Ordinance
on Swiss Persons and Institutions Abroad
(Swiss Abroad Ordinance, SAO)

(Art. 9 para. 1 SAA)

The rep­res­ent­a­tions shall main­tain con­tacts with the in­sti­tu­tions re­ferred to in Art­icle 38 para­graph 1 SAA (Swiss Abroad in­sti­tu­tions), and with oth­er as­so­ci­ations in the fields of busi­ness, sci­ence, cul­ture, so­ci­ety and oth­er areas that have ties with the rel­ev­ant loc­al com­munity of the Swiss abroad.

(Art. 10 SAA)

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall in­form the Swiss Abroad in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner about up­com­ing elec­tions and ref­er­en­dums. For this pur­pose it shall in par­tic­u­lar make use of the magazines and oth­er me­dia pub­lished by the Or­gan­isa­tion for the Swiss Abroad and oth­er Swiss Abroad in­sti­tu­tions.

²The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs (FD­FA) shall provide a com­pil­a­tion on its web­site of the most im­port­ant le­gis­la­tion af­fect­ing the Swiss Abroad. It shall also pub­lish links to oth­er web­sites con­tain­ing rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion, par­tic­u­larly on Swiss polit­ics.

³ The rep­res­ent­a­tions shall reg­u­larly in­form the Swiss Abroad and Swiss Abroad in­sti­tu­tions in their con­su­lar dis­trict about is­sues af­fect­ing them.

(Art. 12 para. 2 SAA)

¹The com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion is de­term­ined based on the con­su­lar dis­trict in which an in­di­vidu­al has es­tab­lished dom­i­cile.

² If an in­di­vidu­al has not es­tab­lished dom­i­cile, their usu­al place of res­id­ence is the de­term­in­ing factor.

³ The con­su­lar dis­tricts are de­term­ined by the FD­FA, sub­ject to the ap­prov­al of the re­ceiv­ing state.

(Art. 12 para. 1 SAA)

¹ Per­sons who move abroad from Switzer­land must re­gister with their com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion with­in 90 days from the an­nounce­ment of de­par­ture to a for­eign coun­try. They must prove that they have giv­en no­tice of de­par­ture to their last com­mune of res­id­ence in Switzer­land.

² In or­der to re­gister, Swiss na­tion­als liv­ing abroad must provide iden­ti­fic­a­tion and proof of their Swiss cit­izen­ship. The FD­FA des­ig­nates which doc­u­ments may be used for this pur­pose.

³ Per­sons with mul­tiple na­tion­al­it­ies must dis­close their for­eign na­tion­al­it­ies when they re­gister.

(Art. 11 para. 2 SAA)

¹ If a rep­res­ent­a­tion provides ur­gent so­cial as­sist­ance to an in­di­vidu­al who is not entered in the Re­gister of the Swiss Abroad, the rep­res­ent­a­tion shall enter the in­di­vidu­al in the Re­gister of the Swiss Abroad ex of­fi­cio.

² The com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion shall then ask the in­di­vidu­al entered on the Re­gister to con­firm the re­gis­tra­tion.

(Art. 13 para. 1 SAA)

¹ Any per­son who is entered in the Re­gister of the Swiss Abroad must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion of the fol­low­ing changes in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

events, de­clar­a­tions and de­cisions that af­fect civil status;

b.

changes of ad­dress or con­tact de­tails;

c.

the ac­quis­i­tion or loss of a for­eign na­tion­al­ity.

² The ob­lig­a­tion to no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion of any for­eign events, de­clar­a­tions or de­cisions af­fect­ing civil status (Art­icle 39 of the Or­din­ance of 28 April 2004² on Civil Status) ap­plies, ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the per­son is entered in the Re­gister of the Swiss Abroad.

(Art. 19 para. 1 first sen­tence SAA)

¹ The Swiss Abroad who wish to ex­er­cise their polit­ic­al rights must re­gister with the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion either in writ­ing or in per­son.

² …³

³ When they re­gister, the Swiss Abroad must state:

a.

their sur­name and first names;

b.

their date and place of birth;

c.

their sex;

d.

their home ad­dress;

e.

their last com­mune of dom­i­cile and, if dif­fer­ent, their last polit­ic­al dom­i­cile in Switzer­land;

f.

all com­munes and can­tons of ori­gin.

⁴ The rep­res­ent­a­tion shall for­ward the re­gis­tra­tion to the elect­or­al com­mune.⁴

(Art. 18 para. 1 and 2 SAA)

¹ The most re­cent com­mune of res­id­ence in Switzer­land is deemed to be the elect­or­al com­mune.

² In the case of Swiss Abroad who have nev­er been dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land, the com­mune of ori­gin is deemed to be the elect­or­al com­mune. If they have sev­er­al com­munes of ori­gin, they may se­lect one as their elect­or­al com­mune when they re­gister.

³ If the can­ton­al law provides for a cent­ral elect­or­al re­gister in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 20 para­graph 1 SAA, the body that man­ages the re­gister per­forms the role of the elect­or­al com­mune.

(Art. 19 para. 1 second sen­tence SAA)

¹ Once the elect­or­al com­mune re­ceives the re­gis­tra­tion, it enters the Swiss na­tion­al liv­ing abroad in its elect­or­al re­gister.

² The elect­or­al com­mune then con­firms to the Swiss na­tion­al liv­ing abroad that he or she has been entered in the elect­or­al re­gister.

