Simplified naturalisation for spouses of Swiss citizens

Spouses of Swiss citizens may benefit from simplified naturalisation.

Simplified naturalisation for spouses of Swiss citizens

Swiss nationality gives you the right to vote and to stand for election. Therefore, naturalisation is the final step in the process of integrating into the Swiss way of life. There is an ordinary naturalisation procedure and a simplified naturalisation procedure for people who are already part of a Swiss family. On this page, you will find all the information you need about becoming Swiss through simplified naturalisation if you are already maried with a Swiss citizen.

(last update March 2024)

Index

Introductory to Swiss nationality
The legal basis for Swiss simplified naturalisation
Simplified naturalisation for spouses of Swiss citizens living in Switzerland
Simplified naturalisation for spouses of Swiss citizens living abroad
The consequences of being granted Swiss nationality

I. Introduction to Swiss nationality

In 2022, 41,486 people obtained Swiss nationality. Of these, 6,034 used the simplified naturalisation procedure. The gross naturalisation rate is low, at around 2%.

Do you plan to become Swiss? While we would hate to discourage you, it is important to understand that Switzerland has some of the strictest conditions for naturalisation in Europe. The process can be a real battle! And because Switzerland is federal, although passports are issued at national level and the legislative rules are fixed by the Swiss Confederation, each canton and municipality sets its own criteria and practices. That means that you might find it more or less difficult to obtain Swiss nationality depending on where in the country you live. We strongly recommend you enlist the help of an experienced professional. The process can be long and time-consuming, but the result makes it all worthwhile!

Notwithstanding the obstacles and difficulties involved, our lawyers have put together this list of five good reasons to become a Swiss citizen:

A say in the future of Switzerland: with the famous white cross on your passport comes the right to vote, not only at municipal level (where some cantons allow foreign nationals to vote if they meet certain conditions), but also without restriction at canton and federal level, meaning that you can participate in all the country’s important decisions. You can also stand for election.
Freedom of movement in the European Union: although Switzerland is not part of the European Union (EU), it has signed the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons, so Swiss citizens are free to study, work or live anywhere in the 27 countries of the EU, with no restrictions.
Free access to all professions: in Switzerland, jobs in certain fields such as the border force, the armed forces and the diplomatic service can only be held by Swiss nationals.
Easier travel: according to the Henley Passport Index 2024, a Swiss passport is the fifth most powerful in the world, offering you visa-free access to 190 countries.
Less administrative hassle: once you have a Swiss passport, you will no longer need a residence permit to live in Switzerland, and regular visits to the immigration service will become a thing of the past.

Interested? There are three ways of obtaining Swiss nationality:

By acquiring it from your mother or father. This is called “jus sanguinis” (right of blood), and is the most common way of gaining citizenship;
By naturalisation, i.e. as a result of a decision by the authorities. This can be divided into ordinary naturalisation, simplified naturalisation and reintegration;
By being adopted by a Swiss parent.

To be eligible for ordinary naturalisation, you must have lived in Switzerland for at least ten years, including three years during the five that precede your application, and hold a settlement permit (permit C).

Simplified naturalisation is intended to be simpler and easier. The following people qualify for this route:

Spouses of Swiss citizens;
Stateless children;
Children of naturalised parents;
Anyone who has, in good faith, erroneously lived in the conviction that they are a Swiss citizen;
Third-generation immigrants.

On this page, we will set out the simplified naturalisation procedure for spouses of Swiss citizens, living in Switzerland or abroad, because this is by far the most common procedure after ordinary naturalisation (a page about acquiring Swiss citizenship through ordinary naturalisation is available here or a brochure on request).

At our law firm, we have been helping our clients through the process of obtaining a Swiss passport using both the simplified and ordinary naturalisation procedures for around fifteen years. We handle several dozen applications a year, and are proud to report a success rate to date of 100%.

We will be with you through every step of your application for Swiss nationality, from collecting the documents and tracking the progress of your application with the authorities in Switzerland and abroad to preparing you for your naturalisation interview. We aim to take the stress out of the process so that you can go into this final stage of your integration feeling confident and relaxed. If you have any questions, contact us – we’re here to help!

