On becoming Swiss, part one

From the archives: Where this story started

Originally published in August 2016, when the paper chase started.

My son likes to insist he’s Swiss because he was born here. It’s not so simple.

Getting a Swiss passport is a serious undertaking. Nothing one does on a whim, or because the red book is such a nice modern design, or to gain a flag of convenience for neutral travel purposes.

Citizenship is not conveyed upon you by the government in Bern. You become a citizen of your town. And in turn, a citizen of your canton. And then a Swiss citizen. All government is local here.

First, you have to do your time. This is generally 12 years. However, due to Switzerland’s unique federal system (which is a confederation, and not federal as in Federal), you need to prove you’ve been in one place for a considerable amount of time.

After 17 years in this lovely corner of the world, it’s finally our turn. The clock struck 5 (years in our canton) on July 23, 2016. Now the scavenger hunt is on to collect all necessary documents and turn in our dossier for consideration by the town council at their next biannual meeting in December.

Things are heating up. I was smug with victory for having obtained the officially notarized copy of our entry in the Swiss registry of known persons (Familienausweis), after being warned that this was a very time-consuming step and I should start there. In the first one we ordered (for 41 francs)– which took days and not weeks– I discovered my son was listed as “stateless”, which he isn’t. So I phoned the registry lady in the next town over and she was most helpful, gave me a date that week to come by with the boy’s German passport, and we corrected that at no extra charge.

But that was July, and now it’s nearly September, and documents must be no older than three months when one hands in the complete dossier. Yikes. We have just under two weeks.