Kanton Basel-Stadt Travel Forum

Hi,

Wondered if anyone can help me: I am an Indian national living in the UK (with a Highly Skilled Migrant permit, which allows me to enter Switzerland).

I plan to go on holiday to Switzerland in Sept and have booked a flight to Basel Mulhouse. I have just realised that this airport is actually located in France and borders with Switzerland.

My UK work permit allows me to enter Switzerland without the requirement of a visa, but to enter France I would need a Schengen visa/Airport Transit visa.

Does anyone know whether it is possible to enter directly into Switzerland at the Basel Mulhouse airport without passing the French border/customs?

I have contacted the Swiss embassy but they have just told me to contact the French embassy :( Nobody seems to be able to give me a clear answer on this.

Any info would be much appreciated!!

You could ask the airline whether it arrives on the EU or non-EU side of the airport (in fact, the airline will check your papers before boarding to ensure you won't have a problem on arrival, otherwise they can be fined for carrying you!), but as far as I know, once inside the terminal you select one or the other exit (France or Switzerland), so there is a direct exit into Switzerland. The problem would arise if you somehow arrived in the French part first.
Have a look on http://www.euroairport.com/EN/annuaire.php?PAGEID=165
I think the Swiss Embassy is not incorrect in directing you to the French Embassy, because quite apart from the fact that the airport is physically located in French territory, it is the French authorities who would have encountered the problem if people without Schengen visas, because they were going to Switzerland, had been detained at the airport. However, I think you will be OK. Bonne chance, anyway.
Incidentally, you wouldn't need a visa (in which case it would be from the French Embassy) unless you will actually enter French territory: an airport transit visa would not cover you to enter France anyway and as an Indian citizen resident in the UK you don't need one just to use the airside part of the airport, and then (hopefully) exit directly into Switzerland. You can test that on this questionnaire, which although it relates to Belgium should be identical for France since it concerns Schengen requirements:
http://www.diplomatie.be/en/travel/visa/visumNodig.asp

This seems to confirm that you can go straight from airside into Switzerland, without passing French border controls: http://www.europlatform.info/getting_there.htm

Just don't take any risks. I had a terrible experience in the past traveling by train. THe French immigration are very strict and ignorance won't help.

Thanks for the info and advice....

I am flying with Easyjet so I will be arriving in the Swiss side of the airport, so it seems that I will be able to enter directly in CH.

However, I don't want to take any risks or chances, as I am on a work permit in the UK and the authorities could potentially arrest me if I do not have ther correct visa, etc. So I will wait for the French embassy to reply...

Am sure there must be more people from outside the EU who have faced this situation.

Will keep you posted!

Yes, Basle airport has 2 sides: the French side and the Swiss side. So you will enter the Swiss side, no problem.
The road from the airport to Basle city is on French territory but is considered Swiss.

Yes you are right.

I contacted the Swiss customs at the Euroairport in Basel this morning and they told that I will just need to exit on the Swiss side, so I don't need to worry about a Schengen visa.

I also spoke to the French embassy this morning (via email) and they told me that I WOULD need a Schengen visa to land in Basel Mulhouse!! Just shows that people who work in these consulates often don't give out the right information!!

Anyway, am quite relieved that I will be able to enter Switzerland without any probs.

You see that even info "from the horse's mouth" (as some people here on VT like to call out...) is not always reliable.
I flew into Basle airport several times and I know the terminal is physically divided in a French and in a Swiss part as you can also see on the map on their website
www.euroairport.com

I mostly take short-haul flights in-and-out of Basel, and I do not have a Schengen Visa.It has never been a problem with the french authorities.
I have a swiss work permit.

If you buy a ticket for Switzerland, you should always land in the swiss part of the airport, and can move
freely to Switzerland, subject to condition that you have the permit to enter swtzerland.

