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

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 ad­mit­ted for a peri­od of six months fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of their edu­ca­tion or train­ing in Switzer­land in or­der to find suit­able work.30 31

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 Second sen­tence amended by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

31 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 32  

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.

32 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 33  

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.

33 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 34  

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.

34 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:35

a.
the man­age­ment of the edu­ca­tion­al es­tab­lish­ment con­firms that the per­son con­cerned is eli­gible for edu­ca­tion or train­ing;
b.
suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion is avail­able;
c.
the re­quired fin­an­cial means are avail­able; and
d.36
they ful­fil the per­son­al and edu­ca­tion­al re­quire­ments for the planned edu­ca­tion or train­ing course.

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

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

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 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).

37 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 38  

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

38 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.39
reg­u­late the peri­od of stay of vic­tims and wit­nesses of traf­fick­ing in hu­man be­ings and of per­sons who are co­oper­at­ing with the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies as part of a wit­ness pro­tec­tion pro­gramme or­gan­ised by Swiss or for­eign au­thor­it­ies or by an in­ter­na­tion­al crim­in­al court;
f.
per­mit peri­ods of stay as part of re­lief and de­vel­op­ment pro­jects in the in­terests of eco­nom­ic and tech­nic­al co­oper­a­tion;
g.40
fa­cil­it­ate in­ter­na­tion­al eco­nom­ic, sci­entif­ic and cul­tur­al ex­change as well as ba­sic and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing;
h.
sim­pli­fy the trans­fer of seni­or man­age­ment staff and es­sen­tial spe­cial­ists with­in in­ter­na­tion­ally act­ive com­pan­ies;
i.41
...
j.
per­mit au-pair work­ers re­cruited through a re­cog­nised or­gan­isa­tion, to stay in Switzer­land peri­od of stay for edu­ca­tion and train­ing;
k.
fa­cil­it­ate the re-ad­mis­sion of for­eign na­tion­als who held a res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit;
l.
reg­u­late the em­ploy­ment and the par­ti­cip­a­tion in em­ploy­ment pro­grammes of asylum seekers (Art. 43 of the Asylum Act of 26 June 199842, AsylA), tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons (Art. 85) and per­sons in need of pro­tec­tion (Art. 75 AsylA).

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

39 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).

40 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).

41 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).

42 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 SCC43 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC44, or a leg­ally en­force­able ex­pul­sion or­der un­der Art­icle 68 of this Act may work any­where in Switzer­land.45 Art­icle 61 AsylA46 ap­plies by ana­logy.47

43 SR 311.0

44 SR 321.0

45 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).

46 SR 142.31

47 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 148.

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

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

48 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.

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).

50 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.51
there are no grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 or 63 para­graph 2; and
c.52
they are in­teg­rated.

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

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

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

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

51 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).

52 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).

53 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).

54 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).

55 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.56

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

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

56 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).

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).

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. 41a Security and reading of the data chip 59  

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.

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).

Art. 41b Office issuing biometric identity cards 60  

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

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

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

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

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

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

60 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).

61 [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.62

4 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).

Art. 43 Spouses and children of persons with a settlement permit 63  

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

a.
they live with that per­son;
b.
suit­able ac­com­mod­a­tion is avail­able;
c.
they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;
d.
they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence; and
e.
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 200664 on Be­ne­fits sup­ple­ment­ary to the Old Age, Sur­viv­ors’ and In­valid­ity In­sur­ance (SBA) or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

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

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

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

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

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

63 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).

64 SR 831.30

Art. 44 Spouses and children of persons with a residence permit 65  

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

a.
they live with the per­mit hold­er;
b.
suit­able hous­ing is avail­able;
c.
they do not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;
d.
they are able to com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at their place of res­id­ence; and
e.
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits ac­cord­ing to the SBA66 or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

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

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

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

65 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).

66 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.67
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits ac­cord­ing to the SBA68 or would not be en­titled to claim such be­ne­fits due to fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

67 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).

68 SR 831.30

Art. 45a Annulment of marriage 69  

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

69 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).

