On our recent long weekend trip, with only the UK passports, never have I had so much chats at the border control. Kids got one stamp leaving from Germany but no stamp coming in to CH in the end of the trip, after I told them they were swiss too (would have been easier to have the documents though )
If you're going to travel in and out of Schengen with your UK passport, make sure to take your swiss ID or other proof you can be in Schengen or you start getting questions over in and out stamps... especially for kids, if your new passport was issued here and has no stamps in it at all.
If you are non-EU you should always travel with your permit, it’s a requirement. You are also required to enter Switzerland on Swiss ID/Passport if you are Swiss.
This is new to me. Do you have a link for that, please?
Yep, could be.. but you are allowed to come in as a brit, having the other swiss passport with you would save you a chat if you're bringing in a family with a mix of passports (they do not like that much )
Whether you are EU or non-EU the requirement to be able to identify yourself and justify your presence in the Schengen Area is the same.
An EU passport can both identify you and justify your presence in the EU, but not necessarily in the rest of Schengen.
Even with your permit, you can get stamped. But we're going to keep things simple: we'll enter the UK with our British passports, and enter Switzerland/Schengen with our Swiss passports.
Why would you enter on your British passport if you also have to show your Swiss passport End of the day, if you enter on your British passport with no permit you are entering as a tourist and the 90 day clock starts ticking, which could cause you problems down the road. Always have your residence permit or Swiss/EU ID.
Can't find it written down for UK or Switzerland. The USA have this rule in writing. I am going to ask my friend who works in Swiss immigration to confirm.
However, if your residency is based on your Swiss citizenship, you should use it to enter, or you are entering on tourist rules.
U.S. nationals, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. Dual nationals may also be required by the foreign country to use its passport to enter and leave that country. https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...tionality.html
Always present your passport and your permit together whenever asked for your passport. Proves your identity and your right to be in Schengen.
It is actually less strict, from https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...eise/faq.html:
"Swiss citizens have a right to enter Switzerland. All they have to do is to present a valid Swiss passport or ID card. If you are unable to show a passport or ID card, you may enter Switzerland if you can prove or demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that you are a Swiss citizen. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) therefore recommends that Swiss citizens always carry at least one of the following documents:
a photocopy of a valid passport or ID card; an expired travel document; an official document showing their identity and/or citizenship (e.g. a driving licence)." I had to deal with this, as my child recently got naturalized but will probably not get her passport until she comes back from summer vacation. I was advised by the passport office that she can show her foreign passport to enter Switzerland, plus a letter granting citizenship and proof of a biometrics appointment for the Swiss passport.
But yes, if you actually have the passport of the country you are entering, you should always use that passport to enter the country, even if it means using more than one passport during the same trip.
It is true for the USA and my home country, but not true for Switzerland - see my post and link above.
What do you mean by "in a family with a mix of passports"? It's fine, as long as the Swiss citizen(s) show their Swiss passports or proof of Swiss citizenship, the rest show their passports + permits.
We're a family of three; in the future, we'll be entering Switzerland as one Swiss citizen, one EU citizen with C permit, one non-EU citizen with C permit. Nothing we can do to reduce the mix of passports for now...
I had to show my Swiss ID card when leaving Zurich in March. As I was flying to the UK, I'd done my API for that leg on my UK passport, so showed that at passport control in ZRH. As I had no entry stamp in my UK passport, they demanded my residence permit and then, when I explained I was also Swiss, my CH ID/passport in order to let me pass. Logical when you think about it, but I wasn't thinking quite clearly enough at that exact moment.
I don’t think the API actually matters much at immigration. I show my U.K. passport to U.K. immigration and Swiss passport to Swiss immigration regardless of API.
I just travelled back from the U.K. via Eurotunnel and had entered my Swiss details on the API, but I showed my U.K. passport to U.K. immigration and one minute later my Swiss passport to the French immigration - no dramas.
Always use the ID of the country that you are in at that point in time, if you have it. Airline and Government systems are not integrated.
Of course when entering a country use the document you mentioned in the API.
And there lies a small issue, you can normally only enter one passport in the API when you’ve booked a return flight. But I asked easyJet about this and they said it wasn’t important and just show the required passport to immigration regardless of which is in the API. Makes you wonder why the bother with api at all.
Because governments are looking for specific individuals. If a name sets off alarms, they look deeper into the submission. A country like the UK will get 10s of thousands of API submissions each and every day.
Airline and Government systems are not integrated.