before i get into today's video a big thank you to surf shark for sponsoring today's video
and for supporting the channel surfshark is a vpn i love surf shark because it gives me the
peace of mind that all of my data sent between my computer and the internet or my phone and
the internet or my smart tv and the internet is secured with an uncrackable encryption you know i
love switzerland but sometimes when you are located here and you have a swiss ip address you
will get higher prices when you are looking for flights online or hotel rooms so with surfshark
you can easily mask your ip address and change it to one from united states or germany etc and then
check once again the prices of flights and a lot of times you will get a better deal matthias and
i actually just got set up with this tv and we got an amazon fire tv stick and we have the surf
shark app on our tv and we can use it on there as well which is so so convenient you can set
your ip address to the us and access all sorts of live tv and different libraries that wouldn't be
available from here it's super easy to use easy to install and with one subscription you can use it
on multiple devices unlimited devices you can use my code how to ch to get 83 off plus three months
for free to click the link in the description box down below to get started and into the video
hey guys welcome back to how to switzerland it is sarah here today and in today's video i'm going to
be talking more about my swiss citizenship journey so before i send in all of my documents to the
federal government next week i thought it might be interesting or helpful just to go over what
my immigration process looks like as well as the documents that are here in my application and just
what's required a lot of people ask me how i qualify for swiss naturalization and in my
personal case i qualify through marriage so i have been married to a swiss citizen for over six years
and i have close ties to switzerland so in my case that makes me qualify since i do qualify through
marriage i'm able to do the easier application process which is the facilitated instead of the
ordinary so this is the process for facilitated the swiss government is actually really good at
making it very clear i have to say i mean of course getting a new passport a new citizenship
is a very complicated process but i feel like the swiss government makes everything really
clear and organized i could find everything very easily and you know if i compare it to getting
matthias a green card in the united states this is very simple and straightforward i didn't ever
really feel like i needed a lawyer or needed external help because whenever i had questions
somebody was always able to answer them for me this is the official document
from the canton of zurich from the government and yeah they lay everything out for you and the first
step is to prepare yourself it shows you where you can go online to get information and it advises
you to go to your municipality so i can tell you what the preparation sort of looked like for me of
course i looked online a little bit to get some information and that's how i found out that it
looks like i qualified to send in a naturalization application but i wasn't totally sure so i just
went with matthias to the staff house here in zurich in the city center and actually there
was a person there that i could just talk to and they answered all my questions we went in there
took a number we waited probably five minutes and then um we just explained hey we've been
married this long we live here what do we need to do and he just told us everything that's required
and then gave us an email address to request some forms and it was really pretty straightforward so
we got the information requested the forms from the federal government and they mailed them to us
via snail mail and we just began the process of filling everything out and collecting all of the
documents on this checklist so let's go over what the attachments are because this is a big
part probably like the biggest part of the whole application process the first thing is actually
the application that you fill out like you write your name and your phone number and all of that i
can't show it to you because it's filled out with all of my data but i can tell you that it is only
two pages long front and back so two or four pages however you want to call it two pages front and
back job how long you lived in switzerland very simple things nothing weird you need to list a
minimum of three swiss citizens at three different addresses um that can be references and uh yeah
then you sign very easy application it's the attachments that take a little bit more time to
collect but they do list all of the documents that you need to attach on this simple checklist one
sheet front and back and this is what we had to collect the first one is called a chameleon house
vise just a piece of paper that shows um that i'm married who i'm married to and it's sort of like
a family tree and this had to be not older than six months old and we ordered this from matthias's
heimat here in switzerland and that cost let me see 41 swiss francs and we got it in about two
days so very easy to collect also had to submit a copy of my b permit of my residence permit here
in switzerland had to attach a passport photo those are the photos that you get at like the
photo machines in switzerland mine cost 12 francs to get um you need a von sitz zoignisse from
where you lived the last five years in switzerland so this is basically a piece of paper that you get
from the city that shows the addresses that you were registered at in switzerland and how long
you lived there this is kind of a new thing for me because we don't have like a central
uh register like this in the united states um but here in switzerland you have to register
with the city where you live and how many people live in the apartment and all the details about
um where you live they keep track of that at the city so then to prove where you live you can order
this um piece of paper from the city that shows the dates and places next on the list
is a confirmation from the tax office that you have paid all of your canton federal and
community taxes for the last five years so before ordering this form online we actually
called all of the different tax offices just to confirm that everything is good and up to date
sometimes this gets a bit complicated because we've been moving so much in the recent years
so we called first to make sure everything was good on our accounts it was incredibly
shocking how easy it was to just call the federal government have them look you up and tell you um
if you owe any taxes or if everything is in good standing whatever i mean you just call and they
pick up to me this is incredible but it was super super easy to do next they require that you submit
a proof of basically a swiss national language so it says if your mother tongue is not a swiss
national language then you need to submit a sprock certificate showing so as a language certificate
showing that you can speak at a b1 level and that you can write at an a2 level so if your
mother tongue is a swiss national language or if you went to school in the swiss national language
or if you have other language certificates already you won't have to do this but i didn't have
anything so i had to go and do the german test i did the whole detailed video on what that was
