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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
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be talking more about my swiss citizenship journey so before i send in all of my documents to the
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federal government next week i thought it might be interesting or helpful just to go over what
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my immigration process looks like as well as the documents that are here in my application and just
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what's required a lot of people ask me how i qualify for swiss naturalization and in my
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personal case i qualify through marriage so i have been married to a swiss citizen for over six years
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and i have close ties to switzerland so in my case that makes me qualify since i do qualify through
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marriage i'm able to do the easier application process which is the facilitated instead of the
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ordinary so this is the process for facilitated the swiss government is actually really good at
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making it very clear i have to say i mean of course getting a new passport a new citizenship
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is a very complicated process but i feel like the swiss government makes everything really
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clear and organized i could find everything very easily and you know if i compare it to getting
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matthias a green card in the united states this is very simple and straightforward i didn't ever
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really feel like i needed a lawyer or needed external help because whenever i had questions
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somebody was always able to answer them for me this is the official document
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from the canton of zurich from the government and yeah they lay everything out for you and the first
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step is to prepare yourself it shows you where you can go online to get information and it advises
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you to go to your municipality so i can tell you what the preparation sort of looked like for me of
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course i looked online a little bit to get some information and that's how i found out that it
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looks like i qualified to send in a naturalization application but i wasn't totally sure so i just
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went with matthias to the staff house here in zurich in the city center and actually there
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was a person there that i could just talk to and they answered all my questions we went in there
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took a number we waited probably five minutes and then um we just explained hey we've been
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married this long we live here what do we need to do and he just told us everything that's required
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and then gave us an email address to request some forms and it was really pretty straightforward so
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we got the information requested the forms from the federal government and they mailed them to us
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via snail mail and we just began the process of filling everything out and collecting all of the
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documents on this checklist so let's go over what the attachments are because this is a big
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part probably like the biggest part of the whole application process the first thing is actually
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the application that you fill out like you write your name and your phone number and all of that i
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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
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two pages long front and back so two or four pages however you want to call it two pages front and
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back job how long you lived in switzerland very simple things nothing weird you need to list a
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minimum of three swiss citizens at three different addresses um that can be references and uh yeah
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then you sign very easy application it's the attachments that take a little bit more time to
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collect but they do list all of the documents that you need to attach on this simple checklist one
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sheet front and back and this is what we had to collect the first one is called a chameleon house
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vise just a piece of paper that shows um that i'm married who i'm married to and it's sort of like
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a family tree and this had to be not older than six months old and we ordered this from matthias's
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heimat here in switzerland and that cost let me see 41 swiss francs and we got it in about two
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days so very easy to collect also had to submit a copy of my b permit of my residence permit here
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in switzerland had to attach a passport photo those are the photos that you get at like the
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photo machines in switzerland mine cost 12 francs to get um you need a von sitz zoignisse from
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where you lived the last five years in switzerland so this is basically a piece of paper that you get
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from the city that shows the addresses that you were registered at in switzerland and how long
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you lived there this is kind of a new thing for me because we don't have like a central
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uh register like this in the united states um but here in switzerland you have to register
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with the city where you live and how many people live in the apartment and all the details about
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um where you live they keep track of that at the city so then to prove where you live you can order
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this um piece of paper from the city that shows the dates and places next on the list
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is a confirmation from the tax office that you have paid all of your canton federal and
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community taxes for the last five years so before ordering this form online we actually
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called all of the different tax offices just to confirm that everything is good and up to date
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sometimes this gets a bit complicated because we've been moving so much in the recent years
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so we called first to make sure everything was good on our accounts it was incredibly
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shocking how easy it was to just call the federal government have them look you up and tell you um
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if you owe any taxes or if everything is in good standing whatever i mean you just call and they
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pick up to me this is incredible but it was super super easy to do next they require that you submit
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a proof of basically a swiss national language so it says if your mother tongue is not a swiss
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national language then you need to submit a sprock certificate showing so as a language certificate
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showing that you can speak at a b1 level and that you can write at an a2 level so if your
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mother tongue is a swiss national language or if you went to school in the swiss national language
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or if you have other language certificates already you won't have to do this but i didn't have
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anything so i had to go and do the german test i did the whole detailed video on what that was
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like so that was definitely the biggest obstacle to overcome i think that's probably the biggest
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obstacle for a lot of people and that test cost 250 francs and then of course you have to spend
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all the money beforehand um to get in classes to prepare for the exam and to learn the language
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so um although the exam is only 250 of course you're going to spend more to get up to that
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level you know spend it on classes and preparation etc and next they want a confirmation that you
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have a job so they need paperwork from your employer or proof that you are self-employed or
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proof that you are in school so i was able just to get confirmation that i am self-employed here in
