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SWISS CITIZENSHIP

How ‘feeling’ Swiss can get you citizenship faster

Do you feel Swiss? People who genuinely believe they are Swiss citizens but are not get a shorter road to citizenship. Here's what you need to know.

How 'feeling' Swiss can get you citizenship faster
Being Swiss might be a state of mind. Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP

While this situation is probably not very common, it must happen from time to time, because the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) lists this scenario on its website under the heading “People erroneously treated as Swiss citizens”.

SEM doesn’t specify under what circumstances such a mix-up could occur and go unnoticed by the authorities for any length of time, especially since each person officially living in Switzerland is registered with his or her commune of residence.

In a well-organised and decentralised country of just over 8.6 million people, it is not that difficult to keep track of everyone.

IN NUMBERS: How many people become Swiss each year – and where do they come from?

This is what SEM says:

“If you have believed for at least five years in good faith that you are a Swiss citizen, and during this period the cantonal or communal authorities have in fact treated you as a Swiss citizen, you can apply for simplified naturalisation”.

The key phrase here is “in good faith.” In other words, you would only qualify for simplified naturalisation if you did not set out to intentionally deceive the authorities.

“You must genuinely have been completely unaware that you are not in fact a Swiss citizen”, SEM points out.

“Your belief that you are a Swiss citizen must have arisen from or been confirmed by the conduct of a cantonal or communal authority towards you. This conduct must not be open to interpretation. It arises in particular if the authority has issued you with identity documents stating that you are a Swiss national, even though in reality you are not”.

SEM doesn’t provide statistics about how many people have found themselves in this situation, or what happens if someone is found to pretend they are citizens when they know they are not.

READ MORE: ‘Broken system’: The fight to make it easier for foreigners to get Swiss citizenship

Assuming no cheating was involved and the person eventually finds out he or she is not a citizen, they are allowed to apply for simplified naturalisation — a process normally open only to spouses of Swiss citizens or third-generation immigrants.

All the others must go through the ‘ordinary’ citizenship process, which is longer and has stricter criteria.

While naturalisation requirements are established by the federal government, cantons can set their own additional conditions.

READ MORE: Will Swiss-born foreigners be granted automatic citizenship?

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SWISS CITIZENSHIP

Zurich looks to change fees for Swiss citizenship process

Some candidates applying for Swiss citizenship in the city of Zurich will pay less for the procedure, while for others the costs will be higher.

Zurich looks to change fees for Swiss citizenship process

The naturalisation process in Switzerland’s largest city used to cost 1,200 francs for those coming from abroad, and 500 francs for foreigners born in Switzerland.

This week, the municipal council decided, however, to ‘equalise’ the cost: all foreigners, regardless of their place of birth, would pay a flat fee of 750 francs.

People under the age of 25 would apply for free. The fee could also be partially or completely waived for people without financial means to afford this charge.

While various parties quibbled over the new amount — with left-wing parties seeking to drop it to 500 francs — it was ultimately decided that 750 francs would be fair, as it would cover all the administrative costs.

‘Incentive for naturalisation’

During the debate, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) argued against lowering the cost of obtaining citizenship.

“If it doesn’t cost anything, it’s no longer worth anything,” its deputies said.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Social Democrat Maya Kägi Götz pointed out that a lower fee would provide an “incentive for naturalisation.”

This view was shared by a Green councillor, Urs Riklin, who said that making the naturalisation process more ‘affordable’ is good for the city and Switzerland in general.

“Everyone should be able to participate in democracy,” he said.

The final decision on this move will be taken at one of the forthcoming council meetings.

READ ALSO: How much does it cost to become a Swiss citizen?

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