Three Authorities Have to Say Yes, and One of Them May Be a Village Meeting
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Chile on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Chile to Switzerland · Becoming a citizen
Swiss citizenship is acquired at three levels at once and the federal government is not the one that grants it. The Confederation issues an authorisation: the applicant must hold a settlement permit, have lived in Switzerland for ten years in all with three of them in the last five, be successfully integrated, be familiar with Swiss ways of life, and pose no threat to internal or external security. Years lived between the ages of eight and eighteen count double, but the real stay must still be at least six. The canton then decides within a year, and the cantonal decision is what actually confers the citizenship - of the commune, of the canton and of Switzerland, all at the moment it becomes final. Cantonal law sets a further residence requirement of between two and five years, may add integration criteria of its own, and may put the application to the electorate at a communal assembly. The language standard is federal and specific: B1 spoken and A2 written, in a national language.
At a glance
- Residence for ordinary naturalisation
- Ten years in total, three of them in the last five before the application
BüG article 9(1)(b). A settlement permit must also be held at the time of application, under article 9(1)(a).
- Years counted double
- Years lived in Switzerland between the completed 8th and 18th year of age
BüG article 9(2). The same paragraph sets a floor: the actual stay must still be at least six years.
- Cantonal residence requirement
- Between two and five years, set by each canton
BüG article 18(1). The federal Act does not choose for them: the range is the rule, and the figure is in each canton's own legislation, which this record has not read.
- Language
- B1 spoken and A2 written in a national language
BüV article 6(1), by reference to the Common European Framework. German, French, Italian and Romansh are the national languages; which one is a matter for the canton.
- Marriage to a Swiss national
- Facilitated naturalisation after three years of marital union and five years in Switzerland, one of them immediately before the application
BüG article 21(1). For an applicant living or having lived abroad, article 21(2) requires six years of marital union and close ties with Switzerland instead.
- Who decides
- The Confederation authorises, the canton decides, and the decision confers communal, cantonal and Swiss citizenship together
BüG articles 13(3) and 14(3). The cantonal decision must come within one year of the federal authorisation or the authorisation lapses.
- A vote on your application
- Possible - cantonal law may send the application to the electorate at a communal assembly
BüG article 15(2). Article 16 requires a refusal to be reasoned, and says the electorate may refuse only where a reasoned motion to that effect has been made.
- Social assistance
- Receiving it in the three years before the application, or during the procedure, fails the economic-participation criterion unless it is fully repaid
BüV article 7(3).
- Fees
- No figure in the Act; federal, cantonal and communal authorities may charge, and the charge may at most cover cost
BüG article 35(1) and (2). Three authorities may each charge, so the total is a sum of three cantonal and communal schedules that this record has not read.
- Losing the residence count by leaving
- The stay is treated as given up on departure abroad if you deregister or actually live abroad for more than six months
BüG article 33(3). Short absences with the intention of returning do not interrupt it, under article 33(2).
Requirements
- A settlement permit at the time of application
- Ten years of residence in Switzerland, three of them in the last five
- At least six years of actual stay, whatever the doubling of years lived between eight and eighteen produces
- Between two and five years of residence in the canton, as cantonal law provides
- Spoken command of a national language at B1 and written at A2
- Basic knowledge of Swiss geography, history, politics and society, with participation in social and cultural life and contact with Swiss people
- Participation in economic life or education, with no social assistance in the three years before applying unless it has been fully repaid
- No threat to the internal or external security of Switzerland
Country-level policy
No country in this corpus distributes migration decisions the way Switzerland does, and nothing else about the Swiss system makes sense without it. The Confederation writes the Act and the ordinances; the cantons grant the permits. Article 40(1) of the Foreign Nationals Act says the permits under articles 32 to 35 and 37 to 39 are granted by the cantons, reserving federal competence for the quota, for derogations from the admission conditions and for the approval procedure. Where there is no right to work, the labour-market pre-decision is a cantonal act too. The federal migration secretariat sits behind it rather than in front: the Federal Council decides which cases must be submitted to it for approval, and it may refuse approval of a cantonal decision, time-limit it, or attach conditions. The same split runs through naturalisation, where the Confederation authorises and the canton decides, through health insurance, where the cantons enforce the duty and may reduce premiums, and through the quota itself, which is divided among the twenty-six cantons before anyone applies.