³ If the elect­or­al com­mune in­tends to re­ject the entry, it no­ti­fies the in­di­vidu­al con­cerned and the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion stat­ing the reas­ons for its de­cision.

(Art. 13 para. 1 SAA)

If Swiss Abroad change their place of res­id­ence, they must no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion in good time be­fore the next vote.

(Art. 19 para. 3 SAA)

¹ The elect­or­al com­munes shall de­lete Swiss Abroad from the elect­or­al re­gister if:

a.

they have been de­leted from the Re­gister of the Swiss Abroad (Art. 14 para. 1 SAA);

b.

they have been ex­cluded from vot­ing (Art. 17 SAA);

c.

they have re­nounced their polit­ic­al rights by de­clar­a­tion to the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion (Art. 19 para. 2 SAA); or

d.

the vot­ing ma­ter­i­al was re­turned as un­deliv­er­able on three suc­cess­ive oc­ca­sions.

² Swiss Abroad who are eli­gible to vote and who have been de­leted from the elect­or­al re­gister may con­tact their rep­res­ent­a­tion and make a sub­stan­ti­ated re­quest to be re-entered in the elect­or­al re­gister.

(Art. 18 SAA)

¹ The elect­or­al com­mune or can­ton sends the of­fi­cial vot­ing ma­ter­i­als and the ex­plan­at­ory state­ments from the Fed­er­al Coun­cil dir­ectly to those eli­gible to vote at their ad­dress abroad.

² Re­gis­tra­tions to vote and no­ti­fic­a­tions of a change of ad­dress are taken in­to ac­count when vot­ing ma­ter­i­als are sent out, provided they are re­ceived by the elect­or­al com­mune at least six weeks be­fore the vote.

³ The elect­or­al com­mune or can­ton sends out the vot­ing ma­ter­i­als at the earli­est one week be­fore the of­fi­cial dis­patch in Switzer­land.

⁴ No leg­al claims may be made on the basis of vot­ing ma­ter­i­als be­ing re­ceived late by the voter liv­ing abroad or of bal­lot pa­pers ar­riv­ing late at the elect­or­al com­mune des­pite be­ing dis­patched on time.

(Art. 18 para. 3 SAA)

¹ Swiss Abroad who wish to cast their vote at the bal­lot box in per­son and col­lect their vot­ing ma­ter­i­als dir­ectly from the elect­or­al com­mune should no­ti­fy the elect­or­al com­mune of this in writ­ing or in per­son.

² The elect­or­al com­mune will with­hold the vot­ing ma­ter­i­als provided it re­ceives the no­ti­fic­a­tion at least six weeks be­fore the vote.

(Art. 16 para. 1 SAA)

¹ Swiss Abroad who sign fed­er­al re­quests for ref­er­en­dums or pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives must state their elect­or­al com­mune and can­ton on the sig­na­ture list.

² As their place of res­id­ence they should state the ad­dress abroad (in­clud­ing coun­try and mu­ni­cip­al­ity) to which the vot­ing ma­ter­i­als were sent.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may sup­port can­ton­al pro­jects aimed at de­vel­op­ing, pro­cur­ing and as­sur­ing the qual­ity of elec­tron­ic sys­tems de­signed to make it easi­er for Swiss na­tion­als liv­ing abroad to ex­er­cise their polit­ic­al rights.

² The fund­ing paid to the can­tons shall not ex­ceed 40 per cent of the costs dir­ectly gen­er­ated by the pro­ject.

³ Op­er­at­ing costs are not eli­gible for fund­ing. The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery may set max­im­um rates for eli­gible staff costs and define eli­gible costs dir­ectly gen­er­ated by the pro­ject in more de­tail.

⁴ Ap­plic­a­tions for fund­ing should be ad­dressed to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery. They must con­tain all the in­form­a­tion needed for eval­u­ation, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

a de­scrip­tion of the pro­ject, in­clud­ing state­ment of goals;

b.

an ac­tion plan and sched­ule;

c.

a budget and fin­an­cing plan.

(Art. 25 SAA)

¹ If a per­son with mul­tiple na­tion­al­it­ies ap­ply for so­cial as­sist­ance, the Con­su­lar Dir­ect­or­ate (CD) at the FD­FA first de­cides which na­tion­al­ity takes pre­ced­ence. In do­ing so, it takes ac­count of the fol­low­ing:

a.

the cir­cum­stances un­der which the per­son ac­quired the for­eign na­tion­al­it­ies;

b.

the coun­try in which the per­son spent their child­hood and where they at­ten­ded school;

c.

how long the per­son has already stayed in the rel­ev­ant re­ceiv­ing state; and

d.

the per­sons' link to Switzer­land.

² In cases of ur­gent so­cial as­sist­ance, the Swiss na­tion­al­ity is deemed to take pre­ced­ence.

(Art. 23 SAA)

¹ Pre­vent­ive meas­ures are deemed to be, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

provid­ing in­form­a­tion about par­tic­u­lar health-re­lated or oth­er risks;

b.

meas­ures to pro­tect fam­il­ies and chil­dren;

c.

as­sist­ance in provid­ing ap­pro­pri­ate vo­ca­tion­al train­ing to young people;

d.

fos­ter­ing edu­ca­tion­al, care or pro­tect­ive meas­ures in col­lab­or­a­tion with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in the re­ceiv­ing state;

e.

provid­ing clothes, food and medi­cines;

f.

ad­vising on job seek­ing;

g.

help­ing place and in­teg­rate per­sons with phys­ic­al or men­tal dis­ab­il­it­ies.

