Means of Support - Family Reunification

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
21
Total rubbish, you can marry who you want when you want in any combination male or female !

The canton MAY refuse a resident permit, but this is quite rare, they need good grounds to refuse a residence permit, especially if one of the partners is Swiss nationality.

If a "white-wash" marriage is suspected they can delay the permit and ask for supporting evidence of a relationship (think of the movie "Green Card")

22
I think the answer is actually somewhere in between. The canton can decide whether you're allowed to marry in Switzerland . So if for some reason they deny a marriage here (never heard of it, tbh) then you could still get married outside Switzerland and then go through the process to have the marriage recognized here. Plenty of couples choose this route, as the paperwork seems to be much easier that way.

As for marrying a person of the same gender (legal, not religious terminology here), I think that's not allowed (in Switzerland). I think it's a registered civil partnership with many of the same rights as marriage but it is not marriage. For example, only married heterosexual couples can adopt together or undergo fertility treatment.

23
Of course you may marry who you want when you want in any combination of gender anywhere in the world without any intervention from the Swiss cantons, as long as the marriage is not registered in Switzerland . You can register a marriage anywhere and then get it recognized/legalized in Switzerland. But here we are talking about registering a new marriage in Switzerland.

For registering a marriage in Switzerland, no matter the Swiss partner is living inside or outside Switzerland, the request will finally get to the canton for a final approval. If the request is made inside Switzerland, then it should be at the office d'état civil at the commune. From one of my friends who works in the office d'état civil, what happens there is quite standard: She checks that the documents are complete and valid, and maybe asks several questions to the two partners, and then, she gives a preavis and send all the documents to the service de la population of the canton, where the documents will be further examined. Then, the canton returns her back the documents with a final decision, and she transfers it the two partners, and if the decision is positive, she fixes a date with the partners for the marriage registration.

During the process if they have doubt about the "white marriage", they (office d'état civil and the canton) has the right to ask questions directly to the partners, or get information from a 3rd party, without consent from the partners.

If the partners are outside Switzerland, then it is the Swiss embassy do the work of office d'état civil and communicates between the canton and the partners.

Last word, the check of "white marriage" in Switzerland starts already in the examination of marriage request. They do not wait until the day when you ask for the residence permit.

24
From my personal experience, marrying outside Switzerland ( i mean without the "permission" from the CH authorities) does not make it easier for non-EU people...it makes it harder! Firstly, if i was the only one who had to get paperwork for marriage, now it is both of us plus translation of those required docs plus translation/legalisation of the marriage certificate later. And after all of that when you are about to apply for a permit, they still ask for the docs required for marriage in CH (namely, this horrible copy of birth certificate that some countries simply don't give). Bottomline: if we have married not in CH, we would have to collect 3 packages of docs instead of 1.

And for a residence permit, i haven't heard a canton actually refusing it (when marrying Swiss citizen). But i know cases when they made it VERY difficult to get because people did not follow the rules. Thinking about the government allowing me...or not...to marry and live with who i want makes me sick. But it is the reality.

25
Yes, you are right.

When a marriage is registered or recognized in Switzerland, personal information about the both partners will be entered in the infostar system (the civil status system of Switzerland). Every piece of data (e.g. Name, Nationality, marriage status, DOB, DOP, parents names...) will be verified before going into the system and you will need to provide the corresponding certificates covering all these personal information. And for verification, different cantons have different practice. In canton VS, for non-EU foreigners from countries who do not have special agreements with CH about civil status documents, verification means: official certificates from the origin country + notarized translation + verified and stamped by the government of the original country (e.g. the foreign affair ministry) + verified and stamped by the Swiss embassy in the origin country.

Marrying outside CH might be easier in terms of waiting length and the hassle of "white marriage" investigation, but it is not simpler in terms of paperwork when you get it recognized in Switzerland. Your information will go into the system, and before that the Swiss canton will ask you to provide all the papers as you are doing a fresh marriage in Switzerland.

26
Exactly this!

All in all, approval of the marriage took us around a month and a half (no additional questions whatsoever). Approval of the permit took a month. After i applied for it, Zurich migrations sent us request for additional docs. Then we collected them (+1 one week from our side) then we waited for the approval. I had to apply for 2 things separately because i live in the EU. So, 2 months is not bad at all. I think with marrying somewhere else it would take twice as time (or more...)

27
When my husband filled out the form, he put 175,000 and included documents to prove it. They didn't care about the documents at all. I have no clue how they even know for sure how much he makes more money from Canada then here. They simply didn't care

28
Was it a requirement? They only care about the paperwork they require. Sometimes salary confirmation is not necessary. I know cases when wives submitted initial docs for family reunion - and that was all. I used to live here for a year before meeting my husband, yet, they asked us for additional paperwork.

29

I can't remember if they asked for extra papers? We submitted it at the office with extra papers and documents proving everything, and the guy ripped it from the stapled sheet and handed it back to us.

30
Not surprised here, the system hasn't changed for years and they need precisely what they require, nothing more and nothing less. No amount of additional (and valuable) paperwork will change anything.