The Schengen Area is composed of 27 countries.
European Union Member States that are outside the Schengen Area are: Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania.
The Principalities of Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and Holy See (Vatican City State) allow entry to their territories without any formality to Schengen visa holders.
The following is the list of countries that are currently members of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
Schengen visa (short stay)
For citizens of some countries, a Schengen visa (Type C) issued by one of the member countries is required when staying in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days.
With a Schengen visa, you may enter one country and travel freely throughout the Schengen Area. Short stay visa allows the traveller, assuming all other conditions are met, to enter the territories of any Schengen country to pay a single continuous visit or multiple visits, the duration of which does not exceed 90 days in any 180 days period.
A short stay (Schengen) visa can be issued for either single entry or multiple entries into the Schengen zone.
National visa (long stay)
is only valid for an establishment or a stay of more than 90 days in the country which issued the visa.
Any stay longer than 90 days falls under national jurisdiction and is not part of the Schengen Agreement.
Airport transit visa
An airport transit visa is required depending upon the country of your citizenship and whether you have residence permits or visas of certain countries. The visa allows the travelers transiting the Schengen territory and who will not leave the transit area of the airport.
Airport transit visa does not apply to Russian citizens. However, if the transit involves a change of airport, a regular transit visa is required.
Please consult the European Union’s website of the Migration and Home Affairs to know if your country of citizenship requires an airport transit visa in order to transit through an airport in Switzerland.
Please check the following picture.
DURATION OF STAY ... DAYS indicates the number of days you may stay in the Schengen area. The days should be counted from the date you enter the Schengen area (the entry stamp) to the date you exit the Schengen area (the exit stamp), i.e. both days included.
The period of time between “FROM … UNTIL” is usually longer than the number of days printed in the “DURATION OF STAY” field. The difference in period is meant to give you flexibility to plan your entry into and exit from the Schengen area, but your stay in the Schengen area must never exceed the exact number of days in the “DURATION OF STAY …DAYS” field.
No matter how many days you have stayed in the Schengen area, you must leave no later than the date printed in the “UNTIL” field.”
The EU has revised Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 on visas in the light of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. With the revision of this regulation, UK citizens are exempted from visa requirements for a short-term stay (90 days in any 180-day period) for the Schengen area (therefore including Switzerland). This amendment applies from the day that the UK leaves the EU.
The current provisions continue to apply up to the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020; i.e. UK citizens do not need a visa to travel to Switzerland during this period.
For more information please visit the following website https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/themen/fza_schweiz-eu-efta/brexit/faq.html.
The Swiss Government has decided to temporarily increase the service fee for Visa applications in Visa Application Centres (VAC) of External Service Providers (ESP) due to supplementary expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health-related measures are issued by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). For information on such measures, please consult the homepage of the FOPH directly: Information for travellers.
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Visa applications for Switzerland are received by Swiss Visa Acceptance Centre, except for some categories that are still received by the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine directly, see Document and Visa Types.
You are required to submit your visa application at the Swiss Visa Acceptance Centre or the Embassy/Consulate nearby where you are currently living.
You may only submit your visa application within the 180 days period prior to the intended date of arrival in the Schengen Area.
Personal appearance is mandatory for all visa applicants, unless you are exempted from biometric data capturing.
Starting from 20.11.2015 all diplomatic representations of the Schengen member states in Ukraine have to capture the biometric data (finger scans and facial image) of persons applying for a Schengen visa.
The data will be kept in the Visa Information System (VIS) for 5 years. If your finger scans have not been collected yet, personal appearances when applying for a Schengen visa is mandatory.
If your finger scans were collected within the last 59 months, then you won’t have to give new fingerprints for your next visa application(s) and personal appearance is not necessary. However, you have to provide a copy of your visa sticker issued after 20.11.2015. If you are not sure or do not remember whether your fingerprints have been captured for a Schengen visa within the last 59 months, you have to appear in person.
You will still have to appear in person to give your fingerprints in case the previously collected fingerprints prove to be of insufficient quality.
Personal appearances and fingerprint scan is not necessary for children under the age of 12. The Swiss representation still reserves the right to ask the applicant to appear for a personal interview after checking his application Should a representative apply on your behalf if your finger scans have already been collected it is mandatory to provide all the documents mentioned on the requirement list and additionally the following documents:
Please make sure that this information appears on TLS website wherever it is appropriate. For example I checked and this information can be found under “Biometric data capture in Visa Acceptance Centre” but not under “Application submission through a representative”.
Applicant’s picture must fully comply with the strict regulations. In the eventuality that you need to provide a recent compliant photograph to complete your application, a self-service photo booth is at your disposal inside the Visa Application Centre. For more information, please click here.
Express Courier Return can be requested during the appointment in the Visa Application Centre in order to receive the passport directly to a convenient chosen address once it is back from the Swiss Consulate Authority.
The Consulate may request you to provide additional documents or to attend an interview according to your personal situation, even after you have submitted your application at TLScontact.
About self-presence
If the minor needs to enroll his/her biometric data during the application, he/she has to come in person, see in "Biometric data capture in Visa Acceptance Centre" section.
Please note that minors are not allowed to submit applications by themselves, they must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
In the eventuality that the representative is not the parent or the legal guardian of the minor, the representative must present an authorization letter signed by one of the parents or the legal guardian. Please click here to download it.
