There is a fee schedule attached to issuing of various official documents in Switzerland. In some cases, however, foreign residents are charged more for this service than Swiss nationals.
As local media recently reported, a German woman had requested a ‘residence certificate’ (Wohnsitzbescheinigung / Attestation de domicile / Certificato di domicilio) – from her town, Bern.
In the process of obtaining this document (which in Switzerland proves a person is registered as a resident of that community – not to be confused with a ‘residence permit’), she noticed that the fee charged for this service in Bern is higher for foreigners than for the Swiss: 25 francs versus 20 francs, respectively.
But that’s not all: in order to extend the validity of this certificate, foreigners must pay the same 25-franc fee, while Swiss citizens are charged only 10.
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What’s going on?
In response to media enquiries, Hans Bohren, Bern’s head of Resident Services, Migration, and Foreign Nationals Police, confirmed the disparity but offered no explanation, other than the same fee schedule has been in effect in the canton since 1987.
This means that this particular rule has not been adapted to terms of the Free Movement of Persons agreement (AFMP), which went into effect in 2002 and stipulates that EU nationals living in Switzerland must be treated on equal footing with the Swiss.
Though the vast majority of cantons and municipalities charge the same flat fee for the certificate, regardless of nationality, these discrepancies still exist in a few small jurisdictions.
Like Bern, they have not yet adjusted their practices to comply with the AFMP, and therefore operating in the grey legal area.
After the article appeared in the media in October 2026, however, Bern has announced it will review the unequal fee structure.
READ MORE: The most essential pieces of paperwork you’ll need in Switzerland
Are there any other cases of ‘fee discrimination’ in Switzerland?
One example that springs to mind in this context in the higher tuition that some Swiss public universities impose on foreign students.
The reason behind it is simple: as public universities are funded mostly by taxpayers, it is logical that Swiss students have a ‘preferential’ treatment in this regard over those coming from abroad.
In 2025, the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH in Zurich and EPFL in Lausanne) – which, until then, charged international and Swiss students the same fee – tripled the tuition for foreign students to compensate for the deficit in government funding.
But now that rule looks set to be scrapped: During their deliberations in the fall off 2026 about the new package of agreements between Switzerland and the European Union, Swiss MPs decided that EU students enrolled at the ETH and EPFL must receive the same treatment as Swiss students regarding tuition fees.
READ MORE: Lawmakers back equal tuition fees for Swiss and EU students at two major universities
