Notes from the Federal Palace Link to main FDFA page with information on our consular services: revue.link/fdfa Travel Admin The travel app helps you to plan trips abroad and provides you with useful functions and information while you are travelling. revue.link/travel Switzerland in your pocket: SwissInTouch SwissInTouch, the app for the community of the Swiss Abroad. It promotes discussion and relations with Swiss official bodies and your Swiss representation abroad, is open to your needs and grants you direct and user-friendly access to important consular services and information. www.swissintouch.ch turning to Switzerland and for future retirees. The CD and its partners organise information sessions and themed webinars, and inform the Swiss community abroad through the “Swiss Review”, the “Gazzetta Svizzera” and the CD’s own application SwissInTouch, which was launched in late 2022. Together, we are here for you, to protect your interests and provide high-quality services and information via modern multimedia channels to make sure that your needs are met. Our main partners introduce themselves on the opposite page. PAOLO BEZZOLA, CONSULAR DIRECTORATE, FDFA The Swiss Confederation supports institutions that promote the links connecting the almost 800,000 Swiss Abroad to Switzerland in all manner of ways, by virtue of the mandate granted to it by the Federal Act on Swiss Persons and Institutions Abroad (SAA). Cooperation is required for this joint action, owing to the complexity of the growing needs and diversity of the Swiss diaspora. To this end, and in order to provide better support for expat compatriots, the Consular Directorate (CD) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs may enter into service agreements with certain institutions. These institutions may also sign cooperation or collaboration agreements with each other. In addition, the CD works closely with other federal departments, cantonal bodies, foreign The FDFA and its partners – working together for you The FDFA collaborates closely with a number of national partners outside the Swiss Federal Administration to provide support, information and high-quality services to the Swiss Abroad, the “Fifth Switzerland”. Its main partners introduce themselves. authorities and other national and international partners. The Consular Directorate, with its three divisions – Citizen Services, Consular Protection and Innovation and Partnerships – is a central contact point for efficient, customer-orientated consular services worldwide. It provides a wide range of consular services via its international network of consular offices, and this network is also in contact with the community of the Swiss Abroad and promotes mutual dialogue. It furthermore publishes important information on services like travel advice via conventional communication channels and the Travel Admin app. The FDFA Helpline has an advice and assistance service, which provides general information on stays abroad, emigration and reSwiss living abroad – like Noël, Laurin and Flurina Frei in Ethiopia – can always rely on five key points of contact and sources of information: FDFA, OSA, swissinfo, educationsuisse and Soliswiss. Photo provided www.eda.admin.ch 26 Swiss Review / May 2023 / No.3
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