² Pre­vent­ive meas­ures may be provided across the board or on an in­di­vidu­al basis.

³ Such meas­ures are taken by the CD after con­sulta­tion with the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion.

¹ So­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits may be paid to Swiss Abroad on a re­cur­ring or one-off basis.

² Re­cur­ring be­ne­fits are guar­an­teed for a max­im­um of one year and this guar­an­tee may be re­newed.

¹ A per­son is en­titled to re­ceive re­cur­ring be­ne­fits if:

a.

their eli­gible ex­penses ex­ceed their eli­gible in­comes;

b.

their li­quid as­sets, with the ex­cep­tion of the ex­empt as­set al­low­ance, have been used up; and

c.

they have a le­git­im­ate reas­on to re­main in the re­ceiv­ing state tak­ing all the cir­cum­stances in­to ac­count, par­tic­u­larly if they:

1.

have already been in the re­ceiv­ing state for sev­er­al years,

2.

are very likely to be­come fin­an­cially in­de­pend­ent in the re­ceiv­ing state in the fore­see­able fu­ture, or

3.

prove that they can­not reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted to re­turn to Switzer­land due to close fam­ily ties or oth­er re­la­tion­ships.

² The is­sue of wheth­er the rel­ev­ant be­ne­fits would be more cost-ef­fect­ive in Switzer­land or abroad is ir­rel­ev­ant.

¹ A per­son is en­titled to re­ceive one-off be­ne­fits, if:

a.

their eli­gible in­comes, after de­duc­tion of their eli­gible ex­penses, are in­suf­fi­cient to cov­er a one-off ex­pense which is ne­ces­sary to meet their ba­sic needs; and

b.

no li­quid as­sets are avail­able that ex­ceed the ex­empt al­low­ance.

² A one-off be­ne­fit may be gran­ted in ad­di­tion to re­cur­ring be­ne­fits.

¹ Eli­gible ex­penses are:

a.

an al­low­ance to cov­er house­hold ex­penses (house­keep­ing al­low­ance);

b.

oth­er re­cur­ring ex­penses, such as ac­com­mod­a­tion costs, in­sur­ance premi­ums and mo­bil­ity costs, provided they are ne­ces­sary, reas­on­able and sub­stan­ti­ated.

² Debts and debt in­terest are not re­cog­nised as eli­gible ex­penses. In ex­cep­tion­al cases, they may be re­cog­nised in part or in full as such if they were in­curred as a res­ult of es­sen­tial ex­pendit­ure, such as ac­com­mod­a­tion costs, in­sur­ance premi­ums, mo­bil­ity or hos­pit­al costs.

Eli­gible in­comes are all in­comes that an ap­plic­ant re­ceives or could re­ceive in due time.

¹ The house­hold al­low­ance is based on the rates ap­plic­able in Switzer­land, al­though it is ad­jus­ted to re­flect the ba­sic cost of liv­ing in the rel­ev­ant coun­try or re­gion.

² It is gradu­ated based on the size of the house­hold.

¹ The ex­empt as­set al­low­ance is set by the CD in such a way as not to hinder the pos­sib­il­ity of the per­son con­cerned be­ing able to sup­port them­selves again through their own means in the fore­see­able fu­ture.

² The ex­empt as­set al­low­ance amounts to a max­im­um of:

a.

six times the house­hold al­low­ance for in­di­vidu­als;

b.

twelve times the house­hold al­low­ance for mar­ried couples or couples in a re­gistered part­ner­ship.

³ If the ap­plic­ant has chil­dren un­der 18, the ex­empt as­set al­low­ance is in­creased by a max­im­um of three times the house­hold al­low­ance per child.

⁴ If there are grounds to as­sume that the ap­plic­ant will not be able to ac­cu­mu­late new as­sets in the fore­see­able fu­ture, the ex­empt as­set al­low­ance may be in­creased to double the max­im­um amount set out in para­graph 2.

¹ The re­cur­ring be­ne­fits amount to the total dis­crep­ancy between the eli­gible ex­penses and eli­gible in­comes.

² The CD sets this amount on the basis of a budget.

Be­ne­fits for per­sons in homes, hos­pit­als and oth­er es­tab­lish­ments abroad com­prise the stat­utory or leg­al daily al­low­ances for a stay in a pub­lic in­sti­tu­tion plus an­cil­lary ex­penses and pock­et money.

¹ Swiss Abroad who are un­able to cov­er the costs of their re­turn to Switzer­land are en­titled to claim the travel costs to re­turn to Switzer­land.

² Re­turn to Switzer­land means trav­el­ling to Switzer­land with the in­ten­tion of stay­ing there per­man­ently.

³ The travel costs are paid ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er the Swiss na­tion­als claimed be­ne­fits while they were abroad.

The travel costs paid for the re­turn to Switzer­land com­prise:

a.

the costs of the most ap­pro­pri­ate and cheapest way of trav­el­ling to Switzer­land;

b.

the be­ne­fits needed abroad un­til the time of de­par­ture;

c.

if re­quired, the be­ne­fits needed from ar­rival in Switzer­land un­til the first con­tact with the rel­ev­ant so­cial ser­vice au­thor­ity.

If the CD al­lows a Swiss na­tion­al liv­ing abroad to re­turn to Switzer­land at the ex­pense of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, it shall no­ti­fy the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies.

