara­graph 4;
i.
the pro­ced­ure for ex­chan­ging in­form­a­tion un­der Art­icle 103e;
j.
the au­thor­it­ies that may ac­cess the list gen­er­ated by the in­form­a­tion mech­an­ism of per­sons that have ex­ceeded the max­im­um per­mit­ted stay in the Schen­gen area.

350 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

Art. 103g Automated border controls at airports 351  

1 The au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for bor­der con­trols at air­ports may op­er­ate an auto­mated bor­der con­trol pro­ced­ure.

2 Per­sons aged 12 and over may par­ti­cip­ate in the auto­mated bor­der con­trol pro­ced­ure, ir­re­spect­ive of their na­tion­al­ity, provided they hold a travel doc­u­ment that has a data chip. This con­tains a fa­cial im­age of the hold­er, the au­then­ti­city and in­teg­rity of which may be tested.

3 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the mod­al­it­ies of auto­mated bor­der con­trols.

4 As part of the auto­mated bor­der con­trol pro­ced­ure, the fin­ger­prints and the fa­cial im­age of the per­son con­cerned may be com­pared with the data on the travel doc­u­ment con­tain­ing the data chip.

351 In­ser­ted by the An­nex to the FD of 21 June 2019 (Ad­op­tion of the Le­gis­la­tion for Es­tab­lish­ing and Us­ing an Entry and Exit Sys­tem [EES], Reg­u­la­tions [EU] 2017/2226 and 2017/2225), in force since 1 May 2022 (AS 2021 732; BBl 2019 175).

Art. 104 Air carriers' duty to provide data 352  

1 In or­der to im­prove bor­der con­trols and to com­bat un­law­ful entry in­to the Schen­gen area and trans­it through the in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zones of the air­ports, at the re­quest of the bor­der con­trol au­thor­it­ies SEM may re­quire air car­ri­ers to provide per­son­al data on the pas­sen­gers it is car­ry­ing and data on the flight to SEM or to the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the bor­der con­trols. The data must be trans­mit­ted im­me­di­ately after de­par­ture.353

1bis SEM may ex­tend the duty to provide data to oth­er flights:

a.
at the re­quest of fed­pol: to com­bat in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­ised crime and ter­ror­ism;
b.
at the re­quest of the FIS: to re­spond to threats to in­tern­al and ex­tern­al se­cur­ity that arise from ter­ror­ism, es­pi­on­age and pre­par­a­tions for il­leg­al trad­ing in weapons and ra­dio­act­ive ma­ter­i­als and il­leg­al tech­no­logy trans­fers.354

1ter The data must be trans­mit­ted im­me­di­ately after de­par­ture.355

2 The or­der to provide data must con­tain:

a.
the air­ports or states of de­par­ture;
b.
the data cat­egor­ies in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3;
c.
the tech­nic­al de­tails on data trans­mis­sion.

3 The duty to provide data ap­plies to the fol­low­ing data cat­egor­ies:

a.
bio­graph­ic­al data (sur­name, first name(s), sex, date of birth, na­tion­al­ity) of the per­sons be­ing car­ried;
b.
num­ber, is­su­ing state, type and ex­piry date of the travel doc­u­ment held;
c.
num­ber, is­su­ing state, type and ex­piry date of the visa or res­id­ence doc­u­ment held provided the air car­ri­er has this data;
d.
air­port of de­par­ture, trans­fer air­ports or air­port of des­tin­a­tion in Switzer­land, to­geth­er with de­tails of the flight it­in­er­ary booked for the per­sons con­cerned in­so­far as known to the air car­ri­er;
e.
code of trans­port;
f.
num­ber of per­sons car­ried on the flight con­cerned;
g.
planned date and time of de­par­ture and ar­rival.

4 The air car­ri­ers shall in­form the per­sons con­cerned in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 18a of the Fed­er­al Act of 19 June 1992356 on Data Pro­tec­tion.

5 Or­ders im­pos­ing or lift­ing the duty to provide data are made as gen­er­al rul­ings and are pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette. Ap­peals against such rul­ings do not have sus­pens­ive ef­fect.

6 Air car­ri­ers may re­tain the data in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 solely for evid­en­tiary pur­poses. They must erase the data:

a.
when it is es­tab­lished that SEM will not open pro­ceed­ings for a vi­ol­a­tion of the duty to provide data, or two years after the date of the flight at the latest;
b.
on the day after the rul­ing in ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 122b takes full leg­al ef­fect.

