My Swiss husband and I (American) were married in the USA in 2007.
In 2010 we had our daughter in the USA.
Now we have returned to Switzerland and need to register us both. We never registered the marriage or the birth while abroad (yeah, I know) so now we have to do it all while here.

Do we have to do all of this through the Swiss embassy in the States even though we are now living here? It seems so counterintuitive but thats what we have been told. Why can we not gather all the necessary documents and have us registered here at the local gemeinde?

Can someone enlighten me?

Because the Swiss Embassy in USA is familiar with US documents.

How did you get your daughter here without a birth certificate / passport?

It doesn't seem so counterintuitive to me.
I can imagine the Swiss embassy will ask an official document at the official authority where you were married in 2007, then transfer it to the Gemeinde. Your Gemeinde hasn't got a clue about what this official document looks like. Receiving this document from the Swiss embassy will be a guarantee of authenticity for the Gemeinde.
The notion of trust is not applicable in bureaucracy...

She has a US birth certificate and US passport.

I guess it seems counterintuitive because the US accepted various Swiss documents of my husband (birth certificate, vaccination records, etc.) containing official seals with no problem.

Time to suck it up and jump through some Swiss hoops....; )

Thanks for the input, I just wanted to make sure there was not an easier way.

Actually, it all has to be done through your husband's Heimatort/Attinenza/Lieu d'origine, not the town in which you live (unless they are one and the same, usually not the case).

When my wife and I got married in the US, we did it all after returning to Switzerland, and only dealt with her Heimatort (though they in turn conatcted the Swiss consulate in NY for various documents, translations, etc.)

Tom

I remember when I got married, many moons ago, that we started and declared the procedure to bothe the B and CH authorities, specifying the official marriage would take place in B. We then sent the official wedding-certificate the the CH-embassy asking to further it to the Gemeinde here. The Gemeinde here was duly informed but only made it Swiss-legal once they had the wedding certificate.

Good luck with it!

Okay, that sounds more reasonable to me since we are currently located in CH instead of the US. My confusion was why we would be going through the Swiss embassy located in the US to do this when we are no longer living in the US and are actually within Switzerland.

Any idea the process of having our daughter registered as well? I am assuming since her father is Swiss, its a matter of simple registration?

I'm also american with a Swiss husband. We didn't do anything from the states either. We got here, walked into the local Gemeinde with our docs and said oops. They said we should have gone to the embassy in NY but oh well. She said it will take a little longer to deal with my docs since we didn't go to NY, so she ordered my Ausweis with my maiden name, no problem. Quite a contrast to the INS!