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hey guys welcome back to how to switzerland it is  sarah here today and in today's video i'm going to  

be talking more about my swiss citizenship journey  so before i send in all of my documents to the  

federal government next week i thought it might  be interesting or helpful just to go over what  

my immigration process looks like as well as the  documents that are here in my application and just  

what's required a lot of people ask me how  i qualify for swiss naturalization and in my  

personal case i qualify through marriage so i have  been married to a swiss citizen for over six years  

and i have close ties to switzerland so in my case  that makes me qualify since i do qualify through  

marriage i'm able to do the easier application  process which is the facilitated instead of the  

ordinary so this is the process for facilitated  the swiss government is actually really good at  

making it very clear i have to say i mean of  course getting a new passport a new citizenship  

is a very complicated process but i feel like  the swiss government makes everything really  

clear and organized i could find everything very  easily and you know if i compare it to getting  

matthias a green card in the united states this  is very simple and straightforward i didn't ever  

really feel like i needed a lawyer or needed  external help because whenever i had questions  

somebody was always able to answer them  for me this is the official document  

from the canton of zurich from the government and  yeah they lay everything out for you and the first  

step is to prepare yourself it shows you where you  can go online to get information and it advises  

you to go to your municipality so i can tell you  what the preparation sort of looked like for me of  

course i looked online a little bit to get some  information and that's how i found out that it  

looks like i qualified to send in a naturalization  application but i wasn't totally sure so i just  

went with matthias to the staff house here in  zurich in the city center and actually there  

was a person there that i could just talk to and  they answered all my questions we went in there  

took a number we waited probably five minutes  and then um we just explained hey we've been  

married this long we live here what do we need to  do and he just told us everything that's required  

and then gave us an email address to request some  forms and it was really pretty straightforward so  

we got the information requested the forms from  the federal government and they mailed them to us  

via snail mail and we just began the process of  filling everything out and collecting all of the  

documents on this checklist so let's go over  what the attachments are because this is a big  

part probably like the biggest part of the whole  application process the first thing is actually  

the application that you fill out like you write  your name and your phone number and all of that i  

can't show it to you because it's filled out with  all of my data but i can tell you that it is only  

two pages long front and back so two or four pages  however you want to call it two pages front and  

back job how long you lived in switzerland very  simple things nothing weird you need to list a  

minimum of three swiss citizens at three different  addresses um that can be references and uh yeah  

then you sign very easy application it's the  attachments that take a little bit more time to  

collect but they do list all of the documents that  you need to attach on this simple checklist one  

sheet front and back and this is what we had to  collect the first one is called a chameleon house  

vise just a piece of paper that shows um that i'm  married who i'm married to and it's sort of like  

a family tree and this had to be not older than  six months old and we ordered this from matthias's  

heimat here in switzerland and that cost let me  see 41 swiss francs and we got it in about two  

days so very easy to collect also had to submit  a copy of my b permit of my residence permit here  

in switzerland had to attach a passport photo  those are the photos that you get at like the  

photo machines in switzerland mine cost 12 francs  to get um you need a von sitz zoignisse from  

where you lived the last five years in switzerland  so this is basically a piece of paper that you get  

from the city that shows the addresses that you  were registered at in switzerland and how long  

you lived there this is kind of a new thing  for me because we don't have like a central  

uh register like this in the united states um  but here in switzerland you have to register  

with the city where you live and how many people  live in the apartment and all the details about  

um where you live they keep track of that at the  city so then to prove where you live you can order  

this um piece of paper from the city that  shows the dates and places next on the list  

is a confirmation from the tax office that  you have paid all of your canton federal and  

community taxes for the last five years so  before ordering this form online we actually  

called all of the different tax offices just to  confirm that everything is good and up to date  

sometimes this gets a bit complicated because  we've been moving so much in the recent years  

so we called first to make sure everything  was good on our accounts it was incredibly  

shocking how easy it was to just call the federal  government have them look you up and tell you um  

if you owe any taxes or if everything is in good  standing whatever i mean you just call and they  

pick up to me this is incredible but it was super  super easy to do next they require that you submit  

a proof of basically a swiss national language  so it says if your mother tongue is not a swiss  

national language then you need to submit a sprock  certificate showing so as a language certificate  

showing that you can speak at a b1 level and  that you can write at an a2 level so if your  

mother tongue is a swiss national language or if  you went to school in the swiss national language  

or if you have other language certificates already  you won't have to do this but i didn't have  

anything so i had to go and do the german test  i did the whole detailed video on what that was  

like so that was definitely the biggest obstacle  to overcome i think that's probably the biggest  

obstacle for a lot of people and that test cost  250 francs and then of course you have to spend  

all the money beforehand um to get in classes to  prepare for the exam and to learn the language  

so um although the exam is only 250 of course  you're going to spend more to get up to that  

