Federal Act
on the Harmonisation of the Register of Residents
and of other Official Registers of Persons
(Register Harmonisation Act, RHA)

¹ This Act aims to sim­pli­fy:

a.

the col­lec­tion of data for stat­ist­ics through the har­mon­isa­tion of of­fi­cial re­gisters of per­sons (the re­gisters);

b.

the ex­change of per­son­al data between the re­gisters provided for by the law.

² For this pur­pose the Act de­term­ines:

a.

the iden­ti­fi­ers and at­trib­utes that must be re­cor­ded in the re­gisters;

b.

the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the Fed­er­al Stat­ist­ic­al Of­fice (Fed­er­al Of­fice) for the har­mon­isa­tion of defin­i­tions, at­trib­utes and at­trib­ute char­ac­ter­ist­ics;

c.

the re­quire­ment of com­plete­ness and ac­cur­acy in the re­gisters;

d.

the ob­lig­a­tion to up­date the re­gisters of res­id­ents.

¹ This Act ap­plies to the fol­low­ing re­gisters:

a.

the com­pu­ter­ised civil status re­gister (In­fostar) main­tained by the can­tons and op­er­ated by the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice;

b

the Cent­ral Mi­gra­tion In­form­a­tion Sys­tem (ZEMIS) of the State Sec­ret­ari­at for Mi­gra­tion³;

c.

the Or­dipro in­form­a­tion sys­tem of the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs;

d.⁴

the in­form­a­tion sys­tem for the net­worked ad­min­is­tra­tion of data on and for the Swiss Abroad (E-VERA⁵) main­tained by the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs;

e.⁶

the Cent­ral Re­gister of In­sured Per­sons, the Cent­ral Pen­sions Re­gister and the Re­gister of Be­ne­fits-in-Kind of the Cent­ral Com­pens­a­tion Of­fice in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 71 of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1946⁷ on Old-Age and Sur­viv­ors’ In­sur­ance (OASIA);

f.⁸

the in­form­a­tion sys­tem of the Cent­ral Com­pens­a­tion Of­fice for pro­cessing data re­lated to sup­ple­ment­ary be­ne­fits in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 71 OASIA.

² It also ap­plies to the can­ton­al and com­mun­al:

a.

re­gisters of res­id­ents;

b.

elect­or­al re­gisters that serve as the basis for fed­er­al pop­u­lar votes and elec­tions to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

In this Act the terms be­low are defined as fol­lows:

a.

re­gister of res­id­ents: re­gister main­tained manu­ally or elec­tron­ic­ally by the can­ton or the com­mune, in which any­one who is per­man­ently settled or is res­id­ent in the can­ton or in the com­mune is re­cor­ded;

b.

com­mune of per­man­ent set­tle­ment:com­mune in which a per­son resides with the in­ten­tion of re­main­ing there per­man­ently, in or­der to es­tab­lish the fo­cus of his or her life there, as must be re­cog­nis­able to oth­ers; a per­son is re­garded as per­man­ently settled in the com­mune in which he or she has de­pos­ited the re­quired doc­u­ment, and may have only one com­mune of per­man­ent set­tle­ment;

c.

com­mune of res­id­ence: com­mune in which a per­son resides for a spe­cif­ic pur­pose, without the in­ten­tion of re­main­ing there per­man­ently, for a min­im­um of three con­sec­ut­ive months or three months with­in a single year; res­id­ency for the pur­pose of at­tend­ing a edu­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tion or school and the ac­com­mod­a­tion of a per­son in a cor­rect­ive, res­id­en­tial, or pen­al in­sti­tu­tion or hos­pit­al con­sti­tute a com­mune of res­id­ence;

d.

house­hold: unit com­pris­ing every­one who lives in the same dwell­ing;

e.

iden­ti­fi­er: non-de­script­ive and in­vari­able num­ber which, as a func­tion­al ele­ment in a data­base, per­mits the clear iden­ti­fic­a­tion of a per­son or art­icle;

f.

at­trib­ute: prop­erty of a per­son or art­icle that may be ob­ject­ively re­cor­ded and de­scribed;

g.

at­trib­ute char­ac­ter­ist­ic: spe­cif­ic value that an at­trib­ute may ac­quire;

h.

no­men­clature: sys­tem for the clas­si­fic­a­tion and present­a­tion of at­trib­ute char­ac­ter­ist­ics;

i.

cod­ing key: code col­lec­tion that en­ables the tran­scrip­tion of at­trib­ute char­ac­ter­ist­ics re­cor­ded in text form in­to nu­mer­ic­al val­ues that can be pro­cessed in the com­puter sys­tems.