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II. The legal basis for simplified naturalisation

The main relevant legal texts are:

– the Federal Act on Swiss Citizenship (Swiss Citizenship Act, SCA), SR 141.0;

– the Ordinance on Swiss nationality (ordinance on nationality, OLN), SR 141.01;

– the State Secretariat for Migration’s manuals on nationality (SEM).

The conditions for granting Swiss nationality by simplified naturalisation are less stringent than those set down in the standard procedure. This is because you will find it easier to integrate if you are married to a Swiss citizen.

The procedure is handled by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) which decides whether Swiss nationality is granted. Certain tasks (such as the personal interview) are however delegated to the cantons or to Swiss embassies or consulates.

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III. Simplified naturalisation for spouses of Swiss citizens living in Switzerland

a) Formal conditions

Under article 21 para. 1 SCA, as the spouse of a Swiss citizen you qualify for the simplified naturalisation procedure if you have been living in marital union with your spouse for three years and have lived in Switzerland for five years in total, including the year immediately prior to filing your application.

Marital union begins when your civil marriage is validly celebrated by the registrar, in Switzerland or abroad. The duration of the marriage is therefore counted from the point you are legally married in Switzerland or abroad. Religious and customary marriages do not count when calculating the three years, nor does any time spent living together while you were not married.

Please note that following the vote on Marriage for All on 26 September 2021, if a registered partnership entered into in accordance with Swiss law is converted into a marriage after 1 July 2022, the duration of the registered partnership will be counted in calculating the duration of the marriage for the purposes of simplified naturalisation (art. 35a para. 2 Same-Sex Partnership Act, SSPA). You and your partner must apply together to have your partnership converted into a marriage before you file your application for simplified naturalisation. If your registered partnership was entered into in Switzerland, you can contact any register office. If your partnership was entered into abroad and has not yet been added to the Swiss civil status register, the civil status supervisory authority will decide whether it can be recognised as equivalent and therefore converted into a marriage. On the other hand, if you and your partner get married after the 1^st of July 2022, the duration of your registered partnership will not be taken into account.

Please note: it is important to understand that you are only eligible for the simplified naturalisation procedure if your Swiss spouse obtained Swiss nationality through ordinary naturalisation before the date of your marriage (and for partnerships, after you entered into the registered partnership and before it was converted into a marriage). If your spouse became Swiss after you were married, you will need to apply through the ordinary naturalisation procedure (ten years, settlement permit, etc.). The same applies to facilitated naturalisation for third-generation foreign nationals.

There is an exception to this rule: if your Swiss spouse acquired their Swiss nationality after your marriage (or after you entered into your registered partnership and before it was converted into a marriage) by reintegration or by simplified naturalisation because one of their parents is or was Swiss, you can use the simplified naturalisation route.

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In theory, all stays in Switzerland which meet the provisions of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act of 16 December 2005 (FNIA; SR 142.20) are taken into account for the calculation of the five-year period. You are however required to demonstrate that you have made your stable, long-term home in Switzerland, meaning that your family, professional or educational ties are in the country, and that you have specific material ties showing the centre of your interests in Switzerland.

In addition, you must hold a residence permit. This must be valid before you make your application, when you file it and throughout all the time it is being processed, until your passport is issued. In contrast with applications under the ordinary naturalisation procedure, you do not have to hold a settlement permit (permit C).

The law does however place some limits as to the types of residence permit that can be taken into account when calculating the time you have lived in Switzerland. Stays under the following permits count:

residence permit (permit B);
settlement permit (permit C);
temporary admission (permit F) – however, the duration of your stay under this permit counts for half of its actual length;
legitimation card issued by the federal department of foreign affairs or an equivalent document (permit Ci).

Consequently, permits issued to short-term residents (permit L), cross-border workers (permit G), asylum seekers (permit N) and people in need of protection (permit S, as currently being issued to Ukrainians fleeing the war) are not taken into account for simplified naturalisation. The same applies to stays under a false identity or under a tourist visa (Schengen or type C visa).

The required five years spent living in Switzerland need not be continuous. However, you must have been living in Switzerland for at least one full year, uninterrupted, when you file your application. Both the five-year and one-year periods are calculated retroactively from the date you file your application.