(Art. 32 SAA)

¹ Ap­plic­a­tions for so­cial as­sist­ance be­ne­fits abroad or the pay­ment of travel costs to re­turn to Switzer­land should be made through the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion. Ap­plic­ants may be rep­res­en­ted by someone else.

² A budget should be sub­mit­ted with the ap­plic­a­tion, show­ing the eli­gible ex­penses and eli­gible in­comes. In­form­a­tion should be provided in the cur­rency of the re­ceiv­ing state.

³ Ap­plic­a­tions for one-off be­ne­fits should also in­clude a cost es­tim­ate.

(Art. 33 para. 2 SAA)

If a rep­res­ent­a­tion be­comes aware that a Swiss na­tion­al liv­ing abroad is in need, it may ini­ti­ate the pro­ced­ure ex of­fi­cio.

(Art. 24, 26 and 32 SAA)

¹ The ap­plic­ant must:

a.

com­plete and sign the forms provided by the CD;

b.

provide truth­ful and com­plete in­form­a­tion about their own situ­ation and that of oth­er mem­bers of their house­hold;

c.

provide doc­u­ment­ary evid­ence where pos­sible;

d.

claim main­ten­ance and sup­port con­tri­bu­tions and en­ti­tle­ments from third parties;

e.

no­ti­fy the rep­res­ent­a­tion im­me­di­ately of any sig­ni­fic­ant changes in their cir­cum­stances.

² Where ne­ces­sary, the CD or the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion may as­sist the ap­plic­ant in claim­ing main­ten­ance and sup­port con­tri­bu­tions and oth­er en­ti­tle­ments from third parties.

(Art. 32 SAA)

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tions shall draw the ap­plic­ant’s at­ten­tion to their rights and ob­lig­a­tions.

² They shall provide ap­plic­ants with ad­vice and sup­port where ne­ces­sary and feas­ible.

(Art. 33 SAA)

¹ The CD makes its de­cision based on the ap­plic­a­tion doc­u­ments from the rep­res­ent­a­tion. It may fur­ther cla­ri­fy the facts if ne­ces­sary.

² In ur­gent cases and cases of hard­ship, the CD may make a de­cision re­gard­ing a one-off be­ne­fit without a cost es­tim­ate, based on the evid­ence presen­ted.

³ One-off be­ne­fits are guar­an­teed with a com­mit­ment to cov­er costs.

⁴ The rep­res­ent­a­tion shall no­ti­fy the ap­plic­ant of the de­cision.

⁵ If the CD re­jects the ap­plic­a­tion be­cause stay­ing in the re­ceiv­ing state is not jus­ti­fied un­der Art­icle 19 para­graph 1 let­ter c, the rep­res­ent­a­tion shall ad­vise the ap­plic­ant that they have the op­tion of hav­ing their re­turn travel costs to Switzer­land paid.

(Art. 28 SAA)

If the ap­plic­ant has prop­erty or oth­er as­sets which it is not pos­sible or reas­on­able to sell for the time be­ing, they may be asked to provide a se­cur­ity.

(Art. 27 SAA)

¹ One-off be­ne­fits are paid ac­cord­ing to the com­mit­ment to cov­er costs.

² Re­cur­ring be­ne­fits are paid in­to an ac­count or paid out in cash on a monthly basis. The pay­ment is made in the cur­rency of the re­ceiv­ing state.

³ To en­sure the be­ne­fits are used ap­pro­pri­ately by the eli­gible per­son, they may be paid to a third party.

⁴ If ap­pro­pri­ate, vouch­ers for the pur­chase of spe­cif­ic items may be is­sued, or pay­ments made dir­ectly to third parties.

⁵ Ad­min­is­trat­ive costs may not be set off against be­ne­fits.

(Art. 27 SAA)

¹ Re­cur­ring be­ne­fits are gran­ted at the earli­est from the date the ap­plic­a­tion is sub­mit­ted.

² Ad­vance pay­ment of re­cur­ring be­ne­fits may be gran­ted, provided:

a.

ad­equate sup­port from third parties or from the re­ceiv­ing state is not avail­able in time; and

b.

the per­son con­cerned un­der­takes to re­fund the ad­vance pay­ments, or trans­fers en­ti­tle­ments to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

(Art. 26 SAA)

¹ In the event of mis­con­duct in terms of Art­icle 26 SAA, so­cial as­sist­ance may also simply be re­duced.

² Only the per­son guilty of mis­con­duct shall have their share re­fused, with­drawn or re­duced.

³ The grounds for ex­clu­sion un­der Art­icle 26 let­ter e SAA in­clude the case of ap­plic­ants mani­festly re­fus­ing to ac­cept suit­able em­ploy­ment or to seek such em­ploy­ment.

(Art. 35 SAA)

Be­ne­fits must be re­paid in the fol­low­ing cur­ren­cies:

a.

if the per­son is res­id­ent abroad at the time of the re­pay­ment: in the cur­rency of the re­ceiv­ing state;

b.

if the per­son is res­id­ent in Switzer­land at the time of the re­pay­ment: in Swiss francs, con­ver­ted at the ex­change rate on the date of pay­ment of the be­ne­fit.

(Art. 34 SAA)

¹ If a rep­res­ent­a­tion works with a Swiss char­it­able or­gan­isa­tion abroad, it shall in­form the CD about the ar­range­ments made.