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice defines the iden­ti­fi­ers and at­trib­utes in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 6 let­ters b–t, 7 and 13 para­graph 2 as well as the cor­res­pond­ing at­trib­ute char­ac­ter­ist­ics, no­men­clatures and cod­ing keys. The re­cord­ing of data re­lat­ing to civil status in the re­gisters is gov­erned by Art­icles 39–49 of the Civil Code⁹.

² In de­vis­ing the defin­i­tions, the Fed­er­al Of­fice takes ac­count of the de­mands and needs of the can­tons and com­munes as well as of the fed­er­al agen­cies that main­tain or rely on the re­gisters un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1.

³ It provides the can­tons, the com­munes and the fed­er­al agen­cies un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 with the re­quired defin­i­tions, no­men­clatures and cod­ing keys free of charge.

⁴ It reg­u­larly pub­lishes an of­fi­cial cata­logue of at­trib­utes that con­tains the at­trib­ute char­ac­ter­ist­ics as well as the no­men­clatures and cod­ing keys.

The re­gisters must be up-to-date, ac­cur­ate and com­plete in re­la­tion to the group of per­sons re­cor­ded therein.

As a min­im­um, the re­gisters of res­id­ents con­tain the data on the fol­low­ing iden­ti­fi­ers and at­trib­utes of each per­man­ently settled or res­id­ent per­son:

a.

the OASI num­ber¹⁰ un­der Art­icle 50c OASIA¹¹;

b.

the com­mune num­ber al­loc­ated by the Fed­er­al Of­fice and the of­fi­cial com­mune name;

c.

the build­ing iden­ti­fi­er ac­cord­ing to the Fed­er­al Re­gister of Build­ings and Dwell­ings (RBD) of the Fed­er­al Of­fice;

d.

the ad­min­is­trat­ive dwell­ing iden­ti­fi­er ac­cord­ing to the RBD, house­hold af­fil­i­ation and form of house­hold;

e.

the of­fi­cial name and the oth­er names of a per­son doc­u­mented in the civil status re­gisters;

f.

all fore­names in the cor­rect or­der;

g.

home ad­dress and postal ad­dress in­clud­ing post­code and loc­al­ity;

h.

date of birth and place of birth;

i.

place of ori­gin in the case of Swiss cit­izens;

j.

sex;

k.

mar­it­al status;

l.

af­fil­i­ation to any re­li­gious group re­cog­nised un­der pub­lic law or in any oth­er way by the can­ton;

m.

na­tion­al­ity;

n.

in the case of for­eign na­tion­als, type of per­mit;

o.

per­man­ent set­tle­ment or res­id­ency in the com­mune;

p.

com­mune of per­man­ent set­tle­ment or com­mune of res­id­ence;

q.

in the case of ar­rival in the com­mune: date and pre­vi­ous com­mune or pre­vi­ous coun­try;

r.

in the case of leav­ing the com­mune: date and com­mune or coun­try of des­tin­a­tion;

s.

in the case of re­lo­ca­tion with­in the com­mune: date;

t.

right to vote and right to be elec­ted at fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al level;

u.

date of death.

The re­cord­ing of any at­trib­ute not lis­ted in Art­icle 6 is gov­erned by the re­quire­ments of the cata­logue un­der Art­icle 4 para­graph 4, provided the at­trib­ute is lis­ted in the cata­logue.

¹ In or­der to de­term­ine and up­date a per­son’s ad­min­is­trat­ive dwell­ing iden­ti­fi­er and house­hold af­fil­i­ation, the at­trib­utes in the RBD may be in­cluded in the re­gisters of res­id­ents that are re­quired for their main­ten­ance.

