Expedition to the document alps
Although there is no official minimum intelligence criteria for the candidates to naturalisation in Switzerland (the Federal Court ruled that mentally handicapped people can not be discriminated against: 1D_19/2007), the cornucopia of varying administrative requirements and documents required by each Canton are in effect a covert IQ test.
Self-assuredly I challenged myself to submit a complete and faultless set of documents and ... failed. The scriptwriters of the Star Trek series were probably inspired by the Swiss naturalisation process when they designed the unwinnable Kobayashi Maru test: which serves to test the character of the applicants.
Where my reconnaissance went wrong
Officially there are no unwritten rules. From experience, at least some rules must only be “on display in the bottom of a locked filling cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard” (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams).
For example, a CV needs to be written for each applicant, even your 1 week old baby. The completed CVs, which we had signed on behalf of our children (only children 18 years or older need to fill out the naturalization application themselves), were returned to us with the request that our children age 9 and 10 sign their CVs as well. Our 6 year old first grader would have loved to sign her name on her CV to prove that she can, but this wasn’t required of her. Unsurprisingly, these requirements were never actually mentioned anywhere. Furthermore none of the children really understood the legalese, so they signed where I told them to. So what value do their signatures have? Perhaps this question could be added to the Mystery Park exhibitions near Interlaken.
Beware the ever changing responsibility matrix between the Confederation, the cantons and communities. Depending on cantonal arrangements, applications must be submitted to the canton, the community, or the Federal Office for Migration. Just look at this document which details where your application should be sent and on whose forms.
Don’t believe what you read. The Confederation sets minimum requirements for naturalisation. The cantons are free to add to these. For instance, the Confederation website will tell you that the certificate proving no one is undertaking debt collection action against you, needs to cover the past three years. The canton of Zurich, on the other hand, has recently extended this period to five years. At least you can count on the community authorities, the ones who actually issue the certificate, to give you a 3-year certificate which will subsequently be rejected by the cantonal authorities. Result: I paid for this certificate twice and wasted a few hours in the process.
Another fun pass-time is discovering how to order the proof of domicile certificates. In Illnau I was able to order it online; in Greifensee I could only order by phone; the municipal authorities of Bellevue told me the canton of Geneva issues such certificates in their stead and in Lucerne they refused to send me anything unless I paid up-front.
The real fun begins when your personal situation is a bit more complicated: notary translation of foreign language documents; obtaining birth records, marriage and divorce documents when these events happened in another country; or discovering your place of birth no longer exists as an independent administrative entity.
Endurance test
The task of filling out forms multiple times with unvarying information must have been contrived in order to evaluate your stamina as a Swiss citizen. A case in point: After submitting the documents, we received a one page form to fill out from the canton of Zurich which compelled us to restate the same information as previously given, i.e. names and birth dates of the children, marital status, etc.
Tactics
Lists or a database will be key to your (partial) success. Group web links and contact lists of all authorities you’ll need to approach, cross-link these to each document you’re required to procure and set deadlines for their delivery.
Time limits are specified for the “freshness” of the documents, i.e. the age of the documents based on the date on which they were issued by the competent authorities. These can be categorized into:
- timeless: CVs, form on complying with the law and giving authorities power of attorney; photocopies of passports and residency permits.
- not older than 6 months: birth and marriage records
- not older than 3 months: excerpt from the swiss criminal record; proof of domicile; certificate proving no one is undertaking debt collection action against you; work certificate.
Start with the list above and work from top to bottom. Timeless documents are the ones you can fill-out anytime during the documentation process. Complete these first and you’ll feel as if you are making headway. Before you focus on the 6-month documents, check to see if your passport and C-permit are still valid; if not, wait for the updated identification papers to be returned before proceeding.
Good luck :)
