Did you do your bachelor, master, or phd at ETH? It's new to me that interview is not needed for ETH graduates

What can I say, I'm a metric person


As for mailbox checking, what's it going to be like when it all goes digital? I'm thinking a lot of broken F5 keys..

I hope I am not on any watchlist

I thought the "new way" started in January 2018 - and kvrbpl applied in January 2018. Or has there been a reform in expected processing times since?

Future applicants will miss out on the torture and exhilaration of snail mail. Walking to the mailbox, opening it and expectantly looking in, being disappointed 99% of the time and the other times happily ripping open an official looking letter. Not receiving an e-mail doesn't have quite the same sting to it as looking at an actual mailbox with only supermarket advertisements in it. On the other hand now we only have to check once a day. Poor new applicants and poor F5 indeed!

Hello, I have been reading this thread and thought it might be useful to post my and my spouse's experience in the normal naturalisation process to gage timelines:

I come from Portugal

Pully VD
January 2020: application sent to canton
mid-Feburary 2020: Bill from canton and letter saying they will push to commune
March 2020: letter from Direction d'état civil asking me for birth and marriage certificates (we married abroad)
mid-March 2020: letter from commune saying I may experience delays due to corona but to be prepared for the test and further meetings sometime in the summer
June 2020: Rapport d'enquête meeting, lasted maybe 5 minutes chrono
July 2020: Passed the multi choice test
end-July 2020: file transferred back to canton
August 2020: Canton sent to Bern, received CHF 100 bill promptly after
November 2020: Obtained federal authorisation and exempt from ceremony as cancelled due to corona
end-February 2021: got my passport and ID from the office in Lausanne Flon (I was back in Portugal for the Xmas holidays and got corona which quarantine delayed things a little including quarantine etc).

Quite efficient overall!

Oh forgot to mention as people are sending me PMs, do not hesitate to reach out if you want any more specifics more than glad to share my experience with you

Indeed, krvbpl would have applied under the new/current laws.

One has to understand that an ordinary citizenship application passes over the desks of numerous lower-level public servants, each having their particular competence, efficiency and bias. Especially at the Gemeinde level it is likely that a single person will manage all such applications for that town.

It is remarkable that the application submitted by krvbpl was collecting dust for 9 months going to the Gemeinde and 6 months going out. Given how this seems to be a large exception to almost everyone else here in Kt. ZH (where 2 years is already a long timeline), it appears to be something more than bad luck or coincidence. Unfortunately we miss the comparison timelines from others his/her Gemeinde to narrow it down.

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

Indeed something is very odd, but as you say it, there is no way to know what. Right now i just feel that I would be very happy just to see the end of this hopefully one day soon

Maybe it's just my "last mile"paranoia, but it seems there has been a slowdown or pause on the finalisation step in Kt. Zürich. The last person here to announce getting citizenship was on the 1st Feb, and that person paid their SEM on the 5th October (so just shy of 4 months, including Christmas).


I know bokabil (and a friend not on EF) who p vghjm id SEM at the end of October and still haven't got finalisation (so now 4.5 months and counting). This co-incides with the "new" interim letter some here have received.



One hopes this is only due to COVID...

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

Reported.

Matthias incognito?

Cheers—sorted.

Yep, my bad. My brain went for a walk without having me involved, sorry about it.

Correct, it seems there is a slowdown/increased backlog in Kt. Zurich.

I have submitted my normal application back in September 2020 to Kt. Zürich and it has not yet been transferred to my Gemeinde. I called last week my assigned contact and she mentioned that they are going through a huge backlog. Typically this step would take anything between 2-4 months, now it is more than 6 months for me.

I compared my journey with two friends that are also in the process of becoming Swiss in the same Gemeinde. One applied 5 months before me and the process went fast and smoothly. The other applied last month and received the standard letter of application reception with the mention that it will take at least 4 months to review the application and sent it to the Gemeinde (instead of the 2 months that was written in mine).

Patience is a virtue

I'm not completely sold on the backlog explanation. The responsible department has added an FTE since last year, and for around 8 months up until February had no department head listed on the website. (but things still seemed to run smoothly). They have also issued at least 20% less citizenships in the 2020 than in 2019 (probably due to bottle-necking at the town level).

Since the beginning of Feb, the department got a department head...and this is when things slowed down. Coincidence? Let's hope so.

The waiting game and ping-pong between the various departments is, unfortunately, part of the joyful experience of becoming a Swiss citizen ;-)

As you will see from people's timelines here, they vary wildly, even within the same canton.

We knew of a few people who applied around the same time we did, and they got to the finish line about 6 months before us. They even lived in our neighbourhood, so we assume that everything was processed by the same office. But perhaps their applications were processed more quickly because they were single applicants, whereas we applied as a family of 4.

So, maybe if your application involves more than one person, it might (naturally) take longer.

Of course over the entire process there are big variances, but my point here focuses on the "last mile". Looking at the posted timelines over the last 12-18 months, this has been consistently around 3-4 months between SEM bill and citizenship, with 5 months or more being exceptionally long.

Currently I know a few who paid late mid-late October (1 single, 1 father/son and the others families) and all are still waiting. Add to that this interim letter between the SEM bill and the issuing of citizenship which is new..not an alarm bell but an eyebrow raiser.

So there are signals of longer waiting times for specific steps..hopefully only due to COVID. (you can question my statistical sample base ;-)

Agreed this partly a micro-beauracratic process: let's say the official responsible for your application goes on 2-weeks holiday...this application is going to gather dust until they get back. That is part of the game.

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

Just asked my Gemeinde (a large'ish city in the Kanton ZH) when I can expect my Einbuergerungsgespraech to take place, and they told me that around June 2021.

So, it'd be

August 2020 - Compilation of docs and tests (language, Grundkenntinistest)
September 2020 - Sent docs to Gemeindeamt
October 2020 - Got confirmation from the Gemeindeamt
January 2021 - Docs sent to my Gemeinde
maybe June 2021 - Interview in the Gemeinde

I'm probably looking at 18 month long process.

According to the Jahresbericht of my city, they naturalize close to 150 people per year, so they seem to have 70 people backlog at any given point in time.

Umm, how did you arrive at the figure of 70?

Well done that your application is progressing. 18 months is realistic, anything earlier is whipped cream.