Hi Ustinka.

I wouldn't have been able to change the canton before as that would effectively restart the procedure.

Welcome to Switzerland.

Is there someone who can check your mail for you regularly while you're up in the hillls, and forward to you using our super duper modern Swiss Post?

When filling in the "Erklärung über die Erfüllung der Einbürgerungsvoraussetzungen im ordentlichen Verfahren" which one did you check?

Grundkenntnisse über die Schweiz, den Kanton Zürich und Ihre Wohngemeinde.
 während mindestens 5 Jahren die obligatorische Schule in der Schweiz besucht. (Bitte Schulbestätigungen im Original oder Kopien der Schulzeugnisse beilegen)
 habe eine Ausbildung auf Sekundarstufe II (z.B. Gymnasium oder Berufslehre) oder Tertiärstufe in der Schweiz abgeschlossen. Tertiärstufe ist z.B. Universität oder Fachhochschule
 den Grundkenntnistest bereits absolviert (Bitte den Nachweis im Original beilegen)
 Ja, ich habe Grundkenntnisse. Ich nehme zur Kenntnis, dass ich diese in einem Gespräch oder Test nachweisen muss. Ich habe mich bei meiner Wohngemeinde über das Verfahren informiert.

The naturalization handbook says what's below, so maybe you should (politely) point your Gemeinde to the relevant section. Just please be aware that the interview is not only about geography, politics etc but also about "intergration". And to dispense with the interview, you'd have to be "entitled to the citizenship", and for that you'd need to belong to the following two categories:

* Foreigners born in Switzerland are treated as Swiss citizens in the right to naturalization. Section 20 (3) remains reserved.
* Foreigners between the ages of 16 and 25 who were not born in Switzerland are treated in the same way as foreigners born in Switzerland at this age, provided that they can demonstrate that they have attended primary or secondary school in Switzerland for at least five years 21 in one of the national languages.

But I know for a fact, that some people who completed e.g. ETHZ (but not primary/secondary school) were absolved from the "integration" interview in Zurich, even though they didn't exactly fall into the category "with entitlement to citizenship".

7.7.2.9. Exemption from the examination of basic knowledge
For applicants who have attended compulsory school in Switzerland for at least five years or who have completed upper-secondary education (e.g. high school or basic vocational training) or tertiary education (e.g. university, university of applied sciences) in Switzerland, the legal presumption applies that the required Basic knowledge was acquired as part of the training (Judgment of the Federal Court 1C_337 / 2019 of November 13, 2019, E. 5.). The persons concerned are exempt from completing the basic knowledge test or from checking the basic knowledge using a standardized questionnaire. Detailed information on compulsory school, upper secondary level, tertiary level, private schools and further training can be found in section 7.4.3.

Here's the list of unis from 7.4.3:
 Universität [PhD/Doktorat, Master, Bachelor]
 ETH [PhD/Doktorat, Master, Bachelor]
 PHZH (Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich) [Master, Bachelor]
 Hochschule für Heilpädagogik [Master, Bachelor]
 ZHAW (Zürcher Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften) [Master, Bachelor]
 ZHdK (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) [Master, Bachelor]
 HWZ [Master, Bachelor]
 Fachhochschulen [Master, Bachelor]
 höhere Berufsbildung [eidg. Diplom, eidg. Fachausweis, Diplom HF]

This is an important point. Each Gemeinde see different purposes for the interview: getting to know you, proving integration, etc. And in most cases, the interviewers are members of the Gemeinderat (ie local politicians) who also want to use the opportunity to sell themselves (once you get to vote).

In many ways I am actually disappointed I didn't have to do an interview!

I too will confess that I'm suffering from home-stretch impatience. I received the bill from SEM last 29.Oct.2020 and paid on the same day. So 3 months from tomorrow. I understand there was Christmas holidays and Covid restrictions, so delays are to be expected. After a long process, this last stretch is just unnerving.
Anyway, what exactly is being vetted at the SEM level? Is this something I showed worry that we will be rejected at this point?

I did a 15 minute chat at the local cantonal police with a guy who was a neighbor that I'd grunt to from time to time (he wasn't very chatty). I think we mainly talked about a certain asshole neighbor.

Tom

It can take 3-6months after you pay the SEM bill before getting citizenship, because it goes back to the Kantonal office for finalisation (either could be the hold-up). I predict you'll get it in February, latest March.

The SEM basically make sure you are not a threat to the nation or on any international watch lists (the Kanton can't access this info).