70 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 71  

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.

71 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.72
the mar­riage las­ted at least three years and the in­teg­ra­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a are met; or
b.
im­port­ant per­son­al reas­ons make an ex­ten­ded res­id­ency in Switzer­land ne­ces­sary.

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

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

72 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).

73 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.74
there are grounds for re­voc­a­tion in terms of Art­icle 62 or 63 para­graph 2.

74 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 75

75 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 76  

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.

76 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 77  

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.

77 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 78  

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.

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. 55 Specific approaches to integration support 79  

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.

79 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 80  

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.

80 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 81  

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.

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. 57 Provision of information and advice 82  

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.

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).

Art. 58 Financial contributions 83  

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

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

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

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

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

83 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).

84 SR 142.31

Section 2 Integration Requirements85

85 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 86

86 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 87  

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

2 For­eign na­tion­als are en­titled to travel doc­u­ments if:

a.
they meet refugee status in ac­cord­ance with the Agree­ment of 28 Ju­ly 195189 on the Leg­al Status of Refugees;
b.
they are re­cog­nised as state­less per­sons by Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with the Treaty of 28 Septem­ber 195490 on the Leg­al Status of State­less Per­sons;
c.
they do not have iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments but hold a set­tle­ment per­mit.

3 Any per­son who has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad, or who rep­res­ents a threat to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity, or who is sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abisSCC91 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC92 does not have a right to travel doc­u­ments.93

4 ...94

5and6 ...95

87 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).

88 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.

89 SR 0.142.30

90 SR 0.142.40

91 SR 311.0

92 SR 321.0

93 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).

94 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).

95 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 96  

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

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

96 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).

97 SR 142.51

98 SR 143.1

Art. 59b Biometric data 99  

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

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

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

99 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).

100 SR 143.1

Art. 59c Travel ban for refugees 101  

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.

101 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.102
tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons who have left Switzer­land of their own vo­li­tion or whose tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion has been re­voked in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 84 para­graph 2.

3 Re­turn and re­in­teg­ra­tion as­sist­ance in­cludes:

a.
re­turn coun­selling in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 93 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA103;
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.104

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

102 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).

103 SR 142.31

104 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 105

105 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.106
on the hold­er be­com­ing sub­ject to a leg­ally en­force­able or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a SCC107 or Art­icle 49a MCC108;
f.109
on the en­force­ment of an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 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.

106 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).

107 SR 311.0

108 SR 321.0

109 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 110  

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

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

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

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

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

110 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).

111 SR 0.142.112.681

112 SR 0.632.31

Art. 62 Revocation of permits and other rulings 113  

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 5961 or 64 of the SCC114;
c.
has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;
d.
fails to ful­fil an ob­lig­a­tion linked to the de­cision;
e.
or a per­son they must care for is de­pend­ent on so­cial as­sist­ance;
f.115
has at­temp­ted to ob­tain Swiss cit­izen­ship un­law­fully or his or her Swiss cit­izen­ship has been re­voked based on a leg­ally bind­ing rul­ing is­sued in con­nec­tion with a de­clar­a­tion of nullity un­der Art­icle 36 of the Swiss Cit­izen­ship Act of 20 June 2014116;
g.117
does not com­ply with an in­teg­ra­tion agree­ment without due cause.

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

113 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).

114 SR 311.0

115 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).

116 SR 141.0

117 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.118
the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 62 para­graph 1 let­ter a or b are ful­filled;
b.
the for­eign na­tion­al has ser­i­ously vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;
c.
the for­eign na­tion­al or a per­son they must care for is de­pend­ent per­man­ently and to a large ex­tent on so­cial as­sist­ance;
d.119
the for­eign na­tion­al has at­temp­ted to ob­tain Swiss cit­izen­ship un­law­fully or his or her Swiss cit­izen­ship has been re­voked based on a leg­ally bind­ing rul­ing is­sued in con­nec­tion with a de­clar­a­tion of nullity un­der Art­icle 36 of the Swiss Cit­izen­ship Act of 20 June 2014120;
e.121
...