You should note that you can live outside Switzerland for professional or educational reasons for six months (but less than one year) without fear of your stay in the country being considered to have been interrupted, so long as you keep your centre of interests in Switzerland and demonstrate that you intend to return.

So to decide whether you should apply for simplified naturalisation as a Swiss resident or a foreign resident, you need to look at where you are living when you file your application. Even if you leave Switzerland permanently after filing your application for simplified naturalisation under article 21 para. 1 SCA to live abroad with your Swiss spouse, the authorities are required to process your application under this article, so long as you meet the conditions.

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Your children under 18 can be included in your simplified naturalisation application so long as they live with you and have been living in Switzerland for at least two years. Very young children (under the age of two) are automatically included in your application. If your child is aged 12 or over, the authorities will look at whether they meet the criteria for integration in article 12 SCA (see B below) on an individual basis, as appropriate to their age. There is no obligation to include your children aged under 18, and not doing so is not an obstacle to using the simplified naturalisation procedure. Consequently, you are free to file a simplified naturalisation application without including your children.

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b) Material conditions

You and your spouse must be able to demonstrate that your marital union is stable, real and forward-looking. In principle, you should live together at the same address and not have any intention to separate or divorce. You must fulfil these conditions both when you submit your application and when the naturalisation decision is made. You and your spouse will be required to sign a declaration about your marital situation certifying that your marriage is real and stable. If this is not in fact the case, your Swiss nationality can be cancelled based on article 36 SCA (up to eight years after it is granted).

If there are serious doubts about whether your marital union is genuine, there are a range of indicators that the authorities can use to refuse you simplified naturalisation, such as:

you and your spouse have unofficially separated (you no longer share a home);
divorce proceedings are pending or you have requested measures to safeguard your marital union, or these have been ordered;
a legal separation was declared shortly before you filed your application for simplified naturalisation, or while it was being processed;
there has been domestic violence;
either you or your spouse has had or is having an extra-marital affair;
you or your spouse are involved in prostitution or drugs;
a recognition or denial of paternity procedure concerning a child has been initiated or completed;
there are justified reasons to believe that bigamy has been committed (generally via a religious marriage) and that one spouse has therefore entered into a sham wedding.

It is important to note that the fact that a foreign national marries a Swiss citizen partly so that the foreign spouse can gain a residence permit does not in itself prove that the spouses do not intend to enter into a genuine marital union. Such a situation can only be considered likely to denote a sham wedding in the presence of other factors that arouse suspicion, such as a large age difference between the couple.

In addition, the following specificities should be taken into account:

you and your spouse may live apart for professional or health reasons. In this case, the authorities will check that you see each other regularly, and will require proof of this. Living apart for tax reasons is not acceptable, however;
Simplified naturalisation is not possible if your Swiss spouse dies before the application is submitted. If they die after the application is submitted, simplified naturalisation remains possible if the other conditions were fulfilled at the date of their death, and there are no doubts as to whether the marital union was real and stable while they were alive. In this situation, you are not permitted to remarry, with a foreign national, before your nationality is granted;
similarly, a previous marriage to a Swiss citizen cannot be taken into account.

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One of the conditions you must meet to be granted simplified naturalisation is integration. There are several elements to this (see article 12 SCA), including:

