I’m a UK citizen but was born in a third country. Single, never married/no children…
I just completed 10 years, no social help in the last 10 years, no criminal records, have C permit and B1 level language certificate. So technically I’m eligible to apply for naturalisation…But looks like in Zurich one must register themselves in the Civil register first in order to apply. I came to know about this at the beginning of this year. So managed to get my birth certificate extract, got it apostilled and sent it to Zivilstandsamt around 2 month ago. At that time I received a mail from them confirming receipt of the documents and they wrote that it would take some time for the documents to be processed.
I waited 2 months and contacted them last week. Today they sent me an email requesting me to send another form (questionnaire). I was told to fill and send this form along with loads of my other documents (education certificate, passport copy etc) , so that they can send this to a Swiss Embassy in the country of my birth to get it verified. The process would apparently take 4-5 months. I just don’t understand even after apostille, why they need to reverify it and why it takes so many months…
Meanwhile I can not even apply for naturalisation as the first criteria is to get birth registered.
So probably my case would take 2.5 to 3 years instead of 2 years.
Has anyone here been through this process? If so, could you please share your experience? Thanks
I am in a different canton, but had a similar experience – even being an EU citizen. It took them 7 months + to check all of my papers. My suggestion? forget about the process, and don’t stress with the timings. They will come back to you when it’s done. Yes, sometimes it takes more than the ‘standard time’, sometimes less. You read here only the success stories, but there are many others…
I got married in Switzerland and I started the process in Zürich and luckily it was couple years ago, I am EU Passport holder and all that the Zivilstandsamt wanted was a “true” copy not a scan or a photocopy of my birth certificate, I did not have to put any apostille or translated as my native language is Italian and the documents were from Italy.
My wife from non EU had to go back to her county and provide several docs translated and apostilled, for her was a hassle but it took more for her to get the paper and send it via DHL here than the Zivilstandsamt processing them. (it took them couple of months maximum in our case)
We are from Ukraine and we never had this problem. Certificate + Apostille + translation + stamp from the translation agency was accepted without any additional questions (even though by law they could have demanded another Apostille on the translation). Maybe it’s more complicated for non-European countries.
I think it ultimately depends on the officer reviewing the documents. Since I’m officially single (even though I’ve been in a relationship with my Swiss girlfriend for the past 10 years), perhaps that’s why there’s more documentation involved. Honestly, I’m starting to lose motivation to apply because of all the red tape. I’m quite content with my C permit, as it already grants me nearly all the same rights. Obtaining Swiss nationality would certainly strengthen my sense of belonging here, since I truly consider this country my home. However, if the process feels intentionally complicated and unwelcoming, then I guess I shouldn’t feel too desperate to pursue it.
@thedude, I agree that a lot of it is left to the discretion of the particular registry office, but there are countries whose documents generally get more scrutiny (notably India and China). I’m sorry you are dealing with this! Indeed, this was the most complex part of the entire process for us because my spouse was not born in Europe/US/Canada and it took a long while to assemble all the documents, especially during Covid. This is the reason our minor daughter applied on her own before the too of us, as her EU birth certificate was easy to procure, even in 2020. Good luck!
My experience was almost identical. I flew halfway across the world to get an apostilled birth certificate — nine hours in line, another week to collect it, then back to Switzerland.
When I finally presented it, I was told to pay extra so an attorney could “verify” my birth — perhaps by tracking down the doctor who delivered me 50 years ago or the priest who splashed the holy water. That’s when I decided I’d had enough.
Meanwhile, my Western-born, lighter-skinned family members had no such trouble.
Not too much, I would say, comparing to the length of the whole process. Maybe two weeks before the interview to read and reread the brochure and to test yourself in the app. The rest of the time you can relax and only pay the bills every few month.
Well, depends very much where you live. In my case, there is no ‘brochure’…they suggest 5 books, each one of >100 pages… and there is no ‘test app’, it is a verbal …grilling - including questions that are not on the books.
Based on my experience, just learning the answers takes you nowhere - they ask for long term tangible examples of your engagement in the community. Just paying the bills (& the taxes) will not take you very far in some Gemeinde…
We also had verbal theorie check because an exam was not yet obligatory in ZH by that time. I am not sure that they are allowed to ask theorie questions not from the brochure, but maybe that depends from the canton. I consider an engagement in the community a part of normal life, and knowledge of the local language as well (B1 is in fact a very low level that barely allows you to have a small talk with someone).
The main aspect of success is not to live in the Gemeinde where you most probably fail no matter how good you were preparing.
I arrived in Switzerland in a different canton but I had to do that at the entry, to get my first permit
don’t stress, but don’t drop it altogether, I also didn’t have motivation to apply as soon as I could and I locked myself out of the path, buy moving around Switzerland where I could have been Swiss already
We also did that but it seems that they did not add you to the registry at that moment. We had to acquire and send the documents again when our youngest was born. Luckily, since that moment we were in the registry and only had to get a birth certificate for the oldest kid before applying for the citizenship.
I think they only add you to the registry if you apply for citizenship, marry or have a kid in Switzerland. Also they do it for the babies born in Switzerland.
So basically I can’t marry my girlfriend if I’m not registed in their civilstand book? Not that we have any plans of marriage, but if we were to consider marrying then I’ll have to wait until this registration process is complete ? Insane…
That is correct; if you want to marry in Switzerland, you will have to do this. A friend of mine had to go through this lengthy process in her home country (someone even interviewed her parents!) to marry her fiancé. She was here on an independent visa, working and waiting for these additional checks before being able to get married.
We were faced with that challenge and decided to get married in the UK where my wife is from. Despite me having to get some special permission from an archbishop it was much easier.
When we got home we gave a photocopy of the marriage certificate to the commune and that was that. We were both C permit holders at the time.