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

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

118 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).

119 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).

120 SR 141.0

121 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).

122 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).

123 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 124  

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

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

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

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

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

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

124 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).

125 These Agree­ments are lis­ted in An­nex 1 No 1.

126 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 127  

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

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

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

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

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

127 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).

128 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.

129 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).

130 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 131  

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

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).

Art. 64c Removal without formal procedure 132  

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

a.
they are be­ing re­ad­mit­ted by Bel­gi­um, Ger­many, Es­to­nia, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Lux­em­bourg, the Neth­er­lands, Nor­way, Aus­tria, Po­land, Sweden, Slov­akia, Slov­e­nia, Spain or Hun­gary on the basis of a read­mis­sion agree­ment;
b.133
they have been re­fused entry pre­vi­ously in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code134.

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

132 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).

133 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).

134 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 3.

Art. 64d Departure deadline and immediate enforcement 135  

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

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

a.
the per­son con­cerned rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der or rep­res­ents a threat to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity;
b.
spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that the per­son con­cerned in­tends to evade de­port­a­tion;
c.
an ap­plic­a­tion for a per­mit is re­fused on the basis that it is clearly un­jus­ti­fied or an ab­use of pro­ced­ure;
d.
the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­ad­mit­ted by a State un­der Art­icle 64c para­graph 1 let­ter a on the basis of a read­mis­sion agree­ment;
e.136
the per­son con­cerned was pre­vi­ously re­fused entry in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 14 of the Schen­gen Bor­ders Code137 (Art. 64c para. 1 let. b);
f.
the per­son con­cerned is be­ing re­moved un­der the Dub­lin As­so­ci­ation Agree­ments (Art. 64a).

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

a.
The per­son fails to co­oper­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 90.
b.
The per­son’s pre­vi­ous con­duct leads to the con­clu­sion that they wish to defy of­fi­cial or­ders.
c.
The per­son enters Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry.138

135 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).

136 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).

137 See foot­note to Art. 7 para. 3.

138 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 139  

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.

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. 64f Translation of the removal order 140  

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.

140 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 141  

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

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

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

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

141 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).

142 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.

143 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).

144 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).

145 SR 142.31

146 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. 66147  

147 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 148  

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

a.
the re­mov­al or­der may be en­forced im­me­di­ately in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 64d para­graph 2 let­ters a–c;
b.
the per­son does not leave by the ap­poin­ted dead­line;
c.
the per­son has vi­ol­ated or rep­res­ents a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad; or
d.
the per­son has been con­victed of an of­fence or of an at­temp­ted of­fence un­der Art­icle 115 para­graph 1, 116, 117 or 118.149

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

a.
have in­curred so­cial as­sist­ance costs;
b.
have had to be taken in­to de­ten­tion in pre­par­a­tion for de­par­ture or pending de­port­a­tion or have been placed in co­er­cive de­ten­tion (Art. 75–78).150

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

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

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

148 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).

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 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).

151 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.152

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

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

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

152 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 153  

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 SCC154 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC155 where en­force­ment has been ordered;
d.
a re­mov­al or­der where en­force­ment has been ordered in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 44 and 45 AsylA156.

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

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

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

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

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

153 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).

154 SR 311.0

155 SR 321.0

156 SR 142.31

157 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 158  

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

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

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

158 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).

159 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 160  

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.

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. 68d Deletion of Swiss alerts in the SIS 161  

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.

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).

Art. 68e Disclosure of SIS data to third parties 162  

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

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

162 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).

163 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 164

164 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.165
they are be­ing held in de­ten­tion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 76 and 77 and a leg­ally bind­ing ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der or a leg­ally bind­ing de­cision on ex­pul­sion un­der Art­icle 66a or 66abis SCC166 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC167 has been is­sued.

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

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

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

165 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).

166 SR 311.0

167 SR 321.0

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).

169 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.170

170 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 SCC171 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC172, in par­tic­u­lar by:173

a.
as­sist­ing in ob­tain­ing travel doc­u­ments;
b.
mak­ing travel ar­range­ments;
c.174
en­sur­ing co­oper­a­tion between the can­tons con­cerned and the FD­FA.

