Can anyone tell me how much this costs, please?

Facilitated naturilzation within Switzerland costs 765 CHF, including costs for it being sent nachnahme (COD).

Hello everybody and thank you for all your contributions.
I qualify for facilitated naturalization after being married to Swiss national for 6 years. I am in the preparation, I have been trying to learn French, I guess I can make myself understood, I took a couple of courses, personally, I guess I am "advanced beginner" to lower intermediate.
I am working hard on the history part, I am reading about it every day, hoping that I will know enough by the time I decide to call them to schedule an interview. I don’t know how far I should know, from Gonzus’s comments (thank you) I noticed that I will need to speak about history but I don’t know how detailed? Is it just basic or in details? I can talk about Swiss history briefly so far.
Geography, I think I am good at it, I spoke to a Swiss person, it seemed to me that I knew more about Swiss Geography more than him.
I have managed to get around 10 people to write letters recommending me to obtain citizenship which I will submit with my application, I hope that will be of help. I have visited Switzerland around 7 times which I think is enough; I found all tickets and car rental in my email so I will print them out and submit them.
I am member of a Swiss club in London, I am just a member, I don’t really participate, but I am planning to go to an event or two before I make the application, The fact that I am a full time employee and full time student is preventing me from socializing in “a Swiss club”.
When we called the Swiss embassy in London to ask about facilitated citizenship, the lady was helpful and sent us a package that included information and an application form, I think that was a good sign of cooperation.
From your experience, do you think I have a chance of having a successful interview from the mentioned above if I schedule one soon?

Thank you.

Hi Johnny,

From your description, I would say you are ready:

• I would also call myself "advanced beginner - lower intermediate" as far a my French fluency is concerned.
• History should not be too difficult, just go over it several times until you get the general gist of it, it should not be necessary to go into any details. For your illustration: the lady at the Embassy here in Santiago told me she has received people at their interviews, who did not know what the capital of Switzerland is... This means that anybody who is capable of going over the main history line for Switzerland should do fine.
• Same with geography, you should know the big cities, significant places (mountains, waterfalls, rivers), etc.
• Ten letters of recommendation should be more than enough, but remember you also need the names and addresses (no letters) of Swiss people currently residing in Switzerland who are willing to give references about you later in the process.
• Seven visits to Switzerland is plenty, but were they during the last ten years? Be prepared to show evidence about these visits, but only upon request.
• Your membership in the Swiss club is good, you should be prepared to prove it upon request.
• It is good the lady at the Embassy is cooperative; she will be your first filter out of (hopefully) several, you should really strive to make a good impression on her.

I believe you are in good shape. Please keep us appraised of your progress, and arm yourself with lots of patience. And do get in touch should you need anything else. Good luck!

In my understanding, among the documents to be initially submitted with the application for facilitated naturalization is a certified copy establishing one's grandfather's having been born Swiss. I've seen the terms "Familienausweis" and "Familienschein" used in connection with this, but am unsure, and would like to ask:

• What (in German) is the actual document that should be used for this purpose?
  
• Where should it be requested — from the Gemeinde? from the Canton?

Thanks in advance for any assistance in clarifying this.

Hi Texaner,

In my case, the Embassy itself did all the paperwork to obtain this document. It was all very quick for me because I have an aunt who had just gone through the interview one year before, so the Embassy actually had the document in their local files. The document's title is Familienschein, from Kanton Schwyz, but I assume it would be the same everywhere else.

Hope that helps and best regards.

Thanks Gonzus! I also managed to determine over the weekend that the Familienschein is the correct document. The paperwork I received from the embassy/consulate seems to suggest that my supplying that document is preferable, and I have located and contacted the appropriate Zivilstandamt and initiated the process of acquiring it. While the Zivilstandamt doesn't require that copies of birth- and marriage-certificates be certified (the embassy/consulate does), they have requested that I supply translations of all English-language documents (which is most of them).

In my case, I didn't have to certify or translate any of the documents I presented. I understood that was (part of) what the 700 CHF you pay are for.

Regarding certification of documents, it might be a case of the country where you were born; it is possible that the Embassy at one country (such as Chile) trusts the local official papers more than the Embassy at other countries, where corruption might be higher. This is simply my guess though; the fact is that I just presented local birth- and marriage-certificates (with no extra certification) and paid the 700 CHF; the Embassy accepted them as-is and translated everything into German.

I suppose it is possible that standards vary from country to country. In any case, I think if they're asking me for certified copies, that is what I should supply, or they might reject them, delaying or terminating the process. At the very least, if I do more than I have to, I don't see how it could hurt my chances of success, and it might even help(?).

Absolutely, you should do exactly as they ask you; don't forget this is Switzerland we are talking about.

In fact, I have had dealings with the Spanish Embassy here as well, and they asked for three certifications (not kidding) for all documents presented to them. I guess the only correct conclusion here is that there are no standards as far as this is concerned.

When I got the Swiss citizenship for my kids, the San Francisco consulate did all the certification/notarization. The consul is accredited by the state of California as public notary. I assume TX is the same.

That may explain exactly why my consulate is asking me to get certified copies: The only Texas-based consulate was closed some years ago, and I have to use the one in Atlanta. They may not be accredited in every location where I'm getting documents (perhaps including Texas), which would perhaps explain the differing requirements.

I'll take a second look at my instructions to be certain, but I'm 99% sure they specified certified copies of everything. And as I've said, it makes more sense (to me) to just give them exactly what they asked for than to take a chance on not following their instructions (which would be rather un-Swiss ).

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

If any of you who underwent this process asked your friends and relatives what kind of questions they were asked by the authorities, I would be curious to know what kinds of specific things they were asked.

As I mentioned in a previous post (probably on this very thread), they didn't ask any questions to the Swiss people living in Chile (US in your case) who wrote letters of recommendation for you. To the Swiss people living in Switzerland, they asked three things: 1) Do you know this person? 2) Does this person have links with Switzerland? 3) Can this person communicate in one of the official languages?

Having looked over the application papers I received, I don't recall seeing anything about anyone writing letters of recommendation. Did your forms actually call for those letters, or did the motivation for that come from somewhere else?

The consulate in San Francisco has always been remarkably professional.
I made an effort on my side to have exactly what they requested and in response they always delivered promptly and without any hiccup. Hopefully you will have the same experience in Atlanta.
Good luck in your quest. It is very exciting.

It was specifically requested in the long list of documents to present to the Embassy: "a minimum of two letters of recommendation from Swiss people living in Chile, written in a Swiss language" (my translation from Spanish).

Mind you, this list has at the top "Swiss Embassy, Santiago Chile". It is possible this is only requested down here.

I must say the case was the same here in Santiago. Everything did work like a Swiss clock; the lady at the Consulate was very polite and extremely efficient; she also managed all interviews for facilitated naturalization, in Spanish, German, French and Italian! No Romansch though...

It's beginning to look as if the requirements do vary somewhat from place to place. That's the prerogative of the ministry itself, I suppose. In any case, it's interesting to observe these nuances.

I agree. Chile had a lot of immigrants from Germany, Switzerland and Austria during the second half of the nineteenth century; these families usually kept their ties to the motherland (unlike what I believe to be the case in the US, where immigrants just considered themselves to be American). So I guess it makes sense to ask for letters from these "diaspora Swiss", as it were.