Swiss federal law is published simultaneously in German, French and Italian, and for enactments the three versions are binding in the same way. No version prevails, which is the opposite of the arrangement in Malta, where the Constitution makes the Maltese text prevail over the English. That decides what this site quotes and how: any one of the three is the law, so the quotations in these records are in German, and the French and Italian versions of the same articles say the same thing with equal force. The second question the publication Act settles is the status of the platform. Article 1a says publication happens centrally through one publicly accessible online platform; article 15 then says the version published in the official compilation is authoritative for federal enactments, and that the version published on the publication platform is authoritative. Swiss consolidated texts are therefore not unofficial in the way Austria's RIS consolidations are, where the authentic text is only the one in the federal gazette.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Chile
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«bei der Gesuchstellung eine Niederlassungsbewilligung besitzt; und»Our translation - not official
holds a settlement permit at the time of application; and
The gate before the clock. A residence permit is not enough: the settlement permit itself takes ten years, or five with good command of the local national language, under article 34 of the Foreign Nationals Act.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Für die Berechnung der Aufenthaltsdauer nach Absatz 1 Buchstabe b wird die Zeit, während welcher die Bewerberin oder der Bewerber zwischen dem vollendeten 8. und 18. Lebensjahr in der Schweiz gelebt hat, doppelt gerechnet. Der tatsächliche Aufenthalt hat jedoch mindestens sechs Jahre zu betragen.»Our translation - not official
For calculating the period of residence under paragraph 1 letter b, time the applicant has lived in Switzerland between their completed 8th and 18th year of age counts double. The actual stay must nevertheless amount to at least six years.
A doubling with a floor under it. Someone who arrived at eight and left at eighteen has twenty counted years and ten actual ones; someone who arrived at sixteen has four counted years from two actual ones and still needs six real years in all.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Die kantonale Gesetzgebung sieht eine Mindestaufenthaltsdauer von zwei bis fünf Jahren vor.»Our translation - not official
Cantonal legislation shall provide for a minimum period of residence of between two and five years.
A federal Act instructing twenty-six legislatures to each pick a number inside a range. There is no national answer to "how long in the canton", only twenty-six answers.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Das kantonale Recht kann vorsehen, dass ein Einbürgerungsgesuch den Stimmberechtigten an einer Gemeindeversammlung zum Entscheid vorgelegt wird.»Our translation - not official
Cantonal law may provide that an application for naturalisation is put to the electorate at a communal assembly for decision.
No other country in this corpus puts a naturalisation application to a vote of the applicant's neighbours. Article 17 limits what the voters may be told to nationality, length of residence and what is needed to assess the conditions.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Mit Eintritt der Rechtskraft des kantonalen Einbürgerungsentscheids wird das Gemeinde- und Kantonsbürgerrecht sowie das Schweizer Bürgerrecht erworben.»Our translation - not official
On the cantonal naturalisation decision becoming final, communal and cantonal citizenship and Swiss citizenship are acquired.
Three citizenships in one act, and the federal one is the consequence of the cantonal decision rather than the other way round. Article 14(1) gives the canton one year from the federal authorisation before it lapses.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«seit drei Jahren in ehelicher Gemeinschaft mit dem Ehemann oder der Ehefrau lebt; und»Our translation - not official
has lived in marital union with the husband or wife for three years; and
The facilitated route for a spouse. Letter b adds five years in Switzerland in total, one of them immediately before the application. Marriage shortens the residence but does not remove it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Der Aufenthalt in der Schweiz gilt als bei der Abreise ins Ausland aufgegeben, wenn die Ausländerin oder der Ausländer sich bei der zuständigen Behörde abmeldet oder während mehr als sechs Monaten tatsächlich im Ausland lebt.»Our translation - not official
The stay in Switzerland is deemed given up on departure abroad where the foreign national deregisters with the competent authority or actually lives abroad for more than six months.
Continuous absence, not a yearly quota of presence: two separate five-month absences do not trigger this, while one seven-month absence does.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Die Gebühren dürfen höchstens kostendeckend sein.»Our translation - not official
The fees may at most cover costs.
A ceiling expressed as a principle rather than a figure. Paragraph 1 lets federal, cantonal and communal authorities each charge, so what an applicant pays is the sum of three schedules set in three places.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Die Bewerberin oder der Bewerber muss in einer Landessprache mündliche Sprachkompetenzen mindestens auf dem Referenzniveau B1 und schriftliche Sprachkompetenzen mindestens auf dem Referenzniveau A2 des in Europa allgemein anerkannten Referenzrahmens für Sprachen nachweisen.»Our translation - not official
The applicant must demonstrate, in a national language, spoken competence at least at reference level B1 and written competence at least at reference level A2 of the commonly recognised European framework for languages.