showing respect for public security and order (this means: not having broken the law, in particular criminal law; not having certain things on your VOSTRA digital criminal record, such as a custodial sentence, a prohibition from carrying on an activity, etc.; having an exemplary financial record, meaning no enforcement or insolvency proceedings in the five years before filing the application, no tax, rent, maintenance payment, health insurance premium or similar arrears; not having publicly expressed support for a crime or offence against public order, a genocide, a crime against humanity, a war crime, or incited such crimes);
respecting the values enshrined in the Swiss constitution (this means respect for human rights such as gender equality, freedom of opinion and belief, respect for democracy, for the rule of law (keeping the law, equality, etc.) and for your duties under the constitution such as military service, compulsory education and liability to taxation;
being able to communicate in a national language in everyday situations, orally and in writing (you must prove that you have proficiency in a national language equal to at least B1 level (oral) and A2 level (written) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages);
participating in economic life or acquiring an education (you are considered to be participating in economic life when you can cover the cost of living for yourself and your family from your income, your wealth or payments to which you are entitled from third parties, both when you file your application and when your simplified naturalisation is granted. If you are not making an effective and active contribution to the economy but are completing a course of education or training to equip you to do so, you can still be naturalised. The training or education you are undertaking must be such that you will be able to enter the Swiss labour market once you complete it. If you received welfare benefits during the three years before you submit your application or during the simplified naturalisation procedure, you will not be judged to have met the requirement to contribute to economic life or continue your education, unless you have repaid those benefits in full); and
encouraging and supporting the integration of your spouse, registered partner or the minor children for whom you have parental responsibility (you must encourage your family members to mix with the Swiss population and to do this, help them to learn a national language, support them in contributing to the country’s economy or following a training course and encourage them to take part in cultural and social events attended by the Swiss population or to be involved in sports, cultural, social or political associations or organisations where Swiss people mix).

In addition, you must not pose a threat to Switzerland’s internal or external security. Therefore, you must not be involved in terrorism, violent extremism, organised crime or prohibited intelligence services or support, encourage or act as a recruiter for such activities.

It is important to stress that the level of integration required for simplified naturalisation is the same as that required to be granted nationality under the ordinary procedure. Please see our page on ordinary naturalisation, and in particular sections III and VIII, for more details on this point.

Lastly, you should note that the authorities are required to take into account any illness, disability or other major personal reason which prevents you from fulfilling the requirement to be able to communicate in a national language in everyday situations, orally and in writing, and to contribute to the economy, complete a training course or refrain from claiming welfare benefits (articles 12 para. 2 SCA and 9 OLN). See section V of our page on ordinary naturalisation.

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c) How the process of applying for simplified naturalisation works when you live in Switzerland

If you live in Switzerland, you will file your application for simplified naturalisation with the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). You can obtain the required forms from your commune (in Geneva, you can get them from the cantonal population office (OCPM)). You can also request the forms from the SEM. In this case, you will however need to explain your personal situation first.

Once you send in your application and the supporting documents, the SEM will acknowledge receipt and send you an invoice. The fees charged are payable in advance, in a single instalment within a fixed time. They are not refundable, regardless of the outcome of your application.

The fee scale is set out below. You should note that the authorities may double the fees if their workload is high, or reduce them if it is lower:

CHF 500 for the application;
CHF 400 (maximum) for the investigation;
There is no charge for children included on a parent’s application.

Once you have paid your fees, the SEM will process your application. If you meet the formal conditions, the SEM will delegate the collection of the required information to the canton where the family lives and the canton from which your Swiss spouse originates (as appropriate) (articles 34 para. 2 SCA and 18 OLN). These authorities (the OCPM in Geneva) will carry out the necessary investigations with you and your family and write a report for the SEM according to their instructions (directives on investigation reports have been issued). The canton (or cantons, if you have lived in more than one canton during the five years before filing your application) will generally submit their report(s) within 12 months.

The report includes:

personal details about you and your family (if there are any errors or inconsistencies in your application);
information about whether you meet the conditions for naturalisation (you are genuinely living in marital union and you take part in the cultural and social life of the population);
information about the integration criteria (respect for public security and order, criminal prosecution, including for children under 18, debt collection procedures, dependence on welfare payments, tax arrears, ability to communicate in a national language, etc.);
any personal circumstances taken into account, with proof of these;
any additional remarks or details.

You and your spouse will be called to a personal interview (in principle, in the national language spoken where you live), and any children aged 12 or over included in your application will be required to attend.

You will need to be able to show that you can communicate orally to B1 level. If you have a great deal of difficulty follow the interview because you cannot understand the language, a detailed (word by word) record will be made and this will be included with the investigation report. If the interview cannot be conducted because you as the applicant or your children under 18 included in your application have an insufficient knowledge of the language spoken in your commune or canton, your Swiss spouse or a third party can assist so long as they speak the local national language and the other national languages that you have mentioned on your application for simplified naturalisation.

