Ok so I’ve found out the last four reference letters after the slash is the person at the mailroom sorting papers and scanning files into the eDossier system so it is not telling as to which section of SEM it gets assigned to.

The case worker reference is the three letters preceding the slash so XXX/xxxx

The same three letters keep coming up for different Romandie cases (different to the ones I have and won’t reveal here)

Congratulations on becoming Swiss. Can you please share your detailed timeline?

Thank you, voyager! This is very helpful. And good luck to UncleB! My interview went fine in the end, very straightforward and the interviewer was really nice.

I hope it went well, UncleB! Definitely stressful to prep for, in my case it worked out OK. You're right, they don't need to know how you voted, just what the topics were and what the debate entailed.

Hi there,

I am reading your concerns and I thought I could share my recent experience. I live also in the silver coast, which somehow is irrelevant as each Gemeinde has a different process in place.

Chronologically things happened as follow:
- October 2021: I submitted my application - took me a day and a half to prepare. Most things can be done online, the ones that are not online you can do in one morning in most small Gemeindes.
- Few bills paid until Christmas.
- KDE end of January. The level is very basic. I am doing a B2 online course (for few years now ) and had no issues. Simply go through the mock exam and prepare a couple of letters beforehand.
- Knowledge test beginning of March: It was a written test. Multiple choice. Extremely easy for someone capable of memorising few figures and names. No need to take the course in my opinion.
- Paid some more bills.
- Got invitation for interview with the naturalisation committee in April - I asked to postpone it because I was planning to be on holidays. They replied to my email within a day, no issues at all. New date was in June.
- Interview with the committee. First question is about the language: high German or Swiss? I said better high German - zero problem with that. The "interview" is no more than an introduction of yourself, what you do here, what keeps you busy, ...nothing like the butcher's name. They asked me why I want to become Swiss, which I guess it is something you should be able to answer too...
- Two weeks later I got the letter saying that they are happy with my interview.
- In September I have to attend one of the regular sessions in the Gemeinde, where my name will be mentioned, together with other candidates, and I will be given a small gift.
- Next months...pay some more bills and receive passport. I heard from other people in the silver coast that it takes around 7/8 after the okay from the Gemeinde.

In brief, do not stress about any step if your German is sufficient to have a basic conversation. My impression is that they want to find reasons for you to become Swiss rather than excuses to reject you. Of course, don't say "I want the passport so I can leave next year and come back" as I heard someone saying before...

And overall, it has felt a lot easier than I heard from people. Once you submit your application, you will be told what to do at each point in time.

Good luck

I was delighted to get a letter in the mailbox today! From the Ville de Geneve, confirming that all went well and the commune of Geneve has given a favourable recommendation to my candidacy. Apparently they had a council meeting on August 24th.

It says that now my file is being returned to the OCPM for the "execution of the naturalization"

My timeline was (so far)

Applied : 9 Feb
Interview: 29 July
Letter from Ville de Geneve confirming all good: 26 August (I don't check my mailbox every day)

It looks as though things are going well. I keep my fingers crossed

I will have my interview in the next few weeks.
Looking for advise/insights from people who have gone through the process recently. What type of questions can I expect in Aargau... :-)

Sept 2021 - application.
Oct 2021 - confirmation it was received by Canton (~2 weeks). They mention that they will process the application in 5 months.
Nov 2021 - documents from Kanton to Gemeinde. Warning that the process takes usually 2 years.
Dec 2021 - Gemeinde approval, documents are sent to Kanton.
Jan 2022 - Informed that the Canton is looking at the documents.
Feb 2022 - Pay the canton. Kanton has accepted me. Documents are forwarded to SEM.
Apr 2022 - SEM bill
Jul 2022 - SEM accepted. Documents forwarded to the Canton.
Aug 2022 - Officially a Swiss citizen.

To answer my own question a few pages earlier: Yes, I can participate on the upcoming vote in few weeks.

Ask a moderator if you want your user name changing!

Have you read the poem Ithaca by Cavafy? Quite relevant. It is the journey that makes us. Naturalization is not the end .

Congratulations ! And well said, the passport is only but a step, albeit a very important one, in the path to be Swiss. It is the journey that counts, that destination evolves. I could not agree more … life is but only a voyage. Thanks for the beautiful poem reference. Enjoyed it !

Congrats!! That was relatively quick. So you did not have to give an interview?

Hi everyone,
Can any of the naturalized Vaudois help me with a question; how long does Vaud take to grant citizenship after SEM approves the dossier and sends it back to Lausanne?
I mentioned before that my process seems to be taking the absolute maximum time for every step...I am now at this stage and would like to see what typical and maximum times have been.
(I already know which I will turn out to be )
Thanks
B

No. I studied here.

If we got a letter from a canton that they sent our documents to Gemeinde, does it mean that our initial package of the documents is full and correct? At the current moment all the documents are outdated already. Can it happen that if Gemeinde asks for some additional document that is not on the list, we will have to prepare the full package of documents again?

In my case, Gemeinde did not ask anything else. I don't think they will ask more. in case they ask for some more documents, you just have to provide extra documents.

If they want more documents they will write and ask. I had to bring evidence that my kids went to school here to the interview with the Gemeinde. then later I had to provide evidence of paying taxes a second time as the process was taking so long additional taxes were due and the original document was no longer valid.

Didn't you already submit these documents? like the letter from school and tax statement from the last five years. All these documents were part of the list they provided by Gemeinde.

If they ask for more documents, at least they will all be Swiss documents and at least relatively easy to get.
My kid was not asked to provide any additional documents.

I did supply all the documents in the initial application, but for some reason they asked for the "Schulbestätigung" (confirmation of school attendance) again, at the interview stage. I took the view it was easier to re submit the documents than to tell them they already had them.

I then had to re-prove we were up to date with taxes, it took so long for the Gemeinde to accept us that they wanted updated proof.

It is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. Having started the process at the beginning of 2021 we are now approved by the Kanton - just the final hurdle to go.