level you know spend it on classes and preparation  etc and next they want a confirmation that you  

have a job so they need paperwork from your  employer or proof that you are self-employed or  

proof that you are in school so i was able just to  get confirmation that i am self-employed here in  

switzerland that i'm registered as self-employed  next you had to get a confirmation from the  

um social help office that in the last three years  you have not taken any governmental assistance and  

i'm not 100 sure but i think that if you did take  um social health money if you've gotten this money  

from the government you need to pay it all back  to them before you can qualify for citizenship so  

this form that i've never taken social help was  very easy to get online as well i lost track how  

much did that one cost maybe 20 francs um and  they just sent it in the mail and i also have a  

forum in here that um i am a law-abiding citizen  this was just a piece of paper that came with  

the application that says um you know i'm not a  criminal i'm not a criminal in other countries  

etc etc you just have to sign that that is true  next is a document stating that you are in a  

legitimate marriage so once again i just had to  get this paper from the government and sign off  

that i'm in a legitimate marriage and all of that  and the last document is just a statement that i  

allow the government to open like an investigation  into me so basically confirming um that they can  

look into all of my stuff and then this is if you  have kids and then you just have to sign that you  

attach all of this with your application just sat  down to edit and realize i missed a form it is the  

betray boom register ausouq you've probably heard  of this when you went to get an apartment but you  

need this for you and for your spouse for the past  five years so this is a piece of paper that proves  

that you have no outstanding debt and that you  are not delinquent on any of your bills so this  

is super easy to order online um so yes this  has to be attached as well but i was registered  

aka document that shows that you have no debt  now i need to send that paperwork to the federal  

government so that's the step that i am at and  once i send it to them it's called the boond um  

they are going to look everything over and just  examine that all the documents are there that i  

qualify that everything is accurate etc they might  request more documentation more proof of something  

that's what happens um at the federal level  and once all of that is done they will then  

inform the canton so in my case canton zurich and  zurich will on behalf of the federal government  

look further into me as a person so they will look  if i have a criminal record this next year it says  

that the police will especially make sure that we  are in a legitimate marriage i have heard that in  

some people's cases the police might show up at  your house um just on a random day unannounced  

and they might look around your house or ask you  further questions um but again none of this is  

like necessarily guaranteed i've read stories  of people that send off the paperwork and then  

it's pretty much done whereas some people have had  the police show up at their house so i don't know  

completely what to expect after i send in the  packet but it's clear here that it might happen  

and then once that is done my von gained my local  community government um so to say will make sure  

that i am properly integrated into switzerland via  a conversation uh sort of interview so this is the  

step that i'm not totally clear on what's going to  happen i don't know if they leave it kind of up in  

the air on purpose but in zurich i read that this  could be just a simple conversation where they'll  

send you a letter that i need to go somewhere at  this date and time and a person will interview me  

in german and ask um integration questions so  this could be anything just about my personal  

life here in switzerland or it could be related  to swiss geography politics and history so  

i know that i need to study everything related  to swiss um history politics and geography you  

know knowing the cantons the rivers the lakes  the mountains history all of that kind of stuff  

um how the government works all of that during  this conversation they can ask me questions  

about that but they can also ask me questions  just about my daily life like what do you do  

for fun do you take vacations in switzerland  do you like hiking all this kinds of stuff  

is on the table from what i understand i've  read online that some people got asked a lot of  

personal questions just about um the swiss people  that they know and what sports they play and  

stuff like that where some people get asked to  name every river in switzerland and match all  

the flags the different cantons so i don't know  what to expect completely but i will be continuing  

my german lessons to make sure that i'm prepared  and also just studying up on switzerland as much  

as i can very good we're almost done so once all  of that is completed um the canton will uh take  

all of their notes like how did my conversation  go how did the investigation go and they send it  

back to the federal government and the federal  government will make the final decision on if i  

am integrated enough and if all of my paperwork  lines up and if i can get the swiss naturalization  

and that's the whole process a lot of people were  asking me how long does this take i've read online  

that it can take between 12 to 18 months but  it can also go as long as 24 months or longer  

some people have said they've gotten this whole  process done in as little as six months so it  

really depends another question is how much does  this cost and that part i'm a little bit confused  

on because i know that this package going to the  federal government i believe cost 900 francs like  

as soon as i send this in and they process it they  will invoice me for 900 francs but that's just the  

federal level there will be more bills along the  way as they open the different investigations um  

with like the police and the canton so i read  that all in all this can cost up to about 2 000  

francs and then let's say that all of this goes  well and i get the swiss passport a lot of people  

have been asking me if that means i need to give  up my us passport and i don't switzerland and the  

us allow for dual citizenship so i will be allowed  to hold both by the way i should have said this at  

the beginning of the video but this is obviously  not legal advice don't take my word for anything