Planning a trip
The applicant should make his/her travel plan well in advance. The examination of the visa application takes time and due to a high number of applications an appointment cannot be arranged in a short term.

Arrangement of an appointment
Prior submitting his/her visa application at the Embassy of Switzerland the applicant needs to call the visa section in order to arrange an appointment. The appointment will be fixed within 15 days after calling. Before calling the applicant prepares his passport number. This number is necessary for the security service to let the applicant enter the building to attend his/her appointment. The applicant makes sure to have enough time for submitting is application. The visa section will do its best to receive the applicant on time, but delays can occur.

Personal appearance at the Embassy
Visa applicant has to submit personally his/her documents. 

Exception:
Applicant for whom at least two short-stay visas (issued by any of the Schengen Member States) has been issued during the last two years does not need to come personally to the visa section. A copy of these visas has to be submitted together with the application. In this case a representative in possession of a power of attorney (no need to be notarized) can submit the application. The visa section renounces further to insist on a personal appearance of children under the age of 18 years. In particular cases the visa section reserves the right to ask the applicant to come personally for an interview.

At the Embassy
The application submitted will be checked individually and in particular cases the visa section reserves the right to

• request additional documents;
• summon the applicant for an interview.

A visa fee is charged for each visa application submitted. Information about the visa fee can be found on this website.

The visa application has to be completed in English, French, German or Italian and signed personally. Incomplete or unreadable application will not be accepted and therefore returned.

In case the visa section has to make a phone call to the inviting person/company/organization for clarification a fee will be charged.

Duration of the examination

• Short-stay visa

The examination of the application takes usually 3 to 5 days after the submission of the complete application.

If the financial means of the applicant are considered insufficient a declaration of sponsorship (Déclaration de garantie/ Verpflichtungserklärung/Dichiarazione di garanzia) will be requested. This procedure usually takes between 2-3 weeks until a visa can be issued.

A third-country national falling within a category of persons for whom prior Schengen consultation is required shall wait minimum 10 working days until the consultation has been terminated and no opposition to the visa issuance has been raised by one of the consulted Schengen Member States. Consult the list on the right column.

• National long-stay visa

Applications have to be sent by the visa section to the cantonal migration authority in Switzerland for approval (work permit, students who intend to study for a period exceeding 90 days) and take 8-10 weeks for treatment.

Collecting passport after examination
At the Embassy:
Applicant or a representative can pick up the passport at the Embassy. The date of collection is indicated on the receipt ticket the applicant received while submitting the application. The receipt ticket will allow the bearer to pass the security check of the building and for the visa section to identify the passport. The applicant or the representative is responsible to check all data mentioned on the visa sticker.
A receipt for the visa fee paid will be handed to the applicant or the representative.

By a transport company:
After examination passport can be returned to the applicant by a transport company (e.g. DHL, FedEx, Emex, EMS, Poney Express, etc.) if the applicant or the representative cannot collect the passport after examination. 

For this service, the applicant must:

• organize with the transport company the delivery of his/her passport to his/her home or to the closest office. The organization of the transport can be done either before or after submitting the visa application.

The Embassy is not responsible for losses or delays of the mailings.

A receipt for the visa fee paid will be joint to the mailing.