² The gov­ern­ing bod­ies of the char­it­able or­gan­isa­tion are bound by pro­fes­sion­al secrecy if they are per­form­ing so­cial as­sist­ance tasks. Pro­fes­sion­al secrecy does not ap­ply vis-a-vis the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

(Art. 33 para. 2 SAA)

¹ Con­tri­bu­tions to liv­ing ex­penses that are paid as ur­gent so­cial as­sist­ance are de­duc­ted from any re­cur­ring be­ne­fits that are sub­sequently ap­proved.

² If ur­gent so­cial as­sist­ance is re­quired dur­ing a tem­por­ary stay in Switzer­land, it is gran­ted by the can­ton of stay in ac­cord­ance with can­ton­al law.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion re­im­burses these costs to the can­ton of stay, provided the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

a.

the per­son re­ceiv­ing as­sist­ance is a Swiss na­tion­al liv­ing abroad in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 let­ter a SAA;

b.

the need has been proven;

c.

the can­ton of stay has at­temp­ted to ob­tain re­im­burse­ment from the per­son re­ceiv­ing sup­port or a third party, but these ef­forts have been un­suc­cess­ful.

⁴ The ad­min­is­trat­ive costs of the can­ton of stay are not re­im­bursed.

⁵ The re­pay­ment ob­lig­a­tion lapses three years after the costs are in­curred.

If the Con­fed­er­a­tion, on the basis of the pro­vi­sions set out in this Chapter, provides so­cial as­sist­ance to a per­son who is en­titled to main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 276 or sup­port in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 328 of the Swiss Civil Code⁵, the CD is en­titled, in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 289 para­graph 2 and Art­icle 329 para­graph 3 of the Swiss Civil Code, to as­sert the claims trans­ferred to the Con­fed­er­a­tion from the main­ten­ance debt­or.

¹ A spe­cial fund (known as the Sup­port Fund for Swiss Na­tion­als Abroad) is provided for in Art­icle 52 of the Fin­an­cial Budget Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 2005⁶. It is made up of the spe­cial funds, dona­tions and legacies re­ferred to in the An­nex, the pur­poses and re­quire­ments of which re­main bind­ing.

² The Fund is de­signed to pre­vent or mit­ig­ate cases of hard­ship and need if Swiss na­tion­als liv­ing abroad have no oth­er means of sup­port based on this Or­din­ance.

¹ The Fund may pay be­ne­fits to:

a.

Swiss na­tion­als liv­ing abroad and their re­l­at­ives who live in the same house­hold;

b.

Swiss Abroad in­sti­tu­tions.

² Pay­ments from the fund are for a spe­cif­ic pur­pose and are paid as one-off con­tri­bu­tions that do not have to be re­paid.

³ The CD makes de­cisions on grant­ing aid from the fund. There is no leg­al en­ti­tle­ment to re­ceive such be­ne­fits.

¹ The as­sets of the Fund are man­aged sep­ar­ately by the Fed­er­al Fin­ance Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² The re­turn on the Fund's as­sets is gov­erned by Art­icle 70 para­graph 2 of the Fin­an­cial Budget Or­din­ance of 5 April 2006⁷.

³ The cap­it­al gains, in­terest yields and oth­er rev­en­ues are al­loc­ated to the Fund an­nu­ally.

¹ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance may be paid to Swiss Abroad in­sti­tu­tions that:

a.

pro­mote or sup­port Swiss Abroad in spe­cif­ic areas and op­er­ate world­wide;

b.

provide as­sist­ance to Swiss Abroad.

² Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance may be provided to the Or­gan­isa­tion of the Swiss Abroad for the fol­low­ing activ­it­ies in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

safe­guard­ing the in­terests of Swiss Abroad vis-a-vis the Swiss au­thor­it­ies;

b.

provid­ing in­form­a­tion and ad­vice to Swiss Abroad.

(Art. 39 para. 1 and 40 para. 1 SAA)

De­cisions re­gard­ing the pro­vi­sion, scope and lim­it­a­tion of con­su­lar pro­tec­tion are made by:

a.

the FD­FA for nat­ur­al per­sons;

b.

the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs, Edu­ca­tion and Re­search in agree­ment with the FD­FA for leg­al en­tit­ies.

(Art. 39 SAA)

¹ In ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 39 para­graph 1 let­ter b SAA, con­su­lar pro­tec­tion may be provided to the fol­low­ing per­sons in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

cit­izens of coun­tries with which Switzer­land has con­cluded a rel­ev­ant agree­ment;

b.

re­cog­nised refugees;

c.

per­sons re­cog­nised as state­less.

² The con­su­lar pro­tec­tion ser­vices may also be provided to the re­l­at­ives of the per­son con­cerned, par­tic­u­larly if the per­son in ques­tion is miss­ing or dead.

(Art. 42 SAA)

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall only provide pro­tec­tion after in­di­vidu­als or leg­al en­tit­ies have ex­hausted every means of help­ing them­selves, either on their own or with the help of third parties.

² Be­fore re­quest­ing as­sist­ance, in­di­vidu­als and leg­al en­tit­ies must do everything that may be ex­pec­ted of them in terms of per­son­al re­spons­ib­il­ity to over­come their dif­fi­culties from an or­gan­isa­tion­al and fin­an­cial point of view on their own. Where reas­on­able, use should be made of any as­sist­ance avail­able in the re­ceiv­ing state.

³ In­di­vidu­als and leg­al en­tit­ies must take steps to avoid run­ning in­to dif­fi­culty, in par­tic­u­lar by com­ply­ing with the na­tion­al le­gis­la­tion of the re­ceiv­ing state and fol­low­ing the Con­fed­er­a­tion's re­com­mend­a­tions as well as en­sur­ing ad­equate in­sur­ance cov­er.

