Hi All,
New here to this forum.
Had a question to the members. Is it better to apply naturalisation for the whole family or individually?
We have been living in CH for 12 years. Non EU zone. Kids born here. Go to Public school. My wife speaks good German and kids speak Swiss German as well. Unfortunately my German is terrible but have the necessary certifications A2/B1. I dont my handicap to rub on the family. But have been hearing things like they can reject applications of the entire family OR some saying that they might approve just kids and wife OR they might call the family individually for interviews. Can anyone offer some advice?
From anecdotal evidence, you are better off applying as a family. B1 is sufficient to apply, and 3-6 months is more than enough time to make progress.
In cases I know where only the husband or wife has applied, the application has often been paused until proof is shown that the applying person is promoting the integration of the non-applicant person…german courses, etc.
So for the benefit of your family, apply together and make the effort to improve your German enough to have the interview. It will also assist you in daily life.
My husband was in the same situation. He has very good results of the exam B1, but his German skills in real life are quite poor. And we were in the situation, when all the knowledge about CH was checked during the interview, which was, of course, more complicated than a test, if your German is not good.
I would still apply as a family, but in the meantime you have to improve your German skills (my husband used community tutors in italki) on the topics that can be asked during the interview (politics, hobbies & free time, why do you want to be Swiss etc). You need to remember some “bricks” (phrases) from which you will be building sentences during the interview. Create a file with helpful information, for example, with all the useful nouns (like Bundesrat, Kanton, Gericht etc) and learn them with a correct article. Listen to the news on SRF, discuss the news with your teacher. It will help you to remember political terms.It’s feasible. You just need some practice. If course, you must know the material from the brochure very well, not to add factual mistakes to your linguistic mistakes.
I don’t know how it’s done in different Gemeinde, but in our case they addressed their questions to a specific person in turns, not to the whole family at once. But the person with good German can still add something in the end of the question to leave the better impression.
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To put it this way: do you ever want to be Swiss? If so, and your German is worse and likely to stay worse than your spouse’s, apply together, it’s your best chance.
On the other hand, I don’t think it’ll hurt your spouse to apply on her own with children, especially if she encloses proof of your language ability.
This is our experience: our daughter applied first (local schools, perfect language, her documents were easiest to get and it mattered the most that she be naturalized). Two years later, my husband and I applied. We are not done yet, but our locality accepted us both (I have B2, he B1, and I definitely speak much better German than he does). There were no issues at all, it was clear we had both studied the information and could understand their questions well enough.
At least where I live a family application is also way cheaper than several individual ones.
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As far as I have heard from recently naturalised friends, I think it is better to apply as a family these days. Not to mention the bureaucratic workload kept in one neat place…as for language requirements, kids are obviously perfectly multilingual, and our (official) level is B2. I think I can push myself for C1 though.
If you have the necessary qualifications, then you are good to go. Just make sure you have the sufficient level and the certificate is recognised for the purpose.
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It is here too.
It only makes sense to make an individual application if it’s for a minor who qualifies a while before the parents due to the double years thing.
Minors pay much less than adults here.
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May I ask a related question please?
Our oldest child has already got her passport, the middle one is in the process, the youngest has just became eligible and I will send in her docs soon.
My husband and I will cross the 10 year residence line in 2025. Our language skills are good enough (B1+), I have graduated from a Swiss University and will soon start another studies. I am not working however, has been a trailing spouse, following my husband’s work relocations. I do hope to find a work eventually, but this may take a lot of time.
When we apply as a couple, will my unemoyment pull me or both of us back? His income is sufficient to support our family.
Thanks!
In my case, we did not apply as a a family. My wife did not apply as she has only been here for 5 years. I included our child in the application, my wife had to sign a document. My Gemeinde had not problem with that, I passed the knowledge test and interview. I hope that neither Canton Zurich or the State have an issue with that…
But, in all honesty, I could not just wait another 5 years for my wife to have 10 years under here belt in CH, as in that case our child would be out of the cut-off age and would have to apply independently…
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No.
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No, of course not. I never worked or studied in Switzerland, as well as some of of my friends who got the citizenship as well. They don’t care, provided that your family’s income allows you to live without social aid. They didn’t asked me anything about my plans to work during the interview.
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If the partner is ineligible, then this is no issue…I had the same situation when I applied. But if the partner is eligible it could be questioned, and you would have to declare you are doing everything possible to promote your partner’s Swiss integration.
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It could be questioned; however, there is no law that says integration must lead to naturalization. Showing that your partner has some language proficiency and has no problems with the migration authorities should be enough.
The spirit of the requirement stems historically due to migrants from certain cultural backgrounds basically holding their spouses hostage in the family home by reducing their ability to integrate.
The test is subjective, so each town can intepret, within reason, what is expected.
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Yes, @litespeed . Until recently, parents in my canton had to enclose a confirmation that their school-age children attended school swimming lessons, as parents from some cultural and religious backgrounds were more likely not to have their daughters participate.
But it is supposed that all the kids attend swimming lessons. Not only those who are willing to apply for citizenship. If parents do not let their kids to attend these lessons, they would have problems with authorities. I remember an article about a father who has to spend a few days in jail because he couldn’t afford a fine. He was fined because his daughter wasn’t attending swimming lessons.