You need to update your driver's license, as that has your place of origin.

You need to inform your car insurance as most probably you might have to pay less as a Swiss

All your friends from Aargau and Graubünden that you are now Ä arroganti Zürrischnurre und huere koge Unterländer.

Haha. I don’t have any friends. And even if I did they wouldn’t understand. Indeed when I went to the Office des Étrangers here in Valais (a bilingual canton after all) they couldn’t understand the German of my civil-status form from Asrgau and I had to translate it for them. At least they pronounced my Swiss mum’s name more or less acceptably.

Congratulations!! How long after paying the 100 CHF bill to the SEM (Bund) did you receive confirmation of the 'Einbürgerungsbewilligung' being successful? I guess it then takes some more time for Kanton ZH to do their final check before you can apply for the ID/Passport?

Just curious - were you exempt from the interview because of doing studies in CH?

Is anyone else in limbo on an interview with their town?

I'ts been 5 months since I did the knowledge test, and was expecting an appointment in March/April 2020. Unfortunately COVID-19 has shut down a lot of Gemeinde activity and services, with no real indication when they will resume.

Given no notices have been published in the last 4 months, I can take comfort that it applies to other local applicants.

A friend in Stadt Zürich will be lucky enough to have his interview by phone!

Are the notices published at Gemeinde or Kantonal level?

It's a communal thing. E.g. here's one for Zurich City.

That is absolutely correct. The Gemeinde publishes in an official public place: newspaper, website etc. You should check in your Gemeinde where are they publishing the official decisions.

Correct. Our Gemeinde publishes both on their website and in the weekly newsletter.



In any case I spoke to the Gemeinde on Friday. Apparently our town council is not meeting "external" persons currently due to the virus situation and "provisionally" the next interviews will be scheduled after the Summer holidays . So now it looks like the process will take between 2 and 3 years.

Bumping this....anyone else stuck in Limbo because of COVID19?

I've seen that my process is moving, slower than expected (considering that I am counting the days... :-) ).

I have received a letter from the Gemeinde with the confirmation that there was no claim after the publication of my name in the newspaper informing about my municipality citizenship.

This means that they are working.

I received a quick answer from the Naturalization Department of the Canton of Zürich for an email.

Unfortunately for me I've yet to reach the interview stage, as the Gemeinderat has stopped meeting "external" persons until further notice due to COVID-19.

Of course there isn't much avenue to vent or complain (except here) without risking the application. An already slow process will get slower simply because my town won't adapt (ie consider alternatives such as video conference).

Rant over.

Something is worth waiting for... Good luck, everyone 🍀

Does anyone know how to check the application status at the Federal level? Thanks.

I checked mine by writing to ch@sem.admin.ch.

...and did they answer?

Hi Cheeky, yes, did they answer? How long it took for your approval? What information you gave them to check the status? Thanks, a lot of questions...

Yes, they replied within a day. I had to give them all the obvious details (date of birth, address, Cantonal reference no. etc) and also the date my dossier was sent to them by the Cantonal authorities. Not sure how this specific detail is useful, but anyway.

I haven't received the federal approval yet. My dossier was sent to SEM in March and I paid the "famous" bill of 100 CHF in May. Still waiting...

fyi, we just completed our naturalisation in Kanton ZH

- Submitted May 2018
- 2x Interviews in summer 2019
- Nov 2019 approval in local Gemeinde
- Invoice Kanton Feb 2020
- Invoice Bund May 2020
- Finished Einbürgerung June 2020

Now waiting for passports.