As a result of the pandemic, these interviews are now held by videoconference in Geneva (by the naturalisation section of the cantonal population office (OCPM)) and in the Canton of Vaud (by the naturalisation section of the population service). Sometimes, the interview will be carried out at your home.

Please contact us in order to know the topics covered during the interview.

In addition, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire on Swiss geography, history, politics and society (a total of at least 12 questions, with three for each theme). The questions asked and answers received will be recorded in the investigation report or attached to it.

Once the investigation report(s) has/have been written and sent to the SEM, the SEM will check that you fulfil the material conditions for simplified naturalisation, based on the information collected by the cantons, by the SEM directly and by the other services consulted (the Federal Intelligence Service, the VOSTRA criminal records system, Fedpol, etc.). If necessary, the SEM may ask the cantons for further information or carry out additional investigations itself (in particular if the information collected is more than a year old). It may for example carry out interviews, ask for documents, ask third parties/referees for information, etc.

To fulfil your duty to assist the authorities to ascertain the relevant facts, you must contact them on your own initiative in the event of any change to your personal, family or professional circumstances (divorce, change of address, financial situation, criminal charge, etc.).

Your application will also be communicated to your Swiss spouse’s canton of origin so that the civil status record can be checked and any necessary amendments made in the Infostar system.

The canton can issue a provisional opinion as to whether your application for simplified naturalisation should be accepted (or it can decline to do this). When the canton makes use of its right to issue an opinion, it can recommend that the SEM approves or rejects the request. The SEM is not obliged to follow the canton’s opinion, but if it opts to grant the naturalisation against the canton’s recommendation, it has to provide reasons for its decision.

The SEM will generally issue its decision regarding simplified naturalisation within 12 months of receiving the investigation report(s).

If it does not agree with the SEM’s decision, the relevant authority in your spouse’s canton or commune of origin or the canton or commune where you live has a right to appeal the decision to grant Swiss nationality before the Federal Administrative Court within 30 days (art. 47 para. 2 SCA). You will receive a communication informing you of the decision and of the commune and cantonal authorities’ right to appeal.

Only once the window for these authorities to appeal has expired or any appeal has been rejected will your Swiss nationality actually be granted, by the entry into force of the SEM’s decision. You will receive a second communication from the SEM, in principle within six weeks of the decision being taken.

If the SEM intends to refuse to grant you simplified naturalisation, it will always offer you the opportunity to have your observations recorded. If it maintains its position despite these, it issues a negative decision. You have the right to appeal this decision, before the Federal Administrative Court within 30 days of the date you were notified of it. The Federal Act on Administrative Procedure of 20 December 1968 (APA; SR 172.021) applies.

In total, the simplified naturalisation procedure takes about eighteen months, but an accelerated procedure is available in certain limited situations (see our page on ordinary naturalisation, section XIV).

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d) Documents to include with your application for simplified naturalisation

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IV. Simplified naturalisation for spouses of Swiss citizens living abroad

a) Formal conditions

Under article 21 para. 2 SCA, as the spouse of a Swiss citizen living abroad, you qualify for the simplified naturalisation procedure if you have been living in marital union with your spouse for six years and have close ties with Switzerland.

You will notice that the amount of time you are required to have been living in marital union is twice that required for couples living in Switzerland (article 21 para. 1 SCA). This is because in your situation there are theoretically fewer factors that will help you become well integrated into Swiss society.

As regards the other criteria, the marital union conditions are the same as if you were applying for simplified naturalisation while living in Switzerland (see section III, part a, above).

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You are considered to have close ties with Switzerland if you (article 11 OLN):

have made at least three trips to Switzerland lasting a minimum of five days each during the six years before you file your application;
are capable of communicating orally in everyday situations in a national language;
have a basic knowledge of Swiss geography, history, politics and society and
maintain ties with Switzerland.

You are required to fulfil all these criteria. It follows from the requirements set out above that being married to a Swiss citizen alone is not sufficient grounds for gaining Swiss nationality. You will need to make a significant effort to show that you have numerous concrete links to Switzerland.

When considering stays in Switzerland, for example, day trips are not enough. You need to stay in the country throughout the day and overnight. You will be required to produce documents to prove this (hotel and restaurant bills, train or plane tickets, credit card statements, etc.).

