It's easy, isn't it? American

Why a slap on the face? Back home we even have a writer who made a brand name out of this "Born in USSR" thing. It's history, let it go.
P:S. Do come back and tell us how the things went today.

I actually disagree with some of you.

What do you mean his nationality doesn't matter? Of course it matters. He's Estonian, not Russian. So, writing URSS is a mistake, isn't it? Well then.

And no, church tax isn't compulsory. I know because I don't pay it. Why? Because I'm a atheist. It's that simple.

So, I would go inmediately to the town hall and ask them to change what's wrong.

Those things do matter.

Being born in USSR doesn't mean you're Russian. It was a union of...socialist republics, with different ethnicities/nationalities. I thought everyone knew that.
And it was recorded as his birth place. Not as ethnicity/nationality.
It's still odd (read Bucentaure's post), but my point is - it doesn't really matter.

It doesn't matter to YOU, which is neither here nor there, but it matters to HIM.

Since Estonia is an independent country, we shouldn't even be having this conversation.

Well go back to the lady who did all this mess and explain this to her, I'm sure she'll understand.
I hope I don't have to explain that I personally don't agree with the procedure but I also know that my "outrage" won't actually help anyone.

He was born in the USSR, I am sure he would like to rewrite history but facts are facts.
Anyway who knows, maybe Putin will grab it like the Crimea and then it will be Russian again

It's a very sensitive issue in these countries, Marton, especially in the present context, and I understand OP.
But fighting the obtusity of some odd administrative rules (at least I hope that the aforementioned civil servant didn't do it all by herself and she just followed some rule- a stupid one but at least it wasn't something arbitrary) that won't actually affect your rights is not a good way to start your life in Switzerland.
And, in general, regardless of what we say or do, those people with preconceptions about a certain region won't change their mind no matter what.

For the official Switzerland, Estonia was never part of the USSR!

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home...z-estland.html

So, from Switzerlands point of view, country of birth is Estonia.

I was born in one of the former republics of Yugoslavia, but my birthplace was not recorded as Yugoslavia here in Switzerland. I believe what they write in cases like mine should always be the present name of the country.

Also, you always should have the option of listing "None" as a religion. This is what I and my whole family did, no questions asked.

Unless your husband was born after the restoration of independence, then his birth certificate is wrong (or you are misquoting it). I am from Latvia and mine says that I was born in "Latvian SSR".

What else it can say, in USSR it's normally given only once and is same age as you At least my (30+ years old) is so.

Just curious how do they treat such things in the neighbor countries I checked out my Belarussian passport... Surprise, surprise, place of birth - LVA (Latvijas Valsts?) = Latvia

He he, yes but if you lose it or it's too deteriorated you get a new one, right? A new one contains the new denominations. (normally)
Great job, SwissintheUS. Now our OP can print it and go back to gemeinde. and see what they say. kind of funny.

Wasn't it Bruce saying "bon in the usa" thanks for replying.

Ha ha, yes. How did it go? Did you change anything?

Thank you very much! When we contacted the Estonian Embassador he said exactly the same as you did! Thanks . Vielen Danke.

Danke ! Exactly what the Estonian Emabassador said !

Hi greenmount, thanks for asking. Yes, a couple more of times...it was like "what we want to do every morning since we arrived is to go to see the civil servant once again" I was writing it. It will take me some time. Stay tuned !

Hello again Permits/visas/government in the lovely autonomous virtual country of English Forum switzerland ,

Well, thanks you all for your comments and support, and apologies for disappearing for so long... a week or so...

We returned the next day and the following... three times total, and we were surprised at her manners, she wasn't unpolite, she was just certain that all was ok, when we showed her some typos and misspellings in our registration -the second day- she went literally "ooops" and somehow "apologised" we told her we did not want to comlicate things or complain, just to straighten our applications and she understood our position. I dont blame her, must be tiring filling in the questionnaires over and over, and she seemed to be having a difficuly day, but it is not an excuse to have us return 2 more times. Somehow, the moment and date we entered that Kreisburo was doomed...

