Following a good rule "first explore and try find answer yourself, then ask" I searched the forum but mainly threads concerning naturalisation process are covering the interview questions, documents required, time delay, etc
What interests me are the 3 reference contacts with swiss nationality (Referenzpersonen mit Schweizer Bürgerrecht). What is their role in the process and what exactly they will have to do: fill the questionnaire, answer a call? I am asking because they are asking me
Thanks a lot if somebody could share his experience
P.S. I am in canton Vaud now but I am interested in experience of any Canton as it is facilitated naturalisation and (I think) is made on the federal level
If all the previous steps fail and if they really need to contact these people, I would rather have 3 solid contacts like a Swiss family for couple of generations. Their role should be like backing you up about your Swiss integration.
But most probably it is just a procedure and I assume the reference people would not be contacted at all.
I have just talked with deacon of our village and she said that once she has been a reference person for one ethiopian couple. She is sure that she has never received a call, and maximum she had to do is to answer some questions in the letter. So I suppose it is not so frightening
A friend of mine went through the process (not in Vaud though) and was required to provide the names/addresses of three people with Swiss citizenship.
Although the forms only ask for names/addresses, she was informally told that the whole point of this is to show her "integration into Swiss life", so she should provide info of people who could vouch for that. I don't think her references were ever contacted, but I recall she provided the names of folks who were known/established in her community that she knew personally (one was a teacher at the local school, one was the president of a local club she is a member of, etc.).
We had to do the same for OH- and neither were contacted. I think, as said above, they would only be contacted if the people assessing you couldn't decide whether to approve your naturalisation or not. We carefully chose 3 people from 3 different areas, from very different backgrounds, including a policeman, a banker and a doctor.
Choosing a Banker was risky, Swiss Bankers are considered very dodgy by most of the world. (I guess I never integrated sufficiently to think the sun shines out of UBS )
Not risky for Switzerland though- a local guy and now just retired. Our current UBS banker is Turkish anyhow- really nice young guy- had coffee with him this afternoon a brilliant secondo.
It depends. We have a few sets of friends who have done facilitated naturalization (in different cantons). In both cases, the references were contacted. They were asked to vouch that the marriage was legit, not in trouble/no signs of divorce, and that the applicant was integrated into Swiss life. The references had to provide written statements in one canton, and verbal in the other.
For my references, I chose to go with more than 3. I included some friends and some relatives. They are spread across CH, not just in my village or home canton. All of them know both me and my OH and can vouch for all of the above.
From relatives I could include my husband's ex-wife with whom we have a very good relationship from the day one I entered the country (and even before)
But I am not sure the Immigration Office will understand it
Big thanks to all for your input! It was really helpful
However if to summarise, I doubt that among my friends I have more than 3 swiss citizens, from good respected families, swiss in 3 generations, well-known in my village, of different backgrounds, who know well me and details of my family life
I gave three references, my aunt-in-law who is into local politics, a good friend who is a Prof at Bern Hospital and our current landlord. They all received a letter to answer some questions and both my aunt and landlord (without me asking) wrote extra letters of recommendation, our Landlord went as far as to say I was always very friendly and eager to practice my German with him whenever I see him and that I would be a 'Good Swiss Citizen'.
None of the references were contacted again after the initial letter.
I personally know some of the people who work in the Geminde and that helped too. I never got an interview with the police, just a 'chat' with my friend at the Geminde who needed to confirm some education questions, and my Facilitated Naturalisation went through very quickly....around 6 months.
Within the past year I completed applications for facilitated naturalisation for two children of ours who are not already Swiss, one living with his spouse and 3 infants in San Francisco and the other a single mum in London. We used essentially the same Swiss-based referees: a distant cousin, retired Zurich lawyer I haven't seen in decades but exchange Xmas cards with faithfully, the director general of the management company--estate agency that manages the building containing our holiday flat in Montreux (apparently he's the only Swiss in the firm), a scholar of Ancient Greek living in a Monthey retirement home, a couple we have known for nearly a decade in Bouveret, an artist who works as prize-winning gardner for the garden square if one of our London properties (but is domiciled still in Valais), one of my other daughters, Swiss citizen and NHS surgeon in Oxford, and in San Francisco the father of a classmate of one of my grandchildren at the Lycée Français de San Francisco.
Not all were contacted, and those who were, not necessarily for both applications. We had some of the referees write letters in advance and submitted them with the applications.
I did mention that we formerly had a much larger family contingent in Switzerland but most had died childless, describing former family gatherings in Oberwil BL, and my living with my grandfather in Zurich while a student in the early 1960s.
The applications were both successful, yielding 6 new Suisses romandes: fluent in French, and all the children in French schools, SF & London. But citizens of Aargau, and our German is basic: one year in college.
If you can't find 3 people who are not related to you, how can you back up the claim you are intergrated into Swiss society, which i believe is one of the criteria for naturalisation ?
You ask at 4 mins past midnight and complain when you don't get immediate answers? Tsk tsk how long have you been on EF?
Try not to overthink it. Of course you can and probably should list relatives, but you should also include a few friends or colleagues. Ideally you want a diverse list to help show your integration and connections. There's no reason to limit to 3, by the way. I listed more than that and the authorities didn't complain.
My references included relatives, neighbors, and friends. The more the merrier - just be sure to get their permission before including on the list.
I also mentioned several of our neighbors and the Hauswart by name at the in-person interview, to again show that we're integrated and don't just lock the doors and ignore everyone.
Then by all means, include the family members you think would be best. Part of integrating into life in Switzerland is getting along with the in-laws, right?
I think the authorities might scratch heads at a reference list that didn't include any family members or conversely, one that contained exclusively family. Remember, this is "simplified" naturalization. They're not going to rake you over the coals and hook your family up to lie detectors.
Now your post has me wondering if any of my references were contacted. None of them mentioned it, and I didn't think to ask!