The law only requires you to have basic spoken competence in one of Switzerland’s national languages (French, German, Italian or Romansh). Here, the bar is far lower than if you were applying for simplified or ordinary naturalisation while living in Switzerland. Your linguistic ability in one of Switzerland’s national languages will be evaluated not through an examination or by way of a certificate, but through a face-to-face interview organised by the Swiss diplomatic mission in the country where you live.

During the interview, you will also be required to answer some basic questions about Swiss history, geography, politics and society. Once again, the level required is infinitely lower than for ordinary naturalisation. The authorities will seek to ensure that you have a basic overview of Switzerland’s main geographical and demographic features, major events in the country’s history and how its political system, institutions and society operate. The interviewer will also check whether you stay up to date with Swiss news and events.

You will need to prove that you actively stay in touch with your Swiss contacts in Switzerland, Swiss people living abroad or Swiss organisations abroad. This can be your family, friends or work contacts. However, simply being a member of an organisation for Swiss people abroad is not in itself sufficient; you must also take an active part in the activities organised.

Proof of close ties with Switzerland will be obtained via statements from people living in Switzerland who know you personally. You will therefore be required to provide the names of three referees. The authorities will contact them when they process your application.

The authorities may take into account specific circumstances that have prevented you from making the required trips to Switzerland, for example if the country where you live is a long way away and travel would be expensive. In this case however, you must have lived in Switzerland in the past (for at least two months).

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b) Material conditions

You must demonstrate that your marital union with your spouse is real and stable. Please read our comments on this in the section on simplified naturalisation for Swiss residents, as the rules are identical (see section III, part b).

The same applies to the integration criteria as laid out in article 12 SCA, because these are identical for all simplified naturalisations (see section III, part b). For applicants living outside Switzerland, the criteria on integration and those on close links with Switzerland do however overlap to a significant degree (article 21 para. 2 part b SCA).

When assessing the integration criteria, the authorities will take into account the fact that you live abroad. For example, respect for Swiss public security and order is limited by the fact that you do not live in Switzerland, and that each individual country has the power to make its own decisions about what behaviour endangers its security and public order. Similarly, you will be required to contribute to the economy or be undertaking training or education in the country in which you live and you must not be dependent on welfare benefits in that country. You must nevertheless encourage members of your family to familiarise themselves as much as possible with Switzerland and the Swiss way of life.

The authorities, via the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad, will check for concrete indicators that you have failed to pay your taxes abroad, broken the law or breached official decisions, committed crimes or offences (you will normally be required to produce your criminal record from the country in which you currently live and any other countries you have lived in during the six years preceding your application, in addition to your Swiss criminal record certificate), or have debts, payments in arrears, etc.

It is important to note that under the simplified naturalisation procedure for applicants living abroad, the consideration of personal circumstances set out in article 9 OLN only applies as regards language difficulties under article 11 para. 1 part b OLN. Special circumstances will not be taken into account for the criteria of contributing to the economy or undertaking training.

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c) How the process of applying for simplified naturalisation works when you do not live in Switzerland

If you live abroad, you should file your application for simplified naturalisation with the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad closest to your home. You will also need to contact them to obtain the form. It is not issued by the SEM. When requesting the form, you will need to give reasons why you intend to apply for simplified naturalisation under the terms of article 21 para. 2 SCA.

You will need to complete all the parts of the form and send it and all the required documents to the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad, who will take receipt of it and stamp it with the date it was received. They will also check whether your application is complete.

You will be required to pay the fees for simplified naturalisation to the Swiss diplomatic mission in advance. It must be paid in local currency in a single instalment. Staged payments are not accepted. The payment includes two types of fees: firstly, fees for the work carried out by the Swiss diplomatic mission (investigation) and secondly fees covering the SEM’s procedure. Additional fees may also be charged by the civil status register authorities (to enter records in Infostar, issue a family record document, etc.).

The SEM fee scale is as follows. You should note that the authorities may double the fees if their workload is high, or reduce them if it is lower:

CHF 500 for the application;
CHF 100 for checking the foreign civil status record data;
There is no charge for children included on a parent’s application.

