Federal Act
on Swiss Citizenship
(Swiss Citizenship Act, SCA)

¹ The fol­low­ing per­sons are Swiss cit­izens from birth:

a.

a child whose par­ents are mar­ried to each oth­er and whose fath­er or moth­er is a Swiss cit­izen;

b.

the child of a fe­male Swiss cit­izen who is not mar­ried to the child's fath­er.

² The minor for­eign child of a Swiss fath­er who is not mar­ried to the child's moth­er ac­quires Swiss cit­izen­ship as if at birth on es­tab­lish­ing fi­li­ation with the fath­er.

³ If a minor child who ac­quires Swiss cit­izen­ship un­der para­graph 2 has chil­dren, they also ac­quire Swiss cit­izen­ship.

¹ On ac­quir­ing Swiss cit­izen­ship, a child ac­quires the Swiss par­ent's can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship.

² If both par­ents are Swiss, the child ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship of the par­ent whose sur­name the child uses.

¹ A minor child of un­known par­ent­age who is found in Switzer­land ac­quires cit­izen­ship of the can­ton in which he or she was aban­doned, and thus ac­quires Swiss cit­izen­ship.

² The can­ton de­cides where the child holds com­mun­al cit­izen­ship.

³ Cit­izen­ship ac­quired in this way lapses if it is es­tab­lished who the par­ents of the child are, provided the child is still a minor and will not be­come state­less.

Where a minor for­eign child is ad­op­ted by a Swiss cit­izen, the child ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship of the ad­opt­ive par­ent and thus ac­quires Swiss cit­izen­ship.

If fi­li­ation is ter­min­ated with the par­ent who has con­ferred Swiss cit­izen­ship on the child, the child loses Swiss cit­izen­ship provided the child does not be­come state­less thereby.

¹ If a minor Swiss cit­izen is ad­op­ted by a for­eign na­tion­al, he or she loses Swiss cit­izen­ship on ad­op­tion if he or she ac­quires the na­tion­al­ity of the ad­opt­ive par­ent thereby or already holds that na­tion­al­ity.

² Swiss cit­izen­ship is not lost if fi­li­ation with a Swiss par­ent is es­tab­lished on ad­op­tion or such fi­li­ation re­mains fol­low­ing ad­op­tion.

³ If ad­op­tion is an­nulled, loss of Swiss cit­izen­ship is deemed not to have taken place.

¹ A child born abroad to a Swiss par­ent who is a cit­izen of an­oth­er coun­try for­feits Swiss cit­izen­ship on reach­ing the age of 25, un­less his or her birth has been no­ti­fied to a Swiss au­thor­ity abroad or in Switzer­land or he or she has de­clared in writ­ing that he or she wishes to re­main a Swiss cit­izen.

² If a child for­feits Swiss cit­izen­ship by vir­tue of para­graph 1, then his or her chil­dren also for­feit Swiss cit­izen­ship.

³ No­ti­fic­a­tion in terms of para­graph 1 is con­sti­tuted in par­tic­u­lar by any no­ti­fic­a­tion by par­ents, re­l­at­ives or ac­quaint­ances with a view to the child's entry in re­gisters in Switzer­land, ma­tric­u­la­tion or the is­su­ing of iden­tity doc­u­ments.

⁴ Any per­son who, against his or her will, has been un­able to provide no­ti­fic­a­tion or a de­clar­a­tion in terms of para­graph 1 in time, may still do so val­idly with­in one year of the reas­on for their fail­ure to do so ceas­ing to ap­ply.

Any per­son who loses Swiss cit­izen­ship by law loses can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship at the same time.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall grant a nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence only if the ap­plic­ant:

a.

holds a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit when the ap­plic­a­tion is made; and

b.

can prove that he or she has been res­id­ent in Switzer­land for at least ten years, three of which have been in the five years pri­or to mak­ing the ap­plic­a­tion.

² When cal­cu­lat­ing the length of res­id­ence men­tioned in para­graph 1 let­ter b, the peri­od that the ap­plic­ant has lived in Switzer­land between the ages of 8 and 18 counts as double. The ac­tu­al length of res­id­ence must however amount to at least six years.

