I’m a U.S. citizen getting married to my Swiss fiancée this summer in the canton of Vaud. We’ve been in a long-distance relationship, and we’re finally taking the step to live together permanently in Switzerland.
I’ve already had my Type D visa + marriage file appointment with the Swiss consulate in San Francisco, and I’ve submitted everything they asked for. The visa is being processed under the family reunification route, and I understand that final approval will only come after we’re officially married and the Swiss authorities have the marriage certificate on file.
I’ll be entering Switzerland in July under the 90-day visa waiver, and we plan to get married in late July or early August in her commune in Vaud. I’ve done a lot of research on these forums and through official sources (SPOP, SEM, the consulate), but I still have a few uncertainties and would really appreciate hearing actual experiences from people who’ve done this, especially in Vaud, which I understand can be quite strict in how they process these permits.
Specifically:
Once we’re married, do I personally need to submit the Swiss marriage certificate to the consulate or SPOP? Or will it linked automatically to my Type D visa file by the civil office?
Did SPOP ask you for an FBI background check or any other criminal record documentation after the marriage? If so, how much time did they gie you to provide it?
How long did it take from your wedding date until your Type D visa was approved?
Were there any unexpected delays, document requests, or extra steps you wish you’d known ahead of time?
I really want to make sure I’m handling everything correctly and not missing anything that could delay the process unnecessarily.
Thank you so much in advance to anyone willing to share their experience. I really appreciate this community and all the helpful insights, it’s made navigating this process so much more manageable.
The Type D visa is to allow you to stay longer than the 90 day limit. So I’m not sure you can enter as a tourist when you’re waiting for that application to be approved.
I believe there is a visa/permit that allows you to come to Switzerland to help plan the wedding ahead of time.
That’s not correct.
They are allowed to come to Switzerland as a tourist without a visa whilst awaiting the D visa approval as long as they don’t exceed 90 days here.
Each town/village aka commune has a control des habitants. Once you are in Switzerland you will deal with them. Once you arrive I would visit them and introduce yourself.
Thanks BelgianMum, that’s exactly what I understood too from the consulate and SEM. Appreciate the confirmation, it’s reassuring to hear it from someone with experience.
Thanks Bowlie! Once my Type D visa is issued and I return to Switzerland as a resident, I’ll definitely introduce myself to the commune. For now I’ll be entering on a legal tourist stay and following the consulate’s guidance regarding registration timing.
In some cases I heard from a friend they do thorough background checks. They send somebody to your family / parents home (where ever they are located in the world) to check if you are not already married, are single, and they can even ask neighbors. This is one of the background checks they do in terms of their investigation, and that guy works with the Embassy. But I guess its not for all cases, maybe high risk ones.
You cannot get married on the visa waiver program, just obey the rules as a tourist, no marriage, no employment, temporary visitor up to 90 days and you should be fine. But to get the Visa D you would need to exit Switzerland, go back to the US, get the visa and re-enter Switzerland. Visa D I think is the family reunification visa, and valid probably up to 6 months if I am not mistaken.
Then you need to prepare for the marriage, get your documents translated into the Kanton’s language (e.g., family certificate, birth certificate etc. and they might ask for originals together with translation), get a translator, there is a lot of documentation. Once you submit all your marriage eligibility documents to the Gemeinde (they will probably give you a checklist) and after those documents are accepted, then you can get a marriage date, if I remember correctly. Just make sure you get all the necessary documents attested / verified from the US before you enter on the type D visa. However, I suppose the US Embassy in Bern could also attest / verify them for you, but they might charge Swiss rates.
But generally if you have already applied for the Type D visa, you didn’t submit your passport together for the visa? If that means you can submit it later once the visa is approved to get the visa stamp, so you are free to travel anywhere as the passport is with you.
Thanks for the reply! I just wanted to clarify a few things based on my specific situation. I’m a U.S. citizen getting married to a Swiss citizen, and I’ve already had my Type D visa and marriage preparation appointment at the Swiss consulate in San Francisco. The consulate confirmed that it’s perfectly legal to get married in Switzerland while on a tourist stay, as long as I don’t overstay the 90-day limit or try to apply for a residence permit from within Switzerland without the visa. That part of the process is pretty standard for people marrying Swiss citizens from abroad.
I’m also not expecting any background investigations or extra verification since my documents have already been reviewed by the consulate. From what I understand, those types of checks are only done in higher-risk cases or for certain countries, not for U.S. citizens applying through the consulate.
I do appreciate your response though. I know there are a lot of different paths depending on the nationality, permit status, and canton involved, so it’s always helpful to hear how varied the experiences can be.
Best is when you arrive to Switzerland, go to the Gemeinde where your future partner resides, show them your passport and ask them if they allow you to get married while on tourist stay. They might refer you to the Kantonal immigration if they need to.
As far as I know, in order to avoid tourists getting married to Swiss citizens while on tourist visas or waiver visas, they have the Visa D type that allows more than 3 months stay, otherwise any tourist with a waiver visa could get married to a Swiss citizen, and they would have no way to control such migration cases or do proper checks to see if marriages are legitimate. The US is still considered as non-EU. EU cases probably they might be more lenient, depends upon the Kanton and Gemeinde, but there are Federal laws dictating how marriage eligibilities for non-EU citizens living abroad should be conducted.
