Hi there,

As it seems some of you got some "extensive" experience with the whole "facilitated naturalisation" process, I hope someone will be able to answer my quesiton.

I am in the process of getting the swiss passport (at least I hope it's taking that route !) and I guess my next step is now the most feared interview...

I am French (therefore no problem with this "official" swiss language) but leave in canton ZH. I have been looking for one specific information on this forum and all over the internet but I am not able to understand if taking the interview in German is a must or not. My German being really poor (shame...) I wonder if the requirement is around an official Swiss language or if being able to speak French would do...

I am a bit nervous about here and given that I have a perfect record, I can only see this as being the blocking point for me to get the naturalisation.

Thanks for your feedback !

Have a great day,
Jeanvaljean

My husband is from Geneva so there the official language is french but since we live in Basel I have been told that my interview is going to be in German.

Is it just me, or does the phrase "facilitated naturalisation" sound like something out of 1984's room 101?

Yeah would make definitely sense (and I would find that completely normal) that the interview is done in the language of the canton one leave in however, for a "facilitated naturalisation" (cf. room 101) I understand that this is managed at the confederation level only i.e. beside the right of appeal, the town or the canton is not really involved in the decision process.

This is where it gets tricky as at "confederation level" I do speak one of the swiss offical language but not at canton level and therefore, I really wonder if this could be a blocking point.

The requirement at federal level only state that "Integration" is required. Not sure what is behind this really... I guess there is on purpose lot's of room for interpretation here.

Cheers

All right guys, seems this is a bit of a specific case...
Any though in the crowd ?

Anyway I'd like to thank those who could provide their input !

Have a good day

Seems to me, even (especially?) in Zürich, if when making the appointment for your interview you tell them that the national language you speak is French, they should be able to (and be obliged to) have it conducted by someone who can also speak enough French to do so.

Thanks Texaner !
Well... I guess I will know soon enough

Cheers

There generally is no interview for facilitated naturalization.

Tom

Thanks Tom
This also my understanding but it seems that some people on that forum went through an "interview" during the process (facilitated).
I was wondering if there is any specific requirements here or if this is just a "classic" police checkup.

My OH definitely had an 'informal' one in Neuchatel- they even asked to talk to me... after 40 years married So like most things, there are regional variations it seems.

Maybe it depends on where you are. I had my interview last week. Firstly the poliece called to the house (I assume to ensure I lived there etc) and then I made an arrangement to head down to the police station for an interview which took about an hour. Lots of general questions - dates and family related stuff, then some on what I knew about Switzerland and why I wanted to be Swiss. Relatively informal and chatty. Others I know who applied recently also had similar interviews.

In my case, it was about 10 minutes at the local police station, generally talking about our asshole neighbor (the cop was another neighbor).

No history, etc. (though I was quite up on it).

Tom

Thanks guys,
I am indeed expecting such invite to come fairly soon.
Now again, my German being what it is, I hope this will not be a reason to block the whole process...

Cannot really figure out (and I've read a lot... Bfm and other web sites, forums, etc.) if for a "Facilitated naturalisation" it is a must or if being able to speak another official language then the one spoken in my canton will do.

Let's wait and see I guess...

My Italian was crap then, but no problems.

Tom

Sweet ! Thanks Tom.

theoretically "intergration" is the requirement, not any language skills...
and it's the police, not the full-on "swissness test"
but let us know how the interview goes....

Agree but one can easily argue that to be integrated, one need to speak the local language isn't it...

Anyway, I will keep you all posted !

JVJ

I think that depends on the type of case. I most certainly had an interview (had to fly halfway across a continent for it). So have other EFers. The basis of my qualification was my having a Swiss grandfather.

While I've been told that spouses of Swiss citizens who apply for FN don't have to interview, at least one EFer's spouse also had an interview (mine hasn't applied yet, so we don't have firsthand experience there). They were living abroad though, and maybe that's why. At any rate, there are definitely some cases where an interview of some kind is part of the process.

__________________
"Live every day as if it were going to be your last; for one day you're sure to be right." — Harry Morant

As said before, OH had an interview, despite having excellent referees and being married to a Swiss (moi) for 40 years. So local variation do exist.

The facilitated naturalization rules are slightly different if you don't live in Switzerland, for example you must be married 6 years instead of 3.

I'm not surprised there is an interview either way. I mean, I would expect something like that... you are becoming a Swiss citizen after all.

Even if it's just a 10 minute "chat" from the police to ask why you are doing it...