Hello, I am having a same problem as well. I am a non EU student studying in the UK with a UK student visa. If I only travel to Switzerland I wouldn't need the visa since I already have the UK residence permit (student visa). I have booked the flight ticket with Lufthansa flying out from Edinburgh (UK) with transit in Frankfurt before arriving in Basel. Once I saw the replies I am quite relief that I can travel into Basel right away without the Schengen Visa. However, I called Lufthansa to double check. Lufthansa confirms that I will DEFINITELY need a Schengen Visa to land in Basel. The airline confirms that without the Schengen Visa the airline WILL NOT ALLOW me to board the flight. I also contacted British Airways as well. BA says there's no problem at all. Can anyone answer why is this so? What should I do next since I already bought Lufthansa's tickets?

A student visa is, imo, not a residence permit.
You will have to check if you need a Swiss visa. Switzerland is not yet in the Schengen area.
As the original poster did, you may want to call the Swiss immigration at Basle airport.

http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/freetravel/thirdcountry/fsj_freetravel_thirdcountry_en.htm

http://www.euroairport.com/

As I understand it, someone flying direct to the Basel/Mulhouse airport from non-Schengen UK will arrive at a point inside the EuroAirport where they get to choose whether to exit into France (Schengen) or Switzerland (non-Schengen, for now). I would guess that a flight to the same airport from Frankfurt, on the other hand, which will leave from the Schengen terminal at FRA (arriving from London you will go through passport control when changing terminals) will already arrive at the Schengen part of the "EuroAirport", coded MLH (Mulhouse) on your ticket, rather than the Swiss part, coded BSL (Basel). Lufthansa's computers will therefore presumably tell staff that to board a flight from a Schengen departure point (FRA) to a Schengen arrival point (MLH), your nationality requires (if this is the case) a Schengen visa.

I cannot tell you exactly what to do since you don't reveal your exact non-EU nationality, either in your question or your profile (WHY don't people mention this when asking visa questions????) and it so happens that nationals of Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, S. Korea, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, USA, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Malaisia, Mexico, Monaco, Nicaragua, NZ, Panama, Paraguay, Singapore, Uruguay and Venezuela don't need visas to enter France for a stay of no more than 90 days (let alone 90 minutes!).

If you are of a different non-EU nationality, and not entitled to any waiver on some grounds or other, your only option would be to simply get a Schengen visa from the French consulate in London. I don't know whether your having a UK residence permit would make any difference, but a student visa allows you to enter the UK to study, it does not prove to another country that you did, and that you are resident there. I thought that if you were staying in the UK for more than 6 months, you would need a residence permit from the Home Office, and it is this that would exempt you from visa requirement for Switzerland, at least, not the visa you used to enter the UK.

Thank you very much ‘nhoolb’ and ‘gaminari’ for your response. My nationality is Thai.

Concerning with the entry into Switzerland, according to the document “Visa and entry regulations for Switzerland and Liechtenstein” obtained from the Swiss Embassy in the UK website Paragraph 6 applies to me,

6) National Passport with a Residence Permit for the UK regardless of nationality:

Foreign nationals not exempt from obtaining a visa under paragraphs 1 to 4 do NOT require a visa for stays of max. 3 months in Switzerland, if they hold one of the following UK residence permits. The passport as well as the residence permit for the UK must be valid beyond the date of departure from Switzerland.

Label: - UK Entry Clearance; issued for multiple entries.
- Residence Permit
- Residence Documentation
- Certificate of entitlement to the right of abode

As a student I have the UK Entry Clearance. In addition a few of my Thai student friends in the UK have been travelling to Geneva without the need to obtain Swiss visa. So this more or less already confirms that I do not need a Swiss visa.

The only problem I have now is with Lufthansa. I will be travelling tomorrow morning so it is too late to do anything about the Schengen Visa. The only possibility is either to change from Lufthansa to British Airways or change the arrival destination to either Geneva or Zurich and catch a train to Basel.

Hi,

I am planning a swiss trip for around 4 days. I am a Indian national (INDIAN Password) staying in UK with a UK Work Permit. I came to know that I don't need a Swiss VISA to travel to swiss. I am going from London Heathrow to Geneva. While returning back I am planning to take easy Jet flight form Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL) to London Stansted(STN) flight 3314. This airport looks very confusing and I want to know whether I need a shangan visa to take this flight. Please suggest on this.