Passports can be collected in TLScontact Visa Application Centres during the opening hours to the public.
Once your passport is back from the Swiss Consulate Authority you will be notified online on your personal account page and by SMS.
There are three ways to get the passport back:
1. Express Courier Return
You may have your passport returned to you by express delivery service. It will be sent directly to your convenient chosen address. Please click here to check the service availability.
2. Passport self-pick up
Please provide the following documents if you would like to retrieve the passport by yourself:
3. Passport pick-up by a representative
A representative may retrieve your passport on your behalf. The representative must provide:
Please kindly note that passports which have been returned by the Swiss Consular Authority to TLScontact and have not been collected from TLScontact within a period of 4 months from the moment of application submission will be returned to the Swiss Consular Authority.
Provided your application is correct and complete, the average processing time for short-stay individual applications is 7 working days from time of submission to the visa acceptance center, excluding weekends and public holidays.
In the following cases, the processing time can be longer:
The Schengen visa application form (visa type A and C) will be provided to you during the registration process and can be filled online.
The paper versions can also be downloaded here.
Any person appearing in your travel document must complete a separate application form. The visa application form for a child under 18 must be signed by a parent or guardian.
If you need support with the form or don’t have time to fill it, we have the Form Filling Assistance service available in some Visa Acceptance Centre, our experienced visa application staff will support you. Please click here to check the service availability.
Before applying for a visa you must make sure that your passport is valid.
It is advised that you do not apply for a visa on a passport issued for multiple persons (e.g. parent and children together).
The two photographs required for any visa application must be:
For more information, please visit the link here.
In the eventuality that you need to provide a recent compliant photograph to complete your application, a self-service photo booth is at your disposal inside the Visa Application Centre. For more information, please click here.
Due to a regulation of the European Union (Decision 2004/17/CE of December 22nd 2003), there is a requirement to hold travel insurance, which is a compulsory document.
The travel insurance should be:
Your travel insurance must be valid with a minimum cover of EUR 30,000.00 in order to face any expenses that may arise in connection with your repatriation for medical reasons, urgent medical attention or emergency hospital treatment. The travel insurance should fully cover the period of your stay in the Schengen Area..
Bank statements are supporting documents for a visa application.
Bank statements general requirements:
The letter of invitation is issued by the person inviting you to Belgium. If you are expected in the context of a professional or commercial relationship, an event of a political, scientific, cultural, academic or sporting nature, the letter of invitation is drawn up by a person authorized to commit the institution, the association or the company that invites you.
Invitation letter should be provided in one of the three national languages (German, French or Dutch).
The following information should be mentioned:
If the applicant has no or insufficient financial means, the Visa Section might provide him/her with the “Declaration of guarantee”, after having evaluated his/her visa application.
This “Declaration of guarantee” must be sent by the applicant to the inviting person (host) in Switzerland. The inviting person/host will have to complete the declaration and submit it to the competent Swiss cantonal authorities.
In the case of a “Declaration of guarantee” the visa-procedure takes several weeks. Applicants are therefore advised to submit their visa application well in advance.
Please take note that the Visa Section reserves the right to request a declaration of guarantee in any case.
Personal appearance is mandatory for all visa applicants, unless you are exempted from biometric data capturing.
Starting from 20.11.2015 all diplomatic representations of the Schengen member states in Ukraine have to capture the biometric data (finger scans and facial image) of persons applying for a Schengen visa. The data will be kept in the Visa Information System (VIS) for 5 years.
If your finger scans have not been collected yet, personal appearances when applying for a Schengen visa is mandatory.
If your finger scans were collected within the last 59 months, then you won’t have to give new fingerprints for your next visa application(s) and personal appearance is not necessary. However, you have to provide a copy of your visa sticker issued after 20.11.2015. If you are not sure or do not remember whether your fingerprints have been captured for a Schengen visa within the last 59 months, you have to appear in person.
You will still have to appear in person to give your fingerprints in case the previously collected fingerprints prove to be of insufficient quality.
Personal appearances and fingerprint scan is not necessary for children under the age of 12.
The Swiss representation still reserves the right to ask the applicant to appear for a personal interview after checking his application.
Should a representative apply on your behalf if your finger scans have already been collected it is mandatory to provide all the documents mentioned on the requirement list and additionally the following documents:
All Schengen visa applications - independent of the place of issue - are stored in the Visa Information System (VIS) database. Refused applications are stored as well in the VIS.
In the application form you are asked whether you have provided fingerprint scans during a previous visa application process. If you affirm this question, please always attach a copy of your previous Schengen visa sticker. The consular authority will copy your fingerprint scans for your follow-up application from the central VIS database.
If you have already provided the fingerprints for a previous Schengen visa, you can send directly your visa application by postal service and you will not have to come to the Visa Application Centre to apply. Please click here to check the service availability.
However, if the copy of your fingerprint scans is technically not possible, you might be required by the Consular Authority to submit the biometric data again.
There are 3 cases of exemption:
Further information on VIS is available on the website of the European Commission.
VIS is a system for the exchange of visa-data between Schengen countries. If fingerprints have been previously provided for a visa application to the US or UK, the fingerprints cannot be used for the Schengen-Visa application. Fingerprints that have been provided for a national visa can also not be transferred because of different databases.