Ordinance on Cantonal and Municipal Citizenship (KBüV) - Competent Department (KBüV)

1. The Department of Economic Affairs and Internal Affairs (DVI) is the competent department according to the Law on Municipalities (KBüG).

1. Municipalities take into account the abilities of applicants with physical, mental, psychological, or other disabilities in particular by

a) * Providing assistance with the civic test,

b) * Exemptions from the civic test,

c) Providing assistance during the naturalization interview.

1. For the assessment of civic knowledge, municipalities shall exclusively use the DVI test.

1bis. The test of civic knowledge consists of 45 questions.

1ter. The civic knowledge test may be retaken, in the event of failure, no earlier than two months after the last attempt.

2. This test is to be administered to applicants from the age of 16. The relevant date is the time of application submission.

3. ...

1. The respect for the values of the Federal and Cantonal Constitution must be confirmed by the applicants by signing the declaration contained in a cantonal form.

2. The declaration must be signed by the applicants upon reaching the age of 16. The relevant time is the date of submission of the application.

3. The declaration must be provided to the applicants with the application documents and verbally explained by a suitable person at the latest during the naturalization interview.

1. Personal data of the applicant published on a municipality's website shall be removed as follows

a) Personal data contained in agenda lists shall be removed no later than 90 days after the meeting,

b) Personal data published in the publication procedure shall be removed no later than 90 days after the expiry of the submission deadline,

c) Personal data published during the assurance of municipal citizenship and naturalization shall be removed no later than 90 days after publication.

2. Upon request, the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office shall provide municipalities and the canton with the personal data necessary to assess naturalization applications in accordance with § 8 KBüG.

3. Insofar as the data disclosure pertains to contraventions, it shall relate to the period of the last three years up to the time of the request.

1. Applications for naturalization and for renunciation of citizenship must be submitted using the cantonal form.

2. The DVI provides this to the municipalities for distribution to the applicants.

2. Application Attachments must be submitted in original form for all individuals included in the application, unless otherwise specified.

1. The following documents must be submitted with naturalization applications

a) Certificate of residency or proof of stay for the period relevant to naturalization,

b) Civil status documents from the Swiss civil status register,

c) Criminal record extract for individuals (from the age of majority),

d) Extract from the debt collection register for the last five years (from the age of majority),

e) Certificate from the local financial administration confirming the payment of all due taxes (from the point of tax obligation).

2. At the time of application submission, the documents specified in paragraph 1 letters a and c-e must not be older than three months, and those specified in paragraph 1 letter b must not be older than six months.

1. The following additional documents must be attached to naturalization applications from foreign nationals

a) * Copy of the valid residence permit,

b) * Copy of the valid passport,

c) A list of all previous places of residence, schools, and workplaces using the cantonal form,

d) For employees: Confirmation from the current employer,

e) * For apprentices: Confirmation from the current training company,

f) * For students: Enrollment confirmation from the current educational institution,

g) * For school pupils: Confirmation from the current school,

h) * Copy of the language certificate or proof of attending a minimum of 5 years in compulsory schooling in German or education at the Secondary Level II or Tertiary Level in German, provided the mother tongue is not German,

i) * Confirmation of passing the citizenship knowledge test,

j) * Confirmations regarding the receipt of social assistance for the last 10 years prior to submission of the application.

1bis. At the time of application submission, the attachments according to paragraph 1 items d-g and j must not be older than three months, and those according to paragraph 1 item i must not be older than six months.

2. If necessary, the municipal and cantonal authorities responsible for the assessments may request additional relevant documents from the applicant or third parties.

1. Applications for Renunciation of Citizenship must include

a) * ...

b) * Civil status documents from the Swiss civil status register, which must be no older than six months at the time of application submission.

1. The naturalization interview must be recorded in writing or documented using audio recordings.

2. Upon request by the applicant, the naturalization interview must be conducted in High German.

1. For the assurance of municipal citizenship and for their report to the canton, the municipalities use the cantonal forms.

2. The municipalities submit these to the DVI with the necessary application attachments and their own additional documents relevant to naturalization.

3. The transmission of the documents to the DVI occurs immediately after the assurance of municipal citizenship has become legally binding, once the fee collected by the municipality has been paid.

1. Applicants must submit a current extract from the debt collection register to the DVI after the transmission of the files.

1. Any person who submits an application is subject to fees. For minors, the persons who legally represent them are jointly and severally liable.

2. The fee may be increased by up to 100 percent if processing the application requires an extraordinary amount of work. Fee surcharges must be justified and itemized separately.

3. The fee may be reduced or waived if the application becomes moot or is not proceeded with.

1. The following fees shall be charged per person

a) Assurance of municipal citizenship: CHF 1,500.-

b) Granting of municipal citizenship for Swiss citizens: CHF 300.-

c) Release from municipal citizenship: CHF 100.-

d) * ...

e) * ...

f) * ...

g) * ...

h) * Participation in the civic knowledge test: CHF 50.-

2. For minor children included in their parents' application, no fees shall be charged until the completion of their 10th year of life. Thereafter, the fee shall be half of the rates specified in paragraph 1. The determining factor is the date of the application submission.

