Das Zivilstandsamt

The Registrar’s office turned out to be in another location, on the other side of town from the immigration office.  It’s a beautiful baroque building just around the corner from the Münster that I’ve probably walked by a thousand times.  Just inside the front door, looking anachronistic in the setting of this grand old building, stood a very modern machine from which I obtained, you guessed it, a waiting number.  Since I arrived just as they opened, I got the day’s first number and had only to wait until the staff was ready.  I was soon called in by a pretty, young woman who asked me to take a seat at a table in a room adorned with several very nice prints of Basel through the centuries.  After ascertaining the reason for my visit, she asked me for my permit, retreated into an adjacent room, then returned twenty minutes later with a yellow sheet of paper with a number of items checked off.  This turned out to be another list of documents we’d need to collect and I could see that we had most of them at home but not the top two.  It turns out that if you were not born in Switzerland you must provide birth certificates issued within the last six months and, if married, the same thing there.  Oohh, I thought, as she explained this to me.  I was born some years ago in a small town in upstate New York that was then still seeking to determine how best to harness electricity.   Computers may have been invented but I was sure there were none actually installed in Ilion, New York at that time.  I think the nice young woman may have sensed my dismay but didn’t let on as she soldiered down the rest of the list before asking if I had any questions.  No, I answered, as I silently considered where to begin while shaking her hand and perfunctorily wishing her a good day.   My negative thoughts soon lifted, though, as I realized that however remote Ilion may have been, or still was, it was sure to be connected to more advanced systems than those to which many other citizenship applicants, in particular those from developing countries, were turning so if they could manage it then I was sure that Ilion wouldn’t let me down.  I relaxed and made a note to contact them as soon as I got home.