Hi everyone,
My understanding is that each Canton determines its own language requirements when it comes to the ordinary naturalization (Ordentliche Einbürgerung), and it doesn’t matter if you know one of the federal languages at native level.
Is this understanding correct?
If so, the information can be retrieved in the dedicated pages of each Canton like [this one](https://www.zh.ch/de/migration-integration/einbuergerung/ordentliche-einbuergerung.html#169489660), right? Perhaps there’s a web page that contains them all summarized in a table?
Danke Merci Grazie Grazia!
2 comments
Yes and no. If you studied in a school, you’re 100% going through. However, if you have a certificate, it requires a certain level (e.g. B1/B2).
I didn’t have to prove my skills (Canton AR) as I went to school there for more than 6 years (requirement).
During the first phase, they’ll speak to you — that’s how they know whether you speak German well or not.
Yes — and depending on the canton, can be down to localities at sub-canton level. I don’t know if this in response to that but there’s a story just posted on this subreddit with a fair amount of discussion about a Cameroonian citizen (native French speaker) having an issue with her naturalisation process because she didn’t have what was deemed sufficient certification on her ability to speak German (Matura but not certificate recognized by Bern). In that case, even as a bi-lingual French / German canton, she was applying in Thun – and thus needed to prove that German proficiency despite being a native French speaker (and her native French capacity meant nothing for the language requirement effectively).
It may help in terms of the wider dynamics of conveying integration (I don’t think in interview anyone will be put off if you can prove you know one of the other federal languages in addition to the language of your canton (or municipality in certain cases)) but not for the language requirement itself.
The processes in general are all basically locally run rather than federally run – except for some threshold requirements (residency in country, permit type to apply from etc). So some cantons are also notoriously hard while others are notoriously easy (mostly the major cities), some have addition residency requirements, etc.