3. The municipalities may waive the fee stipulated in paragraph 1 letter b either entirely or partially.

1. Disbursements are invoiced separately based on the actual expenses incurred and are generally collected along with the fee.

2. Disbursements include extraordinary costs incurred during the procedure, particularly for the work performed by other authorities or third parties, such as for translations.

3. Disbursements must be fully reimbursed even if the fees are reduced or waived.

1. In applications for facilitated naturalization and re-naturalization, the canton pays three-quarters of the fees collected by the federal government in favor of the canton to the current municipality of residence that has prepared the investigation report.

1. The DVI operates an electronic document management and information system (EEP Information System) for handling procedures concerning ordinary naturalization.

1. Applications for ordinary naturalization are processed using the EEP information system.

2. An electronic dossier with a dossier number is maintained in the EEP information system for each naturalization application.

3. The canton and the municipalities are authorized to access the system.

4. The rights of affected persons to information, access, correction, omission, determination, and deletion are governed by the Law on Public Information, Data Protection, and Archiving (IDAG) of October 24, 2006, and the Ordinance on the Law on Public Information, Data Protection, and Archiving (VIDAG) of September 26, 2007.

1. The canton is authorized to access applications for ordinary naturalization that have been forwarded to the DVI.

2. Before forwarding an application for ordinary naturalization to the DVI, the canton has the right to review the procedural status at the municipal level.

3. At the cantonal level, access is authorized for individuals involved in processing naturalization applications at the competent authorities.

4. The following entities have limited access rights, to the extent necessary for the fulfillment of their duties

a) Employees of the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office,

b) Parliamentary Services,

c) Members of the Naturalization Commission of the Grand Council.

1. Municipalities are entitled to access applications for regular naturalization that have been submitted to them but have not yet been forwarded to the DVI.

2. After forwarding to the DVI, municipalities have the right to access

a) the personal data processed by them,

b) the documents uploaded by them,

c) the status of the procedure at the canton level.

3. The individuals at the municipal level involved in processing naturalization applications from the competent authorities are entitled to access.

4. Municipalities can grant read permissions to members of the municipal council and members of a naturalization commission.

1. Access rights at the cantonal level are granted by the DVI.

2. The DVI grants a maximum of two administrator rights to individual municipalities for managing access rights at the municipal level.

3. The granting of administrator rights to individual municipalities is based on a resolution of the municipal council and an application by the municipality to the DVI.

1. Data Collection in Procedures Concerning Ordinary Naturalization Shall Be Conducted

a) by the municipalities until forwarding to the DVI,

b) by the canton after forwarding to the DVI.

**1. Personal data of all individuals involved in the application for ordinary naturalization may be recorded as follows:**

a) **Personal information:** Title, last name, first name, date of birth, place of birth, country of birth, last name and first name of the father, last name and first name of the mother, nationalities, type of travel document, education, occupation, marital status, and legal representation,

b) **Information regarding residency:** Type of residence permit, total duration of stay in Switzerland, total duration of stay in the municipality, as well as specification of the places of residence for the period relevant to fulfilling the residency requirements,

c) **Residential and correspondence address,**

d) **Details of any representation,**

e) **Private telephone number, business telephone number, mobile phone number, email address.**

**2. Additional personal data according to § 17 of the Citizenship Act (KBüG) may be recorded in the EEP information system if required for the fulfillment of statutory duties in matters of citizenship.**

1. Insofar as the personal data pursuant to § 24 are contained in the cantonal residents' register, they may be transferred by the DVI and the municipalities via an interface from the cantonal residents' register into the EEP information system.

2. In the event of changes in address or civil status, as well as in cases of death or birth, a notification may be sent from the cantonal residents' register to the EEP information system.

3. Notifications regarding invoice processing may occur between the cantonal accounting system and the EEP information system.

1. The DVI is responsible for compliance with data protection regulations when operating the EEP information system.

2. The respective authorized entity is responsible for data management.

3. The DVI and the municipalities shall each take appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data from access and disclosure in their respective areas, in accordance with § 4 VIDAG.

1. The personal data recorded in the EEP information system must be deleted when they are no longer required for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the competent authorities.

2. Deletion is carried out exclusively by the DVI, no earlier than 10 years after the final conclusion of the proceedings and no later than after the delivery of the original files to the state archive.

1. The DVI and the municipalities may use the personal data recorded in the EEP information system in anonymized form for statistical purposes.

2. Non-anonymized personal data may only be used for internal business audits and for internal business planning.

1. Legally finalized requests are archived in the EEP information system.

2. The DVI and the municipalities archive relevant documents with original signatures in an appropriate manner outside of the EEP information system.

3. Furthermore, the provisions regarding archiving apply.

1. Applications for ordinary naturalization submitted after January 1, 2014, must be forwarded to the DVI electronically, while corresponding applications submitted before this date must be forwarded in paper form.

2. ...

3. ...

1. For applications submitted before this amendment comes into force, language skills are to be assessed exclusively during the naturalization interview, provided that the cantonal test of language proficiency according to previous law has not been completed by June 30, 2018.

2. During the transitional period, the previous provisions shall apply to the cantonal test of language proficiency.

1. This regulation enters into force on April 1, 2016.