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

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