I have 3 children (aged 12, 16 and 18 years) and they all speak German pretty well.
My eldest is likely to go back to UK for Uni this summer.
We all hold British passports.
What are the pros and cons of gaining Swiss citizenship?
Is it a relatively straightforward process?
I have looked on the forum and perused other resources, and will go to talk with the staff at my local Gemeinde but any advice is also welcome: the EF often teases out some interesting views and angles.
Let's assume that you're still living here in five years time. Your eldest will have finished university and likely looking for a job. If he wasn't a to come back to Switzerland to live he'll need to get his own permit via a job, he will no longer qualify under the family reunification scheme so he won't automatically have the right to live here even though all the rest of his family is here.
Our 16 year old will qualify for Swiss citizenship next year ( before us due to the year's counting double between ages 10 and 20) and he plans to apply for exactly those reasons even though it means he'll have to do the military ( or civil) service.
It's a relatively straightforward process for most people.
The only downside I can think of to Swiss citizenship, is that boys have to do Military service.... only a downside if they don't want to do this.
Suppose your children live here till they each turn 18 or 20, then go abroad (= outside of Switzerland) to study, travel and work, and later choose to return when they are parents themselves. They'll be 30 or 40 by then. About then, you retire.
What would happen if, say, after your children had flown, you also returned to the UK and then, just when they're in that phase of nest-building for their own children, you begin to get old. It would be a great pity if you and they did not all have the same citizenships so that you could all - should you want to - live in the same country. If your children were Swiss, and if they chose to invite you to stay with them when you are old but you were NOT Swiss, they might end up having to make financial support pledges (guarantees to the Swiss government that they would always cover all of your costs) for you, which would be entirely unnecessary were you already Swiss, too.
If you have ageing parents of your own, who are not living in Switzerland, perhaps you already feel that pull between "here" and "there", and a certain uncertainty or even worry about their future and your responsibility (if you feel you have one) towards their care as they grow older. Or even if they are healthy wherever they live now, you, they, or your children might be wishing they could join into your lives as grandparents.
If you and your children all naturalise as Swiss as soon as you are eligible, you will be doing your children the favour of preventing their having that same tension - at least as far as the papers are concerned - when they are middle-aged.
In particular, before summer, about your 18-year-old: please, make sure that she/he does not de-register from Switzerland before you've thought through everything about naturalisation. She/he is an adult, now, and will not automatically simply be allowed to come back to live in Switzerland based on the fact that you and the younger siblings live here. As far as I understand it, she/he will be evaluated newly, on own standards, like any other single UK adult, i.e. always allowed to enter Switzerland, but needing an own permit to live here, based on employment, etc.
Disadvantages of naturalising as Swiss?
- You'll need to set aside some time to prepare.
- Collect all the documents.
- Have your finances in good order.
- The UK and Switzerland both allow dual nationality. If you have other citizenships besides UK, you'd need to check whether that country or those countries allow dual (or multiple) nationality and, if not, consider whether or not you (and each member of your family) would be willing to forego that/those other citizenship(s).
- Depending on the Gemeinde in which you live, you will have to learn more or less of Swiss history, geography and politics, and pass a written or oral exam in these topics, in German.
- And the fees, of course.
Altogether, you'll have to add up theses costs, financial and other, and decide whether these feel unreasonable, or a relatively small price to pay for the priviledge of knowing that you and your children can all live, freely, as you choose, in not only the UK but also in Switzerland. To me, it seems one should maximise flexibility since we live in a very strange world changing in ways we cannot fully anticipate.
My eldest is dead against doing military service, so is not so sure about applying for the Swiss passport. From what I found out today, there are alternative possibilities for him: either some kind of annual service to the country (for example, within schools), or an annual payment.
Can anyone shed any further light on the military service and alternatives?
(thanks for the helpful replies so far)
The options are military service, civil service or an annual tax so your son won't have to do military service. It's also possible to be refused for medical reasons or inadequate language skills.
Details here ( in French but can change to German or Italian)
The info is in German, but since you say your children's German is quite good, they'll probably be able to read it themselves.
I am planning to visit Iran this year and so I will do that on my Swiss Passport (where my Cuba stamp is ) and 'save' my UK one for visiting the USA (where they have recently imposed restrictions on people appyling for ESTA if they have visited Iran)
Its also good if you need to send a passport for a visa and need to travel in the meantime.
He found it much less stressful flying to the US when he used the passport without the Russian and Indian visas as he wasn't chosen for the 'special' searches then.
If, as an 18 year old, you go abroad to university (in particular to a "home country" uni), because you are an adult, you may not be given Swiss citizenship. It happened to a friend of mine's daughter. She ended up having to go through the whole process from scratch as she lost the "continuity" of being in CH. (Even though the daughter was born and lived all her life here.)
Also, worth thinking about getting citizenship and then heading out to explore the world. If you are a resident abroad, I believe that you don't have to do military service and if you come back after a certain age, they don't want you either.
...which is basically what he'd probably be doing....but would he then need to pay some kind of tax during that time since he would not be available for military service?
I know a Swiss Canadian who wanted to do the service, even if he barely stepped foot in CH. There is no tax to be paid if you are "draftable" but reside outside the country.