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

171 SR 311.0

172 SR 321.0

173 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).

174 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).

175 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 176  

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

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

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

176 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).

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

178 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 179  

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.

179 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 180  

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.

180 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 181  

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

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

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

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

181 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).

182 SR 311.0

183 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;
c.184
in or­der to en­sure their han­dover to the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies in a neigh­bour­ing State based on a read­mis­sion agree­ment.

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

3 If a per­son is de­tained, they must:

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

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

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

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

184 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2022 (Fin­an­cial Sup­port for Can­tons with De­par­ture Centres on the Bor­der), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 186; BBl 2022 1312).

185 Amended by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2022 (Fin­an­cial Sup­port for Can­tons with De­par­ture Centres on the Bor­der), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 186; BBl 2022 1312).

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.186
they are sub­ject to a leg­ally bind­ing ex­pul­sion or re­mov­al or­der and spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that the per­son con­cerned will not leave be­fore the de­par­ture dead­line or has failed to ob­serve the de­par­ture dead­line.
c.187
de­port­a­tion has been post­poned (Art. 69 para. 3).

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

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

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

186 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).

187 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).

188 SR 142.31

189 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).

190 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 SCC191 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC192, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may de­tain a per­son who does not hold a short stay, res­id­ence or set­tle­ment per­mit while pre­par­ing to de­cide on that per­son’s res­id­ence status for a max­im­um of six months if that per­son:193

a.194
re­fuses dur­ing asylum pro­ceed­ings, re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in which the po­ten­tial pen­alty in­cludes an or­der for ex­pul­sion from Switzer­land un­der Art­icle 66a or 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.195
is a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by fed­pol or the FIS.
1bis ...196

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

191 SR 311.0

192 SR 321.0

193 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).

194 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).

195 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).

196 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 SCC197 or Art­icle 49aor 49abis MCC198, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may en­sure the en­force­ment of the de­cision by:199

a.
leav­ing the per­son con­cerned in de­ten­tion if, based on Art­icle 75, they are already in de­ten­tion;
b.
de­tain­ing the per­son con­cerned if:
1.200
there are grounds for do­ing so in terms of Art­icle 75 para­graph 1 let­ters a, b, c, f, g, h or i,
2.201
...
3.202
spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions lead to the be­lief that they are seek­ing to evade de­port­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause they fail to com­ply with the ob­lig­a­tion to co­oper­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 90 of this Act as well as Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a or para­graph 4 AsylA203,
4.
their pre­vi­ous con­duct leads to the con­clu­sion that they will re­fuse to com­ply with of­fi­cial in­struc­tions,
5.204
the de­cision to re­move the per­son con­cerned is is­sued in a fed­er­al centre and en­force­ment of the re­mov­al is im­min­ent.
6.205
...

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

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

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

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

197 SR 311.0

198 SR 321.0

199 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).

200 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).

201 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).

202 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).

203 SR 142.31

204 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).

205 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).

206 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).

207 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).

208 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).

209 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 210  

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

a.
there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that the per­son in­tends to evade re­mov­al;
b.
de­ten­tion is pro­por­tion­al; and
c.
less co­er­cive al­tern­at­ive meas­ures can­not be ap­plied ef­fect­ively (Art. 28 para. 2 of the Reg­u­la­tion [EU] No 604/2013211).

