The long ride for the red pass – The beginning

23/03/2019 / Geoch / Leave a comment

Photo from Wikipedia “Rail transport in Switzerland”.

In a series of posts, I will tell you now the various steps, hurdles or (as the Led Zeppelin would say) the Starway to Heaven, which I needed to overcome and climb to reach the treasured Swiss nationality.
According to the instructions given on the relevant website (“Ordinary naturalisation of foreigners in Argovia” – “Ordentliche Einbürgerung von Ausländer/-innen im Aargau”), I started the online procedure for the Swiss nationality (Naturalisation) for myself on the 22nd April 2017.
After two days, the “Inhabitants control” department (Einwohnerkontrolle) of my village already gave me some very good news. Even if it was not so clearly mentioned on the internet instructions, they confirmed that I could have applied for my whole family!
Of course I proceeded in this way straight away! One day after this important detail, I quickly got the forms and explanations for the application by mail in a precious fat envelope.

The next step consisted on the collection of all the papers needed to complete the application form…

Finally… Real Swiss

09/03/201909/03/2019 / Geoch / 1 Comment

Picture from Amazon.com

My blog is titled “Real Swiss – A Foreigner in Switzerland”.
Today I received a quite important letter. It announced that, after nearly two years from the official application, together with my family, I have become Swiss!

“Der Grosse Rat” of Canton Argovia took the topic decision!
And in one month, after all the administrative procedures are complete, we will be able to apply for the ID and the passport of the Confederation!

We will be pleased, as the letter encourages, to participate in the Swiss political life!

From now on: Absolutely Real Swiss and no longer (or not too much) foreigner in Switzerland!

Swissinisation

26/04/201709/03/2019 / Geoch / 3 Comments

From left: The flags of Canton Argovia, Switzerland and municipality of Ehrendingen.

16 years, 2 months and 22 days!

After having been in Switzerland for 16 years, 2 months and 22 days, I (and my family) have achieved the requirements to start the procedures and get the white crossed passport!

The Swiss law requires a residence of minimum 12 years in the Confederation, 5 years in the same Canton and 3 in the same municipality to be able to apply.
Having moved to the municipality of Ehrendingen 3 years ago, we just completed the last missing milestone last Friday!

And so we started our “Swissinisation” or, as they say here, our “Einbürgerung”.
In the Confederation, there is a website from the Administration clearly explaining all the needed actions for this process.
The process of becoming Swiss in the Confederation has, of course, a typical aspect. The key word is “naturalisation” (Einbürgerung): terms like “passport” or “citizenship” are never mentioned.
Maybe it’s more elegant like this…

Now let’s trust the Swiss administrative efficiency for all the further steps of this long procedure!