² The can­tons is­sue the reg­u­la­tions re­quired in or­der that com­mer­cial un­der­tak­ings and oth­er agen­cies main­tain­ing re­gisters provide the data free of charge that is re­quired to de­term­ine and up­date the ad­min­is­trat­ive dwell­ing iden­ti­fi­er of a per­son to the pub­lic agen­cies that are re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing the re­gisters of res­id­ents.

³ They may in­tro­duce the phys­ic­al num­ber­ing of dwell­ings for the pur­pose of de­term­in­ing and up­dat­ing the ad­min­is­trat­ive dwell­ing iden­ti­fi­er. The phys­ic­al dwell­ing num­bers are lis­ted as the dwell­ing num­ber of the can­ton of or the com­mune in the RBD.

⁴ The can­tons may is­sue fur­ther reg­u­la­tions in or­der to guar­an­tee the de­term­in­a­tion and up­dat­ing of the ad­min­is­trat­ive dwell­ing iden­ti­fi­er.

The can­tons shall des­ig­nate an of­fi­cial agency that is re­spons­ible for the co­ordin­a­tion, con­duct and qual­ity con­trol of the har­mon­isa­tion meas­ures.

¹ The can­tons shall is­sue the reg­u­la­tions re­quired in or­der that the data defined in Art­icle 6 is ex­changed between the re­gisters of res­id­ents in the event of the ar­rival or de­par­ture of res­id­ents.

² The ex­change is car­ried out elec­tron­ic­ally and in en­cryp­ted form. The en­cryp­tion is gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Act of 19 Decem­ber 2003¹² on the Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil stip­u­lates the mod­al­it­ies for the ex­change of data and the in­ter­faces.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion provides the re­spons­ible pub­lic of­fices and au­thor­it­ies with an in­form­a­tion tech­no­logy and com­mu­nic­a­tion plat­form for the ex­change.

The can­tons shall is­sue the re­quired reg­u­la­tions so that:

a.

nat­ur­al per­sons no­ti­fy the of­fi­cial agency re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing the re­gister of res­id­ents with­in 14 days of re­lo­ca­tion;

b.

the per­sons re­quired to re­port provide truth­ful in­form­a­tion on the data defined in Art­icle 6 and, if re­quired, the rel­ev­ant doc­u­ments.

¹ The can­tons shall is­sue the reg­u­la­tions re­quired in or­der that the fol­low­ing per­sons provide the pub­lic of­fices re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing the re­gisters of res­id­ents on re­quest with in­form­a­tion on the per­sons re­quired to re­port free of charge, if the duty to provide in­form­a­tion un­der Art­icle 11 is not ful­filled:

a.

em­ploy­ers on their em­ploy­ees;

b.

land­lords and prop­erty man­age­ment com­pan­ies on ten­ants mov­ing in­to, res­id­ent in or leav­ing their prop­er­ties;

c.

house­hold­ers on the per­sons res­id­ent in their house­hold.

² Swiss Post shall on re­quest provide the pub­lic of­fices re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing the re­gisters of res­id­ents with the postal ad­dresses of res­id­ents free of charge, if the duty to provide in­form­a­tion un­der Art­icle 11 is not ful­filled.

¹ The agen­cies re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing the re­gisters in terms of Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 let­ters a–d main­tain a re­cord of the so­cial in­sur­ance num­ber with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 50c OASIA¹³.

² The re­cord­ing of oth­er at­trib­utes is gov­erned by the rel­ev­ant fed­er­al pro­vi­sions and the re­quire­ments of the cata­logue in terms of Art­icle 4 para­graph 4, provided the at­trib­ute is lis­ted in the cata­logue.

³ The Fed­er­al Of­fice is con­sul­ted in the event of amend­ments to the con­tent of a re­gister.

¹ The can­tons and com­munes shall provide the Fed­er­al Of­fice with the data defined in Art­icle 6 free of charge. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the date and the peri­od­icity of the de­liv­ery of data.

