I was joking.

A lapsed passport ceases to be a valid travel document, to an extent. That's all

Did anybody recently submit application to the Gemeindeamt (Canton) in Zurich?

I did in the beginning of September, afer 1.5 months I got confirmation of reception of the application, and in this week it'll be 3 months since I had applied.

I'm wondering what's the recent experience of others who did the same? From what I've seen in other threads 2 months is a more common period of time between submitting the application and Canton sending it to the Commune.

I sent end of August and still waiting Kantonal to forward to Gemeinde.

For me it was about 2 months between receipt confirmation and a letter from the Gemeinde. Be aware there are staff changes/shortages amongst the ZH case officers, which is probably leading to delays. Not to mention COVID.

The whole process is an exercise in patience, so at this stage you can only hurry up and wait. Only after 3 months no comms would I make inquiries.

For me, after application was accepted in April, I only heard about the interview in December.

Patience, grasshopper!

Passport and ID arrived today!

I actually wanted to hand in my C-permit at the Kreisbüro.

The lady looked at me in horror and asked, "what do you want me to do with this?". She convinced me to keep it. It expires in two years anyway.

In other words, until it does expire, I can have the best of both worlds

It all depends.

Some countries supposedly say a passport may be lapsed by something like two years.

Not that I've ever put that to the test.

OTOH holding two passports may be a bit of an overkill, unless for example you need to travel to both Israel and Iran or some combination like that.

In view of the hassle and costs involved in acquiring passports, I think it is sufficient to hold a passport of only one of the countries of which you are a citizen, and preferably the stronger of the two, which right now AFAIK is Switzerland.

It depends on a case-to-case basis. You may need to send a passport away for visa processing that could take significant time, rendering you passport-less in the meanwhile. Or there may be some other restrictions, i.e. Argentina allows dual citizenship, but an Argentinian citizen can only use their Argentinian passport to enter the country.

Precisely, I’d be happy to let my overpriced AUS passport lapse if it wasn’t required for AUS dual- citizens to use it to enter and leave Australia.I believe the USA also has this requirement.

I have a question from a friend regarding the criteria for integration: one has to be employed/self-employed, or have sufficient means to support themselves (through income from third parties or wealth) and be part of the educational or economic life. Can one simply live off their savings/investments (and maybe do Swiss university courses/volunteering to prove links/integration)? Does anyone know what amounts of subsistence does one have to prove to the authorities? Thanks.

This is one of the characteristics of the Swiss process: it's a subjective test applied in around 2'000 different ways. For example, in the city of Zurich I think this would be acceptable, but maybe in a more conservative town/kanton this may not be. So long as you can show you have enough income/wealth not to land on social welfare, you have good chances.

This coming Saturday I will finish the Staatskurs and it will be the one to last requirement I need to fulfil to file for naturalisation. The missing one being the 5 years in the same Gemeinde, which will happen on Feb. 1st, 2021. So I plan to walk to the Rathaus on Tuesday, Feb 2 and hand in our papers. Integration will certainly not be an issue (wife and I have always worked, speak fluent German, kids attended school their whole lives here, we know and socialize with local friends and neighbors, etc), neither will be any other of the formal (or even "informal") requirements. I'm still terrified, though.

__________________
The internet makes it easy to be a jerk and forget the person we're talking to is a human. It also makes us see messages from awful people and assume they come from normal peers.

Your location says Zurich. In canton Zurich only two years in the same town are needed. Also there is no Staatskurs needed in canton Zurich. Sure you are integrated, know the rules? Are you proud of your canton or residence and hopefully future canton of citizenship (Maybe time to change the location to Basel-Land )

Yeah, that's not correct. I spend a lot of time (spent? before COVID) in Zürich, but my formal residence is in a small Gemeinde in Eastern Switzerland.

sorry, just curious to know. which gemainde in Zurich is that which asks for 5 year residency in the gemainde to apply for naturalization. as far as I know, the maximum residency requirement in any gemainde in Zurich canton is 2 years. so I am a bit surprised to hear about the 5 year residencey requirement.


cheers
happycreature

Actually, previous to the latest revision some towns in Kt. Zürich had a 5-year residency requirement...these included Egg ZH and Affoltern am Albis.

We submitted our paperwork in April 2019, had our interview in December 2019, and have paid 3 separate invoices since - one each to Stadt Zürich, Kanton Zürich and the Bund.

The last bill to the Bund was CHF 150 was paid in August 2020. Since then, we have not heard anything. Should we follow up or keep waiting?

Is it correct to assume that we have "passed" and we are just waiting for all of the paperwork to be formalised and invoices to be paid?

I saw someone earlier with a similar timeline to us, except she has already received confirmation of citizenship and even her passport.

It would be nice if we could also achieve something in 2020 ;-)

If you look at post #492 from Sponplage, he/she waited around 4-5 months between paying the federal invoice and being notified of being Swiss :-) So you should hear something in then next month :-)