[1][2] The passport, along with the Swiss identity card allows for freedom of movement in any of the states of EFTA[5] and the EU.

[8] Until 1985 the Swiss passport included only the national languages of the time (French, German, and Italian) as well as English.

Romansh was added in the later Pass 85 after it was declared the fourth Swiss national language following a referendum.

Names containing diacritics (ä, ö, ü, à, ç, é, è, etc.

; the letter ß is not normally used in Swiss German) are spelled with diacritics outside the machine-readable zone, but in the machine-readable zone, German umlauts (ä/ö/ü) are transcribed as ae/oe/ue (e.g. Müller becomes MUELLER) while other letters simply omit the diacritics (e.g. Jérôme becomes JEROME and François becomes FRANCOIS) according to ICAO conventions.

The transcription above is generally used for airplane tickets etc., but sometimes simple vowels are used (e.g. MULLER instead of MÜLLER or MUELLER).

The entire passport is written in the four official languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansch) as well as English, with the exception of page 40, containing use and care instructions only.

Inside the back cover, the phrase "This passport contains 40 numbered pages" is written in the 26 languages.

Pass 1932 had a brown cover with a centred Swiss coat of arms and employed no security features.

Pass 59, introduced in 1959, had a dark red cover with a Swiss coat of arms on the left and on three lines "Passeport suisse", "Schweizerpass", and "Passaporto svizzero".

Safety features include UV-reactive paper, watermarks with the page number and Swiss cross, Guilloché printing with variegated colours, colour shift ink, and printing registration elements when the passport is held up to light.

The temporary passport complies with international security standards for these types of documents and is machine readable.

Switzerland was required to implement this type of passport in order to participate in the Schengen Agreement.

Available from 31 October 2022, Pass 22 has a new page design, featuring mountains and waterways from every canton of Switzerland.

Visa requirements for Swiss passport holders are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on nationals of Switzerland.

[6] All EFTA and EU citizens are not only visa-exempt but are legally entitled to enter and reside in each other's countries.