In 2015, Swiss consulates worldwide received 517,179 applications for Schengen visas, with only 5.3% being rejected.
As Swissinfo.ch writes, some travelers will simply need to board a plane or train, while others will have to obtain a visa, first standing in line at a consulate and submitting a substantial package of documents. Certain categories of people may even be denied entry to Switzerland altogether.
Like all developed countries, Switzerland has a clear idea of which countries' citizens, under what conditions and for what period of time, are allowed to enter its territory and stay in the country. As a result, the world around the Confederation is essentially divided into two parts.
The first part belongs to “first-class citizens,” who have the right to enter Switzerland, live there, and travel freely for up to three months solely on the basis of their passport (except in cases involving employment contracts).
The second, much larger part includes “all the rest,” i.e., countries whose citizens are required to obtain a visa to visit Switzerland, which is usually associated with fairly serious bureaucratic complications. From such guests, employees of the Swiss consulate or visa center may require, in particular, the provision of financial guarantees, i.e., proof that the visa applicant has sufficient funds in their account to cover their stay in Switzerland, one of the most expensive countries in the world, for the requested period. Additionally, a document such as health insurance is mandatory.
By the way, it was planned that starting from June 2016, Turkish citizens would gain the right to enter the Schengen area without a visa. At least, such a clause was included in the refugee agreement recently concluded between Ankara and Brussels. Now, however, something has gone wrong, and the date of entry into force of this clause has been postponed to a later date. Switzerland is not an EU member but is among the Schengen countries. Therefore, as soon as the new procedure finally comes into effect, Bern will inevitably have to make some changes to its visa policy.
Swiss visa policy, since the end of World War II, has always been shaped taking into account a very complex set of geopolitical and economic factors. Of course, the issue of ensuring its own security has always played a major role. This is what Raoul Kaenzig, a PhD student at the University of Neuchâtel and author of a scientific work specifically dedicated to this topic, tells us.
Everything changed in 2008 – after Switzerland joined the Schengen area. Bern assumed the obligation to strictly follow all Schengen criteria when issuing visas, and therefore the Confederation's degree of freedom as a national state in this area significantly decreased. More or less independently, it can now only determine the conditions for issuing short-term Schengen visas. And in this sense, the agreement coming into force between Brussels and Ankara is a very curious case.
After all, if everything goes as planned, Switzerland as a Schengen member state will probably also be obliged to grant Turkish citizens the possibility of short-term visa-free travel to Switzerland (except for matters related to labor and employment). We emphasize the word “probably,” because nothing has been finally decided yet. Theoretically, Switzerland has the option to take a negative stance, refuse to allow Turks to enter without a visa, and put this issue to a referendum.
This is reminded by Céline Kohlprath, spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Secretariat for Migration (Staatssekretariat für Migration – SEM). At the same time, everyone is well aware of how high the “stakes” are, because ultimately it is about reliably blocking the so-called “Balkan migration route,” through which refugees from the Middle East and Africa have mainly reached Europe in the past and this year. And if Switzerland suddenly really wants to “show its temper” on this issue, Brussels may well invite it for a very “unpleasant conversation.”
However, the obligation to obtain visas can be implemented very differently depending on the country, its economic situation, and the development of the military-political situation in the region. It may very well happen that tourists, for example, from China, become such a significant economic factor that at some point there is a growing risk of conflict between national interests and the priorities of a single economic sector. “The tourism industry has already protested many times against the visa barriers existing between Switzerland and certain countries, insisting on greater openness,” says Raoul Kaenzig.
Of course, politicians are not left out. For example, visa liberalization for Chinese tourists was demanded back in 2004 by then National Council deputy from the Christian Democratic Party, Christophe Darbellay, himself from the tourist canton of Valais. Justifying his demand, he pointed out that on average, one Chinese tourist spends about 450 francs per day. The financial aspect, as it turned out, seemed particularly convincing to parliament at the time, and it ultimately decided to significantly simplify the process of obtaining visas for tourist groups from China.
On the other hand, security issues cannot be neglected here either. Switzerland, like any other country, in defining its visa policy, strives to seek and find a reasonable balance between openness on one hand and countering factors that could threaten the security of the Confederation on the other. Raoul Kenzig recalls in this context the countries of North Africa. At one time, citizens of these countries had the right to freely enter Switzerland without visas for almost 30 consecutive years, but then, in the early 1990s, with the growth of uncontrolled migration from these states, Bern decided to reintroduce the requirement for their citizens to obtain visas.
The same was true for some South American countries, especially Ecuador and Bolivia. Therefore, many experts are critical of such measures, seeing in them an additional hidden way of regulating migration policy, of course, in the direction of tightening it. "How much visa policy is linked to tasks in the field of regulating immigration processes and what interdependencies exist here is very difficult to say precisely," says Raoul Kenzig. Although, of course, it cannot be a coincidence that citizens of all countries that are traditional 'suppliers' of migrants and refugees, from Eritrea and Syria to Sri Lanka, are required to obtain visas for legal trips to Switzerland.
Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the post-Soviet space also belong precisely to such states. Visa issues have been raised several times on our Facebook page. Different opinions are expressed.
"We have been vacationing for many years in the same place, in a beautiful mountain town. But getting a visa at the Swiss embassy is harder than climbing Everest," writes, for example, Lena from Kyiv. She is echoed by another Kyiv resident, Natalia: "Three trips to the embassy in Kyiv from another city, there is no way around it, $85 for a visa, €40 for sending the embassy letter to Switzerland. A complicated visa. And this was before fingerprints."
But Russians have a somewhat different impression. "In Moscow, a visa to Switzerland is issued in 5 days without problems. Hotel confirmation, air tickets, proof of funds, insurance. I do it every year. Visa cost €35," writes Suriya from Moscow.
And what about the Swiss themselves, who hold foreign passports and suddenly want to travel the world? According to the company Henley & Partners, which specializes in organizing expat relocations from country to country, persons with a Swiss passport can make visa-free trips (or obtain visas in a simplified and expedited manner right at the airport) to 172 countries. In the global ranking of 'passports that go everywhere,' the Swiss passport is in 6th place. In first place is the German passport (177 visa-free countries), in second is the Swedish (176 countries).
In conclusion, let us recall that the principle of reciprocity operates in the world of diplomacy. A visa regime exists (or is abolished), as a rule, in a bilateral format: if Russians, for example, need to obtain a visa to Switzerland, then the Swiss are obligated to do the same.
But this is not always the case. States have the right, of course, unilaterally, without expecting reciprocity, to abolish the visa regime for certain countries. So, for example, the Swiss have the right to visit Peru, Bolivia, Ukraine, Morocco or Egypt without visas, but the citizens of these countries themselves are still obliged to apply for and obtain visas for trips to the Confederation.