GENEVA — Four days after his release from a Russian prison and arrival in Germany, the former oil tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky has applied for a Swiss visa that would allow him travel to most of Europe, a spokesman for Switzerland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

Switzerland received Mr. Khodorkovsky’s application for a three-month visa through its embassy in Berlin on Tuesday and would normally decide in a matter of days whether to grant it, said Stefan von Below, the department’s spokesman.

Mr. Khodorkovsky was convicted on charges of fraud and tax evasion that he said were politically motivated, and he spent a decade in a prison near the Arctic Circle. Since his surprise release and arrival in Germany on Friday, aboard a private jet arranged with the help of a former German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Mr. Khodorkovsky said he would not become involved in Russian politics but would work to help other prisoners.

Mr. Khodorkovsky’s wife, Inna, and their three children live in Switzerland. His spokesman, Christian Hanne, said the former oligarch wanted to visit early in the new year to see where they go to school, but the visa request was not an indication of where he intended to settle, The Associated Press reported.