Questions and answers

1. Am I affected by the passport exchange?

If your passport (passport, diplomatic passport, service passport) was issued between April 29, 2015 and January 11, 2018 - yes

(see also 7.)

2. Do the persons concerned have to replace their passports

?

The Migration and Passport Office recommends replacing the passport.

3. What are the consequences for passport holders?

As certificate management varies from country to country, the impact on those affected cannot be clearly described.

The passport is valid and can be used for travel and border crossings.

However, the functionality of the passport could be limited to the extent that the use of so-called e-gates will no longer be possible in many cases and "conventional" border control will have to be used instead.

4. How does the passport exchange process work?

For the exchange, a data copy of the passport is created and provided with a new issue date and, for adults, the expiry date of the previous passport . As the fingerprints may only be stored for a maximum of 30 days, this data is no longer available. Every passport holder must therefore appear in person at the Migration and Passport Office counter to have their fingerprints taken. You must bring your current passport with you. The new passport will be sent to your home by registered mail or can be collected from the Migration and Passport Office counter on request

Passport holders who previously had a children's passport but are now over the age of 15 will receive an "adult passport" with a validity of 10 years at a reduced price of CHF 200

Children's passes with a remaining term of >3 months will be replaced with the previous term. Children's passes with a remaining term of <3 months must be applied for again for a fee.

5. What do I need to replace my passport?

Passport holder is an adult (passport validity period is issued with that of the previous passport):

• Personal appearance at the counter for fingerprinting
• Old passport

Passport holder is older than 15 years, but has a child passport (valid for 3 years):

Attention new application!

• Personal appearance at the counter incl. parent or legal guardian for fingerprinting
• Old passport
• Biometric passport photo, not older than 6 months
• Costs CHF 200 (new term 10 years)

Passport holder is younger than 15 years, holds a child passport (validity 3 years; remaining validity <3 months):

Attention new application!

• New application; costs CHF 50

Pass holder is younger than 15 years, has a child passport (remaining validity >3 months, passport validity is issued with that of the previous passport):

• Personal appearance at the counter
• Fingerprinting (from the age of 12)
• Old passport

Passport holder is younger than 7 years, has a child passport (validity 3 years; remaining validity >3 months, passport validity is issued with that of the previous passport):

• Old passport

6. Why can't the new passport be taken straight away?

The printed image and the lamination ideally need to dry out or cool down first

7. My passport was not issued between April 29, 2015 and January 11, 2018, but I still had problems in an e-gate. Is one of the certificates defective?

This does not necessarily have to be the case. As certificate management differs from country to country, it is also possible that the certificate is simply not stored in the relevant country. This would have to be checked on a case-by-case basis.