² On re­quest, the can­tons and com­munes shall provide the Fed­er­al Of­fice free of charge with the data un­der Art­icle 7 in or­der to re­lieve the bur­den on sur­vey in­ter­viewees, provided can­ton­al law does not ex­pressly ex­clude its use for stat­ist­ic­al pur­poses. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the data re­quired.

³ The data is sup­plied by means of elec­tron­ic data car­ri­ers or in elec­tron­ic form. In the lat­ter case, the data must be en­cryp­ted in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 19 Decem­ber 2003¹⁴ on the Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Of­fice, in co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons, reg­u­lates the gen­er­al tech­nic­al con­di­tions for the sup­ply of data as well as the design of the in­ter­faces.

⁵ In co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons, it defines the re­quired in­spec­tions and qual­ity stand­ards.

¹ The fed­er­al agen­cies un­der Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 shall provide data to the Fed­er­al Of­fice free of charge.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the data re­quired.

¹ The Fed­er­al Of­fice may use the data for stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys and ana­lyses.

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice may draw ran­dom samples based on the data for stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys.

³ It may use data lis­ted in Art­icle 6 let­ters a–h, j, k and m as a dir­ect­ory of ad­dresses for the con­duct of stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys.

⁴ In or­der to ful­fil its stat­ist­ic­al tasks, it may per­man­ently match and pre­serve the data with those of the RBD and of the Busi­ness and En­ter­prise Re­gister (BER), sub­ject to the re­mov­al of the names of per­sons.

¹ In or­der to en­able fed­er­al stat­ist­ic­al and re­search centres and can­ton­al and com­mun­al stat­ist­ic­al of­fices to carry out stat­ist­ic­al ana­lyses, the Fed­er­al Of­fice shall pass on data without names of per­sons and without so­cial in­sur­ance num­bers, free of charge, or per­mit au­thor­ised on­line ac­cess to the data.

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice shall provide the can­ton­al and com­mun­al stat­ist­ic­al of­fices with the data lis­ted in Art­icle 6 let­ters a–h, j, k and m on their own sov­er­eign ter­rit­ory free of charge for the con­duct of stat­ist­ic­al sur­veys.

³ It may di­vulge the data without names of per­sons and without so­cial in­sur­ance num­bers to oth­er pub­lic of­fices of the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the can­tons and the com­munes as well as to private in­di­vidu­als for stat­ist­ic­al, re­search and plan­ning pur­poses.

⁴ The re­cip­i­ents un­der para­graph 3 must re­turn the data re­ceived to the Fed­er­al Of­fice on com­ple­tion of their work or con­firm in writ­ing that the data has been des­troyed. The passing on the data to third parties is only per­mit­ted with writ­ten con­sent of the Fed­er­al Of­fice.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Of­fice di­vulges the data only if data pro­tec­tion is guar­an­teed and the re­quired con­trac­tu­al ar­range­ments have been made.

The res­ults of as­sess­ments may only be dis­sem­in­ated in such a man­ner that the per­sons con­cerned may not be iden­ti­fied.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late the dead­lines for har­mon­isa­tion, tak­ing ac­count of the re­quire­ments for the 2010 census.

² It may ex­tend the dead­lines for the en­ter­ing of the at­trib­utes lis­ted in Art­icle 6 let­ters a and d in the re­gisters of res­id­ents bey­ond the census 2010 and in­struct the Fed­er­al Of­fice to is­sue dir­ect­ives reg­u­lat­ing the de­tails.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is­sues the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

¹ The can­tons is­sue the pro­vi­sions re­quired for im­ple­ment­a­tion. They shall no­ti­fy the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs of these pro­vi­sions.

² If the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions can­not be brought in­to force in the stat­utory form re­quired by can­ton­al law by 1 Janu­ary 2009, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ments have the power to is­sue the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sions re­quired for im­ple­ment­a­tion.

The amend­ment of cur­rent le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the date on which this Act comes in­to force.

Com­mence­ment Date:
Art. 1–5, 6 let. b–u, 7–12, 13 para. 2 and 3, Art. 14–23 as well as No 4 of the An­nex:
1 Nov. 2006¹⁵
Art. 6 let. a, 13 para. 1 and No 1–3 of the An­nex: 1 Janu­ary 2008¹⁶