Dear Travellers,

You are receiving this email because you are registered with the Government of Canada’s Registration of Canadians Abroad (ROCA) service.
If you have returned to Canada and have no intention to travel in the near future, simply access your file at https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/registration and modify the travel date and destination details by changing the departure date to today’s date. If you are unable to change the departure date, send an email to roca@international.gc.ca with the date you arrived in Canada.

We would like to provide you with the following key updates regarding the COVID-19 situation:

A)                   Mandatory quarantine in Switzerland for travellers coming from Canada

Please note that since Friday 16 April, Canada has been added to the Swiss authorities’ list of high-risk countries. This means that any traveller who is allowed to enter Switzerland and who is coming from Canada has to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine. You will find all the information and instructions about the entry to Switzerland on the following website: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov/empfehlungen-fuer-reisende/quarantaene-einreisende.html

We would like to remind you that entry into Switzerland (and the Schengen Area) remains restricted for Canadian passport holders: https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/sem/aktuell/faq-einreiseverweigerung.html

For additional questions concerning entry or return to Switzerland, please contact the Swiss authorities directly:
– State Secretariat for Migration SEM: https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home/sem/aktuell/faq-einreiseverweigerung.html
– Federal Office of Public Health FOPH: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov/empfehlungen-fuer-reisende/quarantaene-einreisende.html
– Consulate General of Switzerland in Montréal: https://eda.admin.ch/montreal
– Consulate General of Switzerland in Vancouver: https://eda.admin.ch/vancouver

B)                   Consular services in Switzerland

We continue to offer consular services to Canadians in both our offices in Bern and Geneva, but we keep recommending strongly to favour services via mail, e-mail or phone instead of in-person appointments.

C)                   COVID-19 measures in Canada and Switzerland

For Canada, please consult: https://canada.ca/coronavirus and https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid
For Switzerland, please consult: https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov.html
Please note that local measures may differ. Canadian provinces and Swiss cantons can always take stricter or additional measures to those of the federal government depending on the epidemiological situation prevailing on their territory.

Canadians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Embassy of Canada in Switzerland at +41 (0)31 357 32 00 or bernconsular@international.gc.ca or the Permanent Mission of Canada in Geneva at +41 (0)22.919.9200 or genevcs@international.gc.ca. Canadians can also reach out to the Emergency Watch and Response Centre (EWRC) in Ottawa which operates 24/7. The EWRC can be reached by phone at 613-996-8885 or an email can be sent to sos@international.gc.ca.

Please note that important information is also shared via https://twitter.com/CanSwitzerland or https://twitter.com/CanadaGeneva

Finally, we would like to ask you to forward this information to other Canadian citizens in your area.

Stay safe and kind regards,