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

a.
The per­son con­cerned dis­reg­ards of­fi­cial or­ders in the asylum or re­mov­al pro­ceed­ings, in par­tic­u­lar by re­fus­ing to dis­close their iden­tity, thus fail­ing to com­ply with their duty to co­oper­ate un­der Art­icle 8 para­graph 1 let­ter a AsylA212 or by re­peatedly fail­ing to com­ply with a sum­mons without suf­fi­cient ex­cuse.
b.
Their con­duct in Switzer­land or abroad leads to the con­clu­sion that they wish to defy of­fi­cial or­ders.
c.
They sub­mit two or more asylum ap­plic­a­tions un­der dif­fer­ent iden­tit­ies.
d.
They leave the area that they are al­loc­ated to or enter an area from which they are ex­cluded un­der Art­icle 74.
e.
They enter Swiss ter­rit­ory des­pite a ban on entry and can­not be re­moved im­me­di­ately.
f.
They stay un­law­fully in Switzer­land and sub­mit an ap­plic­a­tion for asylum with the ob­vi­ous in­ten­tion of avoid­ing the im­min­ent en­force­ment of re­mov­al.
g.
They ser­i­ously threaten oth­er per­sons or con­sid­er­ably en­danger the life and limb of oth­er per­sons and are there­fore be­ing pro­sec­uted or have been con­victed.
h.
They have been con­victed of a felony.
i.
They deny to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity that they hold or have held a res­id­ence doc­u­ment and/or a visa in a Dub­lin State or have sub­mit­ted an asylum ap­plic­a­tion there.
j.213
They are a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by fed­pol or the FIS.

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

a.
sev­en weeks while pre­par­ing the de­cision on re­spons­ib­il­ity for the asylum ap­plic­a­tion; this in­cludes sub­mit­ting the re­quest to take charge to the oth­er Dub­lin State, wait­ing for the re­sponse or ta­cit ac­cept­ance, and draft­ing and giv­ing no­tice of the de­cision;
b.
five weeks dur­ing pro­ceed­ings un­der Art­icle 5 of Reg­u­la­tion (EC) No 1560/2003214;
c.
six weeks to en­sure en­force­ment from no­tice be­ing giv­en of the re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion de­cision or the date on which the sus­pens­ive ef­fect of any ap­peal against a first in­stance de­cision on re­mov­al or ex­pul­sion ceases to ap­ply and the trans­fer of the per­son con­cerned to the com­pet­ent Dub­lin State.

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

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

210 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).

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

212 SR 142.31

213 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).

214 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 SCC215 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC216 can­not be en­forced due to their per­son­al con­duct, they may be de­tained to en­sure the ob­lig­a­tion to leave Switzer­land is com­plied with, provided it is not per­mit­ted to or­der de­ten­tion pending de­port­a­tion and a more le­ni­ent meas­ure would lead to the goal.217

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

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

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

5 The con­di­tions of de­ten­tion are gov­erned by Art­icle 81.

6 The de­ten­tion or­der is re­voked if:

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

215 SR 311.0

216 SR 321.0

217 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).

218 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).

219 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 220  

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.

220 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.221

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 The de­ten­tion or­der shall be re­voked if:

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

221 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).

222 SR 142.31

223 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).

224 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).

225 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).

226 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 227  

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

a.228
in the case of per­sons ac­com­mod­ated in a fed­er­al centre: the can­ton re­spons­ible for en­for­cing re­mov­al un­der Art­icle 46 para­graph 1bis third sen­tence AsylA229, and in oth­er cases the can­ton in which the fed­er­al centre is loc­ated;
b.
in the case of per­sons that have been al­loc­ated to a can­ton or res­id­ent in a can­ton who have not sub­mit­ted an asylum ap­plic­a­tion (Art. 64a): the can­ton con­cerned.

2 ...230

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

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

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

6 In the case of a de­ten­tion or­der in re­spect of an un­ac­com­pan­ied minor seek­ing asylum, the rep­res­ent­at­ive un­der Art­icle 64a para­graph 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.

227 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).

228 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).

229 SR 142.31

230 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).

231 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 232  

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

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

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

4 The de­ten­tion ar­range­ments are oth­er­wise gov­erned by:

a.
Art­icle 16 para­graph 3 and 17 of Dir­ect­ive 2008/115/EC235 for re­turns to a third coun­try;
b.
Art­icle 28 para­graph 4 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) No 604/2013236 for Dub­lin trans­fers;
c.237
in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 37 of the Con­ven­tion of 20 Novem­ber 1989238 on the Rights of the Child.239

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

a.
the per­son con­cerned ac­cord­ing to find­ings made by the po­lice or pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies poses a spe­cif­ic risk to in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; and
b.
oth­er meas­ures have failed or are not avail­able.240

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

232 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).

