Just to share my recent experience about the system, as a non-EU citizen has now a Swiss passport as well as a Swiss ID card.

I applied the facilitated naturalization (I qualified for this since I've been married to a Swiss for at least 3 years and have been in Switzerland for a total of 5 years, with the last 12 months actually in Switzerland) to Bern (Federal Office for Migration FOM) at the end of July 2008. Received a letter in September indicating that my application was accepted and it may take about 12 to 24 months depends on the local work loads (cantonal/communal). Then I received an invitation letter to an interview in the local police station (in fact they were ready to do it on the phone, but I preferred to visit them). It was as short as 15 minutes friendly talk mostly on what I have been doing since I moved to CH, my wife’s and my personal info (such as birthdates, places, home and work address…). It was in November. Then about 2 months after, at the end of December, I received a letter asking my wife and me to sign that we have a true marriage and not planning to separate soon. They also requested a copy our marriage certificate and my declaration about no criminal history. 1 month after I sent the requested document, in February, I received a letter from Bern indicting that they approved my naturalization and asked me to pay 750 CHF, however, I have to wait for about 2 months to receive the final decision (it is a legal period in case of any opposition could raised by the origin canton or commune). In fact, I receive the final approval confirmation letter from Bern in the 5th week… The entire procedure took about 10 months for me.

The final confirmation letter is enough to apply for the passport (takes about 4 days to get it) or the ID (takes about 3 weeks), if you live in the same canton where you are registered (become a Swiss). If you live in a different canton than where you are registered (your Swiss wife/husband origin), you need to have an updated family carnet (where your new Swiss nationality is shown) for the passport/ID application.

I am ready to answer if you have any question. I wish you all whom are in this process…

Kraft

Hi, congratulations and I am so happy for you.
I don't want to sound stupid, but I live in the UK and have been married to a swiss citizen for six years, I would like to apply for citizenship, do you think the procedures are as easy as what you have experienced and do you think that it will take me longer. I am just wondering whether anyone one have applied for facilitated naturlization while abroad and how long it took.
regards

Hi Kraft. Congratulations on becoming Swiss.

A couple of other administrative points that you might not know. You need to change your driving license and the "carte grise" for the car (registration papers for the car). Both of these have your old nationality on them and they need to show that you are now Swiss. If you do not change them, the police might give you some problems if you are stopped.

The change of the carte grise for the car is free. A new license will cost your CHF 45. Both can be done at the Blecherette and take only a few minutes depending on the number of people waiting.

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Do or do not, there is no try(ing). Yoda

Sorry for being late in answering. You can apply for the facilitated naturalization as you have been married with a Swiss for 6 years (it is the required period of marriage when you live abroad). Your application must be done at the Swiss Consulate in your city where you live. The procedure is very similar and as easy as in CH. Additional would be that you will be requested to give 3-4 Swiss citizens names in CH to referance and to show your current connections in CH. Any bank account, having house/flat, frequently visits to CH will make the procedure much shorter. Your brief friendly interview will be at the consulate. I suggest you to go the Consulate with your Swiss partner. I wish you best of Luck and welcome to among us in advance :-)

Thank you for the note ! In fact I did them but forgot to mention... Good point. It will help others who is/will be in this process.

Thanks Kraft and I wish you all the best in your new life

I would like to begin this process. Can you tell me how you applied? I have been all over their website and am looking, I guess, for a form of sorts but have yet to find one. I am also a non-EU citizen.

Thanks!

Are you married to a Swiss or somehow otherwise qualify for Facilitated Naturalization?

There are plenty of threads on this topic, but here's a link to the horse's official mouth on where to get an application.

Hello,

My husband in non-EU and I'm Swiss. He's lived here since 2002 but we only got married in 2007. I think his studying years don't count as "living in Switzerland". So we'd have to wait for 5 years of marriage instead of 3 for him to apply for naturalisation facilitée.

Does anyone know better? Thanks

There is another question I wanted to ask. Is it a must to know the language. I have been married to a Swiss for 5 years and living here in Switzerland first in Geneva then in Basel. But still know a bit of french a bit of german..
Do they take the interview in Local language

The residence as a student DOES count for Facilitated Naturalization

here is the link for the Facilitated naturalization:
http://www.bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/home/themen/buergerrecht/einbuergerungen/erleichterte_einbuergerung.html

And here is the list of contact: you should send an email to 'Naturalization' and request a form for facilitated one (it is different then normal naturalization).
http://www.bfm.admin.ch/bfm/en/tools/kontakte.html

Referring to other questions:

the period for the marriage with a Swiss is clear 3 years and the period for living in Switzerland is clear 5 years. That includes before the marriage.