⁴ Swiss na­tion­als may re­gister their stays abroad. The FD­FA provides an elec­tron­ic data­base for this pur­pose.

(Art. 45–49 SAA)

¹ When provid­ing as­sist­ance with­in the frame­work of con­su­lar pro­tec­tion, the FD­FA shall re­spect the sov­er­eignty and leg­al sys­tem of the re­ceiv­ing state.

² Nat­ur­al per­sons and leg­al en­tit­ies that are gran­ted con­su­lar pro­tec­tion must in­form the FD­FA about any sig­ni­fic­ant de­vel­op­ments and co­oper­ate con­struct­ively.

(Art. 45 SAA)

As­sist­ance in the event of ill­ness and ac­ci­dent may com­prise, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

provid­ing con­tact de­tails of emer­gency ser­vices, doc­tors or hos­pit­als;

b.

no­ti­fy­ing re­l­at­ives or oth­er per­sons at the re­quest of the per­son con­cerned;

c.

cla­ri­fy­ing in­sur­ance cov­er and be­ne­fits;

d.

act­ing as a guar­ant­or for hos­pit­al charges, provided an ad­vance pay­ment has been made or a writ­ten guar­an­tee from a third party has been sub­mit­ted;

e.

hos­pit­al vis­its;

f.

sup­port­ing the Swiss res­cue ser­vices with med­ic­al re­pat­ri­ations.

(Art. 45 SAA)

As­sist­ance for vic­tims of ser­i­ous crime, in par­tic­u­lar acts of vi­ol­ence, may com­prise:

a.

ad­vising the vic­tims and their re­l­at­ives;

b.

provid­ing in­form­a­tion on the op­tions for vic­tim sup­port in Switzer­land and in the re­ceiv­ing state;

c.

cla­ri­fy­ing mat­ters with the au­thor­it­ies in the re­ceiv­ing state, in par­tic­u­lar re­gard­ing the leg­al sup­port op­tions and the status of on­go­ing pro­ced­ures;

d.

provid­ing as­sist­ance in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 51 and 54.

(Art. 45 SAA)

¹ As­sist­ance for miss­ing per­sons may com­prise, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

ad­vising re­l­at­ives;

b.

in­form­ing re­l­at­ives that an of­fi­cial search can only be launched once a per­son has been re­por­ted miss­ing to the po­lice;

c.

cla­ri­fy­ing wheth­er the where­abouts of the per­son are known.

² The FD­FA does not lead in­vest­ig­a­tions.

³ Car­ry­ing out search or res­cue op­er­a­tions abroad is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the re­ceiv­ing state. Switzer­land will only get in­volved if it is asked to do so by the re­ceiv­ing state or if it the re­ceiv­ing state gives its con­sent.

(Art. 45 SAA)

¹ As­sist­ance in the event of death may com­prise, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

cla­ri­fy­ing de­tails with au­thor­it­ies and in­sur­ance com­pan­ies;

b.

ob­tain­ing death cer­ti­fic­ates, po­lice or autopsy re­ports;

c.

provid­ing ad­dresses of fu­ner­al dir­ect­ors;

d.

ar­ran­ging urn or cas­ket buri­als in the for­eign coun­try;

e.

as­sist­ing with the re­pat­ri­ation of re­mains;

f.

tak­ing meas­ures to safe­guard the per­son­al prop­erty of Swiss na­tion­als in trans­it.

² The FD­FA has ful­filled its duty to in­form in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 45 para­graph 3 SAA if it has no­ti­fied one of the fol­low­ing per­sons about the death:

a.

the spouse or re­gistered part­ner;

b.

chil­dren, par­ents and sib­lings;

c.

grand­par­ents and grand­chil­dren;

d.

life part­ners or oth­er per­sons close to the de­ceased.

(Art. 45 SAA)

¹ In the event of child ab­duc­tions, the FD­FA may provide the fol­low­ing as­sist­ance to the par­ent or leg­al guard­i­an con­cerned:

a.

ad­vising on the sup­port op­por­tun­it­ies offered by the FD­FA;

b.

provid­ing in­form­a­tion on the po­ten­tial course of ac­tion in Switzer­land and abroad;

c.

provid­ing ad­dresses of loc­al char­it­ies, con­tact per­sons and leg­al pro­fes­sion­als;

d.

work­ing with one of the or­gan­isa­tions op­er­at­ing in this area;

e.

try­ing to con­tact the ab­duct­ing par­ent and the chil­dren;

f.

car­ry­ing out dip­lo­mat­ic in­ter­ven­tions with the com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies in the coun­try to which the child has been ab­duc­ted.

² The pro­vi­sions of the fol­low­ing agree­ments shall re­main re­served:

a.

European Con­ven­tion of 20 May 1980⁸ on the Re­cog­ni­tion and En­force­ment of De­cisions con­cern­ing Cus­tody of Chil­dren and on Res­tor­a­tion of Cus­tody of Chil­dren;

b.

Con­ven­tion of 25 Oc­to­ber 1980⁹ on the Civil As­pects of In­ter­na­tion­al Child Ab­duc­tion;

c.

Hag­ue Con­ven­tion of 19 Oc­to­ber 1996¹⁰ on the Pro­tec­tion of Chil­dren.

(Art. 45 SAA)

¹ The FD­FA does not in­ter­vene in court pro­ceed­ings abroad.

