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Immigration Law

On the staff of ISS we have lawyers and social workers of long-standing experience in the areas of the AuGe, family law and the resolution of transnational conflicts within families and cultural misunderstandings.

The ISS offers counseling to non-Swiss nationals and to Swiss citizens regardless of whether they have a problem with their personal legal status or whether non-Swiss relatives or their employees are facing problems. Our counseling covers:

  • Residence Permits (requests, refusals, non-renewals, cancelling)
  • re-unification of families (including inquiries for relatives and chances to build social contacts in applicants‘ countries of origin; see „ISS Support Activities in the Search for Family Roots“)
  • acquiring Swiss citizenship
  • proceedings to be granted asylum
  • establishing statelessness

Our Activities:

  • personal counseling/providing information by way of telephone or e-mail
  • detailed investigation into the applicant’s situation for a first assessment on what might be feasible and what chances for success can realistically be expected. Depending on the outcome ISS either takes over further proceedings or turns down any involvement
  • applications for family re-unifications
  • applications to obtain Residence Permits (for limited or unlimited periods of time)
  • applications to move from one Canton to another; applications by asylum seekers for a permit to extend their stay in Switzerland
  • applications to be recognized as stateless persons
  • ISS gets involved in first hearings by :
  1. preparing those involved for such hearings; if need be ISS is present at hearings to support its clients
  2. keeping written and other contact with authorities
  3. looking for/providing evidence, such as translation of relevant documents that will support statements made by ISS clients
  4. obtaining detailed information concerning the personal and family situation of those in question by way of the ISS-network, the staff of the UN High Commissionary for Refugees, Amnesty International or other humanitarian organisations
  • drafting of objections, requests for reopening procedures or the filing of appeals
  • appeals to State and/or NGO authorities with requests to intervene on behalf of ISS clients
  • requests to search for family abroad.

All our work is strictly confidential.

For consultation work ISS charges a flat rate. For follow-up work it is on a per hour basis.