Hi all,

My wife is a Swiss Citizen, born in Switzerland. She immigrated to the US in October 2011 to live with me, her husband. I have 3 questions:

1. Can I apply for Swiss citizenship after being married to my wife for six years, while living overseas (in the US)? I read this somewhere.

2. Will our children also have Swiss citizenship (whether I gain citizenship or not?)

3. If so, can our children attend Swiss Universities when they become of age (and not pay very much for tuition, as we do in the US!?)

Thanks for your help.

1) Yes. Contact your local Swiss Embassy/Consulate for the details and to set up an initial interview. You/your spouse need to have maintained some tiies to Switzerland though. This link gives more information on facilitated naturalisation:
http://www.bfm.admin.ch/content/bfm/...uergerung.html

2) If your wife is Swiss why aren't the children already Swiss? But in any case the children need to be under the age of 18 when the application is submitted in order to be included in the process and they link automatically to your application. Not sure about them being naturalised separately.

3) For questions related to studies this link may be useful:
http://www.crus.ch/direkteinstieg-fu...dents.html?L=2
If your children are Swiss they would qualify for Swiss fees.

Thanks Snoopy!

My wife and I don't have kids yet. So I just wanted to make sure... that if she's Swiss, immigrates to the US, and then has children (with me of course) on US soil, will they also have Swiss citizenship, or is there an application process? But assuming from your response, I guess there's an application process.

I was also wondering, if our future children obtain dual citizenship... US/Swiss... will they have to serve in the Swiss military as the citizens are obligated to? Hmm...

Thanks again!

You don't have children yet but you are already thinking about university? If that isn't forward planning, I don't know what is!! I'm impressed.

If they live in swizerland Yes.If the did service in the USA they don,t have to do service in switzerland

I didn't see that part. The children have not even been born yet. At the rate they are going Switzerland won't even have an army by the time the children are of military age....

Well, military service in the US is not mandatory. They likely will not enlist. So, I'm assuming from your response, if they're going to Switzerland solely for University (and living there for 4 years or so), they do not have to serve in the Swiss military?

Yes Snoopy! University in the US can cost about $30,000/year for just one child! I would just like to have that option open for them (to study in Switzerland), if they so choose.

Thanks again.

I thought - although I could well be wrong - that if a male child has Swiss citizenship and comes to Switzerland for university, that boy would be eligible for Swiss military service.

You are correct. If they are of age and they are Swiss and they are resident in Switzerland they will be on the authorities radar. Being Swiss they wouldn't need visas, so as far as the authorities are concerned they are just living here. The fact that they would just be here to study is irrelevant.

Of course, the OP would have to know that his yet to be born child will be a boy... if it is a girl, then it is a moot point.

What if it is a boy without a winkle?



Cheers,
Nick

someone give him his swiss passport, already!

OP,

To answer your 2nd question:

Swiss citizenship is threefold:
I (federal), II (cantonal), III (communal).

Your kids will be Swiss as long as at least one of the parents is Swiss.

If both parents are Swiss (which you will be if you acquire citizenship before birth of your children), your children will receive the father's cantonal and communal Swiss citizenship.

If you're married but you as the father aren't Swiss (yet), your children will receive the mother's cantonal and communal Swiss citizenship.

Article 271 of the Swiss CC.

Hope this helps.

If you want them to go to University in Switzerland then you must make sure they have university level language skills. They should be studying one of the Swiss languages from birth and will need tutoring at they go through school.

Thumbs up on the planning ahead!

glowjupiter, miniMia: Thank you very much! I appreciate the reference especially, glow.

Thanks again both

Why has nobody mentioned the entry requirements (aside from a quiet non-english link at the beginning)?

American high school is not sufficient for admission into a Swiss university at the bachelor level.

You would have to plan out the requirements from quite early, most likely involving a private school that offers an international baccalaureate.

As the child has not yet been born maybe this would be taking advance planning too far, particularly as entrance requirements may well change in the next 18-20 years...also, as the OP's wife is Swiss, I am sure that she would be able to manage at least one of the national languages without too much difficulty...

This has nothing to do with the language.

Extremely distant planning, yes, but this whole conversation revolves around fact finding anyway - pointless to discuss something easy to accommodate like language without going into academic standards, which may be unchangeable.

How long it will take to approve the citizenship if you apply from outside Switzerland?is it one year or more?

Not sure about university, but if he decides to move to CH later in life and he's still within the age to serve, he has the choice to serve or pay 3% of his salary until the year of his 31st birthday. That's how it worked with my hubby - born in Canada to Swiss parents, moved here when he was 29. We had to pay 2 years as he chose not to do his military service (which he was exempt from when he was living in Canada).

))

I pay about 25k USD / CHF per year for day car for a 2 year old here