352 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).

353 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).

354 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).

355 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).

356 SR 235.1

Art. 104a Passenger information system 357  

1 SEM shall main­tain a pas­sen­ger in­form­a­tion sys­tem (API Sys­tem) in or­der to:

a.
im­prove bor­der con­trols;
b.
com­bat un­law­ful entry in­to the Schen­gen area and trans­it through the in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zones of the air­ports;
c.
com­bat in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­ised crime and ter­ror­ism, es­pi­on­age and pre­par­a­tions for il­leg­al trad­ing in weapons and ra­dio­act­ive ma­ter­i­als and il­leg­al tech­no­logy trans­fers.358

1bis The API Sys­tem con­tains the data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 and the res­ults of com­par­is­ons in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 4.359

2 In or­der to check wheth­er air car­ri­ers are ful­filling their duty to provide data, and to en­force pen­al­ties un­der Art­icle 122b, SEM may re­trieve data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 from the API Sys­tem.360

3 In or­der to im­prove bor­der con­trols and to com­bat un­law­ful entry in­to the Schen­gen area and trans­it through the in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zones of the air­ports, the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for checks on per­sons at the Schen­gen ex­tern­al bor­ders may re­trieve data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 from the API Sys­tem.361

3bis If it is sus­pec­ted that a per­son is pre­par­ing for or com­mit­ting of­fences un­der Art­icle 104 para­graph 1bis let­ter a, fed­pol may re­trieve the data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3.362

4 The data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 let­ters a and b shall be auto­mat­ic­ally and sys­tem­at­ic­ally com­pared with the data from RI­POL, the SIS, the ZEMIS and the In­ter­pol data­base for stolen and lost doc­u­ments (ASF-SLTD).363

5 The data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 and the res­ults of the com­par­is­ons in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 4 may only be used fol­low­ing the ar­rival of the flight con­cerned in or­der to con­duct crim­in­al or asylum pro­ceed­ings, or pro­ceed­ings un­der the law on for­eign na­tion­als. It must be erased:

a.
when it is es­tab­lished that no pro­ceed­ings of this type will be con­duc­ted, or two years after the date of the flight con­cerned at the latest;
b.
on the day after the rul­ing in pro­ceed­ings of this type takes full leg­al ef­fect.

6 The data may be re­tained in an­onymised form for stat­ist­ic­al pur­poses bey­ond the dead­lines set out in para­graph 5.

357 In­ser­ted 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).

358 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).

359 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).

360 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).

361 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).

362 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).

363 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. 104b Automatic transmission of data from the API System 364  

1 The data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 shall be trans­mit­ted auto­mat­ic­ally in elec­tron­ic form to the FIS.

2 The FIS may pro­cess the data in or­der to ful­fil its du­ties un­der Art­icle 104a para­graph 1 let­ter c.

364 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. 104c Access to passenger data in individual cases 365  

1 In or­der to con­duct bor­der con­trols, to com­bat il­leg­al mi­gra­tion or to en­force re­mov­al or­ders, air car­ri­ers must on re­quest provide the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for bor­der con­trols with pas­sen­ger lists.

2 The pas­sen­ger lists must con­tain the fol­low­ing data:

a.
sur­name, first name(s), ad­dress, date of birth, na­tion­al­ity and pass­port num­ber of the per­sons be­ing car­ried;
b.
air­port of de­par­ture, trans­fer air­ports and air­port of des­tin­a­tion;
c.
de­tails of the travel agent through which the flight was booked.

3 The duty to provide the pas­sen­ger lists ends six months after the flight takes place.

4 The au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for bor­der con­trols shall de­lete the data with­in 72 hours of re­ceipt.

365 Ori­gin­ally Art. 104b. In­ser­ted 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).

Section 3 Disclosure of Personal Data Abroad 366

366 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. 105 Disclosure of personal data abroad  

1 In or­der to ful­fil their du­ties, and in par­tic­u­lar to com­bat crim­in­al of­fence in terms of this Act, SEM and the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the can­tons may dis­close per­son­al data of for­eign na­tion­als to for­eign au­thor­it­ies and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions en­trus­ted with cor­res­pond­ing du­ties provided such au­thor­it­ies and or­gan­isa­tion guar­an­tee a level of data pro­tec­tion equi­val­ent to that in Switzer­land.