233 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).

234 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).

235 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.

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

237 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).

238 SR 0.107

239 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).

240 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).

241 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 242  

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

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

a.
asylum seekers;
b.
refugees and oth­er for­eign na­tion­als who are de­tained in con­nec­tion with the re­voc­a­tion of tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion;
c.
for­eign na­tion­als whose de­ten­tion has been ordered by SEM in con­nec­tion with a re­mov­al or­der;
d.
refugees who are ex­pelled in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 65 AsylA244.

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

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

242 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).

243 SR 341

244 SR 142.31

245 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2022 (Fin­an­cial Sup­port for Can­tons with De­par­ture Centres on the Bor­der), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 186; BBl 2022 1312).

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.246

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

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

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

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

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

6 Tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion may be re­ques­ted by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

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

a.251
has been sen­tenced to a long-term cus­todi­al sen­tence in Switzer­land or abroad or has been made sub­ject to a crim­in­al law meas­ure in terms of Art­icle 59–61 or 64 of the SCC252;
b.
has ser­i­ously or re­peatedly vi­ol­ated or rep­res­en­ted a threat to pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der in Switzer­land or abroad or rep­res­en­ted a threat to in­tern­al or the ex­tern­al se­cur­ity; or
c.253
has made their re­mov­al im­possible by their own con­duct.

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

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

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

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 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.

248 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).

249 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.

250 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).

251 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).

252 SR 311.0

253 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).

254 SR 142.31

255 SR 321.0

256 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).

257 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.258

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 7.259

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.260

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.

258 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).

259 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).

260 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 AsylA261 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

3 and 4262

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.263

6 ...264

7265

7bis and 7ter266

8267

261 SR 142.31

262 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), with ef­fect from 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

263 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).

264 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).

265 Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), with ef­fect from 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

266 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 16 Dec. 2016 (In­teg­ra­tion) (AS 2017 6521; BBl 2013 2397, 2016 2821). Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), with ef­fect from 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

267 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). Re­pealed by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), with ef­fect from 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

Art. 85a Right to work 268  

1 Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons may work any­where in Switzer­land. In the case of salar­ied em­ploy­ment, the salary and work­ing con­di­tions cus­tom­ary in the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor con­cerned must be com­plied with (Art. 22). In the case of tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted refugees, Art­icle 61 AsylA ap­plies269.270

2 Ad­vance no­tice of the start and end of salar­ied em­ploy­ment and any change of job must be giv­en to the au­thor­ity des­ig­nated by a can­ton as re­spons­ible for the place of work. The no­tice must con­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion in par­tic­u­lar:271

a.
the iden­tity and salary of the em­ployed per­son;
b.
the activ­ity car­ried out;
c.
the place of work.

3 The em­ploy­er must at­tach a de­clar­a­tion to the no­tice, stat­ing that it is aware of the salary and em­ploy­ment con­di­tions cus­tom­ary for the loc­a­tion, pro­fes­sion and sec­tor, and un­der­tak­ing to com­ply with such con­di­tions.

3bis In the case of self-em­ployed work, no­tice must be giv­en by the per­son con­cerned. The no­tice must in par­tic­u­lar con­tain the in­form­a­tion spe­cified in para­graph 2.272

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 su­per­vis­ory bod­ies re­spons­ible.

6 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the re­port­ing pro­ced­ure.

268 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).

269 SR 142.31

270 Amended by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

271 Amended by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

272 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

Art. 85b Change of canton 273  

1 If tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons wish to move their place of res­id­ence to an­oth­er can­ton, they must sub­mit a re­quest for a change of can­ton to SEM. SEM shall con­sult the can­ton con­cerned.

2 A change of can­ton shall be ap­proved:

a.
to pro­tect the unity of the fam­ily; or
b.
if there is a ser­i­ous risk to the health of the tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son or oth­er per­sons.