Hey, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. You clearly know a lot about how this works on the ground.
I think maybe my situation is a bit different though, I’m marrying a Swiss citizen and already submitted everything through the consulate in San Francisco (Type D visa + marriage prep). From what the consulate told me, I can legally marry in Switzerland during a tourist stay as long as I leave before day 90 to pick up the visa abroad. I know some people go through the commune, but in my case everything is going through Vaud directly via the consulate, so hopefully that simplifies things.
That said, my main questions were more about what happens after the wedding, like how long people in Vaud waited for their Type D approval and if anyone was asked for a background check or extra documents. If you’ve seen that happen (or not happen), I’d love to hear what your experience has been.
Thanks again, I’m learning a lot from all the perspectives in this thread.
Type D visas can normally take more longer than general tourist visas, as if they seem feasible, they might perform some additional background checks (depends on a case-by-case basis and individual circumstances) as the Visa D is a longer stay (> 90 days), so it has a different intentions and different implications than standard Schengen tourist visas, this is a specific Swiss visa. Type D typically are generally family unification visas, for instance they might also ask your Swiss partner for some confirmation in some cases. This visa is processed by the cantonal immigration authorities in the Kanton itself, depends on individual circumstances and the Kanton itself. Processing times probably I would say 1 to 3 months.
By the way, generally after you are married, marriage ceremony is complete, you have the marriage certification and confirmation, you don’t need a Type D visa anymore, you can apply for a residence permit directly from the Kantonal immigration authorities.
Not sure if you are looking at this from the correct viewpoint. My recommendation would be to the follow standard procedure: enter when I have the Type D visa stamped, get married, then apply for a residence permit, that is the general procedure in majority of cases.
I believe that you CAN get married on a tourist visa (in theory) - but you will need to do all the paperwork before you arrive or you will exceed the 90 days
the commune will publish you request to get married, and wait a period of time to see if anyone objects
The commune usually has a waiting list - in our case, took nearly 5 months before there was a free slot
not sure if you can submit the request to get married while you are not here (check, I would presume your future wife can submit it - but in our case, we had to be both there to sign it)
They will ask for A LOT of paperwork - expect birth certificates (apostilled in some cases), “proof of being single” from your home country, parent’s birth certificates and any children’s certs. They add you to the family book of that village, and thus also add details of 2 generations back (in my case). You will become part of your wife’s “home town” and adopt that hometown
The actual legal ceremony is quick - we had 2 options: 1. sign and leave (2 of you + 2 witnesses, no-one else allowed in), 2. a ceremony where you can invite guests.
Once you are married, they ask how many copies of the cert you want - get a few. You’ll need to send one to the American embassy here (+ any other nationalities you hold).
Congratulations!
Edit: Oh yeah, and I forgot - next step is to inform banks, insurances, etc… this is a pain - as some banks will charge you to issue updated cards, while some, will say “ah, you have ties to the USA - your account is immediately closed”
These silly rules was one reason we decided to get married in the UK. Neither of us, nor our commune, had any idea how we could prove we were single. Our consulates just laughed at us. You cannot prove something had never happened.
In the Netherlands there is a document for that (in several languages actually). Had to get one to get married in Berlin.
It just stated that I was not married during my time in the Netherlands.
Of course it exists. It is called Certificate of No Impediment and easily obtainable.
Many British citizens manage to get married overseas in Switzerland or elsewhere with it … Proof that they have no record of any marriage for you (proof you are single) is required by most countries, it is not a silly Swiss thing.
The British consulate even has a note on their website stating that they don’t provide such a document.
Our son had to make a statement at the notaire’s office which was signed by him then signed and stamped by the notaire stating that he was indeed single and that was accepted by the canton for his naturalisation request.
Have you tried to obtain one whilst living in Switzerland?
It really is not as simple as you are suggesting. The easiest thing to do here in Switzerland is to go down the notary route.
Yes this document stating that you are not married is a very very important one indeed. You get it from your home country. Some countries like mentioned in some previous posts have official documents to give this declaration, otherwise you can get notarized affidavits stamped which are then signed by your parents declaring you are single. This proof is one of the most important that they require. It is required regardless of which ever country you come from EU or non-EU.
Starting from the marriage preparation to the actual marriage ceremony can take a few months easily, the paperwork required (proofs, evidences together with translations) all need to be attested, verified by the respective ministries, embassies and foreign affair representations before you submit them to the Swiss authorities, this ensure these are not fake documents.
Alternatively you can get married in your home country which is easy, but bringing that marriage into Switzerland is another pain indeed, probably a more difficult one. Haven’t really heard of much cases getting married outside of Switzerland, normally they do it in Switzerland.
My final two cents on this case are: Fast-tracking the marriage or taking a shortcut, meaning trying to get married when you enter through a visa waiver program, while your Visa D is not approved, could raise some red flags. This could make them scrutinize your intent and case further causing more delay (they might perform heavier background checks and request for more justifications and evidences). Its always best to follow the standard approach and take it with patience.