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switzerland that i'm registered as self-employed next you had to get a confirmation from the
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um social help office that in the last three years you have not taken any governmental assistance and
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i'm not 100 sure but i think that if you did take um social health money if you've gotten this money
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from the government you need to pay it all back to them before you can qualify for citizenship so
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this form that i've never taken social help was very easy to get online as well i lost track how
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much did that one cost maybe 20 francs um and they just sent it in the mail and i also have a
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forum in here that um i am a law-abiding citizen this was just a piece of paper that came with
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the application that says um you know i'm not a criminal i'm not a criminal in other countries
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etc etc you just have to sign that that is true next is a document stating that you are in a
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legitimate marriage so once again i just had to get this paper from the government and sign off
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that i'm in a legitimate marriage and all of that and the last document is just a statement that i
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allow the government to open like an investigation into me so basically confirming um that they can
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look into all of my stuff and then this is if you have kids and then you just have to sign that you
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attach all of this with your application just sat down to edit and realize i missed a form it is the
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betray boom register ausouq you've probably heard of this when you went to get an apartment but you
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need this for you and for your spouse for the past five years so this is a piece of paper that proves
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that you have no outstanding debt and that you are not delinquent on any of your bills so this
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is super easy to order online um so yes this has to be attached as well but i was registered
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aka document that shows that you have no debt now i need to send that paperwork to the federal
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government so that's the step that i am at and once i send it to them it's called the boond um
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they are going to look everything over and just examine that all the documents are there that i
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qualify that everything is accurate etc they might request more documentation more proof of something
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that's what happens um at the federal level and once all of that is done they will then
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inform the canton so in my case canton zurich and zurich will on behalf of the federal government
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look further into me as a person so they will look if i have a criminal record this next year it says
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that the police will especially make sure that we are in a legitimate marriage i have heard that in
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some people's cases the police might show up at your house um just on a random day unannounced
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and they might look around your house or ask you further questions um but again none of this is
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like necessarily guaranteed i've read stories of people that send off the paperwork and then
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it's pretty much done whereas some people have had the police show up at their house so i don't know
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completely what to expect after i send in the packet but it's clear here that it might happen
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and then once that is done my von gained my local community government um so to say will make sure
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that i am properly integrated into switzerland via a conversation uh sort of interview so this is the
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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
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the air on purpose but in zurich i read that this could be just a simple conversation where they'll
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send you a letter that i need to go somewhere at this date and time and a person will interview me
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in german and ask um integration questions so this could be anything just about my personal
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life here in switzerland or it could be related to swiss geography politics and history so
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i know that i need to study everything related to swiss um history politics and geography you
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know knowing the cantons the rivers the lakes the mountains history all of that kind of stuff
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um how the government works all of that during this conversation they can ask me questions
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about that but they can also ask me questions just about my daily life like what do you do
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for fun do you take vacations in switzerland do you like hiking all this kinds of stuff
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is on the table from what i understand i've read online that some people got asked a lot of
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personal questions just about um the swiss people that they know and what sports they play and
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stuff like that where some people get asked to name every river in switzerland and match all
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the flags the different cantons so i don't know what to expect completely but i will be continuing
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my german lessons to make sure that i'm prepared and also just studying up on switzerland as much
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as i can very good we're almost done so once all of that is completed um the canton will uh take
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all of their notes like how did my conversation go how did the investigation go and they send it
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back to the federal government and the federal government will make the final decision on if i
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am integrated enough and if all of my paperwork lines up and if i can get the swiss naturalization
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and that's the whole process a lot of people were asking me how long does this take i've read online
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that it can take between 12 to 18 months but it can also go as long as 24 months or longer
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some people have said they've gotten this whole process done in as little as six months so it
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really depends another question is how much does this cost and that part i'm a little bit confused
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on because i know that this package going to the federal government i believe cost 900 francs like
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as soon as i send this in and they process it they will invoice me for 900 francs but that's just the
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federal level there will be more bills along the way as they open the different investigations um
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with like the police and the canton so i read that all in all this can cost up to about 2 000
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francs and then let's say that all of this goes well and i get the swiss passport a lot of people
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have been asking me if that means i need to give up my us passport and i don't switzerland and the
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us allow for dual citizenship so i will be allowed to hold both by the way i should have said this at
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the beginning of the video but this is obviously not legal advice don't take my word for anything
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that i mentioned here if you are looking to start this process just go to your local staff house
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and ask they are very very helpful that's all i have for today's video let me know if you have
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any questions in the comments down below let me know if you've gone through this process
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in switzerland i would love to hear about your personal experience and how long it took and all
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the questions that they asked and things like that so please let me know your experience in
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the comments down below also don't forget to check out surf shark while you're down there
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link in the description box and that's all i have for today talk to you soon guys bye