Hello everyone

I got a big question, how can I skip the army with my english nationality???

The problem is that I am half english (thanks dad) and half Suisse... So I have a swiss identity card but also have the british passport!

Any idea's of getting out of the army with the english passport or am I condemned to spend a year and a half at the army?

Thank you in advance your replys

So you are a Swiss citizen and you'd like to get out of military service based on the fact that you have dual nationality.

What did your local authorities say when you asked them this? This is a forum full of foreigners - you can't always ask them to answer questions on behalf of the Swiss authorities, especially when it concerns Swiss citizens!

My guess is that when you ask the authorities they'll tell you get pack your bags and report for duty, but it's up to you to check this for yourself.

You may also find this link of assistance from time to time.

Two answers here. Yes and no
Yes or you can object and do Civil service. Alternatively leave the country and head for England. Then you are exempt but be careful when you come back you will need to pay more tax...

There are two ways of avoiding draft in Switzerland.

One - being a national of a country having a bilateral treaty with Switzerland covering military service. These agreements stipulate that you can only do your compulsory service in one of the two countries. Off the top of my head, these clauses exist in agreements with the US, France, Colombia and Romania (this is a non-exclusive enumeration from memory).

Two - failing the draft test for various reasons (like being a potential hazard to other recruits for instance) which doesn't absolve you from having to pay military tax.

Move to Britain and don't come back until after military age?

give up your Swiss nationality?
or
suck it up and be a man? Stories I hear is it's mostly a pleasure.

I only just saw this thread that came up with the other Swiss Army thread that has surfaced. I thought I would reply because that is the situation my dad, his brothers, and my brothers have all been in (dual UK/Swiss citizens living in the UK).

They all got their call-up papers, went along to the Swiss Embassy in Montagu Place and said that they didn't want to join the army thankyou very much. They got some sort of release pass and that was that.

if you are eligible to serve in another country's army then you can get out of it as well - someone my husband works with got released from the Swiss army because he could serve in Italy but didn't serve in Italy either. However he had to pay some money for the privilege but my dad or brothers didn't have to pay anything.

It's 16-18 weeks "Rekrutenschule" (basic training) and 4 weeks every two years (or two every year) "WK" (refresher) thereafter I believe.

You get time off from your employer, no problem.

You can get out

- not being suitable (medically) (doens't exclude you from the tax unless you do Zivilschutz)
- doing "Zivilschutz" for "psychological reasons" instead which takes 1.5x as long
- leaving the country

My sweet little brother went for Basic Training and came back as a grown man being able to wash his own socks, same for lots of friends of mine - suck it up, dude

Avoid it, any way you can. Compuslory military service is ridiculous in this day and age.

Why? Discipline, fresh air, learning to be self-sufficient, making new friends, learning new skills - and respect for firearms. Isn't this exactly what today's youth could do with?

The army has served Switzerland well. IMO it is one of the reasons Switzerland is Switzerland...

I'll chime in here with my 2 Rappen as someone who was in the same situation.

Do your military service. More likely than not you'll look back fondly on the time you spent there.

I took many valuable lessons with me from my time there: Discipline, team work, facing up some realities of life (by which I mean having to do "stupid sh*t" I didn't want to do) which continue in your career and almost every facet of life, handling and more importantly taking responsibility for weapons and plenty more.

I got to know a lot of good people which I would NEVER have met otherwise and did things I could only have dreamed of (plastic explosives = win++) which turned out to be an absolute blast (pun not intended).

I could go on and on about the good times and even some of the harder times, but at the end of the day, it's only as hard as you make it for yourself. People getting into a strop about following orders just get to learn the hard way i.e. do it twice.

Go in with a positive attitude and you won't regret it. For me it had nothing to do with the militaristic aspect of what you do there, rather the new experiences, places and comradeship.

Only negative thing that I can see about military service is that a lot of kids develop a nasty smoking habit in this time.

I noticed that the original post was made about a year ago... Anyway,
I believe that these days WKs are usually once a year and about 3 weeks long (unless you're an officer, in which case it's about 4). Altogether though, the total amount of days to be served is (more or less?) the same.

I've got orientation for the Rekrutenschule on March 28th. I'm probably going to enter sometime in late October / early November. All though I'm 22, I still feel like I'm 17. I'm hoping that after the 18 weeks it'll make a man out of me.

Having been in the Officer Training Corps at school, and having got a lot out of it (OK I cheated a bit as getting into a school sports team meant I didn't have to do the square bashing bit), wouldn't have minded doing a bit more. Unfortunately in the UK it was an all or nothing thing; you had to sign up for a minimum of 3 years full time, and I wasn't so keen as to do that.

I'd say go for it and enjoy it. Do make an effort with your Swiss language skills beforehand though, as otherwise it will be hard work.

Just tell them that you refuse to fire a single round and that you're against killing another man in times of war and pray to the spaghetti monster that they send you for an evaluation.

I know someone did the exact same thing and got exempted.

One thing to note though, if they discover that you are trying to wiggle out of military srvice, you might be serving your military days in DB.

Good Luck.

No need to become a Pastafarian, everybody can ask for the interview. "Evaluation" was the right word when the civil service applicant's motivation and conscience were tested; now the authorities are interested in the reason why you want to leave/not join "the costume club" and what your civil service skills are.

The trick is to know soon enough what you want and if you want to join the military, if you have preferred units. If you don't have an opinion the system will tell you what's good for you. Usually the choices are military, civil defence, cheat & civilian service, cheat & tax.

I have a conflicted opinion about the military, sometimes I only see the good and sometimes just the bad things. Be prepared... and one of the next German words you learn, grey, should be Fresspäckli. These and a couple of soft drinks and one, two good books made my stay at the Rekrutenschule much more pleasant.

I am an australian/swiss dual citizen born in australia but looking to move to switzerland at the end of the year once i have finished my studies. Unlike some others i am willing and keen to partake in military service once my german is up-to-scratch.

Im just wondering if (being essentially a foreigner) there are any issues other than language i may encounter. Also must i declare to potential employers that i have yet to serve? (as i understand most people do their service before tertiary studies) would this effect employment prospects (im thinking with foreign owned multinationals in particular)

not all complete before tertiary education for a variety of reasons.

if any company has a Swiss based entity, they will be used to releasing employees for military service (Cervelat bashing) on an annual basis.