Switzerland: naturalisation for Germans

A passport is a right, not a permission. As long as you live in Switzerland on a B or C permit, you live there because the state allows you to. Swiss citizenship turns that permission into an entitlement: you vote in federal ballots and elect the National Council, you have the right to enter Switzerland at any time, nobody may expel you, and your citizenship passes to your children from birth. Naturalisation costs you little money, but it does take time and patience. That is exactly why it pays to set out on this road early and deliberately.

How do you become Swiss as a German?

The Swiss Citizenship Act (Bürgerrechtsgesetz, BüG) knows three routes to the Swiss passport: ordinary naturalisation, facilitated naturalisation and reinstatement for former Swiss citizens. There is no route through investment. For the vast majority of Germans who have moved to Switzerland, ordinary naturalisation is the standard case. Facilitated naturalisation is open above all to the spouses of Swiss citizens.

One feature sets Switzerland apart from almost every other country: you do not just become a citizen of the Confederation. Naturalisation gives you three citizenships at once: citizenship of your municipality, of your canton and of Switzerland. They come into being together as soon as the cantonal naturalisation decision becomes final. That is also why three levels have a say, each with its own rules.

For a German, the road typically looks like this:

1. Moving in with a B permit. Your years on a B residence permit already count in full towards naturalisation.
2. C permit after five years. Germans can obtain the settlement permit after just five years of lawful and uninterrupted residence.
3. Application after ten years. Only once you have lived in Switzerland for ten years and hold the C permit may you apply.
4. Procedure at municipal, cantonal and federal level. All three levels then examine your case until the canton decides.

How strong the red passport turns out to be is shown in The Swiss passport: how strong it really is. How Switzerland compares with other countries where you can naturalise through residence is set out in the overview Naturalisation abroad.

What are the requirements for Swiss naturalisation?

The Confederation sets the minimum requirements, and cantons and municipalities may add their own. The federal rules are the same everywhere:

You cannot apply before the ten years are up. The SEM says so explicitly: the formal requirements must be met at the moment the application is filed. Submit a few months early and all you lose is time.

Which years count

Not every year in Switzerland counts the same. Years on a B or C permit count, as do years with a legitimation card from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) or a Ci permit. Years on an F permit count half. Years on an L permit as a short-term resident do not count at all, and neither does time spent in the asylum procedure.

Keep an eye on your time abroad. Short absences with the intention of returning do not interrupt your residence. A stay abroad of up to one year on behalf of your employer or for education or further training also counts as short-term. But if you deregister or actually live abroad for more than six months, you have given up your residence in Switzerland. How to document your years of residence without any gaps is shown in Counting your residence years.

From B permit to C permit

Here Germans have a real advantage. The Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons with the EU does not cover the settlement permit. Germany, however, is one of the states with which Switzerland has made its own arrangements on settlement. That is why Germans receive the C permit after five years of lawful and uninterrupted residence, provided they meet the necessary conditions. With many other EU states there is no such agreement.

For naturalisation, this means the C permit is rarely your bottleneck; the ten years are. What the C permit brings you in everyday life and how to apply for it is explained in Swiss C permit: permanent residence timelines. The move itself, from flat hunting to taxes, is covered by the country guide Moving to Switzerland (in German).

Integration, language, basic knowledge: what is assessed

The years alone are not enough. The Confederation grants the naturalisation permit only if you are successfully integrated, familiar with Swiss living conditions and pose no threat to Switzerland's security. What that means in practice is spelled out in the Act and the Ordinance.

Successful integration

The Citizenship Act names five criteria:

• Public security and order. An entry in the criminal record can block naturalisation, depending on the severity of the sentence. If criminal proceedings are pending against you, the SEM puts your application on hold until they have been concluded with final effect. The SEM explicitly counts these as part of public order too: no debt enforcement proceedings, no certificates of unpaid debts, taxes paid.
• Values of the Federal Constitution. The rule of law, equality between men and women, freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
• Language. At least B1 spoken and at least A2 written in a national language. The cantons may set higher requirements.
• Economic life or education. You cover your living costs from income, assets or claims against third parties, or you are in education.
• Family. You support the integration of your spouse and your minor children.

For Germans, language is the easiest hurdle. Anyone who speaks and writes a national language as their mother tongue has already provided the language evidence under the Swiss Citizenship Ordinance (Bürgerrechtsverordnung, BüV). You do not need a language school; your energy belongs to the other criteria.

Some cantons look even more closely at your finances. Zurich, for example, requires that you have had no unpaid entries in the debt enforcement register in the last five years. A forgotten bill that ends up in debt enforcement can therefore cost you years.

Familiarity with Switzerland

This is where it gets personal. The Ordinance expects you to have basic knowledge of Switzerland's geography, history, politics and society, to take part in social and cultural life and to maintain contact with Swiss people. The canton may test your knowledge. In the canton of Zurich, that is the basic knowledge test, with questions about Switzerland, the canton and how Zurich's municipalities work; among those exempt is anyone who attended compulsory school in Switzerland for five years or completed an upper secondary qualification here. If you know the gymnastics club, the parents' council or the volunteer fire brigade only by hearsay, start joining in while there is still time.

