I will be having my interview for facilitated naturalization soon.

Is there a practice exam or anything along those lines? I am pretty well versed in Swiss geography, and I have a fairly strong grasp of the governmental system and Swiss culture, but I'd like to make sure there's nothing I'm overlooking.

Also, I'm applying through my grandmother, which means I was forced to apply before the law changed on 1 January. My language skills aren't where I would have liked them to be if I had been able to choose the time of my application. I'm probably an A2 Italian speaker, on a good day.

Has anybody had their interview at the Washington, D.C. Embassy recently? I won't be able to hold the entire interview in Italian. My language skills aren't good enough for that. How do they assess it? Is it just a small-talk conversation? Do they ask the Swiss knowledge questions in the official language?

Any last-minute insight would be greatly appreciated.

I have had a 30 questions written exam. Questions were about Geography ( name of lakes, name of mountains, cantons...) , about Swiss Democracy , where my grandfather was born, there were questions like naming a Swiss newspaper , the most famous Swiss circus ( wich I had no clue at the time) and questions about Swiss cheese ( mine was" wich canton Gruyere cheese was made").

The interview was a brief 5 min conversation in French, asking what I have done the times I visited Switzerland.

Had my test and interview in Sao Paulo / Brazil.

Study and memorize the more you can and don't panic. Everything should be fine.

Wish you the best luck!

Hi LDL707,

I wrote about my experience here, including tips on the interview and links to the most useful study resources.

Best of luck,
salutant