Best Regards,
Phani
Hi All, I am about to apply for Ordinary Naturalisation at Geneva. I am non-eu and spent 10 years in Switzerland. I would like to know if the number of years on L permit is counted as calendar years or is it counted as halved? Thanks for your responses
Hi Phani,
the rules are different in every Kanton and in every village, as you actually become a citizen of the village, and in retrospect the country.
Best go to your local gemeinde (or whatever you frenchies have down there) and ask them...
Unfortunately stay on L permit does not count. I've linked a FAQ that answers your question on the official site.
https://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/fr/home...ues_recht.html
"Les années avec un permis L ne sont pas comptabilisées."
Thanks to both of you. I have just seen in Wikipedia link that L years will be counted as half https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_nationality_law
According Federal law which applies to any commune and canton years on L (short term residency permit) do NOT count. Years on F (temporary admission of refugees) count half. Years on B (residence permit), C (permanent residence permit), and Ci (legitimation card) count full. Art. 33 Swiss Citizenship Act is super clear about that. https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classifi...index.html#a33
This issues has been discussed an umpteen times on this forum.
Permis d’admission provisoire is not an L permit, it’s an F.
Sorry for bringing this topic again.
I could not find the section where L permit is not counted.
My case:
Non-Eu. 10 years.
Initial 2 years on L permit, even though I had indefinte Employment contract from Day 1. Received C permit after 6 years staying here.
Aufenthalte mit N oder L Ausweis werden der Wohnsitzfrist nicht angerechnet. “Stays with N or L ID are not counted towards the residence requirement.” https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/portal/...setzungen.html
As for the case of RGC who received L permit despite having permanent contract in the beginning of the employment, the issuance of an L permit is clearly inappropriate as it is meant for "short term". Can we not challenge this as being violation of rules?
Yeah good luck starting your naturalization application by challenging decisions first thing.
I have yet to see a court ruling ordering the authority to directly issue Bürgerrecht/droit de cité in cases where the citizenship candidate won an appeal. At best the judge will ask authorities to reconsider the case so going down the appeal route for citizenship is a waste of time.
L permits do not count towards the residency requirement for citizenship, no way around it.
Someone is always the first one which brings something to court. Up and including Federal court it will take 2 - 3 years. Lawyer is optional but highly recommended. Cost and time wise it is simpler to just let the extra years pass.
For the question were it is state that L -permit does not count. I have linked the relevant part of the law above. Here a copy of the relevant part:
As we can see "temporary residence permit" a.k.a permit L, is not listed only "residence permit"/permit B, and "permanent residence permit"/permit C. It you think this is not the correct interpretation, I also point to the SEM Handbook with all explanations and in addition to the message of the Federal Council .
It was challenged up to the Federal Administrative court in 2020, which is the highest legal authority in Switzerland on matters of ordinary naturalization (the Federal Court cannot rule on complaints about ordinary naturalization, per Art 83.b BGG).
They basically told the plaintiff to suck it up and wait 2 more years, which is the final decision definitely establishing how such L permits are handled for naturalization. They have even recognized that this situation and the inconsistency with counting them for C permit sucks, but they decided that the will of the legislators was to be interpreted literally in this case.
You can read the detailed court deliberations here .