Eingebürgert… Finally Swiss!

Forgot to mention this little detail, but I’m finally Swiss!!

December 2014:

After receiving my 765CHF letter in October stating that there was a positive decision, I needed to wait for all the final formalities where the Heimatort is given one last right to object. In the craziness leading up to our Australia trip, I received the official letter from the Heimatort confirming and congratulating me that I am now Swiss.

It was a little anticlimactic though, because although I was now Swiss, I didn’t know what the next steps were to get that little booklet up there. I thought there would be some sort of “How to” leaflet included. Not knowing what to do, I figured I would sort it out after our Australia trip. Anyway, my B-permit was still valid until August 2015, so no problems there… or so I thought.

When we got to passport control on the way out of Switzerland, my permit wouldn’t scan. I wondered out loud that maybe it has something to do with my naturalization. The lady asked where I was naturalized, because with my American passport and Swiss foreign permit in hand, it wasn’t really clear to her that I was talking about Swiss naturalization. I think she just assumed I am a foreigner with little to no right to be in Switzerland and was about to give me a telling-off.

Of course when I told her I am Swiss, she wanted to know where my Swiss passport was and I had to explain that I JUST became Swiss a week or so previously and wasn’t even sure it was totally finalized. Maybe the Heimatort is busy updating the town hall before I could apply for my passport?

They let me leave, but it was clear that my foreign permit was no longer valid because I was Swiss (why doesn’t it say that on their control screens??) so I was traveling without valid Swiss residence identification. Woohoo.

When we returned, I had to play the game again and they were a little more suspicious about letting me back into the country. They asked where is my letter confirming my citizenship and I told them that I didn’t think I had to bring that because my foreign permit was valid until August 2015,  and nobody explained that it would automatically terminate!

We arrived home on a Monday morning and headed straight to work. In the evening at home, I realized that the town hall had been informed about the final decision and they did send me a helpful little leaflet about how to get the passport. The kicker was that they said they don’t have anything to do with it and I could have done it all on my own in December if I had known the steps!

On Tuesday I made an appointment to go to the Travel Office. The appointment slots fill up very quickly in the evening, but I managed to get one for the next day on Wednesday and after a 15 minute stop in the morning, I was done. By Friday morning, I received my shiny new passport in the post and the following Monday, a week after arriving home, I already had the Swiss identification card as well. How is that for efficiency??

We’re a bit late, but Kay and I are throwing a party this week to celebrate my citizenship. We don’t have parties that often, but this definitely seems worth celebrating!

Missed something?

7 thoughts on “Eingebürgert… Finally Swiss!”

  1. Hi Katie. Congrats. 🙂 Your articles are really helpful. I am just wondering, it seems that the article for ‘another Swiss test’ preparing for Einbürgerung has been removed. If you don’t mind, could you please repost it? I am trying to prepare a bit for me til the end of the year. Thanks in advance. 🙂
    Han.

      1. Thanks a lot, Katie for your quick response and for the article. You have been through a lot with all the process, time to relax now, isn’t it? 🙂 I totally agree with you, we truly need patience here 🙂
        Sorry to trouble you again, in the article about the conversation with the police, you mentioned 1 PDF file with information prepared for the interview. The page is not available anymore. Maybe you have an idea where I can find it then? I am really sorry for taking your time like this, but I was really happy when coming across your page, it is very helpful and exactly the information I was looking for.
        I deeply appreciate your help, Katie. 🙂
        All the best.
        Han

        1. Hi Han, sure. That is probably because I was reading the 2014 copy and it has been archived now. Just do a Google search for “Der Bund, kurz erklärt” and it will lead you to the most current version, which should be 2015 at the moment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *