Very interesting. I found a more detailed article on SRF from yesterday:
This video in the SRF article caught my attention. It means Le Matin published the story before.
What I did not expect is that Le Matin published the same story 8 years before. Fun thing, both articles (2016 and 2025) quote the very same Alexander Ott from Bern police for foreigners or whatever is the proper translation of Fremdenpolizei.
So, what has happened the last 8 years?
And “Rundschau” on SRF brought it up this week.
The usual for CH. Discussion.
There are more and stricter controls of documents at the border, they teach “Gemeindeangestellte” (people working at the community, the ones who get to see all the papers of a person settling down) how to discover fakes and it seems they checked documents of people who have been here a long time already (once you had a Swiss permit, did they normally ever ask for your original document again?)
However, what can they do? It’s a crime, they try to fight it as best they can, just like smuggling, theft, fraud , you think of something it will be happening and the endless struggle between criminals and law will never end.
Doing it the US way is not the solution.
edit: The teaching of the community staff unfortunately is not all-encompassing yet … not all cantons/communities have their staff taught.
4 posts were merged into an existing topic: US election 2024 and US politics in general (Part 3)
Do agree. As long as they pay their taxes, behave as respectable citizens and do NOT drive BIG SUVs, then by all means, they can stay.
I wrote none of this so I don’t know where you agree with me.
This seems to be indeed recycled old news.
Nowadays all EU permits are credit-card size and require a visit to the biometric permit issuing office, where the EU passport is checked and its microchip read (just as when at a border) as part of the process.
In the old days, with paper Residence Permits, the town hall people just took a photocopy and that was it.
I agree with you anyway.
Given the numbers of scammers we get on here trying to make their posts about dodgy passports, driving licences, ID cards etc it doesn’t really come as a big surprise to me.
Actually it was said on “Rundschau” that the plastic documents are more difficult to check and brought new problems, which are harder to see/find than the paper ones back then.
a friendly way to start the day indeed.
So, no expertise is spotting forged docs is needed, just check the database. Eventually all old B permits in paper format will be renewed, and end of issue?
I am also wondering for what political benefit it’s being recycled now specifically =)
PS A nice spot
This story is about fake permits. Dead easy to produce one that has the look and feel of a legitimate one, you need a reader for the biometrics to tell if it is fake. How many of these exist outside of government offices.
And who knows maybe they can fake the biometrics as well.
Said government office is visited when the paper permit needs renewal and a new permit in credit card format is emitted. If cantons wasted the opportunity of catching fraud here, they have another one in 5 years.
The new B permits in card format have been in place since Nov 2019
They replaced them in phases, by canton and non-EU first then EU. I got a cc format long before my (then-EU) wife did.
I am worried as the same technology is used to produce ID cards which are based on EU design. If EU ID cards can be faked they will become useless.
The (Swiss) residence permits are genuine and officially issued, but they were obtained using an EU passport which was fake, ie a different or non-existing EU person.
But the EU passports do have biometrics, so are nowadays getting checked against the details of the person in front of the counter applying for Swiss residence, in government offices like you say, before issuing the permit. PS: By the way, the EU-credit card permits do not store any biometrics (yet).
Swiss Residence Permits for EU Nationals: Biometrics
Summary:
Swiss residence permits for EU and EFTA nationals do not include biometric data in the same way as permits for non-EU/EFTA nationals.
Details
- No Biometric Chip for EU/EFTA Nationals:
Residence permits issued to nationals from the European Union (EU) or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) do not contain an electronic chip. Only a facial photograph and a signature are captured and printed on the permit. There is no storage of fingerprints or biometric data on a chip for these permits. - Biometric Permits for Third-Country Nationals:
In contrast, residence permits for non-EU/EFTA nationals (third-country nationals) in Switzerland do contain an electronic chip with biometric data, including two fingerprints and a digital facial image. - Procedures for EU/EFTA Nationals:
Although EU/EFTA nationals may need to provide a photograph and signature for their permit, this is not considered full biometric registration as defined for third-country nationals. The process is primarily for identification and printing purposes, not for electronic storage or security features.