I have not posted here in a couple of years but casually read the forum from time to time. I am a USA citizen and moved to Switzerland about 3 years ago after getting married to my wife. The long term plans are to stay in Switzerland for probably the next 5-10 years. As I understand I can apply for Swiss citizenship after 5 or 6 years (still confused on which is correct). My wife only became an official Swiss Citizen after we got married even though she was born and raised here, she previously had a German passport (her dad was originally German). So from what I understand, that means I have to wait 6 years before I would apply, but not 100% sure if this correct.
Recently my wife has had concerns about her employment here in Switzerland, it may be possible sometime in the next 2 years her position could be eliminated at the company she has worked at for a long time. It’s not official and no real reason to worry at this point (mostly just fear driven) but just a thought of possibility when she observes what is happening to others at her workplace.
If her job was eliminated and we decide to move to the USA where she would be able to likely have a different job with the same international company, does this affect my ability to obtain Swiss citizenship?
I mean basically if I am here in Switzerland living so far 3 years (since 01/2015) and live here another 1-2 years and then we decide to move to the U.S. can I still apply for Swiss Citizenship while living there?
We live in the canton of Aargau and will continue to live here unless we move overseas. I am a US citizenship and have a 5 year B permit and understand I will receive a C-permit after 5 years of stay here.
Pondering this it leads me to another question, I have been learning German at a slow pace (almost everyone I interact with speaks English) and it has been a real challenge to become fluent in German, I am currently at around an A2 level. Does anyone know what Aargau’s language requirements are? I found an article that said something about A2 or B1 it was a bit confusing...
I am just trying to sort out what is what. I like living here but if it comes down putting food on the table and moving to the US would make more sense than that is no problem either. I am just not sure where that leaves me in the process of being able to become Swiss myself.
Any advice or knowledge would be appreciated from those that are more familiar with such a topic. I have looked around the forum but could not relate much about this kindof a situation.
Thanks - I hope everyone is enjoying the snow right now!
Thanks for you guys quick responses. I would be a bit disappointed in for example I lived her 5 years and decided to move back to the USA and would lose all time here that counts towards citizenship. I mean if we were to in theory live here, move to the USA for a number of years and then want to move back to Europe at a later time, the Swiss citizenship would be helpful for me. Hmm... not sure what will happen just trying to get a better idea. Thanks!
"If you live abroad, you must have lived in a stable marriage for at least six years and must have close connections with Switzerland."
Yes, I have read this before that kindof where my question stems from about a topi such as this. It leads me to think I could apply for citizenship even when living in the USA. after 6 years of marriage. My wife is Swiss born and raised always held a c-permit but with a German passport. Seems like a slightly complicated situation and with the laws chanigng recently it makes it a bit confusing. Just trying to figure out what is what.
On communal and cantonal level you will need, depending on canton and commune, anything from 2 uninterrupted years in the canton up to five uninterruptet in the commune. See list here https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home...tzfristen.html
Note: Some cantonal laws are still not up do date and are not conform with the new federal law coming into force on January 1st 2018.
An additional hurdle is that a C permit is mandatory for regular naturalization. As an US national you can get it after 5 years of uninterrupted residency. You are also entitled to C after 5 years of uninterrupted residency as the husband of a Swiss persons or a person which has C.
In conclusion: With five years of accumulated residency you will lose absolutely nothing.
Swiss born? You mean born in Switzerland? This buys and means absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada.
The laws regarding facilitated naturalization did not change much. Still the same time limits and conditions. So that part should not be confusing. And remember: The Swiss spouse must have been of Swiss citizenship before marriage . As you said she became Swiss after marriage which means all the rules about facilitated do not apply to you and you are bound to the regular way unless you divorce and remarry her.
If you are applying for facilitated naturalization, you can do the tests and interviews in any number of embassies around the world in one of the official languages, so that wouldn't be a problem. The issue here would be that your wife was not a Swiss citizen before you got married. I don't think there is a way around this if you are not living in Switzerland.
I know he cant, as his wife wasn't Swiss when they got married. I'm just saying that IF he was applying for facilitated naturalization he can do it anywhere in the world (in my case I applied to do it in South Africa). It was part of his query as to whether he could apply if he wasn't in Switzerland. I'm over explaining now, I know you know what I mean
It can be frustrating but it could be worse - at least there's no issue with you living together. We have friends who have been married fro 3 or 4 years but cannot even get family reunification in a country of their own citizenship so they have to commute across continents, each for 3 months at a time. One of those countries is the UK.
Hey guys thanks for all your insight on this. So I just had lunch with the wife and she got online and read the official Aargau website (in german oh course) and she claims it says that were we live does not require her to be officially a Swiss citizen at the time we got married, in order for me to apply for full Swiss citizenship after 5 years of living here in Switzerland. It supposibly even says the language test is only basic.
She says that each Canton is different and it goes by the rules of where we live. She also said that since I have already been living here for awhile, they changed the new law starting on January 1st of holding a C-permit before applying for citizenship, then apparently I don't have to worry about that either. I am not sure if she is interpreting all the information correctly or there is out-dated or slightly off/wrong information on other websites...
It seems like such a confusing topic.. LOL.. it does not really matter at this point in time, I am not eligible to apply for anything other than a C-Permit (I think) at this 5 year point anyways if we are still here.
"My wife only became an official Swiss Citizen", certainly he'd mention naturialisation if that's what happened. He'd probably mention the year of naturalisation also.
So it seems likely that his wife got citizen rights by heritage. From what little I know, I get the impression that in such cases she's considered to have always been a citizen, it just wasn't known. That would mean OP was indeed a Swiss citizen when they married.
Basically the first section when translated in Google says:
1. Conditions of proper naturalization
a. length of stay
· 12 years of residence in Switzerland, of which 3 in the last 5 years before application
Note 1: The time between 10 and 20 years counts double.
Note 2: If one of the spouses or registered partners meets the requirements, it is sufficient for
the other person has a residence of a total of 5 years in Switzerland, in case they are one year immediately prior to submitting an application
spent in Switzerland and lives in marital union or registered partnership for 3 years.
The same applies if a spouse has been naturalized after the marriage or the registered partner
Swiss citizenship.
· 5 years stay in the canton of Aargau
· At least 3 years of uninterrupted residence in the municipality before submitting the application
So maybe this is the answer I was partially seeking asking this question earlier. The PDF appears to be from early 2016 so I am assuming it is still valid if its currently on the AG website.
As you see Art. 27 BüG begins with "After marrying a Swiss citizen, a foreign national may apply for simplified naturalization if he or she:" which is not the same as "After X years of marriage with a Swiss citizen, a foreign national may apply for simplified naturalization if he or she..."
New law is Art. 2, a bit of different wording but still the very same meaning.
So I am understanding that *if* I live here in Swtizerland for 5 years I can then apply for citizenship? I am pretty sure thats what I have taken away from this. Which is good if we remain here for awhile but need to move later.