like so that was definitely the biggest obstacle to overcome i think that's probably the biggest
obstacle for a lot of people and that test cost 250 francs and then of course you have to spend
all the money beforehand um to get in classes to prepare for the exam and to learn the language
so um although the exam is only 250 of course you're going to spend more to get up to that
level you know spend it on classes and preparation etc and next they want a confirmation that you
have a job so they need paperwork from your employer or proof that you are self-employed or
proof that you are in school so i was able just to get confirmation that i am self-employed here in
switzerland that i'm registered as self-employed next you had to get a confirmation from the
um social help office that in the last three years you have not taken any governmental assistance and
i'm not 100 sure but i think that if you did take um social health money if you've gotten this money
from the government you need to pay it all back to them before you can qualify for citizenship so
this form that i've never taken social help was very easy to get online as well i lost track how
much did that one cost maybe 20 francs um and they just sent it in the mail and i also have a
forum in here that um i am a law-abiding citizen this was just a piece of paper that came with
the application that says um you know i'm not a criminal i'm not a criminal in other countries
etc etc you just have to sign that that is true next is a document stating that you are in a
legitimate marriage so once again i just had to get this paper from the government and sign off
that i'm in a legitimate marriage and all of that and the last document is just a statement that i
allow the government to open like an investigation into me so basically confirming um that they can
look into all of my stuff and then this is if you have kids and then you just have to sign that you
attach all of this with your application just sat down to edit and realize i missed a form it is the
betray boom register ausouq you've probably heard of this when you went to get an apartment but you
need this for you and for your spouse for the past five years so this is a piece of paper that proves
that you have no outstanding debt and that you are not delinquent on any of your bills so this
is super easy to order online um so yes this has to be attached as well but i was registered
aka document that shows that you have no debt now i need to send that paperwork to the federal
government so that's the step that i am at and once i send it to them it's called the boond um
they are going to look everything over and just examine that all the documents are there that i
qualify that everything is accurate etc they might request more documentation more proof of something
that's what happens um at the federal level and once all of that is done they will then
inform the canton so in my case canton zurich and zurich will on behalf of the federal government
look further into me as a person so they will look if i have a criminal record this next year it says
that the police will especially make sure that we are in a legitimate marriage i have heard that in
some people's cases the police might show up at your house um just on a random day unannounced
and they might look around your house or ask you further questions um but again none of this is
like necessarily guaranteed i've read stories of people that send off the paperwork and then
it's pretty much done whereas some people have had the police show up at their house so i don't know
completely what to expect after i send in the packet but it's clear here that it might happen
and then once that is done my von gained my local community government um so to say will make sure
that i am properly integrated into switzerland via a conversation uh sort of interview so this is the
step that i'm not totally clear on what's going to happen i don't know if they leave it kind of up in
the air on purpose but in zurich i read that this could be just a simple conversation where they'll
send you a letter that i need to go somewhere at this date and time and a person will interview me
in german and ask um integration questions so this could be anything just about my personal
life here in switzerland or it could be related to swiss geography politics and history so
i know that i need to study everything related to swiss um history politics and geography you
know knowing the cantons the rivers the lakes the mountains history all of that kind of stuff
um how the government works all of that during this conversation they can ask me questions
about that but they can also ask me questions just about my daily life like what do you do
for fun do you take vacations in switzerland do you like hiking all this kinds of stuff
is on the table from what i understand i've read online that some people got asked a lot of
personal questions just about um the swiss people that they know and what sports they play and
stuff like that where some people get asked to name every river in switzerland and match all
the flags the different cantons so i don't know what to expect completely but i will be continuing
my german lessons to make sure that i'm prepared and also just studying up on switzerland as much
as i can very good we're almost done so once all of that is completed um the canton will uh take
all of their notes like how did my conversation go how did the investigation go and they send it
back to the federal government and the federal government will make the final decision on if i
am integrated enough and if all of my paperwork lines up and if i can get the swiss naturalization
and that's the whole process a lot of people were asking me how long does this take i've read online
that it can take between 12 to 18 months but it can also go as long as 24 months or longer
some people have said they've gotten this whole process done in as little as six months so it
really depends another question is how much does this cost and that part i'm a little bit confused
on because i know that this package going to the federal government i believe cost 900 francs like
as soon as i send this in and they process it they will invoice me for 900 francs but that's just the
federal level there will be more bills along the way as they open the different investigations um
with like the police and the canton so i read that all in all this can cost up to about 2 000
francs and then let's say that all of this goes well and i get the swiss passport a lot of people
have been asking me if that means i need to give up my us passport and i don't switzerland and the
us allow for dual citizenship so i will be allowed to hold both by the way i should have said this at
the beginning of the video but this is obviously not legal advice don't take my word for anything
that i mentioned here if you are looking to start this process just go to your local staff house
and ask they are very very helpful that's all i have for today's video let me know if you have
any questions in the comments down below let me know if you've gone through this process
in switzerland i would love to hear about your personal experience and how long it took and all
the questions that they asked and things like that so please let me know your experience in
the comments down below also don't forget to check out surf shark while you're down there
link in the description box and that's all i have for today talk to you soon guys bye