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SWISS CITIZENSHIP

Can you lose your Swiss citizenship if you’ve never lived in Switzerland?

Obviously, most Swiss nationals reside in Switzerland, and are citizens either through birth or naturalisation. But what happens to those who have never lived here at all?

Published: 24 August 2023 15:03 CEST
Can you lose your Swiss citizenship if you've never lived in Switzerland?
You can be Swiss even if you live abroad. Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

The only scenario where a Swiss citizen who has never lived in Switzerland could lose his or her nationality is if they were born abroad.

Just for information, about 800,000 Swiss citizens currently live outside of Switzerland; of those 75 percent are dual nationals, which means they have a Swiss passport in addition to another one, most likely of the country where they reside.

The government refers to these people either as ‘fifth Switzerland’ (an addition to the country’s four linguistic regions) or as ‘the 27th canton.”

What happens when they have a child while living abroad?

According to the Swiss Citizenship Act (SCA), a child born in another country to Swiss parents (or at least one parent) is a Swiss citizen from birth. 

If a woman is a foreigner and not married to the child’s Swiss father, the child will get the citizenship as well, as long as the father legally establishes his paternity (for instance, through a DNA test).

This is called ‘citizenship through descent.’

READ ALSO: Can I obtain Swiss citizenship through ancestry? 

A similar system is also in place for Swiss parents who adapt a baby abroad  — he or she will be Swiss as well, as long as the child was under the age of 18 when adopted.

Assuming all these children never live in Switzerland, can they maintain their citizenship?
 
It depends.

They are automatically Swiss at birth but, unlike kids born in Switzerland, retaining their citizenship is conditional.

Under Swiss law, “a child born abroad who has another citizenship and at least one of whose parents is Swiss loses their Swiss citizenship upon reaching the age of 25 unless a Swiss authority abroad or in Switzerland is notified of their birth by their 25th birthday or if they have declared in writing that they wish to retain Swiss citizenship”.

What this means is that Swiss parents should notify Switzerland’s embassy or consulate in their country of residence of the birth of their child to ensure the child’s citizenship is not revoked after they turn 25.

Again, this applies only in case the child never comes to live in Switzerland — either as child or adult.

Is this step irrevocable?

Say you suddenly wake up when you are 25 and realise Swiss authorities had never been notified of your existence in another country.

According to State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), to have your citizenship reinstated you must:

  • Be successfully integrated if you live in Switzerland;
  • Have close ties with Switzerland if you live abroad;
  • Show respect for public security and order;
  • Show respect for the values enshrined in the Federal Constitution; and
  • Not pose a threat to Switzerland’s internal or external security.

If you lost your Swiss citizenship less than 10 years ago, you can apply for reinstatement irrespective of whether you live abroad or in Switzerland.

On expiry of this 10-year period, however, you may only apply for reinstatement of citizenship if you have been living continuously in Switzerland for at least three years with the intention of remaining here permanently.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Reader question: What will EES mean for foreigners living in Europe?

The EU's new Entry & Exit System (EES) of enhanced passport controls is due to come into force later this year, but among many questions that remain is the situation for non-EU nationals who live in the EU or Schengen zone.

Published: 27 April 2024 07:59 CEST
Reader question: What will EES mean for foreigners living in Europe?

Currently scheduled to start in autumn 2024 (unless it’s delayed again, which is not unlikely) the EU’s new Entry & Exit System is basically an enhanced passport check at external EU borders, including a facial scan and fingerprinting.

You can find a full explanation of the new system HERE.

Travellers crossing an external EU or Schengen border for the first time will be required to complete EES ‘pre-registration’ formalities including that facial scan and fingerprinting.

There are, however, several groups exempt from EES and one of them is non-EU nationals who have a residency permit or long-stay visa for an EU country.

So if you’re a foreigner living in the EU or Schengen zone, here’s what you need to know.

Exempt

One of the stated aims of EES is to tighten up enforcement of over-staying – IE, people who stay longer than 90 days in every 180 without a visa, or those who overstay the limits of their visa.

Obviously these limits do not apply to non-EU nationals who are resident in the EU or Schengen zone, which is why this group is exempt from EES checks. They will instead be required to show their passport and residency permit/visa when crossing a border, just as they do now.

In its explanations of how EES will work, the European Commission is clear – exempt groups include non-EU residents of the Bloc.

A Commission spokesman told The Local: “Non-EU citizens residing in the EU are not in the scope of the EES and will not be subject to pre-enrollment of data in the EES via self-service systems. The use of automation remains under the responsibility of the Member States and its availability in border crossing points is not mandatory.

“When crossing the borders, holders of EU residence permits should be able to present to the border authorities their valid travel documents and residence permits.”

How this will work

How this will work on the ground, however, is a lot less clear.

Most ports/airports/terminals have two passport queues – EU and non-EU. It remains unclear whether the non-EU queue will have a separate section for those who are exempt from EES.

It does seem clear that exempt groups will not be able to use the automated passport scanners – since those cannot scan additional documents like residency permits – but should instead use manned passport booths. However it is not clear whether these will be available at all airports/ports/terminals or how non-EU residents of the EU will be directed to those services.

There’s also the issue that individual border guards are not always clear on the processes and rules for non-EU residents of the EU – even under the current system it’s relatively commonly for EU residents to have their passports incorrectly stamped or be given incorrect information about passport stamping by border guards.

Brits in particular will remember the immediate post-Brexit period when the processes as described by the EU and national authorities frequently did not match what was happening on the ground.

The Local will continue to try and get answers on these questions. 

READ ALSO What will EES mean for dual nationals

What if I live in the EU but I don’t have a visa/residency permit?

For most non-EU citizens, having either a visa or a residency permit is obligatory in order to be legally resident.

However, there is one exception: UK citizens who were legally resident in the EU prior to the end of the Brexit transition period and who live in one of the “declaratory” countries where getting a post-Brexit residency card was optional, rather than compulsory. Declaratory countries include Germany and Italy.

Although it is legal for people in this situation to live in those countries without a residency permit, authorities already advise people to get one in order to avoid confusion/hassle/delays at the border. Although EES does not change any rules relating to residency or travel, it seems likely that it will be more hassle to travel without a residency card than it is now.

Our advice? Things are going to be chaotic enough, getting a residency permit seems likely to save you a considerable amount of hassle.

Delays 

Although residents of the EU do not need to complete EES formalities, they will be affected if the new system causes long queues or delays at the border.

Several countries have expressed worries about this, with the UK-France border a particular cause for concern.

READ ALSO Travellers could face ’14 hours queues’ at UK-France border

Where does it apply?

EES is about external EU/Schengen borders, so does not apply if you are travelling within the Schengen zone – eg taking the train from France to Germany or flying from Spain to Sweden.

Ireland and Cyprus, despite being in the EU, are not in the Schengen zone so will not be using EES, they will continue to stamp passports manually.

Norway, Switzerland and Iceland – countries that are in the Schengen zone but not in the EU – will be using EES.

The full list of countries using EES is: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Therefore a journey between any of the countries listed above will not be covered by EES.

However a journey in or out of any of those countries from a country not listed above will be covered by EES.

You can find our full Q&A on EES HERE.

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