Finally, looking back at your timeline, you applied only in Feb 2020? You really can't complain to be in the home stretch at this point!

I don't think I'm on any international watch list, so I'll just try to sit back, relax, extend my patience.

I agree that relatively I can't complain since we submitted docs Feb 2020. But getting the docs, language certs, etc was around a year before that. So un-officially we are getting to 2 years with this naturalisation thing.

Question about one pf the questions in the application from that I am a bit stuck on. I am in canton GE and am not sure this question is asked everywhere... perhaps you can advise if you have encountered this:

The question (#2.6) is "Have you been served by the cantonal police or municipal police (arrest (s), check (s), hearing (s), ticket (s), other), in the last ten years? Yes No; If you answered yes, please complete the following table - List of Incident (s) and Location (s) and year (s) of the event (s)"

The original question in French: "Avez-vous, déjà occupe les services de la police cantonale ou de la police municipale (arrestation(s), controle(s), audition(s), contravention(s), autre), dans les dix dernières annees? Oui / Non; Si vous avez repondu oui, veuillez completer le tableau suivant -- Liste des Fait(s) reproche(s) et Lieu(x) et annee(s) de(s) l'évènement(s)"

My situation: I have had some parking and speeding tickets in the ten years... not at lot, I would guess about 5 in the last 10 years. There were typically the minimum amounts or close. Alas I never kept a record of these as I did not make a habit of earning these and never anticipated that I would need them for the purpose of the naturalisation.

My question to this group: Have you encountered this question in your application ? Did you decide to include parking / speeding tickets ? And if so did you have your own records or were you able to get a record of these infractions from some office?

Thank you !

If you didn't have anything entered in the criminal record, I wouldn't list anything. The key phrase to me (as translated with deepl) is "Liste des Fait(s) reproche(s)" which translates as "List of Chargeable Event(s)."

You can probably order a criminal record extract online to be sure.

did your speeding tickets result in just a bill for speeding coming to you? If you got fines from the Bussenkatalog then nobody cares.

If you got a special bill for admin fees, suspended fines and bans then it might have an impact.

If these were in a vehicle registered to you, there is a high chance this information will be available to them. However, unless you were getting them weekly, they are not valid reasons to refuse citizenship. Also, unlike those offences that land on your criminal history, you don't really have an avenue to get a report on these as such.

You could also play an each way bet by writing something like "I have had some minor infringement notices for parking and speeding, but did not keep any records of these, so therefore cannot provide details". So if they are not on the records they have access to, it not only goes to your honesty, but puts the onus on them to find this out. (which I doubt they would bother to do).

__________________
So sayeth the 'Speed
* I do look like my avatar

Hello,
is there someone who applied for Swiss passport in 2020 in Canton Geneva? Last week I finally had an interview, after one year of waiting. What to expect next? How much time does it take canton to make a decision and to send all documents in Bern? Please, share you experience!

there are some timelines in the thread that should give you some indications

welcome to the forum.

To give you a little outlook: I paid the SEM bill on October 5th, and got my notification that I've received my Swiss citizenship, as of last Monday. ... For some reason this letter took a full week to arrive to me

Anyways, I'm celebrating today :-)

Congrats! In Kanton ZH, the finish line becomes clearer once you've recieved and paid the Kanton ZH bill for 500chf...the SEM bill usually follows a month laterl, then 3-4 months after that, the holy letter of citizenship.

Congratulations kzs!
Hopefully our holy letter comes at the end of Feb.

The time has finally arrived for us. This last Saturday marked our 10th anniversary in Switzerland, and today I made our appointment to start the naturalization process. We already have our language proficiency certificates, the Staatskundekurs certificates, etc. So one week from today we'll be on our journey to switch our blue passports for red ones...fate permitting.

So anxious.

Awesome, and good luck! Zivilregister is also important, you can't get the ball rolling without it.

Oh, and you say "switch" from blue to red? Only worth doing if you are a US citizen keen to ditch dual-taxation If you are an Australian or Canadian, you'll have to keep/renew the blue one in order to return home (no doubt you'd want to keep any of these!)

+1 on this... our ball got delayed ~8months due to this Zivilstandsregister, and this was before Covid.
However, I do believe this Zivilstandsregister is very much dependent on the applicants' documents. In our case, it got delayed because they need "authenticated" birth certificate for my 2 kids not born in CH. And authentication can only be done by the Swiss Embassy in the country of birth.