does anyone know how important is the doc “Teilnahme am sozialen und kulturellen Leben der Gesellschaft”? What did you write in it?
In your own words just explain how you and your family have integrated into Swiss society. How yo interact with your neighbours and local businesses and how you keep abreast of communal and cantonal politics, which local journals, or websites that you regularly consult. Any local officials you might have met could be mentioned.
I think this is key to becoming Swiss.
Good luck.
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Is it not enough to write about the local fests you attend, museums/events etc you regularly visit, membership of a verein, Swiss friend/friends you regularly meet and the outdoor activities you do (in summer) with your friends in your canton etc?
Congrats! Closing the naturalization in 16 months is very unusual. Is there any special circumstance?
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16 months to 2 years absolutely normal timeline in Zurich
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No, nothing special. But my understanding is that 16 months is not particularly fast and is not unusual in the canton of Zürich. In fact there were couple of small delays in the process (missing documents had to be delivered, etc), so in theory it could have been 14-15 months. I know that in some other (small) cantons 12-14 months is normal.
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Funny you are saying that, because I saw that when one entity is fast, the next entity in the next step delays the process. It doesnt look they do that because the next entity is busy, but rather to streamline. This is at least from my experience
Hi All, I have a few updates: Status changed to Prufung Bund. Processing time so far is in line with others in this forum.
Dec 2024: Application submitted
Feb 2025: Vorprufung
May 2025: Prufung Gemeinde
Oct 2025: Gemeinde Bürgerrecht
Nov 2025: Prufung Kanton
Feb 2026: Prufung Bund, and received Kanton+Gemeinde invoice
Mar 2026: Received SEM Invoice.
I’m happy that all actions from my side are done. All I need to do now is be patient.
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Mine was also around the 15 months duration, Kanton Luzern, but facilitated naturalization. But I didn’t really speed it myself. After I got the invitation letter to apply, I took 3 just months to submit the documents to SEM, delayed my interview for 1 to 1 & 1/2 months due to personal reasons, and in the last bit I didn’t push the Gemeinde consistently for the documents and entries I needed in the system for the Passburo appointment which added a few weeks. So in some cases timelines could be reduced to even 12 months for clearcut cases.
Seems like they have increased their processing speed or resource capacity.
For ordinary naturalization, 15 months seems already priority processing, but clearcut (simpler) cases are generally faster, as it depends upon case complexity.
If 15 months is becoming the norm, then people should be generally happy about this.
Mine was 15 months. However, I have quite a large gap between the civil register and the starting of the process (sending of the documentation package) which was a personal choice.