Thank you.
I submitted my documents last week, though the initial online application was made in August 2023. Was on gardening leave which made things a bit more complicated.
Will look up any info on FMZ.
They gave a talk recently about it and the woman running it recommended emailing her/making an appointment if you are considering naturalisation. Her name is Cathy Newman and you can make an appointment via the front desk.
Good luck! Weâre some time off yet but would love to know how you get on.
Yes, I remember this as well. There seems to be a SEM section dealing with applications from German-speaking cantons and another SEM section dealing with applications from French-speaking cantons and Ticino, with the former being faster than the latter (allegedly).
I am in BS and got my SEM bill at the end of December. I havenât heard anything since.
From other timelines I remember from the old forum, it seems that some get their approval very fast (1 month), most within 4 months, few take longer. My own canton doesnât let us know when the SEM approval came.
Does anyone know how long it takes for the police survey report and dossier checking i.e. time between document submission to interview? thanks in advance.
In my case (Canton Zurich but not city of Zurich), the interview happened 7 months after the online submission of my application. I am not sure at which stage the police survey report takes place, as I never had an interview with the police, but as a rough estimate, the timeline till now is as follows:
0th-2nd month: The application was not looked at.
2nd-5th month: Canton pre-examination
5th-8th month: Gemeinde examination, with interview around the 7th month
8th -11th month: Canton examination
11th - 12th month (today): Application is at the Federal level, paid the bill and waiting for the outcome
This is really canton dependent - you need experiences from Zug (right?).
In my canton, we have two interviews and no police survey report, for example. Good luck!
Cool. Good progress and guess you are about 6 months away from being naturalized.
My case is a bit unique as I did apply online in Aug 23 but was asked to wait to submit documents as I was on gardening leave.
Anyway, I guess I ll just start counting 18 months from now and anything earlier is a bonus.
Appreciate the input and good luck.
In Zug yes. Zug also has two interviews. Gemiende und Kanton. But before the interview the application documents are sent to police to create a survey report. Post that the dossier is examined and then the Gemeinde interview happens.
In any case, its waiting period now. Will update if I have any news. Still working on my deutsche though!
Based on my personal experience, I would recommend to continue working on your German. Once the application is sent, this is in reality the only thing that you can do. Because they may say that the required level is A2/B1, but in practice, they guys interviewing you do not really know what A2/B1 means. They just speak to you and you are expected to at least understand what they say and be able to formulate an answer and I do not think that A2/B1 is enough to have such a discussion.
In my case, my interview was held a few weeks after I sat for my C1 exam and I still struggled. They started speaking in Swiss German in the beginning, which completely threw me off. They realized and they asked if I preferred High German, to which I replied yes. As a non fluent speaker who does not get to practice outside of the 3-4 hours of classes every week, it is very difficult to have your first âevery dayâ discussion in such a setting. I still managed to handle this and I believe that after the first numbness, my speaking improved and I was not thinking so much about the grammar (of course I made mistakes) but more about the content, which is the important aspect here. And to be honest, once I had realized that they were happy with the interview and they would most probably would give the ok, I wanted to continue speaking with them because it was honestly an interesting discussion, but it was late in the evening and we had already been talking for 45 minutes, so they also wanted to wrap it up and go back to their families.
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Yes fully agree and I have been taking Deutsche classes and doing a lot of reading. I am able to read and understand enough but when I try to converse with locals, Schweizer Deutsche is throwing me off. Still a long way to go!
May be someone has some insight/ideas what is possibly could be included in a police survey report? (apart from issued fines, court things)
The current SEM timelines according to a friend is ~3.5-4 months.
I have paid the Kantonal invoice and waiting for the next steps. I was told Lebenslauf should be asked at some point.
Is it not asked as part of the application process? In Zurich, you have to fill in all this information online, as part of your application.
As per most things here it depends on the canton.
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In Zug, the initial application does not include Lebenslauf. It is asked for before the ĂŻnterview is scheduled (4 weeks or so). This one here is Zug is more of a hand written document 
And here, finally, is our timeline:
Applying with my spouse in BS, our daughter was already naturalized two years ago. One EU, one non-EU, with German certificates B1 and B2.
2022/12 documents handed over at the civil registry office
2023/1 received âPersonenstandâ document from the civil registry office
2023/1 sent documents to the cantonal migration office by registered mail
2023/1 bill from the canton 950 Fr, interview in 5-7 months
2023/3 letter from the canton, request for CV
2023/4 CV sent to the canton
2023/5 phone interview, cantonal migration office
2023/5 file transferred to our locality, interview in 4-6 months, bill for 1100 Fr
2023/10 letter: interview in a month
2023/11 locality interview
2023/11 positive decision of the naturalization commission
2023/12 SEM bill 150 Fr
2024/4 Naturalized (publication in the official cantonal newsletter). We will be able to apply for documents in about three weeks.
15 months if we exclude the civil registry process, not bad!
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Congratulations! That sounds like a decent timeline to me.
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Thanks, weâre very happy about it! Itâs never to be taken for granted, even if you tick all the boxes.
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Congratulations and thanks for posting this.
Clearly the process differs from Zug. Crazy how steps are jumbled up between different cantons.