Swiss citizenship test and requirements: an English guide

Ordinary naturalisation is governed by the Swiss Citizenship Act (SCA, in German BüG) and its ordinance (BüV). The Act has two formal requirements. You must hold a permanent residence permit, the C permit, when you apply. And you must have lived in Switzerland for ten years in total, three of them in the five years before you apply. On top of that come three material requirements: you are successfully integrated, you are familiar with the Swiss way of life, and you pose no threat to Switzerland’s internal or external security.

You do not apply to the federal government. The SEM says you get the application form from the naturalisation authority where you live and hand it in there. Depending on the canton, that is the commune, a cantonal office or the migration office. The canton (and the commune, where cantonal law says so) checks your case first and writes a naturalisation report. Only then does the SEM decide on the federal naturalisation licence. The canton must take its decision within one year of that licence; after that the licence lapses. You become Swiss, with communal and cantonal citizenship at the same time, once the cantonal decision is legally binding.

Not every year counts the same. Years you lived in Switzerland between the ages of 8 and 18 count double, but you must have actually lived here for at least six years. Time on a B or C permit counts in full. Time with provisional admission (F permit) counts half. According to the SEM, time during an asylum procedure (N permit) or on a short-stay permit (L permit) does not count at all. Many expats arrive on an L permit for a first assignment: those months do not count towards the ten years.

Long spells abroad can break the count. Under SCA Art. 33, residence ends when you deregister with the authorities or actually live abroad for more than six months. If you take a long posting abroad, check first whether you will still have three years in the five years before you apply.

An example, our own arithmetic: someone who came to Switzerland at 12 has six actual years between 12 and 18. Counted double, that makes twelve years, so the ten-year rule is met on paper, and so is the minimum of six actual years. The other requirements (C permit, residence in canton and commune, language) still apply.

The federal law only says each canton must set a minimum stay of two to five years. The differences are large. Aargau asks for five years in the canton and three uninterrupted years in the commune. Zurich asks for two years in the same commune immediately before applying (if you apply before your 25th birthday, two years in the canton are enough). Moving house during the procedure can end it: Aargau and the Bürgergemeinde of Basel both say so explicitly.

Under BüV Art. 6 you must show spoken skills of at least B1 and written skills of at least A2 on the Common European Framework, in a national language: German, French, Italian or Romansh. English is not a national language, so an English certificate or an English-taught degree does not meet this rule. In practice each canton asks for its own language: Aargau, Zurich and Basel-Stadt German, Vaud French, Bern the official language of your administrative district or the canton’s other official language if your commune designates it. The SEM also says cantons may set higher language requirements, so the levels above are a floor.

A common mistake: a course attendance certificate is not language proof. The SEM says plainly that certificates confirming only that you attended a course, and online placement tests, are not enough. You need a certificate from a recognised exam. The SEM keeps a list of recognised certificates; what matters is that your certificate was on that list on the day you filed your application.

Many applicants prove their language with the fide test. It was developed on behalf of the SEM for everyday life in Switzerland, and the SEM recommends it for naturalisation. It tests German, French or Italian at levels A1 to B1 and certifies spoken and written skills separately. You cannot register for a particular level; the test is scaled and shows which level you reach. There is no English version of the fide pages we read; everything below comes from fide-service.ch in German.

The “citizenship test” people talk about belongs to this requirement. BüV Art. 2 describes familiarity with Swiss life in three parts: basic knowledge of Swiss geography, history, politics and society; taking part in the social and cultural life of society; and keeping contacts with Swiss people.

For the first part, the basic knowledge, BüV Art. 2(2) allows a test, and the wording matters: the cantonal authority “may” require one. There is no federal test and no duty to test. If a canton does test, it must make sure you can prepare with suitable materials or courses and that you can pass with the language level required for naturalisation. That is why several cantons publish their entire question catalogues or learning materials.

The other two parts, taking part in local life and contacts with Swiss people, are not checked by a multiple-choice test. They usually come up in the interview with your commune, for example when you talk about a club you belong to or how you know your neighbours. Passing the knowledge test is therefore only part of this requirement. Bern even writes this into its ordinance: a passed test does not relieve the commune and canton of checking your familiarity with Swiss life.

The table only covers cantons whose official rules we have read ourselves. Other cantons test differently or use other numbers; there, your commune’s information sheet is what counts. For Bern and Vaud some figures come from an official page or a test booklet rather than from the law; the row says so.

What the comparison shows: Aargau is the strictest, both on the pass mark and on time. 45 questions in 40 minutes is about 53 seconds a question (our arithmetic). In Bern you have 90 minutes for 48 questions, nearly two minutes each. In return, the Aargau test is entirely public: if you know the roughly 330 official questions, you know every question that can come up.

This is the point English speakers most often miss. None of the five cantons offers its knowledge test in English. You will read the questions, or answer them in an interview, in the canton’s language. The good news is that the tests are designed for the language level you need anyway: Bern’s guideline says its test must be understandable at A2, and Zurich says applicants must be able to take its test with written German at A2.