² It does not mon­it­or tri­als.

³ The FD­FA does not cov­er leg­al or court costs, bail money or fines.

(Art. 46 SAA)

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion in­forms a per­son in cus­tody about:

a.

their rights of de­fence;

b.

the pos­sib­il­ity of be­ing trans­ferred to Switzer­land;

c.

so­cial se­cur­ity is­sues; and

d.

health risks.

² At the re­quest of the per­son held in cus­tody, the FD­FA no­ti­fies re­l­at­ives or spe­cif­ic third parties of the im­pris­on­ment.

³ The rep­res­ent­a­tion vis­its the per­son held in cus­tody at least once a year where pos­sible and if the per­son con­cerned so wishes.

(Art. 48 para. 2 and 3 SAA)

Swiss cit­izens abroad are re­spons­ible for keep­ing them­selves up­dated in crisis situ­ations, in par­tic­u­lar via the me­dia, no­tices from the loc­al au­thor­it­ies and the FD­FA's web­site.

(Art. 48 para. 5 SAA)

¹ Let­ters of pro­tec­tion may be is­sued for houses, apart­ments, of­fices and factor­ies, ware­houses, ma­chines and vehicles.

² Per­sons who hold the na­tion­al­ity of the re­ceiv­ing state in ad­di­tion to Swiss na­tion­al­ity shall not be is­sued with let­ters of pro­tec­tions.

(Art. 49 SAA)

As­sist­ance provided by the FD­FA to per­sons who are vic­tims of a kid­nap­ping or host­age-tak­ing may com­prise the fol­low­ing meas­ures with­in the pos­sib­il­it­ies avail­able to the FD­FA, the polit­ic­al guidelines and Switzer­land's in­ter­na­tion­al ob­lig­a­tions:

a.

con­tact­ing and seek­ing solu­tions with the coun­try in whose ter­rit­ory the kid­nap­ping or host­age-tak­ing oc­curred or in whose ter­rit­ory the kid­napped per­sons or host­ages are be­ing held;

b.

work­ing with third coun­tries and oth­er third parties;

c.

sup­port­ing the im­me­di­ate re­l­at­ives.

The fol­low­ing per­sons may re­quest an emer­gency loan from the com­pet­ent rep­res­ent­a­tion:

a.

Swiss cit­izens who are tem­por­ar­ily stay­ing out­side their coun­try of res­id­ence;

b.

refugees re­cog­nised by Switzer­land who are res­id­ent in Switzer­land;

c.

state­less cit­izens re­cog­nised by Switzer­land who are res­id­ent in Switzer­land.

¹ An ap­plic­a­tion shall be re­jec­ted if the ap­plic­ant can deal with their emer­gency situ­ation in a timely man­ner on their own and with their own re­sources, with fin­an­cial as­sist­ance from private or pub­lic sources, with in­sur­ance be­ne­fits or with as­sist­ance from the re­ceiv­ing state.

² Fur­ther­more, an ap­plic­a­tions may be re­jec­ted if the ap­plic­ant:

a.

has failed to pay back a pre­vi­ously gran­ted emer­gency loan; or

b.

has ser­i­ously dam­aged Swiss pub­lic in­terests.

Emer­gency loans shall only be gran­ted for ne­ces­sary ex­penses and un­til the next pos­sible date to re­turn home.

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion de­cides wheth­er to grant emer­gency loans up to the fol­low­ing amounts in­clus­ive of fees:

a.

600 Swiss francs to re­turn from European coun­tries to the ori­gin­al place of res­id­ence or as in­ter­im aid to cov­er ne­ces­sary ex­penses un­til the next pos­sible date to re­turn home;

b.

1,200 Swiss francs to re­turn from all oth­er coun­tries to the ori­gin­al place of res­id­ence or as in­ter­im aid to cov­er ne­ces­sary ex­penses un­til the next pos­sible date to re­turn home;

c.

2,200 Swiss francs to cov­er hos­pit­al or med­ic­al costs, in­clud­ing medi­cines and med­ic­al aids.

² The CD de­cides in all oth­er cases, in­clud­ing in cases where there are grounds for re­fus­al in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 43 para­graph 2 SAA or if there is an ar­rest war­rant in the com­pu­ter­ised search sys­tem RI­POL.

¹ Emer­gency loans are paid out in the loc­al cur­rency.

² When loans are paid out, ap­plic­ants must sign a com­mit­ment to pay back the loan with­in 60 days.

³ The amount due must be paid back in Swiss francs; the ex­change rate on the date of pay­ment of the loan ap­plies.

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion is au­thor­ised to leg­al­ise the of­fi­cial seals and sig­na­tures of the fol­low­ing bod­ies:

a.

the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery;

b.

the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for leg­al­isa­tions;

c.

the au­thor­it­ies of the re­ceiv­ing state that are based in the con­su­lar dis­trict and whose sig­na­tures and seal are lodged with the rep­res­ent­a­tion;

d.

rep­res­ent­a­tions of for­eign states loc­ated in the con­su­lar dis­trict, whose seal and sig­na­ture are lodged with the rep­res­ent­a­tion.

² On ex­press de­mand, a con­firm­a­tion may be ad­ded to the doc­u­ment to which the leg­al­isa­tion is at­tached stat­ing that the au­thor­ity that is­sued it was au­thor­ised to do so.

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion is au­thor­ised to leg­al­ise the sig­na­tures of Swiss na­tion­als on private doc­u­ments.

