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Diplomatic and consular privileges and immunities in Switzerland
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Formalities
- Dual accreditation
- Opening a consular post headed by an honorary consular officer
- Diplomatic clearances
- Consular post headed by a career consular representative (opening, change of category / consular district / address, closure) and exequatur for a career head of a consular post
- Opening a consular post headed by an honorary consular officer
The regime for establishing consular relations, consular functions and posts and the nomination and admission of heads of consular posts is governed by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 24 April 1963. Chapter III of the Convention deals specifically with the regime applying to honorary consular officers and consular posts headed by such officers.
Procedure for establishing a consular post headed by an honorary consular officer
Requests to establish a consular post must be addressed to the FDFA (Protocol) through diplomatic channels and must contain the following information:
Specific reasons to justify the request (see conditions below)
The name of the cantonal capital designated as the consular post’s seat
The cantons to be incorporated into the proposed consular district
The genuine need for a duly accredited official representative must be objectively demonstrated. Statistical data on the current and forecast size of the foreign community, commercial, tourist, cultural and scientific relations between the sending State and the new consular district must be provided; as should that for prospective further development resulting from the presence of an official representative. The FDFA reserves the right re-examine at any time, including after opening, the genuine need to keep a post open.
The limited size of Swiss territory compels the Swiss authorities to restrict the number of consular representations: in addition to a consular section near the Embassy in Bern, they will only consider, in principle, requests to establish a maximum of one additional consular post per language region (in German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino).
The seat of a consular post must be located in a cantonal capital (with the exception of the Canton of Ticino where, upon duly-evidenced request, the city of Lugano may also be accepted as seat for a consular post). A cantonal administrative center is determined by its center and the municipalities served by the urban public transport network of the cantonal capital, not including inter-city or regional transport systems. Any subsequent change of address of the seat of a consular post is subject to the prior approval of the FDFA (Protocol). Consular districts may not overlap one another and must coincide with cantonal borders.