Under article 6 of the Federal Charter Concerning the Entry and the Declaration of Arrival from Abroad of January 14, 1998, “the authorities responsible for authorization of entry can require a declaration of guarantee, signed by an individual or legal entity in Switzerland responsible for the traveller (guarantor)”. The goal of the declaration of guarantee is to ensure itself of what the foreign visitor coming to Switzerland has financial means sufficient to assume his subsistence expenses, even when they are unforeseeable expenses (sudden disease, accident etc).

To prevent the State (canton, district or public hospitals) from paying these expenses, sometimes called “unpayables”, the guarantor inviting the person from abroad irrevocably commits himself assuming all the expenses, that is, “the living expenses, expenses of disease and accident included/understood, as well as the expenses of return”, up to an amount of CHF 20'000.- (article 7 of the Charter). The hospital or other various expenses exceeding this amount and which the visitor could not pay are the responsibility of the State. Similarly, if a guarantor does not manage to pay the guaranteed sum, the State will be obliged to cover it within an extended deadline.

As the Swiss authorities recognized this problem costing them annually several million francs, they require - in addition to the guarantee or as its replacement - that the foreign visitor requesting a visa for entry to Switzerland takes an adequate travel insurance covering him/her during his stay in the country. Even if initially the travel insurance did not have any relationship with the Swiss policy of the visas, it gradually became an invaluable complement to protect: (a) the foreigner during his stay in Switzerland; (b) the person inviting this foreigner, who will no longer have to pay from his pocket the hospital or other expenses of his guest; and (c) budgets of the state of Switzerland.