that thread should give you hope. You'll need to register partnership here.
You could also contact the BFM using the email address linked from this thread and ask the question:
Facilitated Naturalisation - Documents and process
If you undertake the process, good luck and feel free to contribute to that second thread. Being potentially (in forum terms) "first through the door" could give good feedback and hints for others in a similar situation.
I assume your partner speaks French? You should email the BFM in one of the local languages
Already had our partnership recognised by the swiss authorities in january. Shall e-mail them in french and keep the forum updated.
Same sex partners are recognised, only to a limited degree and only in some cantons.
At the federal level they aren't. Heck, it's hard enough to jump through the hoops for naturalisation when you are married to someone of the opposite sex! Switzerland also doesn't really recognise de facto relationships at most levels either.
Personally, I love to see that change. I know there are moves afoot to recognise same sex couples at the federal level, but the wheels turn incredibly slowly in this democracy. By not allowing same sex couples to marry, we force the situation effectively into a de faco partnership situation. So if they recognise this, then they also have to afford more rights to hetrosexual couples who may choose (for a long list of reasons!) not to get married.
Let's not forget that women have only had the vote for the last 30 years, and that it wasn't actually that long ago when it was illegal (in canton Zurich at least) to live together under the same roof with your boyfriend/girlfriend. Ironically, same sex partners were exempted from this, since there was no assumption of a relationship
Bottom line - I think you about a snowball's chance in hell with this one. But as Lob Rockster pointed out - if you learn anything, please share it.
Haven't had a chance to study the whole document, but I'm sure someone will.
The big question with this recognition of partnership stuff is the extent to which is it recognised. Getting a Swiss passport seems to be held up as a something of a holy grail by the Swiss population, so it will be really interesting to see if partnerships can be treated the same as a marriage in this case!
BTW the referendum was not initiated by the SVP but by the EVP (Evangelische Volkspartei) and the EDU (Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union), the "religious right" of Switzerland.
I remember observing the vote in Zurich when this law went through on a cantonal level. If I recall it was 60%, but the political commentary at the time said it would probably fail at the federal level (the idea being that Zurich would probably be more progressive than other cantons). So it's extremely interesting that the national figure was almost the same.
I'm glad to see that the religious right don't control this country (yet).
Still one has to consider that even though this vote passed, 42% of voters also voted to deny these basic rights to same sex couples. That's not an insignificant number of voters!
The law has changed on this one and there is no difference between same sex couples and married hetrosexual couples when it comes to applying for citizenship. ie you are entitled to apply for a facilitated naturalization.
Can hetrosexual couples apply to have their partnerships recognised "officially?"
The only limitations for registered same-sex partnerships are on children adoption/artificial procreation it seems.