I have a visa to enter Switzerland, but we're still waiting for my domestic partner's visa to be issued. I need to start work soon, and I'm wondering if anyone knows about issues with him entering the country as a tourist and then fedexing his passport back to the consulate in the US once his visa is approved.

I have a two year employment contract with the possibility of making it permanent at the end, which I assume means B permit.

We're both Americans travelling on US passports, so in theory he can stay for several months as a tourist as long as he doesn't work. If his visa is _not_ approved, we'll both be going back to the US anyway.

Having him stay here while I head over is difficult because we've already given up our apartment and are "couch-surfing" as we say here (staying a few days with friends/family here and there)

Any advice?

hi, i am in almost an identical situation to you at the moment, from reading the visa information sheet, i think that i can ask the swiss consulate here in sydney to have my visa issued somewhere else in europe (eg france) but that hasn't been confirmed, best bet is to ask at the place you applied for your visa.

Hope i am right, good luck, i will be contacting them in the next week so i will let you know what they say.

We're in a slightly easier position than you are in that regard - it's only about 8 hours and a couple hundred dollars to fly back to NY from Malpensa and pick up the visa once it's approved.

Worst case, if we have trouble at the border my partner will simply stay in Como until his visa is approved - it seems fairly cheap this time of year, so I can swing it on my credit card for a couple of weeks if I have to.

First point here relates to your partners visa being issued. There is no guarantee that this will happen and given that niether of you are EU citizens it will very much depend on where you are intending to stay. I am taking it that you are looking for a permanent residence permit and not a holiday visa...

Actually entering the country as a tourist is not a problem at all only you are resticted to a stay of three months. Thereafter you need to depart. I think I have mentioned this somewhere else before. If you are not owners of dark coloured skin then it is relatively easy to fly to Frankfurt and get the train to Basel SBB which is in Switzerland. Once you are in the chance of being caught are dependent on someone spilling the beans ie you can stay more or less as long as you like. If you fly into Switzerland directly then you will be registered and this makes life slightly risky.

If you are looking to get permits for Zurich area then your chances are rather slim as they are already over quota. If he wants to work I would seriously suggest he applies for jobs in Switzerland from the US and gets in on his own merit.

If you can marry then no problem if you are a gay couple then marriage in a foreign country that allows gay marriages is accepted in Switzerland although gay marriages are not permitted.

If you want specific advice post or send more details.

Richard

Let's be honest - this posting is at best rubbish and at worst reckless. It can't be substantiated at all. I certainly wouldn't bet anything on this advice.

If you fly in, you're recorded. No ifs ands or buts, stamps or no stamps. The last time I flew in to Switzerland, the guy didn't even stop a single person to look at their passport. Half of the people didn't have them out for him to inspect, just walked past. I've never had a Swiss stamp, and I've been coming here for about 9 years, off and on, living here for 4.

I also once traveled on a tour of europe with musicians from Russia and the US. Not even the Russians were stamped in Switzerland.

Regardless of stamps, if you fly in and out of Switzerland, there's a record of your activity.

I don't think anyone gets a stamp in their passport at many continental-European borders anymore. This a US misconception that I had explain only last month to a US immigration officer when he asked how come as a Brit living in Switzerland I didn't have any stamps in my passport.

I have driven across the Swiss border in a number of places quite a number of times over the last 25 years in both Swiss and British registered cars and usually, never even had to stop the car, let alone show a passport. As for getting stamps in passports entering Germany - this must have been at an airport, as the road entry points are usually un-manned 'borderless' crossings.

The US & UK do not have registration of their populations, as does Switzerland. Thus the 'port of entry' concept is important as once inside those countries nobody has a trace of where people are. On the other hand, the Swiss can afford to be lacks at their borders, because nobody can work, rent or buy property, open a bank account etc etc. without being registered at their local town hall/community office.

I was interviewed every single time I entered the UK, hence I find my experience here a bit different. Beyond that, every time I *flew* into Germany I was stamped with a Schengen stamp. At the regular border crossings between CH and DE I have only been checked *once* -- the German police were actually on a train checking passports. In Switzerland I have never been questioned or stamped. I stated what I did because the person above was worried about her spouse's ability to enter and remain in the country. There will be absolutely no problem entering the country without a visa for an American. We are not members of the EU, EEA, EFTA, or Schengen (duh), and hence would not expect treatment along the lines of that given to Europeans. I was in fact told by the authorities here that if my visa was not issued within three months I could simple leave the country and reenter again for another three month period -- so a rather plain border crossing to Germany, France, or Italy would have done the trick according to the bureaucrats. I cannot judge the probability of the spouse receiving a visa, but I can state that there will be no problem in terms of entering, or remaining in, the country.

Of course the entry into the country is "recorded" in that the airlines know you have flown in, and if they exchange data, as in the US, the government here knows about your arrival as well. However, they do not scan your passport as in the US or UK, they do not question you like in the US, UK or Ireland, and they do not stamp you like in basically every other European country. As Abfab says, you cannot do anything without a residency permit, issued by the canton via the town or city, so they must not really be too worried -- nevermind the language barrier (CH German in most of the country).

p.s. I just thought of something - do the Swiss need your spouse's passport at the embassy in the US to issue the visa? A residency permit is a separate document here, at least the one I received, and they only needed a copy of my passport, while I held onto it myself. It might be smartest to just contact the embassy directly with your questions - only they can give you an accurate answer. I was originally told by New York that I would need to apply for an entry visa, but was ultimately told somewhere else in the bureaucracy that it was not necessary, as that visa only covered entry into the country, whereas the residency permit itself would be processed here by the canton of residency.