Once you have paid the fee, the Swiss diplomatic mission and the SEM will assess the formal and material conditions relevant to your application for simplified naturalisation (the length of your marital union with your spouse, your close links with Switzerland, etc.).

If you meet the formal conditions, the Swiss diplomatic mission will begin the process by inviting you, your Swiss spouse and any children included in your application to a personal interview, which you are required to attend, so that they can begin preparing the investigation report for the SEM.

In principle, the interview will be carried out in a Swiss national language, which has the additional benefit for the authorities of enabling them to check whether you (and any children under 12, in a separate interview) are capable of communicating orally in everyday situations in French, German, Italian or Romansh.

If you have difficulty following the interview due to your level of language, to the point that it hinders the discussion, the conversation may be conducted or continued in another language. You can invite your Swiss spouse or another person to support you during the interview.

The interviewer will also ask questions to check that you have a knowledge of Switzerland (history, geography, politics and society). If your native language is one of the national languages of Switzerland, this knowledge may be assessed by way of a written questionnaire.

Lastly, the interviewer will examine your close links with Switzerland, and in particular whether you are involved in the social and cultural life of the country and how you view the civil rights you will acquire by gaining nationality.

In theory, the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad will submit its report to the SEM within 12 months of the date you file your application. Of course, you are required to cooperate and you must keep the authorities informed of any change in your family, personal or professional circumstances or the assets you own (divorce, criminal charge or conviction, unemployment, etc.).

Once it receives the report, the SEM will assess the material conditions of your application for simplified naturalisation.

The SEM will base its assessment on the investigation report, the results of the investigation carried out by the Swiss diplomatic mission, the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) and any other relevant services (e.g. Fedpol, the Federal Office of Justice, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, etc.). The SEM will check your VOSTRA criminal record to see whether you show respect for public security and order and will also ask the FIS and other relevant departments for opinions on a consultative basis, to decide whether you pose a threat to Switzerland’s internal or external security. Of course, other investigations may be undertaken (requests for documents, national or international cooperation procedures, an interview with you or a third party, etc.).

The SEM will also contact your referees in Switzerland directly to ask them to confirm that you have made regular trips to the country and that you are in frequent contact with Swiss people.

The final stage of the SEM’s investigation is to send the request to the canton from which your Swiss spouse originates for an (optional) provisional opinion and to the relevant cantonal authority in order to check your civil status (in Infostar).

In principle, the SEM will make a decision regarding your application within 12 months of receiving the investigation report from the relevant Swiss diplomatic mission. The decision is sent to the canton of origin which has the right to appeal within 30 days, starting from the day after the notification is received. If no appeal is lodged, the naturalisation decision will be communicated to you by the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad, accompanied by information about when it enters into force.

The rest of the naturalisation procedure is identical to that set out above for Swiss residents (right to express an opinion, negative decision, appeals, accelerated procedure – see section III c above), except that you will receive notification of the stages from the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad, either by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or by a letter hand-delivered to you.

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d) Documents to include with your application for simplified naturalisation

All foreign documents must be accompanied by a certified copy and, if necessary, a certified translation into one of Switzerland’s national languages.

Original documents issued by the foreign authorities only (criminal record check, court order, welfare benefits, taxes, criminal prosecutions, etc.) must be translated into one of Switzerland’s national languages and must, according to the country of origin, be legalised or apostilled depending on whether the country in question has signed the Convention of 5 October 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents (SR 0.172.030.4). An exception is made for documents from Schengen countries for which no apostille or legalisation is required.

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V. The consequences of being granted Swiss nationality

Once the simplified naturalisation decision enters into force, your Swiss nationality will be put into the Infostar civil status register by the authorities in the canton of origin.

When this has been done, you can apply for a passport and identity card from the cantonal passport service where you live (or from the Swiss diplomatic mission abroad, as appropriate).

After you have been naturalised, you will have the same cantonal and communal citizenship origins as your Swiss spouse, unless you inform the SEM by way of a paper letter, before the naturalisation decision, that you wish to relinquish certain citizenship origins.

The rules on relinquishing and reacquiring cantonal and communal citizenship origins are managed by the individual canton. You should therefore contact the authorities in your spouse’s commune of origin to find out more about this.

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