What is the silver letter, and what is the golden letter that people refer to?
Do you refer to the approval by the canton (exactly before the SEM bill) as the silver letter?
In my understanding, a silver letter is a letter that SEM has given their approval and returned documents to Gemeindeamt. A golden letter is a letter that you are now officially Swiss.
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My understanding is the same. Not all cantons send the silver letter (my own doesnât).
These are terms that evolved over the 12 or so years the original EF thread was running, and are not official. As 80% of the cases discussed on that thread were Kt Zurich, the âsilver letterâ refers to the letter when all 3 levels of government had given approval, and the Gemeindeamt was finalising the citizenship âfinish line in sightâ.
And yes, the âgolden levelâ was the confirmation of citizenship, thus ending the process. (finish line).
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Iâm not sure if this belongs in here, so please throw it out if it doesnât.
Over the years, Iâve noticed applications for citizenship being turned down as the âcandidateâ was considered insufficiently well integrated. A guy was turned down by Einsiedeln. He had lived in Gross for 39 years, was a professor at the ETH in ZĂźrich, his German and knowledge of Switzerland in general was good, financially he was fine, but in the opinions of those making the decision he hadnât sufficient local political knowledge and could name no friends or acquaintances in Einsiedeln.
Several cases occurred in Aargau where, for example, an applicant knew of the âchainâ retailers in the village she lived in, but not the name of the butcher or the baker. I presume not everything hung on a single question, but the impression one gives of being truly âat homeâ there may swing the balance for or against.
Good luck to all who take the challenge on. I would have failed pitifully had I had to go through the mill.
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Hi, I have been following the old forum for a long time before and during my naturalization process and I have been patiently waiting until the end of my journey to share my timeline. Here it is:
Canton / Commune: Geneva / Geneva
EU citizen
In CH since 2006 (did high school and uni here)
29th July 2022: After having assembled all necessary documents / certificate of the knowledge test, I have submitted my application to cantonal authorities (OCPM)
21st December 2022: I had an interview with cantonal authorities
20th March 2023: I have received a bill from SEM, which I have paid immediately
6th November 2023: Received a naturalisation decision with a ceremony planned for mid-December, which I couldnât attend. Anyway, as I have changed my marital status earlier in July, I realised that I had to provide the canton with my updated documents, which I have done in December.
7th February 2024: I have received a new naturalisation decision, with a ceremony planned for 5th March
5th March 2024: Attended the ceremony. ID and passport can be ordered from 27th March on (3 weeks after the ceremony, so that all of the 200 individuals attending would be put into the system).
All in all, it took me 20 months to become Swiss since kicking the process off. However if I didnât have to get my documents updated, it would have been 17 months, which I find reasonable.
I think that the process itself is easy, but time consuming. You donât really need to worry about anything as 99% of the time itâs just waiting for the documents to be pushed around various offices in Switzerland. In Geneva, the knowledge test is a formality (I donât know about the language test though), the interview with OCPM is quite pleasant and as far as I know the fees in Geneva are not too high compared to some other cantons.
Now, I will need to pay the military tax starting on 2025 tax year (first year of being Swiss, the tax is not levied), but fair enough 
For all those who have been sharing their experiences on the previous forum - BIG THANKS! Really appreciated your inputs!
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It is commonly said that âthere are 2000 ways to become Swissâ. This refers to the relative autonomy each Kanton/Gemeinde/Commune has in adjudicating on their citizenship applicants.
Towns in SVP heartlands are notorious for setting high hurdles, and in smaller towns, how you fit in plays also a big role. However the number of refusals are relatively low (ca 1 or 2 percent) and usually justifiable. The publicized cases are not reflective of the process.
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The cases youâve mentioned depend very much on the town/canton where the person lives. They are unlikely to happen in the city of Zurich. But even if this happens with you, there is a chance to appeal and win, like the person from Bubendorf, who became famous after the article in the newspaper. His application was rejected (twice, in fact) and one of the reason was that he was wearing sport pants when going outside. In the end the cantonal court forced the village to give him citizenship.
The cases like these attract lot of public attention, but in fact most of applicants get the citizenship without any problems.
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You are both right. It happens rarely that someone is turned down. But if it happens to me, that is 100% refused.
I do wonder how many people assured the guy in Gross, Einsiedeln, that he would have no problem with his application for citizenship. He was clearly well known and much respected in his field of work at the ETH. He had no black marks to his name. But he wasnât applying in ZĂźrich. He was applying in Einsiedeln. Probably none of his colleagues really knew the area he lived in and were, like him, unaware of pitfalls ahead. Was the refusal justifiable?
As TinyK said, if turned down, one can appeal, one might even win. But to live peacefully in a small village, it helps to have the goodwill of the other inhabitants. Putting their backs up is simply not a good start. Iâve seen villagers closing ranks. In the end, the object of their wrath left the village. She was right and they were wrong but that made no difference. She had broken their rules.
Frankly speaking, if I was going to move to SZ, I would wait until I get citizenship in ZH and move only after that. Just in case, you know.
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I finally got around to going to the StVA to change my DL to my CH nationality, more than 2 years after getting citizenship. They didnât say anything.
Is the only change the âGBâ written your your old DL changing to âCHâ? Is there any practical difference in changing that?
It depends on your nationality really. Some nationalities pay higher car insurance premiums than others so it might be important to have CH on the licence.
I donât think our son ever bothered changing his and he got his citizenship over four years ago. Iâll have to ask him next time I see him.
Pardon me Sir, but I never had UK/GB on my licence, I come from reputable convict stock. 
At least now I wonât be confused with Austrians.
I think the level of significance may come down to the Canton, or perhaps even the lower-level bureaucrat who you may have the fortune/misfortune to deal with.
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So youâre saying you koalified for the licence? 
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Do you think that car insurance really bases their premiums on the country of your driving license and not of your passport? I was going to inform our insurance company about our Swiss citizenship in the nearest time as we were among those nationalities who pay more for the insurance. Do you think that sending them a copy of our Swiss ID cards is not enough?
Actually, I de-koalafied it 
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I really donât know if it makes any difference at all what is on the licence.
I donât know either, but I can understand if some authorities would raise eyebrows if you have Swiss nationality but something else on your DL.
- If you have any change on the information on the Driverâs Licence or Circulation Licence (grey card), you must report it within 14 days (it is mentioned among others on the gray card in 4 languages). Websites also report this, eg for ZH: Ausweisdokumente aufgrund einer Namensänderung oder EinbĂźrgerung ändern lassen | Kanton ZĂźrich
- Some cantons vehicle centers (french speaking regions) will actively send a letter about 1 month after naturalisation, inviting you âwe are aware that you have had a change in circumstance which requires updating on your driving licence/greycard/navigational licence. For example, the following changes require new documents to be issued: change of name, gender, nationality/origin, âŚâ, reminding you of this obligation.
- A 1000 chf per year car insurance can become 100-200 chf cheaper when changing from USA/UK/southern Europe driving licence to Swiss. You can test that by visiting an insurer website and play with the dropdown menus in their simulators. Actually this immediate reduction usually pays for the cost of updating the driver license and grey card.
- No, showing the insurance company just the new Swiss ID card is not enough for them to make the change. They ask for the updated Swiss Driver Licence.
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