Hi folks,

My fiancé from non-eu country applied for a fiancé visa from her country to come here (with letter of intent...), marry me and then settle in Switzerland. She applied 1 month ago.

Today I received a letter from the 'office de la population' where I'm living here in Switzerland regarding her application. They asked to provide some documents (engagement I'll support her....).

I have questions regarding 2 points:

1/ they are also asking a letter from me that explains when and where we met: should I remain simple (date, place) or should I go into details ? If into details, what kind of details ?

2/ among documents requested, they're asking for a 'copy of the wedding preparation closing letter delivered by swiss authorities': I don't have it. I thought the embassy from my fiancé country (where she gave birth certificate and so on) will follow-up on that point with swiss authorities here and that I'd produce my birth certificate and so on upon their request here. Is my understanding correct and then I should wait for the wedding office to request these documents (and then finally get this document) or should I make a step in a way to make this happen?
It is like a step is missing here...

Thks !
R.

Certainly in the greatest detail possible, whilst it may seem intrusive, it's probably nothing to be ashamed of. By not going into detailsit makes your application weak and potential a marriage scam

Thks Charlie.

Does anyone have experience to share about point 2 ?

Thks
R.

I went through a similar process last year, though dealiing with the Zurich Migrationsamt. If the process is the same, then the Swiss Embassy in your fiancé's country will be in contact with your Kanton's Migrationsamt equivalent. But not the marriage authorities.

'copy of the wedding preparation closing letter delivered by swiss authorities' was something I had to do myself.

Suggest you call the marriage department. If time is pressing, call the immigration department.

Of course, YMMV, but I found the Zurich Kantonal authorities to be very, very reasonable. When I called Migrationsamt to ask if there was a problem with my fiancé's application (it was later than expected), they asked "when do you need it by"?

Had I tried that in the UK, they would have shredded my application out of principle for daring to speak to them.

Whilst my experience in not Swiss specific I had a similiar experience in Sweden. My view is as much detail as possible. But most importantly, your fiance should know these details as I am sure part of the process will be an interview with her to see if she gives the same answers.

As a follow-up,

I contacted the 'office de la population' to bring point 2/. They had no clue and asked me to call the 'office de l'etat civil' (and that I could submit them the other docs in the meantime).

I did call the 'office de l'etat civil' and it was not that clear. They started to ask info about my fiancé to 'open a file' at her name saying wedding stuff is separate from Visa.
Later in the discussions and explaining she had submitted her affedavit, birth certificate, letter of intention to marry and so on at Swiss Consulat in her country at the same time as visa application (as requested there) they finally told me: 'then we have to wait to receive news from the consulat in her country then we will re-contact you so that you will provide your own paperwork here'.

So I'm a little bit confused. Should I wait or move forward on providing my docs, if yes to whom ? It is unclear whether wedding and visa are really 2 different processes or only one handle by consulat in her country...Any experience you have to share would be greatly appreciated !

Thks
R.

Hi Folks,

As a follow-up, I submitted all documents except 2/. Then I received a letter from the immigration office stating they cannot review the file until they get the 'copy of the wedding preparation closing letter'.

As mentionned earlier, my understanding is that the Swiss embassy in my fiancé's country should submit her paperwork to Civil Registration Office in Switzerland that will then contact me to provide MY documents. This is still unclear to me (Civil Registration Office here is confusing, see previous post; office de la population in my town here is not able to give some guidance...).
Anyone has an idea on this, should I wait or do something ? Is there a timeline the Immigration office is expecting from me to provide the document ? (just want to make sure they won't get upset as it still might take time before I get this document).

Thks,
R.

In my case they didn't ask for the 'copy of the wedding preparation closing letter', I never heard of this. I am also from the French part

This is really weird.
You can go about the marriage paperwork 2 ways:
A) Go to the Etat Civil and do it all yourselves or
B) Have the consulate in your fiance's country handle it.

You've obviously gone with B, so they should be handling it. That is, if you told them to and didn't only apply for the visa but asked them to do the marriage preparation as well. In that case, you should have got/should soon get this "letter", though ours looks like a really unofficial thing, but there it is. So if you've asked them to do all this, they should be processing the papers and send your fiance the confirmation letter (because in this case there's nothing to do in CH regarding the marriage).

However, if you have received nothing in this regard, you should contact the embassy in your fiance's country. The fact that the Etat Civil knows nothing of the matter means that the embassy hasn't contacted them, which is very weird. Normally you should be able to register for marriage at a Swiss Town Hall without ever visiting it (or the Etat Civil). So it is the embassy you should contact and remind them of their duty or ask them what you could do to speed things up.

BTW "opening a file" is the normal process of marriage application, this is exactly what we did. But I need no visa to enter Switzerland, so that was a different case.

To me this seems very weird.

__________________
"Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others."

Thanks for this useful feedback.

I think it confirms I'm ok with the process steps. Indeed, when my fiancée applied from Canada, she asked a Visa for the purpose of wedding and settling in here in Switzerland. She could have been here with her passport (no visa) as tourist for wedding but going through this forum, it was not recommended to do so as there were 2 risks as per my understanding: 1/tourism is not the same purpose as wedding which might have bothered the authorities here 2/she might had to go back to Canada again to apply for the Visa if timing couldn't be reached.

We got in touch with the Swiss embassy in Canada and they told us she will have to submit her paperwork for wedding preparation at the embassy there. Her birth certificate is being legalized (She is canadian but born in another country) - which put on hold next steps for the moment. So I assume once it is done, my fiancée will submit everything for wedding there, then her file will be sent over and I'll be contacted here to submit my birth cetificate and so on at the Civil Registration Office. Does this make sense with the additional info ?

Thks
R.

Absolutely. Then there's no problem actually. You just have to be patient. Her permit application is linked to your marriage application and can only be completed once the latter is dealt with. As long as she hasn't submitted all the necessary papers, there's nothing more you could do but wait. Everything will turn out just fine!

BTW, I was planning to get married on a tourist "visa", which I was told is perfectly OK (I'm new-EU, perhaps that makes a difference). Then I decided to stay till the wedding, so we've changed plans. But the bigger problem I guess is that she would have to return to her country after the wedding to collect her permit. So you made the right choice!

__________________
"Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others."