Starting in 2024, Kosovars will be able to travel to Switzerland without a visa

The Swiss Federal Council has agreed that Kosovar nationals will be permitted to enter Switzerland for short-term stays without a visa beginning January 1, 2024.

The decision to exempt Kosovar people from visa restrictions was made on May 17, when the Federal Council amended the Ordinance on Entry and Visa Issuance (VEV).

On April 19, the European Parliament and the EU Council approved the Schengen regulation for Kosovo, signifying that the country has met the visa waiver standards for security, border controls, and migration management.

This means that Kosovar nationals are exempt from visa requirements for short visits of 90 days every 180 days in the Schengen area. Because Switzerland is a member of the Schengen region, Kosovar nationals may enter the country using a biometric passport.

“A visa is still required to take up employment in Switzerland. Kosovan nationals are only permitted to take up employment on the condition that they have good professional qualifications and that no equivalent workers can be found on the Swiss labour market or in the EU/EFTA countries,” the press release by the Federal Council explains.

It is believed that over 200,000 Kosovars currently reside in Switzerland, making them the fifth-largest group of immigrants in the country. In general, there has always been a large diaspora of Kosovars in Switzerland, with about 30,000 individuals seeking asylum in Switzerland after the Serbian war in Kosovo in 1999. The Kosovar community expanded to become one of Switzerland's ten greatest nationality groupings.

According to SEM, there will be 2.2 million total foreign residents in Switzerland by 2022, accounting for 115,890 or 5.1% of the overall population. In 2022, around 2,393 Kosovar nationals were naturalised, with 319 of those undergoing a streamlined naturalisation procedure.

Kosovars were the fourth-largest nationality group to be naturalised in Switzerland last year, trailing only the French (3,256), Italians (3,757), and Germans (7,937). In 2022, the naturalisation rate of Kosovar nationals in Switzerland is 6.5% of the overall naturalised population, accounting for 2,712.

According to the most recent data, Kosovars are far more likely to be unemployed than the Swiss population as a whole - 7% against 2.8%. The main causes for such results are their still-below-average professional credentials and existing biases against Albanians, which impede and complicate their professional advancement.

Currently, Kosovar passport holders can travel visa-free to nine countries and passport-free to five, while a visa is required for entry into 152.

By fLEXI tEAM