One of the mandatory questions that should be asked of all applicants is;
Q: What is the golden rule of Switzerland?
Q : Quelle est la règle d’or en Suisse ?
F: Wie lautet die goldene Regel in der Schweiz?
D: Qual è la regola d’oro in Svizzera?
A: Every Canton is different.
R : Chaque canton est différent.
A: Jeder Kanton ist anders.
R: Ogni cantone è diverso.
It goes further…every town is different.
Absolutely. In VD, I got the first cantonal approval on October 6th and since then I have got no news at all from my commune. I have contacted them many times and they always say they will be treating my application. I didn’t even get a letter saying that they received my file. My friend in an adjacent commune of the same size had a letter setting the interview and test dates 10 days after the cantonal approval. That goes to say that each town is different…
Welcome to the forum. Not only do cantons and parishes vary, we vary too.
I don’t know about in VAUD but in the Swiss German speaking region we are sometimes requested to wait quickly, and that is what you are already doing. Congratulations.
Founex, by any chance. They are notoriously slow and difficult.
No not Founex but can’t do much about it other than be patient. I hope they respect the one year rule where they should by law communicate their decision but until now there is a complete disregard to cantonal directives.
Let’s see 
Small and medium size communes never process applications as they arrive for obvious efficiecy reasons. They process applications in batches, and a commune will typically only have 3 or 4 rounds of naturalizations per year.
This means that if you applied at the wrong time, your application may be just sitting for a couple of months, waiting for the next (already planned) day for interviews, reports, exams etc to arrive. This includes sending out letters to the candidates, which may seem that it is stalled. It also explains why your friend in another town may be ahead of you.
The VD commune must decide within 18 months after you applied. I am not sure which 1 year law you refer to.
PS: Note that the commune must make the decision within that timeframe and send it to the Canton, but it is communicated to you much later, as the work of the commune must first be validated by the canton (in case they missed something and have to get back to you, it would be awkward if they have already said congratulations.)
All milestones are documented under https://www.vd.ch/uploads/tx_vdfilesdbsecri/NAT-1804_Directive_Fiche_Pratique_La_procèdure_cantonale_vaudoise.pdf
That does not align with my personal experience but does for many of my friends. Still anecdotal but seems to be unlucky.
The pdf confirms what I said earlier, 18 months from application until the commune making decision. (p.4 of pdf).
The 12 months refers to the time the commune has until they send you the avis de cloture, which is a letter saying that they now have all the info to make a decision. They still have another 3 months (p.8 top) to make the decision, arriving at 15 months for the communal stage, ensuring that with the initial cantonal processing they remain below 18 months total.
The avis de cloture is important as after that day you are free to change commune or canton and the application will continue in your original commune-canton.
I think you are misunderstanding the timeline for my case (or maybe I am not understanding the directives correctly). The canton gave its initial approval and sent the application to the commune early October. Per the directive the commune has 1 year to give its avis de clotûre from the moment they receive the application which takes the deadline to October 2025. The reason I am bringing this up is because it seemed to me that it is strange that they haven’t even informed me that they got my file and now we are almost in May. No test date or interview set, nothing at all. This makes it very tight as they need to allow a minimum preparation period of 3 months for the test and they can have a back and forth with the canton afterwards. The 18 months deadline coïncides exactly in any case with the 12 months mark.
I got a letter saying that now my documents are reviewed (they asked for couple additional documents) and they will send it for police survey etc… still waiting!
Hey Folks, Can someone from Basel share the list of things to prepare for citizenship?
Thanks
You can look it up here:
and here:
You will also be asked for a cv, but only after you submit the necessary forms.
If you are not in the Swiss civil registry (likely unless you’ve gotten married or had a child in Switzerland) you will have to register there (search under “Zivilstand” in the first link above). Good luck!
Dear fellow members, need your piece of advice.
I applied for naturalization in Jan 2023 (submitted all relevant papers, etc). In October I had a successful interview with the Gemeinde and in November 2023 a positive Gemeinde voting. My files then were sent further to Kantonal and Federal levels for processing. In March 2024 I got a bill from SEM (CHF 100), the first ever bill to pay (my Gemeinde informed me that they would send their CHF 1000 invoice at the end of the naturalization process, so not yet). And yesterday I got a letter from Kanton which asked me to confirm I committed no crimes in the meantime and if there had been any changes in my social or family situation. Do I get it right that the approval for my Swiss naturalization is not yet granted ? How long might it take from now to get the ultimate approval ? Thanks for sharing your experience. I am a bit puzzled at this stage…
Since they are still asking for information, it is clear that the naturalization is still not granted.
I am at a similar stage, with my application at SEM since March, but I have already paid the gemeinde, cantonal and SEM bills. Of course, this depends on canton and gemeinde, but the SEM form said that it takes them up to 8 months and then another 3-6 at the Canton level for final approval. I hope it goes faster.
Does someone know how early you can start the naturalization process if you’re close to hitting 10 years in Switzerland? I’m hitting that mark next year and just want to make sure I’m prepared, in case some parts of the process can be started a bit earlier.
This is the the so-called silver letter. Usually they don’t ask for this information, rather remind you of your self-reporting obligations (at least in Zürich). But once you do confirm this if needed, it is usually 4-5 months maximum from that point.
I wonder what your opinion is. I have 10 years in Switzerland, a C permit, 2.5 years in my current municipality in the canton of ZH. I can’t even formally start the process because my German is still pretty basic. I suspect it will take me another year to pass the required exam. The bigger problem, however, is that I don’t know anyone here.
On the other hand, I have been thinking about moving. I would like to move to a quiet place with nice views and fiber optic internet. Moving will certainly reset the clock again, how much, however, depends on the location, in ZH canton it’s 2 years, in ZG (where I’m also looking) it’s 5 years.
Well, if I knew my application would be approved, I would certainly stay where I am for another ~ 2 years. Would you encourage me to stay and prioritize naturalization process, or rather relax and follow with it in the future?
PS. I have EU passport so I don’t see any uncertainty on the horizon regarding my stay in Switzerland.
Thank you! I guess the process is coming to its end (eventually!)…
You could start now and if you then move, then stop the process and re-start when you meet the time requirements.