² Un­less oth­er­wise provided for in the law of the re­ceiv­ing state, the sig­na­tures of for­eign na­tion­als on private doc­u­ments to be used in Switzer­land or for Swiss in­terests, may be leg­al­ised.

³ The doc­u­ment must be signed in the pres­ence of an au­thor­ised em­ploy­ee from the rep­res­ent­a­tion and there must be no doubt about the iden­tity of the sig­nat­ory.

¹ Leg­al­isa­tions is­sued by the rep­res­ent­a­tion only refer to seals and sig­na­tures.

² The rep­res­ent­a­tion ex­pressly de­clares on the doc­u­ment to which the leg­al­isa­tion is at­tached that it bears no re­spons­ib­il­ity for the au­then­ti­city or con­tent of the doc­u­ment in ques­tion.

Leg­al­isa­tion re­quests will be re­jec­ted, in par­tic­u­lar if:

a.

there is no proven Swiss in­terest;

b.

there is doubt about the au­then­ti­city of the seal or sig­na­ture;

c.

the risk of neg­at­ive im­plic­a­tions for Switzer­land's im­age can­not auto­mat­ic­ally be ruled out, in par­tic­u­lar where money laun­der­ing, cap­it­al flight or tax eva­sion is sus­pec­ted;

d.

doc­u­ments with ob­vi­ously du­bi­ous con­tent are presen­ted;

e.

the doc­u­ment re­quires leg­al­isa­tion by means of apos­tille in ac­cord­ance with the Hag­ue Con­ven­tion of 5 Oc­to­ber 1961¹¹ Ab­ol­ish­ing the Re­quire­ment of Leg­al­isa­tion for For­eign Pub­lic Doc­u­ments.

The cer­ti­fic­a­tion of for­eign de­cisions and doc­u­ments re­gard­ing civil status that are sub­mit­ted to the rep­res­ent­a­tion to be for­war­ded to the com­pet­ent Swiss civil status au­thor­it­ies for re­gis­tra­tion in the Swiss civil status re­gister is, sub­ject to in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ments, gov­erned by Art­icle 5 of the Or­din­ance of 28 April 2004¹² on Civil Status.

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion is au­thor­ised to is­sue cer­ti­fic­ates to the fol­low­ing per­sons about facts that have been suf­fi­ciently as­cer­tained:

a.

Swiss na­tion­als and leg­al en­tit­ies in ac­cord­ance with Art. 40 SAA;

b.

for­eign na­tion­als and oth­er leg­al en­tit­ies, provided the cer­ti­fic­ates are to be used in Switzer­land or for Swiss in­terests.

² In the case of de­clar­a­tions of con­form­ity for cop­ies where ori­gin­al doc­u­ments are presen­ted, a re­ser­va­tion re­gard­ing the con­tent will be made. The re­ser­va­tion may be dis­pensed with if there is no doubt about the au­then­ti­city of the ori­gin­al doc­u­ment.

¹ The rep­res­ent­a­tion may ac­cept cash, se­cur­it­ies, doc­u­ments and oth­er items for tem­por­ary stor­age, provided:

a.

Swiss in­terests are at stake;

b.

there is no oth­er way of keep­ing the items safe;

c.

it is con­vinced of the ne­ces­sity and ur­gency of this meas­ure; and

d.

the rep­res­ent­a­tion can provide ap­pro­pri­ate stor­age.

² The rep­res­ent­a­tion may de­mand proof of own­er­ship.

³ It shall re­fuse to ac­cept items if they rep­res­ent a se­cur­ity risk for the rep­res­ent­a­tion or if ac­cept­ing them con­flicts with Swiss na­tion­al in­terests.

⁴ De­pos­it­ing items for longer than five years re­quires au­thor­isa­tion from the FD­FA. Test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions may be stored for longer than five years without au­thor­isa­tion.

⁵ The rep­res­ent­a­tion and the FD­FA ac­cept no re­spons­ib­il­ity for dam­age or loss of the de­pos­ited items.

In re­la­tion to emig­ra­tion and re­turn­ing to Switzer­land, the FD­FA only provides gen­er­al in­form­a­tion and ref­er­ences to rel­ev­ant sources of in­form­a­tion.

The FD­FA may is­sue pro­vi­sions re­gard­ing the ap­point­ment, tasks and powers of hon­or­ary con­su­lar of­ficers, con­su­lar agents and cor­res­pond­ents.

The fol­low­ing le­gis­la­tion is re­pealed:

1.

Or­din­ance of 16 Oc­to­ber 1991¹³ on the Polit­ic­al Rights of Swiss Na­tion­als Liv­ing Abroad;

2.

Reg­u­la­tions of the Swiss Dip­lo­mat­ic and Con­su­lar Ser­vice of 24 Novem­ber 1967¹⁴;

3.

Or­din­ance of 26 Feb­ru­ary 2003¹⁵ on Fin­an­cial Sup­port for Swiss Abroad In­sti­tu­tions;

4.

Or­din­ance of 4 Novem­ber 2009¹⁶ on So­cial As­sist­ance and Loans to Swiss Cit­izens Abroad.

The fol­low­ing le­gis­la­tion is amended as fol­lows:

…¹⁷

The can­tons may sub­mit ap­plic­a­tions for the re­im­burse­ment of costs in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 3 of the Fed­er­al Act of 21 March 1973¹⁸ on So­cial As­sist­ance and Loans to Swiss Cit­izens Abroad un­til 30 April 2016.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Novem­ber 2015.