I was unexpectedly made redundant recently. I recently started my application for facilitated naturalization (have not received invoice yet confirming receipt of documents).
I am concerned that in losing my job it may impact my application in two ways:
1. I am now unemployed - I currently do not have a new job lined up, and with a newborn baby on the way in a few months am actually happy that I might have more time to be around for the early days of this
2. If I claim unemployment benefits it might be seen as a black mark on my application somehow
Are either of these likely to impact my application? I am in a fortunate position where I have enough savings that I do not need to work for some time. However I don't want my application to be delayed or complicated by either of these two things. Does anyone have any first hand experience or thoughts on how this might impact things (if at all)?
Unemployment is not social help (sozialhilfe) so should not affect your application. Aren’t it prohibited to terminate pregnant women? To receive unemployment benefits I believe you need to prove you have someone to babysit your baby, RAV would want you to be immediately available to take up a new job opportunity.
As far as I remember you can't be terminated during pregnancy nor for 16 weeks afterwards. So inform your employer that the need to adjust the termination date accordingly for a start. Since they are going to have to pay you in any case, they may decide that termination was not a great idea after all.
In that case it will be important to show that you are doing everything possible to find new employment. And the means signing up with the RAV, doing the courses they recommend etc.... That is what people do and to not do it might suggest you are not serious about seeking new employment.
From the cases I've heard, I agree with this. It shouldn't be counted against you if you follow the RAV process and apply for jobs. While you're on RAV, RAV counts as your employer. Good luck!
Thank you. With that said, I have the means to support myself and my family without taking employment, and taking some time off between jobs, whether that be 6 months or a year, especially as I have a baby on the way, should be easy enough for the authorities to understand, no?
Would you recommend I start RAV when I am ready to properly start looking for a new job, or should I just start now, even though I fully intend to spend the first 3-6 months with my newborn as opposed to working.
Apply now and see how long the waiting time is, if any, until you get RAV benefits paid and how much that will be.
Then put your Rahmenfrist on hold for the months you plan to stay home, IIRC you can do so for up to two years. Enquire.
This will still require some cooperation from you to determine the RahmenFrist, but that's necessary in any way, it would just be postponed otherwise. This way you have a solid base to plan on, rather than finding out later on that your expectations were built on sand.
Be careful, there is a separate set of criteria for people seeking permits on the basis that you can live of independent means. And I’m almost certain you would get rejected on them.
Just do what everyone one else does. Don’t give them any ideas about doing something different. It almost always leads to complications.
Very helpful - thank you. I'll head to the office next week. I am in the Italian speaking part so some of these terms are different to what is quoted here but it seems the best thing to do is simply have a conversation with the people who know about this stuff. Cheers again.
Do be clear, this is not my intention. I also already have a C Permit; I am applying for naturalization. My plan is to seek employment, after a short career break as I spend some time with my newborn. I have the means to sustain myself but I am not applying for naturalization on the basis that I will remain unemployed and sustain myself through other means...
Once more, Jim confidently delivers incorrect info in the context of what the OP was asking. Being on RAV does not affect naturalization chances... being on social benefits at the tie of application prohibits naturalization.
The first foglio informativo will give you a good overview and provide/explain the relevant terms in Italian.
RAV (the unemployment insurance and payments to be a bit more precise) is an insurance you paid contributions for while you were employed, that's distinct from social help. Nonetheless, and depending on how it's interpreted, you could be seen as no longer participating in the economy, so it might affect your naturalisation, but that is probably also best inquired with RAV (or with your municipality).
In ordinary naturalization in canton Schwyz on application they do ask to attach document "if any unemployment benefits were there in last 5 years"....was a bit surprised by it, since i also read a lot about how RAV is not social help, but still it has some consideration point for naturalization....
Is this maybe specific to Gemeinde Schwyz? There isn't one standard application as it is handled on the Gemeinde level and this wasn't my experience in Ausserschwyz.
Schwyz is wild wild west regarding naturalization. It is mostly and nearly exclusively handled on commune level and the communes are not known to follow the federal and cantonal rules rigorously.
Receiving unemployment benefits in and of itself is not a bar to citizenship nor to obtaining a C permit for EU citizens, but there are general expectations and even provisions in the case of the EU C permit that people establish an economic life style and don't become a burden of the community or the state.
A neighbouring family were turned down for citizenship over receiving RAV benefits. Their lifestyle basically consisted of working long enough to qualify for benefits, loose the job, claim benefits until they expired, look for new job and repeat over and over. The parents had been doing this for well over a decade and the two teenage sons had started the same game.