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

¹ Any per­son who:

a.

vi­ol­ates the entry reg­u­la­tions con­tained in Art­icle 5;

b.

stays un­law­fully in Switzer­land, in par­tic­u­lar after the ex­piry of a peri­od of stay for which a per­mit was gran­ted or which does not re­quire a per­mit;

c.

works without au­thor­isa­tion;

d.

fails to enter or leave the coun­try through an au­thor­ised bor­der cross­ing point (Art. 7),

is li­able on con­vic­tion to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² The same pen­alty ap­plies if, after leav­ing Switzer­land or the in­ter­na­tion­al trans­it zone of the air­ports, the for­eign na­tion­al enters or makes pre­par­a­tions to enter the sov­er­eign ter­rit­ory of an­oth­er state in vi­ol­a­tion of the entry pro­vi­sions ap­plic­able there.⁴⁵⁰

³ If the of­fence is com­mit­ted through neg­li­gence, the pen­alty is a fine.

⁴ If re­turn or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings are pending, crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings that have been com­menced solely in re­spect of an of­fence un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a, b or d shall be ad­journed un­til the re­turn or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings have reached a leg­ally bind­ing con­clu­sion. If re­turn or ex­pul­sion pro­ceed­ings are an­ti­cip­ated, the crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings may be ad­journed.⁴⁵¹

⁵ If a sen­tence is ex­pec­ted for an of­fence un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a, b or d the im­pos­i­tion or ex­e­cu­tion of which would pre­clude the im­min­ent en­force­ment of a leg­ally bind­ing re­turn de­cision or ex­pul­sion or­der, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall re­frain from any pro­sec­u­tion, com­mit­tal to court or the im­pos­i­tion of pen­al­ties.⁴⁵²

⁶ Para­graphs 4 and 5 do not ap­ply if the per­son con­cerned has re-entered Switzer­land in dis­reg­ard of a ban on entry or if it has not been pos­sible to en­force a re­turn de­cision or ex­pul­sion or­der be­cause of the per­son’s con­duct.⁴⁵³