Can I travel to Paris for a day with a single entry visa for Schengen from Switzerland?

Question

I am visiting a friend in Switzerland for ten days. I have already got visitor's visa for the same on my Indian passport. Particulars mentioned on my visa are: 1. 'Etats Schengen' , 2. Single entry 3. Dates of visit. & 4. Type of visa : C. I understand that having already got ‘Etats Schengen' visa, I can travel to all Schengen countries.

I am also planning to visit Paris for a day during my stay in Switzerland. However, I never mentioned this in my visa application. I am planning to take a train from Geneva to Paris and book a hotel in Paris for one night. Can I possibly plan my Paris trip this way as I have Schengen visa, or I am not allowed to travel out of Switzerland as I never mentioned this in my visa application?

Also what does Single entry on my Schengen visa means: does it mean that I can enter and leave Switzerland only once or it means that I can enter and leave the Schengen region only once.

Answer 1

Switzerland and France are both part of the Schengen area. Since you do not exit the Schengen area when you travel from Switzerland to France, you won't have to re-enter, thus all will be fine.

Single-entry means that you can only enter and exit the Schengen area once, in other words, every trip to the Schengen area needs its own visa.

Answer 2

I added my comment as an answer, since it is more an answer than a comment :)

Once you have a Schengen visa, you can travel through all Schengen countries as you wish. Single entry refers to the fact that you can enter and leave the Schengen region only once.

Answer 3

Answering for the generic case...

There are 650 different ways to arrive/visit/depart two countries in the Schengen zone. This number doubles when single-entry and multiple-entry visas are considered.

France-Germany, Germany-France, France-Italy, Italy-Germany, France-Spain, Italy-Spain, and so on. There are too many of these to deal with on a case-by-case basis.

When three different countries are considered, the number of permutations is more than 15,000!

Regardless of which combination/permutation is selected, the same rule applies... Once you have arrived at a Schengen member and cleared immigration control, there are open borders to 25 other countries. You can visit them or catch a flight home from them.

This answer holds true for all Schengen short-stay visas except those with a specific territorial limitation specified on the face of the visa.

Answer 4

Single entry means you are allowed to cross an external border between a non-Schengen country and a Schengen country once (i.e. it refers to the Schengen area as a whole). You don't need a multiple-entry visa to travel through several countries within the area.

I have recently seen more frequent passport checks for trains to France starting in Geneva but the police was only looking at the ID page, not at visas.