A practical consequence: study the material in the test language from the start. Learning Swiss history from English sources and then meeting the same facts in German or French on test day costs time you do not have in Aargau. Learn the official terms in the test language too, such as Bundesrat or Conseil fédéral for the Federal Council and Gemeinde or commune for your municipality.

In Aargau the test is called the staatsbürgerlicher Test (civic knowledge test). Your commune runs it, but it must use the canton’s test; its own tests and private providers are excluded. You sit it at a computer with a mouse, often in an office of the commune administration. Each question has four answers and only one is right. The test costs CHF 50. You must pass it before you apply, and the confirmation may not be more than six months old when you hand in your application. If you fail you may retake it as often as you like, but you must wait two months between attempts. The test applies to everyone from the age of 16.

In Zurich the test is called the Grundkenntnistest (GKT, basic knowledge test). Each test draws 50 questions at random from the catalogue of 350, in a fixed split: 35 on the Confederation, 10 on the canton and 5 on the commune. You pass with 30 correct answers, which is 60 per cent. The test is digital and taken on site on a computer or tablet. Your commune decides whether you take it before or during the procedure, and whether it runs the test itself or hands it to a provider. That is why the canton sets no single fee and no test duration. In the City of Zurich the test takes place at the Stadthaus, is free, and is taken only after you have applied.

Bern requires a written naturalisation test. The cantonal ordinance sets the duration at 90 minutes and the pass mark at 60 per cent. The figure of 48 questions comes from the City of Bern and the test booklets; the current booklet says the test is passed with 29 of 48 correct answers. The questions are multiple choice with four answers. You pay for the test yourself; the canton’s guideline for communes says it should cost between CHF 260 and 390, and each commune sets the exact fee. You may retake it without limit. Bern has no public catalogue like Aargau or Zurich. Instead, the Bildungszentrum Interlaken (bzi), an institution of the canton, publishes past test papers for practice, and the canton links to them from its test page. Work through those.

In Vaud the test is called the test de connaissances. It covers four themes, history, geography, political institutions and society, and by law the questions must be balanced between Switzerland, the canton and local life. All tests and the entire procedure are in French only. Your commune of residence organises the official test, after you have applied. The regulation sets the pass mark at 70 per cent and allows at most three attempts; the best result counts.

On the canton’s practice platform, A-Vaud-Test, you can practise in exam conditions with 48 random questions in one hour, or work through all 160 questions for your commune, with the correct answers in every mode. Vaud publishes its question set in this way, and you should work through it. We found no law that fixes 48 questions and one hour for the official test. With 48 questions, 70 per cent means at least 34 correct answers (our arithmetic).

Basel-Stadt has no written knowledge test. After the migration office has checked your application, the Bürgergemeinde of your commune invites you to a personal interview with its naturalisation commission. The Bürgergemeinde of the City of Basel says the interview has test character and is recorded. The law expects basic knowledge of the Confederation, the canton and the commune, so of Basel itself too. The interview takes place at the earliest six months after the migration office’s own interview. The commission then proposes admission, rejection or deferral to the Bürgerrat. There is no question catalogue. The Bürgergemeinde offers optional paid courses, such as the Kompaktkurs Einbürgerung at CHF 120 for one person, and says itself that the course does not guarantee naturalisation.

The federal fee is the same everywhere: CHF 100 for an adult, CHF 150 for spouses applying together and CHF 50 for a minor. The SEM charges nothing for minor children included in a parent’s naturalisation. Cantonal and communal fees come on top and are set by cantonal law. They make up most of the bill, and they differ a lot.

The totals below are our own arithmetic from the published fees, for one adult applying alone. They leave out civil-status documents, register extracts, courses and the new passport. Language proof is shown separately because many people are exempt or already hold a certificate.

How the totals add up. Aargau: 1,500 + 750 + 100 + 50 = CHF 2,400; Aargau may double its fees where a case takes extraordinary effort. City of Zurich: 100 + 500 + 500 = CHF 1,100, with the cantonal German test (KDE) at the city’s price of CHF 250 it is CHF 1,350; applicants under 25 pay the city nothing. City of Bern: 1,150 + 400 + 100 = CHF 1,650, plus the test at CHF 260 to 390 under the cantonal guideline, so CHF 1,910 to 2,040; Bern charges its cantonal fee even if the application is refused. Lausanne: 450 + 75 + 250 + 100 = CHF 875; Vaud’s communal fee ranges from CHF 100 to 400 for an individual application, and the cantonal fee stays due even if you withdraw. City of Basel: 800 + 0 + 100 = CHF 900, the same total the Bürgergemeinde prints; applicants under 25 pay no communal fee.

Most of the detail is on our canton pages, which are written in the language of the canton’s test. That is deliberate: the vocabulary on those pages is the vocabulary of the test.

Basel-Stadt: start with the canton’s step-by-step page on bs.ch and the Bürgergemeinde page for your commune. In any other canton, ask your commune or the cantonal naturalisation office first whether and how your knowledge is tested.

A sensible order for most people, our suggestion from the rules above: check your years and permits first; then get your language certificate in the canton’s language; then download your canton’s official questions or past papers and work through them; and only then book the knowledge test or file your application, whichever your canton wants first.