Switzerland: visa and entry rules
What you need to get in, how long you may stay, and what an overstay costs
Switzerland's borders: every crossing point
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Switzerland has five neighbours - Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein, and all the borders are internal ones inside the Schengen area.
There are no passport checks, but there are customs checks. Switzerland is not part of the EU customs union, so customs officers work at the borders and inspect goods - that is what sets it apart from its Schengen neighbours.
The duty-free allowances are strict, and anything above the limit on food, alcohol or shopping has to be declared.
The Alpine tunnels and passes - the Gotthard, the Simplon and the Great St Bernard - are the main transit routes.
Liechtenstein has no checks of its own: the only way to get there is through Switzerland or Austria.
Driving to Switzerland
A vignette is required for the motorways - an annual one, no other kind exists, bought at the border or online.
There are customs checks at the borders, which is worth bearing in mind if you are carrying purchases.
A Green Card is compulsory.
Some tunnels are tolled separately on certain routes.
Travelling to Switzerland with a pet
The rules are the same throughout the EU.
An ISO-standard microchip is compulsory, and it is implanted BEFORE the rabies vaccination - otherwise the vaccination does not count.
The rabies vaccination may not be given before the animal is 12 weeks old, and 21 days must pass between the vaccination and entry.
A rabies antibody titre test is required only for pets from a country not on the EU's approved list. The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are on the list, so this does not apply to pets travelling from those countries; Russia is one of the countries it does apply to. The blood is taken no earlier than 30 days after the vaccination, and then three months must pass before entry.
An EU veterinary certificate is needed, issued by the state veterinary service.
No more than five animals per person without commercial paperwork.
Overstaying your visa in Switzerland
The violation is recorded across the whole Schengen area, not in a single country.
The main consequence is a refusal of your next visa. The record stays in the system, and obtaining a Schengen visa afterwards becomes considerably harder.
An entry ban for a significant overstay applies to the entire zone at once.
The days are counted across the whole of Schengen. The typical mistake is to count your stay in each country separately.
What else to check before you go
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Entry rules change faster than anything else on this site, and they change without notice. We cross-check every page against several sources and state the date it was verified, but that does not replace the main step: before you travel, check an official source — the country’s consulate, its immigration service or its e-visa portal. Especially if more than a couple of months have passed since our check.