3 If a tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son has per­man­ent em­ploy­ment in an­oth­er can­ton or if they are un­der­go­ing vo­ca­tion­al and edu­ca­tion­al train­ing there, their move to that can­ton shall also be ap­proved, provided:

a.
they are not claim­ing so­cial as­sist­ance for them­selves or for their fam­ily mem­bers; and
b.
the per­son con­cerned has been em­ployed for at least twelve months or it is un­reas­on­able to ex­pect them to re­main in their can­ton of res­id­ence due to the com­mute or work­ing hours.

4 The change of can­ton in ac­cord­ance with para­graphs 2 and 3 shall not be ap­proved if any grounds spe­cified in Art­icle 83 para­graph 7 let­ter a or b ap­ply.

5 A change of can­ton by tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted refugees is gov­erned by Art­icle 37 para­graph 2.

273 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

Art. 85c Family reunification 274  

1 The spouse of a tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons and their un­mar­ried chil­dren un­der 18 years of age may be re­united with the tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son at the earli­est three years after the or­der for tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion and in­cluded in that or­der provided:

a.
they live with the tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son;
b.
suit­able hous­ing is avail­able;
c.
the fam­ily does not de­pend on so­cial as­sist­ance;
d.
they can com­mu­nic­ate in the na­tion­al lan­guage spoken at the place of res­id­ence or have re­gistered for a re­lated lan­guage sup­port pro­gramme; and
e.
the fam­ily mem­ber they are join­ing is not claim­ing an­nu­al sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits un­der the SBA275 or would not be en­titled to re­ceive such be­ne­fits be­cause of fam­ily re­uni­fic­a­tion.

2 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.

3 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 CC276 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.

274 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 17 Dec. 2021 (Re­stric­tions on Trav­el­ling Abroad and Modi­fic­a­tion of Tem­por­ary Ad­mis­sion Status), in force since 1 June 2024 (AS 2024 188; BBl 2020 7457).

275 SR 831.30

276 SR 210

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 AsylA277 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.278

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.279
refugees 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;
c.
state­less per­sons in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 31 para­graphs 1 and 2; and
d.282
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.283

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 1994284 on Health In­sur­ance ap­ply.

277 SR 142.31

278 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).

279 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 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).

283 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).

284 SR 832.10

Art. 87 Federal subsidies  

1 The Con­fed­er­a­tion pays the can­tons:

a.285
a flat-rate pay­ment for every tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­son in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 88 para­graphs 1 and 2 and 89 AsylA286;
b.287
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.288
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.289
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 SCC290 or Art­icle 49a or 49abis MCC291 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.292

4 Flat-rate pay­ments in terms of para­graph 1 let­ter d are made for a max­im­um of five years after re­cog­ni­tion of state­less­ness.293

285 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).

286 SR 142.31

287 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).

288 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).

289 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).

290 SR 311.0

291 SR 321.0

292 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).

293 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 294  

1 Tem­por­ar­ily ad­mit­ted per­sons shall be sub­ject to the ob­lig­a­tion to pay the spe­cial charge on as­sets in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 86 AsylA295. 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.

294 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).

295 SR 142.31

Art. 88a Registered partnerships 296  

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

296 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 297

297 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 298  

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.

298 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 299  

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.300

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:301

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 AsylA302. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for fur­ther ex­cep­tions, in par­tic­u­lar for ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances such as war or nat­ur­al dis­asters.303

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.

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

300 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).

301 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).

302 SR 142.31

303 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 304  

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.

304 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 305  

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 1990306 im­ple­ment­ing the Schen­gen Agree­ment (Schen­gen Con­ven­tion).

305 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).

306 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 Operators307

307 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.308

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.

308 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 309  

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.310
a claim for un­em­ploy­ment be­ne­fit;
dter.311
a claim for sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits in ac­cord­ance with the SBA312;
dquater.313
dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures by school au­thor­it­ies;
dquin­quies.314
meas­ures taken by child and adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies;
e.315
oth­er de­cisions in­dic­at­ing a spe­cial need for in­teg­ra­tion in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia set out in Art­icle 58a;
f.316
...

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.317

309 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.

310 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).

311 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).