An Interview is done with a local cantonal language, however, if canton has two languages i.e. Fribourg, Bern … one of them is enough. Level of language is not the real issue however one should be able to understand what local police (interviewer) says and able to answer him/her. My experience shows that daily speaking ability is enough.

Good luck.

I'm married to a Swiss citizen and am applying for citizenship. I got stuck on the interview level - I was wondering did you have to fulfill a language requirement?

You need to be able to express yourself in a local language. Have you had an interview yet?

Also, this thread isn't the best one to discuss facilitated naturalization, for that you should be in one of these threads:

All My Experience - Facilitated Naturalization

Facilitated naturalization while abroad? [Waiting time and Experience]

Facilitated Naturalization [including obligations for males]

Facilitated Naturalization - from *outside* Switzerland

A Swiss passport at last!

Facilitated naturalization interview

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I did have an interview which was not at our local police station as some other people have had but over the phone with someone at a town about 20 minutes from us. I was able to answer the first couple of questions then stumbled at which point the woman switched me over to an English speaking person who told me my German was not good enough. I haven't been able to find anything specifically in writing about the language requirement. My German is very basic, I took about 40 private lessons and plan on resuming since my youngest is now in school. However the person gave me no indication of how good my German has to be. I will try again in about 6 months, this time in person as I found the phone interview obviously very difficult.

Are you in Basel Stadt or Basel Land?

I am mid-process (not quite finished) in Basel Stadt. I had to be able to speak German and understand it, although I got the impression that comprehension was more important than speaking. My German grammar is atrocious, but that seemed to be OK as I could make myself understood.

Thanks so much for your responses. I'm in Basel Land. Hopefully the next interview will go smoother. It sounds like you're close to obtaining citizenship - best of luck and hopefully congratulations will be in order soon.

I thought I'd update with my experiences. Mine are a bit different as my (Swiss) husband moved to the UK ahead of me (I'm American), and we decided to go ahead with my citizenship application when he was there as we weren't sure if he was coming back or me going there. As it turned out during the time we waited, he's staying there and I'll be joining him in a few months.

We filed the papers in May 2008.

January 2009, I received a call from the offices in Basel. Originally, they told me no as they thought we were separated - but when I explained during the call that we weren't and offered to show ticket stubs and my passport stamps, that issue was laid to rest.

You need to be up to date with taxes, etc. We weren't, and had to get that squared away first. Make sure you don't have any betreibungs (court orders for payments, do a search on the term here if you don't know it) outstanding or even paid but not removed from your records as they do check it.

We didn't have to meet in person with the Basel office, but offered to since there'd originally been a question. We did, and after that meeting in April the request was forwarded to Bern.

In July, I received my initial letter saying that I was Swiss. I had to pay 765 CHF cash on delivery post. The Basel person told me it would take 30 days to receive the second letter, which is binding the decision. There was a paper included with the original decision saying this second letter will come in about two months.

I received the second letter last week (end of September 2009). It was then entered into the computer system by my heimatort (city of origin), as it is different than where I live. For spouses of Swiss citizens, you receive the heimatort of your spouse, so for me it was in another canton (Zurich). Otherwise it is done directly by the office which processed your request.

I need to get an additional paper from the heimatort, which I'm told is on the way, and then I can apply for my passport and ID card.

All told, it took 16 months from the date I submitted the application. Had my husband been living here, it probably would have taken about five or six months less, I'm guessing.

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Dear Kraft,
I have a question, in the whole process you didn't mention anywhere about the Reference letter, the one goes to three people which you had to mention?

Could you please tell, at what stage did they all get the letters & what was the time frame after that?

If anyone else can give their inputs, I would highly appreciate that.
Regards,
M

I checked each of my reference people after I received the naturalization confirmation and my id, none of them were contacted about me. I assume that depending on your status (enough proofs on your true marriage i.e. kids, solid job etc...) they do not contact your references. You have to give at least 3 reference name when you fill the application. Good luck.