Two different levels for speaking and writing, which is unusual: most naturalisation language tests in this corpus state one level for everything. Paragraph 2 lets the requirement be met by mother tongue, five years of compulsory school, an upper-secondary or tertiary qualification in a national language, or a recognised certificate.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
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«Wer in den drei Jahren unmittelbar vor der Gesuchstellung oder während des Einbürgerungsverfahrens Sozialhilfe bezieht, erfüllt nicht das Erfordernis der Teilnahme am Wirtschaftsleben oder des Erwerbs von Bildung, ausser die bezogene Sozialhilfe wird vollständig zurückerstattet.»Our translation - not official
A person who receives social assistance in the three years immediately before the application, or during the naturalisation procedure, does not meet the requirement of participation in economic life or in education, unless the social assistance received is repaid in full.
The repayment clause is the part usually left out. Social assistance is not an absolute bar: it is a bar that can be lifted by paying it back.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The federal Act is the floor and not the whole rule. Article 12(3) lets the cantons add integration criteria of their own, article 18(1) makes them set a residence period, and article 15(1) hands the cantonal and communal procedure entirely to cantonal law - so two applicants with identical federal files can face materially different requirements in two cantons.
The ten years and the settlement permit stack rather than overlap. The settlement permit itself normally takes ten years of residence, or five with good command of the local national language, so the residence behind a naturalisation is not shortened by the citizenship Act.
Whether a communal assembly actually votes on applications is a cantonal and communal question. The federal Act permits it; this record does not claim how many communes do it, because that is not in the Act and no cantonal law has been read here.
This record covers ordinary naturalisation and the spouse route. The Act also has facilitated naturalisation for a child of a naturalised parent, for a stateless child, for third-generation foreigners and for people who wrongly believed themselves Swiss, and reinstatement for former citizens - none of which has been written up here.
- consolidatesBürgerrechtsgesetz (BüG), SR 141.0, consolidated text in force from 1 September 2023
Fedlex, Bundeskanzlei der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft · consolidated to 2023-09-01
About this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesBürgerrechtsverordnung (BüV), SR 141.01, consolidated text in force from 1 August 2026
Fedlex, Bundeskanzlei der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft · consolidated to 2026-08-01
About this source
Switzerland's single publication platform for federal law, carrying the Amtliche Sammlung (AS), the Systematische Sammlung (SR) and the Bundesblatt. It is the platform article 1a of the Publikationsgesetz (SR 170.512) requires, and article 15 of that Act makes the version published on it massgebend - so unlike most consolidations in this corpus, Fedlex's text is authoritative rather than a convenience copy. Article 14(1) of the same Act requires simultaneous publication in German, French and Italian and makes all three versions of an enactment binding in the same way. The reader-facing address `https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<lang>` is an Angular shell containing no text: every such address returns the same 77,151-byte page. The text lives in the filestore, at `https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/<a>/<b>/<YYYYMMDD>/<lang>/html/...html`, where YYYYMMDD is the consolidation's date of applicability and cannot be guessed. The way to resolve an SR number to that address is the SPARQL endpoint at https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/sparqlendpoint, matching jolux:classifiedByTaxonomyEntry/skos:notation against the SR number and taking the jolux:Consolidation whose jolux:dateApplicability is the latest one not after today.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for cantonal or communal law, which is the half of Swiss migration practice a resident actually meets: permits are granted by the cantons under article 40 of the AIG, the naturalisation residence requirement is set by each canton between two and five years under article 18 of the BüG, cantonal and communal income tax is outside the DBG entirely, and health insurance premium reductions are cantonal. Twenty-six cantons publish separately and none of them is here. It carries no case law - the Federal Supreme Court publishes at bger.ch - and no administrative guidance, which matters concretely: the list of states whose driving licences exchange without a control drive is a Federal Roads Office document issued under article 150(5)(e) of the VZV and is not in the classified compilation. Two traps in the platform itself. Fedlex serves consolidations that are not yet in force - SR 142.20 carried texts dated 2026-11-01 and 2027-01-01 alongside the one in force on 2026-10-11 - so taking the newest row returns a text that is not the law. And English translations published under article 13a(1)(d) of the Publikationsgesetz are translations of official publications and are not among the three binding versions, so nothing may be quoted from them as law.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source