312 SR 831.30

313 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).

314 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).

315 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).

316 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).

317 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 2007318.319

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

318 SR 192.12

319 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 320  

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 2008321 ap­plies.

320 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).

321 SR 364

Art. 98b Delegation of duties to third parties in the visa procedure 322  

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.

322 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 323  

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.

323 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 324  

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.

324 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 325  

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.

325 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 326  

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:327

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.328

4 The re­spons­ible de­part­ments may enter in­to agree­ments with for­eign au­thor­it­ies or in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions on the tech­nic­al im­ple­ment­a­tion of agree­ments in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2.329

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.330

326 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).

327 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).

328 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).

329 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).

330 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 331  

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.

331 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 332333  

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.

332 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).

333 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 334

334 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 335

335 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 Processing of personal data 336  

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 sens­it­ive per­son­al data, 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.

336 Amended by An­nex 1 No II 4 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

Art. 102 Data collection for the purpose of identification and determining age 337  

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.338

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.339

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.340

337 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).

338 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).

339 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).

340 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 341  

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.342

3 The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may pro­cess bio­met­ric data already re­cor­ded in ZEMIS in or­der to is­sue or re­new a travel doc­u­ment.343

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.344

341 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).

342 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).

343 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).

344 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 345  

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.

345 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 346

346 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:347

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.348

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.349

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

348 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).

349 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 350  

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.351

350 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).

351 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 352  

1 In ac­cord­ance with Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226353, 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.

352 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).

353 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 354  

1 The fol­low­ing au­thor­it­ies may enter and pro­cess data in the EES on­line in ac­cord­ance with Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226355:

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 6 in or­der to pre­vent, de­tect or in­vest­ig­ate ter­ror­ist or oth­er ser­i­ous of­fences:356

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.

5357

6 The cent­ral ac­cess point un­der Art­icle 29 para­graph 3 of Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226 is the fed­pol Op­er­a­tions Centre.358

354 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).

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

356 Amended by No I of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 (Ap­plic­a­tion of the Schen­gen Data Pro­tec­tion Act to the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice), in force since 1 April 2023 (AS 2023 147; BBl 2020 2885).

357 Re­pealed by No III of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 (Ap­plic­a­tion of the Schen­gen Data Pro­tec­tion Act to the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice), with ef­fect from 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2023 147; BBl 2020 2885).

358 In­ser­ted by No I of the FA of 25 Sept. 2020 (Ap­plic­a­tion of the Schen­gen Data Pro­tec­tion Act to the Fed­er­al In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice), in force since 1 April 2023 (AS 2023 147; BBl 2020 2885).

Art. 103d Disclosure of EES data 359  

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) 2017/2226360 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.

359 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).

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

Art. 103e Exchange of information with EU member states that do not apply Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 361  

The EU mem­ber states in which Reg­u­la­tion (EU) 2017/2226362 has not yet come in­to force or is not ap­plic­able may send their re­quests for in­form­a­tion to the au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icle 103c para­graph 4.

361 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).

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

Art. 103f Implementing provisions on the EES 363  

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.

363 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 364  

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.

364 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 365  

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.366

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.367

1ter The data must be trans­mit­ted im­me­di­ately after de­par­ture.368

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 19 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Septem­ber 2020369 (FADP).370

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.

365 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).

366 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).

367 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).

368 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).

369 SR 235.1

370 Amended by An­nex 1 No II 4 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

Art. 104a Passenger information system 371  

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.372

1bis The API Sys­tem con­tains the data in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 104 para­graph 3 and the res­ults of com­par­is­ons in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 4.373

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.374

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.375

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 3.376

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).377

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.

371 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).

372 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).

373 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).

374 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).

375 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).

376 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).

377 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 378  

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.

378 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 379  

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.

379 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 380

380 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 the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 16 FADP381 are met.382

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.

381 SR 235.1

382 Amended by An­nex 1 No II 4 of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act of 25 Sept. 2020, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 491; BBl 2017 6941).

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 1981383 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. 108109384  

384 See Art. 126 para. 6 be­low.

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