¹ If the ap­plic­ant has entered in­to a re­gistered part­ner­ship with a Swiss cit­izen, on mak­ing the ap­plic­a­tion, he or she must prove that he or she:

a.

has resided for at least five years in Switzer­land, and for one year im­me­di­ately pri­or to mak­ing the ap­plic­a­tion; and

b.

has lived for three years with this per­son in a re­gistered part­ner­ship.

² The short­er length of res­id­ence in para­graph 1 let­ter a also ap­plies in the event that one of the two part­ners ac­quired Swiss cit­izen­ship after re­gis­tra­tion of the part­ner­ship through:

a.

re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship; or

b.

through sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion based on des­cent from a Swiss par­ent.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall grant the nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence if the ap­plic­ant meets the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

he or she is suc­cess­fully in­teg­rated;

b.

he or she is fa­mil­i­ar with the Swiss way of life; and

c.

he or she does not pose a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity.

¹ Suc­cess­ful in­teg­ra­tion is demon­strated in par­tic­u­lar by:

a.

show­ing re­spect for pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der;

b.

re­spect­ing the val­ues en­shrined in the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;

c.

be­ing able to com­mu­nic­ate in a na­tion­al lan­guage in every­day situ­ations, or­ally and in writ­ing;

d.

par­ti­cip­at­ing in eco­nom­ic life or by ac­quir­ing an edu­ca­tion; and

e.

en­cour­aging and sup­port­ing the in­teg­ra­tion of one’s wife or hus­band, re­gistered part­ner or the minor chil­dren for whom one has par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.

² Ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count must be taken of the situ­ation of per­sons who, due to dis­ab­il­ity or ill­ness or oth­er sig­ni­fic­ant per­son­al cir­cum­stances, are un­able or only able with dif­fi­cult to meet the cri­ter­ia for in­teg­ra­tion set out in para­graph 1 let­ters c and d.

³ The can­tons may provide for ad­di­tion­al cri­ter­ia for in­teg­ra­tion.

¹ The can­ton shall des­ig­nate the au­thor­ity to which the ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion must be sub­mit­ted.

² If the can­ton and, if can­ton­al law so provides, the com­mune agree in prin­ciple to nat­ur­al­isa­tion, they shall for­ward the ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion to the State Sec­ret­ari­at for Mi­gra­tion (SEM) once the ap­plic­ant has passed the can­ton­al ex­am­in­a­tion.

³ Once all the form­al and sub­stant­ive re­quire­ments have been ful­filled, the SEM shall grant the fed­er­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence and send it to the can­ton­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion au­thor­ity for the de­cision on nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

⁴ The fed­er­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence may be amended ret­ro­spect­ively in or­der to in­clude the ap­plic­ant’s chil­dren.

¹ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall make the de­cision on nat­ur­al­isa­tion with­in one year of the grant­ing of the fed­er­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence. On ex­piry of this peri­od, the fed­er­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence ceases to be val­id.

² It shall re­fuse the ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion if mat­ters come to light after the fed­er­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion li­cence is gran­ted which would have giv­en grounds for not agree­ing in prin­ciple to nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

³ The ap­plic­ant ac­quires com­mun­al, can­ton­al and Swiss cit­izen­ship when the can­ton­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion de­cision be­comes leg­ally bind­ing.

¹ The pro­ced­ure in the can­ton and in the com­mune is gov­erned by can­ton­al law.

² Can­ton­al law may provide that an ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion may be sub­mit­ted to the vote of the com­mun­al elect­or­ate at a com­mun­al as­sembly.

¹ Reas­ons must be giv­en for re­ject­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

² The com­mun­al elect­or­ate may re­ject an ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion only if a reasoned mo­tion has been made that they should do so.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that the pri­vacy of ap­plic­ants is re­spec­ted in can­ton­al and com­mun­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion pro­ced­ures.

² The com­mun­al elect­or­ate shall be giv­en the fol­low­ing par­tic­u­lars of ap­plic­ants:

a.

na­tion­al­ity;

b.

length of res­id­ence;

c.

in­form­a­tion re­quired to as­sess wheth­er the ap­plic­ant meets the nat­ur­al­isa­tion re­quire­ments, and in par­tic­u­lar the re­quire­ment of in­teg­ra­tion.

³ When se­lect­ing in­form­a­tion un­der para­graph 2, the can­tons shall take ac­count of the per­sons to whom the in­form­a­tion is to be giv­en.