Municipality, canton, Confederation: how the procedure works

Cantonal law governs the procedure in the canton and the municipality. The canton decides where you submit your application: sometimes to your municipality of residence, sometimes to the canton itself. Everywhere, though, the process follows the same pattern:

1. Application. You submit the application to the authority your canton designates. That is also where you get the form.
2. Cantonal review. The competent authority examines your integration and your familiarity with living conditions and draws up an assessment report.
3. Assurance. If the canton and, where provided for, the municipality can assure you of naturalisation, the application goes to the State Secretariat for Migration.
4. Federal naturalisation permit. The SEM usually decides within eight months of receiving the complete documents.
5. Cantonal decision. The canton decides within one year of the federal permit. Once this decision becomes final, you are Swiss.

The canton of Zurich puts the whole ordinary naturalisation at around two years. There, the cantonal municipal affairs office reviews your application first, then your municipality of residence grants municipal citizenship, then the canton grants cantonal citizenship, and only after the federal permit does Swiss citizenship follow.

When the communal assembly decides

Cantonal law can provide for the voters of your municipality to decide on your application at a communal assembly. Federal law sets limits here, however: the voters may only reject it if a motion to that effect has been tabled with reasons, and every rejection must be justified. Only your nationality, your length of residence and the information needed to assess your integration are disclosed.

Careful when you move

The biggest avoidable mistake is moving at the wrong time. The canton and municipality remain responsible after a move if they have already completed their assessment of your integration. In the canton of Zurich, the procedure is discontinued if you move before your municipality has completed its review. You can then only file a new application in the canton of Zurich once you have lived in your new municipality for two years. So settle where you live before you submit the application, not afterwards.

How much does Swiss naturalisation cost?

Under the Citizenship Act, fees may at most cover costs. The Confederation has fixed rates, and cantons and municipalities set their own. Taking the canton of Zurich as an example, ordinary naturalisation looks like this:

If your application is rejected, the Confederation charges CHF 300 and the canton of Zurich CHF 200 plus the municipal fee. In other cantons the amounts differ; the SEM itself gives no figures for cantonal and municipal fees. A comparison of costs across the Confederation, canton and municipality is in Swiss naturalisation costs (in German). Also budget for the fee for the basic knowledge test where your canton requires it.

Measured against the value of the passport, that is little. The real price of Swiss naturalisation is time.

Facilitated naturalisation: faster through marriage

If you are married to a Swiss citizen, the road becomes much shorter. For facilitated naturalisation under Article 21 of the Citizenship Act, you need:

• three years of marital union with your Swiss spouse, and
• five years of residence in Switzerland in total, including the year immediately before the application.

This article does not require a C permit. The integration criteria still apply, though: language, criminal record, financial obligations and the values of the Federal Constitution. You submit the application directly to the SEM, which also decides. Your canton of residence carries out the local enquiries on its behalf and records them in an assessment report.

If you live abroad with your Swiss spouse, it works too: after six years of marital union, provided you have close ties to Switzerland. Under the Ordinance, that means you have stayed in Switzerland at least three times in the last six years for at least five days each time, can get by orally in a national language in everyday life, have basic knowledge of Switzerland and keep in touch with Swiss people. Referees living in Switzerland confirm your stays and contacts. You then submit the application to the Swiss representation in your country of residence, which invites you to a personal interview.

The SEM charges CHF 500 for the decision on facilitated naturalisation, plus a fee of no more than CHF 400 for the canton's assessment report. If you live in a registered partnership with a Swiss citizen, you also benefit from shorter periods, but in the ordinary procedure with a C permit. How Switzerland compares with other countries is shown in Citizenship by marriage.

Dual citizenship: you stay German

The good news for every German: you do not have to choose. The SEM puts it plainly: dual citizenship has been allowed in Switzerland without restriction since 1 January 1992, and anyone who naturalises does not have to give up their previous nationality. Whether you keep it is decided solely by your country of origin.

And Germany plays along. With the Act to Modernise Nationality Law (Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts), Germany scrapped the old rule on loss of citizenship. The Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt) sums it up: multiple citizenship is generally accepted, and the retention permit procedure was abolished as of 27 June 2024. Since then, you no longer lose your German citizenship when you become Swiss by application.

One point for men: according to the SEM, dual nationals usually do military service in the country where they live at the time of recruitment, and anyone who has done military service abroad is no longer called up in Switzerland. Everything else dual nationals need to know, from military service to consular protection, is in Swiss with a second passport.

Can you buy a Swiss passport? What bridges the ten years

Anyone who searches for "buy a Swiss passport" is hoping for a shortcut. There is none. The Citizenship Act has no route through investment, and the municipality cannot be hurried either. Ten years remain ten years.

That is exactly where the risk lies. Ten years is a long time to live with just one passport. A lot can change in that time: your job, politics in Germany, the world. If your German passport is lost, stolen or held abroad, you have no second one. That is why forward-looking Germans take both routes at once: naturalisation as the inexpensive and ultimately best route, and citizenship by investment as a bridge that gives you a second passport straight away.

The figures make the case for this combination:

The two routes go well together. Your German citizenship also remains when you acquire a passport by investment, Sierra Leone accepts multiple citizenship without restriction, and Switzerland does not require you to renounce on naturalisation. Once your Swiss application goes through, you hold three passports. Amounts, fees and family rules of every programme sit side by side in the comparison, and why a second passport is about more than travel freedom is shown in the eight reasons for a second passport.

If you want to stay in the region, you will often take a look at the neighbouring country too. How Liechtenstein grants its citizenship is shown in Liechtenstein citizenship.

Frequently asked questions