Swiss citizenship - Issue #3: What’s the process and how complicated is it?

The Swiss naturalization process takes place on three levels, Federal, Cantonal and Community.   The federal level exists only to ensure that a basic standard is met and to prevent bad behavior, for instance the selling of citizenships.  Most of the authority resides at the Cantonal and Community level.  Until 2003 many communities put the acceptance of individual applicants to a vote (usually anonymous), sort of like joining a club.  This practice was overthrown in 2003 via a Federal High Court ruling stating that while there is no legal entitlement to naturalization, the applicant shall receive certain procedural guarantees, including the rights to be heard and nondiscrimination.  Since this is not practically possible via an anonymous ballot box, this procedure was ruled illegal.  This didn’t stop the Tea partiers in the SVP from giving it another whack, though, when in 2008 they introduced a popular initiative to allow for “democratic naturalizations”.   They felt the judicial branch was subverting the will of the people.  Sound familiar?  In any case,  they were proven wrong when the people soundly rejected the initiative and the Federal Citizenship Act was subsequently revised to explicitly outlaw votes on naturalizations at the ballot box.    A simultaneous victory for both Direct Democracy and the rule of law, unless you like the idea of being able to vote someone off the island (or mountain in this case) for no reason other than you don’t like them (or their religion).  

The actual administration of the process is done in the community in which one lives so I focus on our specific situation in Basel-Stadt.    There are several steps, which typically take roughly two years to complete.  The first step is to speak with someone in the Cantonal Migrations Department to obtain the application form, instructions for filling it out and a list of the various documents that must be provided.  Next, after having submitted the completed form and documents, comes the language test.  After passing the test there is an interview with a Migrations Department representative who, assuming this went well, will forward the application to both the local community board and the federal office for review.  After one last paperwork check, comes a final interview, this time with the Community Migration Commission.  Pass muster there and congratulations, you’ve done it.  You will receive a letter informing you that you are now a Swiss citizen.   I noticed in the application form that they reserve the right for the next eight years, however, to pull that baby back if they learn that you lied anywhere in the application. 

So, there you have it.  A pretty lengthy process but clear and fair.