2 The fol­low­ing per­son­al data may be dis­closed:

a.
bio­graph­ic­al data (sur­name, first name, ali­as, date of birth, place of birth, sex, na­tion­al­ity, last ad­dress in the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin) of the for­eign na­tion­al and, if ne­ces­sary, of the next of kin;
b.
in­form­a­tion about the pass­port or oth­er iden­tity cards;
c.
bio­met­ric data;
d.
fur­ther data re­quired for the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of a per­son;
e.
in­form­a­tion on the state of health, as far as this is in the in­terests of the per­son con­cerned and the per­son has been in­formed about this;
f.
the data re­quired for en­sur­ing entry to the des­tin­a­tion coun­try as well as for the se­cur­ity of the ac­com­pa­ny­ing per­sons;
g.
in­form­a­tion on the places of stay and routes trav­elled;
h.
in­form­a­tion on the reg­u­la­tion of the peri­od of stay and the visas gran­ted.
Art. 106 Disclosure of personal data to the native country or country of origin  

For the im­ple­ment­a­tion of re­movals or ex­pul­sions to the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin, the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for or­gan­ising the de­par­ture may only dis­close the fol­low­ing data to for­eign au­thor­it­ies if this does not put the for­eign na­tion­al or the next of kin at risk:

a.
bio­graph­ic­al data (sur­name, first name, ali­as, date of birth, place of birth, sex, na­tion­al­ity, last ad­dress in the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin) of the for­eign na­tion­al and, if ne­ces­sary, of the next of kin;
b.
in­form­a­tion about the pass­port or oth­er iden­tity cards;
c.
bio­met­ric data;
d.
fur­ther data re­quired for the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of a per­son;
e.
in­form­a­tion on the state of health, as far as this is in the in­terests of the per­son con­cerned and the per­son has been in­formed about this;
f.
the data re­quired for en­sur­ing entry to the des­tin­a­tion coun­try as well as for the se­cur­ity of the ac­com­pa­ny­ing per­sons.
Art. 107 Disclosure of personal data under readmission and transit agreements  

1 In or­der to im­ple­ment the read­mis­sion and trans­it agree­ments men­tioned in Art­icle 100, SEM and the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the can­tons may also dis­close the re­quired per­son­al data to states that do not provide a level of data pro­tec­tion equi­val­ent to that in Switzer­land.

2 For the pur­pose of the read­mis­sion of its cit­izens, the fol­low­ing data may be dis­closed to an­oth­er con­tract­ing state:

a.
bio­graph­ic­al data (sur­name, first name, ali­as, date of birth, place of birth, sex, na­tion­al­ity, last ad­dress in the nat­ive coun­try or coun­try of ori­gin) of the for­eign na­tion­al and, if ne­ces­sary, of the next of kin;
b.
in­form­a­tion about the pass­port or oth­er iden­tity cards;
c.
bio­met­ric data;
d.
fur­ther data re­quired for the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of a per­son;
e.
in­form­a­tion on the state of health, as far as this is in the in­terests of the per­son con­cerned;
f.
the data re­quired for en­sur­ing entry to the des­tin­a­tion coun­try as well as for the se­cur­ity of the ac­com­pa­ny­ing per­sons;
g.
in­form­a­tion on crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, in­so­far as this is re­quired in spe­cif­ic cases to pro­cess read­mis­sion and to safe­guard pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in the nat­ive coun­try and provided the per­son is not en­dangered as a res­ult; Art­icle 2 of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 March 1981367 on In­ter­na­tion­al Mu­tu­al As­sist­ance in Crim­in­al Mat­ters ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

3 For the pur­pose of the trans­it of mem­bers of third coun­tries, the fol­low­ing data may be dis­closed to the oth­er con­tract­ing state:

a.
data in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2;
b.
in­form­a­tion on the places of stay and routes trav­elled;
c.
in­form­a­tion on the reg­u­la­tion of the peri­od of stay and the visas gran­ted.

4 Pur­pose lim­it­a­tion, any se­cur­ity meas­ures and the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies must be defined in the read­mis­sion or trans­it agree­ment.

Art. 108109368  

368 See Art. 126 para. 6 be­low.

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