¹ The can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion shall provide for a min­im­um length of res­id­ence of between two and five years.

² In the event that the ap­plic­ant moves to an­oth­er com­mune or an­oth­er can­ton, the can­ton and the com­mune in which an ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion is made re­main re­spons­ible if they have con­cluded their as­sess­ment of the nat­ur­al­isa­tion re­quire­ments in Art­icles 11 and 12.³

The award­ing of hon­or­ary cit­izen­ship to a for­eign na­tion­al by a can­ton or a com­mune without fed­er­al au­thor­isa­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion does not have the ef­fects of nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

¹ In the sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion pro­ced­ure, the cri­ter­ia for in­teg­ra­tion set out in Art­icle 12 para­graphs 1 and 2 must be met.

² Sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion also re­quires that the ap­plic­ant does not pose a risk to Switzer­land's in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity.

³ For ap­plic­ants who do not live in Switzer­land, the re­quire­ments of para­graphs 1 and 2 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ Any for­eign na­tion­al may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion fol­low­ing mar­riage to a Swiss cit­izen if he or she:

a.

has lived for three years in mar­it­al uni­on with his or her wife or hus­band; and

b.

has resided for at least five years in Switzer­land, in­clud­ing one year im­me­di­ately pri­or to mak­ing the ap­plic­a­tion.

² Any per­son who lives or has lived abroad may also ap­ply provided he or she:

a.

has lived for six years in mar­it­al uni­on with his or her wife or hus­band; and

b.

has close ties with Switzer­land.

³ A for­eign na­tion­al may also ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion un­der para­graphs 1 or 2 if his or her wife or hus­band ac­quires Swiss cit­izen­ship after their mar­riage through:

a.

re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship; or

b.

sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion based on des­cent from a Swiss par­ent.

⁴ The nat­ur­al­ised per­son ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship of his or her Swiss spouse. If the spouse is a cit­izen of two or more can­ton­al or com­munes, the nat­ur­al­ised per­son may de­cide to ac­quire cit­izen­ship of only one can­ton or com­mune.

¹ Any per­son who has be­lieved in good faith for five years that he or she is a Swiss cit­izen, and has in prac­tice been treated dur­ing this peri­od by the can­ton­al or com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies as a Swiss cit­izen, may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

² The nat­ur­al­ised per­son ac­quires the can­ton­al cit­izen­ship of the can­ton re­spons­ible for the er­ror. This can­ton shall de­cide which com­mun­al cit­izen­ship the per­son ac­quires at the same time.

¹ A minor child who is state­less may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion if he or she can prove at least five years’ res­id­ence in Switzer­land, in­clud­ing one year im­me­di­ately pri­or to mak­ing the ap­plic­a­tion.

² Any peri­od of res­id­ence in Switzer­land in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions on for­eign na­tion­als will be taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion.

³ The nat­ur­al­ised child ac­quires the cit­izen­ship of his or her com­mune and can­ton of res­id­ence.

¹ A for­eign child who was a minor at the time his or her par­ent ap­plied for nat­ur­al­isa­tion and who was not in­cluded in the nat­ur­al­isa­tion ap­plic­a­tion may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion be­fore the age of 22 if he or she can prove at least five years’ res­id­ence in Switzer­land, in­clud­ing at least three years im­me­di­ately pri­or to mak­ing the ap­plic­a­tion.

² The nat­ur­al­ised child ac­quires the cit­izen­ship of the Swiss par­ent.

¹ The child of for­eign par­ents may on ap­plic­a­tion be nat­ur­al­ised ac­cord­ing to a sim­pli­fied pro­ced­ure if he or she meets the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

a.

at least one grand­par­ent was born in Switzer­land or it is cred­ibly demon­strated that he or she ac­quired a right of res­id­ence;

b.

at least one par­ent has ob­tained a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit, has been res­id­ent in Switzer­land for at least ten years, and at­ten­ded com­puls­ory school­ing in Switzer­land for at least five years;

c.

the child was born in Switzer­land;

d.

the child holds a per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit and has at­ten­ded com­puls­ory school­ing in Switzer­land for at least five years.

² The ap­plic­a­tion must be sub­mit­ted be­fore the child reaches the age of 25.

