Nationality

We stand with Ukraine

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The attack of Russia against Ukraine does not stop and every day the war becomes dramatically harder.

In Switzerland a lot of spontaneous organisations are collecting aid material to help the people on the battlefield and the escaping refugees.

Today I saw these flags at the Renault/Dacia garage in my village. The now well known colours seemed to mix with the brilliant tones of the finished Carnival…

I think the colours are not a random coincidence: they clearly resemble the Ukrainian flag and the white probably is a cry for peace!

Argovia can become the toughest Canton if you want to become Swiss

/ Geoch


Collage of two pictures taken from Wikipedia.

On February 9th, in Switzerland a new referendum, pride of the direct Helvetian democracy, will take place.

Two questions… plus one additional, only in Canton Argovia. The Argovian proposal wants to increase from three to ten years the minimum possible period without receiving benefits from the social assistance (i.e. without unemployment) to be able to apply for the Swiss citizenship.

This strict requirement is even overruling the federal laws which currently accept three years only.

Why? They say that only in that way the possible applicants for the Swiss passport would really prove their “Swissness”. In a country where jobs are quite flexible and the possibility to fire a worker does not require particular justifications, the Argovian statement is quite… disputable!

The long ride for the red pass – The beginning

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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

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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!