Hi! My wife and applied for our Swiss passports back in May (2018). Still waiting for our 30 min interview appointment.

• Has anyone done the interview recently in Zurich (not suburbs, Zurich proper)? What was it like?
  
• How long does it take before they schedule the interview?
  
• How well do you have to understand Schweizerdeutsch? We can both speak fluently in Hochdeutsch but struggle to understand the dialect fully.

Thanks for any additional insight/tips!

Take a look at this thread for some timelines. Whether it's city of Zurich or a suburb the timelines seem rather similar in that area:

https://www.englishforum.ch/permits-...t-diary-8.html

Yes-- I did it in Zurich City in August 2017. They will send you a little book with everything you need to know about politics, geography, history and society. They asked me 20 questions straight from the book and I had to get a certain number of them correct. They didn't ask me anything that wasn't in the book. It was easier than I thought it would be. I had polished up my understanding of Swiss German, but my interviewer spoke High German with me.

It took another year for the process to be finished and confirmed.

BTW I did a lot a waiting along the way. I can't remember how long.

You apply for naturalization but don't know the name of the city where you are living

Big thanks so_cal, that's great information! I already printed the booklet from their site, I assume it's the same info. Really good to know.

Sorry k_and_e, I don't understand the joke ;-) Because I didn't write Zürich?

Hi, may I ask how did you prove or how tight they were about the social integration part?

I'm planning to apply but my german is still too weak, I count on the fact that in the at least 1 year needed I'll be at the required level. Will I be called for any preliminary information before that so that German is required immediately?

Thx

I have applied in Stadt Zurich on Dec 2017. It took nearly 3 years for me because I have delayed in submitting some documents by one year. Generally it should take around 2 years.

You should get an interview schedule between 6 to 12 months after submitting the complete application ( i mean all the required documents )

Interview can be in high german, ours was in high german. But the interviewer will test all the knowledge you have or should have about CH like History, Geography, politics,Education system, laws, touristic/famous places etc

Tip: if you both ( wife n husband ) are going together to the interview, they will ask more questions to your wife.

I think in your case you should have already call/mail them about your status. They might have missed the communication they sent to you . If you dont reply after certain period they will close your application

Thanks
R

You haven't applied for Swiss passports, but for Swiss citizenship. When you have that, you can then apply for passports. This can be booked online and the Zurich passport office can have them within a week...

I applied in November 2018 with complete documents. In September 2019, got a letter that my interview was scheduled for November 2019. I was really anxious about the interview but it went great. He started with Zurideutch and I asked if we can chat in Hochdeutsch. He didn’t like it but agreed. Then he asked if I had preference to start a specific topic since apparently most people find the discussion on the political system difficult but I said let’s start with the difficult one and he was eating out of the palm of my hand after answering that question. He wasn’t nasty at all but did go through history, geography, Switzerland’s, zurich, where do I like to go, what I like to do.
The booklet, good interaction and eagerness should be sufficient — of course in an understandable German even with mistakes.

I received the Bund approval And became Swiss end of May 2020. passport appointment scheduled in July 2020 just due to availability of appointments and 2 days later, passport and ID received.

Overall 18 months.

Good luck.