Small correction. I was naturalized at 25 and was informed that the cut-off age for recruitment is 26 and not 25. Not a good surprise, but I lived.

I also went through recruitment this past December and they were pretty cool with me. If you're 18 years old, in good health, and aren't too set in your ways, they won't indulge you or take any excuses. You're doing it. I was almost 26 at the time, already have a Uni diploma and was working full-time for years. My occasional sleepwalking was an issue, but ultimately they just asked me what I wanted to do. I told them that since I was already set in my ways and have a good career going, the Army wasn't an ideal solution for me. I got Civil Protection and a letter informing me that I was a Reservist (in Geneva, huge natural disaster aside, no chance of being called up) a few weeks later.

You do have to take the thing seriously and be clear about what you want, and don't count on them to make the choice for you. Another 25 year-old Russian guy was at recruitment with me and decided to put his career on hold to do the Army for kicks. I got a message from him a few months later saying that basic training was hardcore, that I was lucky, and that he made a huge mistake. I reassured him by saying that Russian Army would have been worse. I don't know what he was thinking. At 18, it may be fun to wake up at 5 AM, run around, and get yelled at by your superiors. If you're a seasoned desk jockey who's used to your boss saying "please", it's a different story.

Seems that every Swiss woman is also in this category... that is, unless the men get with it and demand the women do military service...

No, they are not (if they live in CH), I had to pay for several years.

Tom

Ok i almost read the whole thread so i have an idea but i have a question

i recently moved to zurich, i am 23 an looking for an internship, i have my swiss nationality and the mexican nationality and i speak english and little bit of german (a2) but the thing is i did my military service in mexico

do i have to do the swiss military service?

i dont have a problem with doing it, but i already served in mexico and i think i cant do it in other country (due to military secrecy or something like that)

For 3 years ,if you live outside of switzerland
No you don`t have to serve,if you served in a other country

but will i still have to pay the tax for not doing the military service?

thanks for the answer

Yes, until you are 32 or so. 2% of your net income as I recall.

Tom

[QUOTE=sonnyk;1097523]Health reasons aside, my understanding is that no one gets out of military service. CEOS, farmers with crops to attend to, etc...

My husband was excused from serving his mandatory 3 weeks of military service for 2 years in a row. In the meantime, his company had to pay QUOTE]
exused! He should have being Executed for lying to you.I t is not several thousand ,maybe several hundreds