1. She was trying to show she speaks some Spanish and Italian (I am Catalan and she wanted to please me, I liked it), but we asked her kindly to keep the conversation in Engish, since with my husband we speak English or Estonian...

2. She mentioned my husband was lithuanian thrice, we corrected her (even though when she had the passport in her hands) and had a hard time understanding what Eesti means (in Estonian Eesti is Estonia)

3. It was doomed because she blamed 3 times the computer system (in three different languages) being some sort of down and not registering the registrations till the fourth time.

4. It was doomed because there was something in the air...

Well, we returned to fix: to make sure our religion preference was set to "other" or "none", that my husband place of birth was corrected to Estonia not USSR, and finally that (we saw it later that night reviewing the docs ) his citizenship was listed as Estonian no Lithuanian! So we had plenty of things to achieve. Meanwhile, we wrote the Estonian Ambassador, who quickly replied to us quoting what some of you said and have seen above, Estonia's invasion by the soviet was never recognised by Switzerland...et cetera.

Wednesday: She was busy, and sorry to say - I am not a fuzzy one- but she was also having another difficult morning (at 8:30am) and we decided to speak with her young colleague. We explained her that some of the personal details were missing, that my husband's citizenship in the final paper had been listed as Lithuanian not Estonian and that his birth place should be changed at least to the city where he was born, (in my application she quoted the city where I was born and the country, but not in his, in his she only typed "USSR". Whilst we were speaking to the younger colleague, she kept interferring and -honestly- it was rude to us and to the other people sitting in the window with her. But we stayed put and respectful...we were told: "oh! sorry I will change the citizenship to Estonian ..." and we could hear she saying "i don't think it was wrong..." then the younger girl showing it to her, then she saying "change it in system"... we asked to have printed the details introduced and she printed it, and we corrected the typos and she re-entered it, but mentioned that application had been sent already.... About the place of birth they changed nothing regardless of showing the email from the ambassador.

Thursday, I realised that my passport number was incorrect in the application when reviewing some collection of documents to present at work, so we had to go back on Thursday again, this time we sat with her (our first idea was to speak with the Chef of the Kreisburo -nicely- but wasnt there.

The civil servant was a bit aggresive to see us again, she kind of dissmissed us, but then when we said we had to speak with her or please let us know with what superior we can speak (seriously very nicely! ) She invited us to sit. She wanted me to hand her my passport before I could finsih my statement, and I felt it was rude. I had different points and wante dto feel listened by her (in my mind if the person isnt listening will not know how to fix/complete the situation). I stood in my position and asked her to please let me finish. It was very uncomfortable that very moment, but I knew this too shall pass and the conversation would end up nicely. So I explained how it all went, with all her misspellings and all the insecurity it gave us to see passport numbers, citizenships et cetera badly listed, and of course the issue of the place of birth. She did not believe me about my passport number and when she realised she literally said outlood "ooowsch" or something like this and her attitude radically soften. We were not mad, just wanting to make sure our applications where well listed (also the marriage certificate date was listed incorrect...). The issue with my husband's birth place is not resolved, but we agreed with the ambassador to tackle it back once we receive all the paperwork...

She said she corrected the typos and passport number, made a phone call in front of us and spoke to someone...but we are still feeling uneasy about it and we will see what we will be receiving in the post!

I think we were unlucky, we do like it in here, and this situation was a bit kafkian, but hopefully all is corrected. We were unlucky with it, but otherwise the process (if it had been well from the beginning) it is a nice fast one. Also, I would like to insist that this strange woman had the fixated idea that my husband was lithuanian, and i think some sterotypes about our presence and her own mood that day made an awkward mixture in this "Twhilight Zone Experience in the Kreisburo..." dadadaidodadaddidotatatatannnn

Well, it was long but hopefully all fixed now! Uff... Hope you did not end up tired of reading.

Thanks for all your replies and fun!

She seems a bit incompetent, to put it mildly, but I'm glad corrections are being made.

Good on you for your patience and manners.