³ The nat­ur­al­ised child ac­quires the cit­izen­ship of his or her com­mune and can­ton of res­id­ence at the time of nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

¹ The SEM de­cides on sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion ap­plic­a­tions; it shall con­sult the can­ton con­cerned be­fore ap­prov­ing an ap­plic­a­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the pro­ced­ure.

¹ Re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship re­quires that the ap­plic­ant:

a.

is suc­cess­fully in­teg­rated if he or she lives in Switzer­land;

b.

has close ties with Switzer­land if he or she lives abroad;

c.

shows re­spect for pub­lic se­cur­ity and or­der;

d.

re­spects the val­ues en­shrined in the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion; and

e.

does not pose a risk to Switzer­land’s in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity.

² For ap­plic­ants not res­id­ent in Switzer­land, the re­quire­ments of para­graph 1 let­ters c–e ap­ply by ana­logy.

¹ Any per­son who has lost Swiss cit­izen­ship may ap­ply with­in ten years for that cit­izen­ship to be re­in­stated.

² On ex­piry of the peri­od men­tioned in para­graph 1, a per­son may ap­ply for cit­izen­ship to be re­in­stated only if he or she has been res­id­ent in Switzer­land for three years.

Through re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship, the ap­plic­ant ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship that he or she held pre­vi­ously.

¹ The SEM de­cides on the re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship; it shall con­sult the can­ton con­cerned be­fore grant­ing an ap­plic­a­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the pro­ced­ure.

The ap­plic­ant's minor chil­dren are nor­mally in­cluded in the nat­ur­al­isa­tion ap­plic­a­tion if they live with the ap­plic­ant. In the case of chil­dren over the age of 12, com­pli­ance with the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 11 and 12 must be veri­fied in­de­pend­ently and autonom­ously and in a man­ner ap­pro­pri­ate to the age of the child.

¹ Minor chil­dren may only ap­ply for nat­ur­al­isa­tion through their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

² Minor chil­dren over the age of 16 must also de­clare in writ­ing their wish to be­come a Swiss cit­izen.

Ma­jor­ity and minor­ity in terms of this Act are gov­erned by Art­icle 14 of the Swiss Civil Code ⁵.

¹ The length of res­id­ence in Switzer­land is cal­cu­lated based on res­id­ence as evid­enced by the fol­low­ing res­id­ence doc­u­ments:

a.

a res­id­ence or per­man­ent res­id­ence per­mit;

b.

tem­por­ary ad­mis­sion; half of the peri­od of res­id­ence is cred­ited; or

c.

a le­git­im­a­tion card or com­par­able res­id­ence doc­u­ment is­sued by the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs.

² Leav­ing Switzer­land for a short peri­od with the in­ten­tion of re­turn­ing does not in­ter­rupt a peri­od of res­id­ence.

³ A for­eign na­tion­al is deemed to have stopped resid­ing in Switzer­land on leav­ing Switzer­land if he or she has de­re­gistered with the re­spons­ible au­thor­ity or has ac­tu­ally lived abroad for more than six months.

¹ If an ap­plic­a­tion is made for or­din­ary nat­ur­al­isa­tion, the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall, if the form­al re­quire­ments of Art­icle 9 have been met, as­sess wheth­er the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 11 let­ters a and b have been met.

² The SEM shall in­struct the can­ton­al nat­ur­al­isa­tion au­thor­ity to con­duct the en­quir­ies re­quired to as­sess wheth­er the re­quire­ments for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion, re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship, de­clar­ing a nat­ur­al­isa­tion null and void or with­draw­ing Swiss cit­izen­ship have been met.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure. It may is­sue uni­form guidelines on draw­ing up en­quiry re­ports and provide for dead­lines for con­duct­ing the en­quir­ies men­tioned in para­graph 2.

¹ The fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies may charge fees in con­nec­tion with nat­ur­al­isa­tion pro­ced­ures or pro­ced­ures for de­clar­ing nat­ur­al­isa­tions null and void.

² The fees may not amount to more than is re­quired to cov­er costs.

³ For the pro­ced­ure un­der its jur­is­dic­tion, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may re­quest an ad­vance pay­ment of fees.

¹ A nat­ur­al­isa­tion de­cision may be de­clared null and void by the SEM if it has been ob­tained by us­ing false in­form­a­tion or by con­ceal­ing ma­ter­i­al facts.

² The nat­ur­al­isa­tion de­cision may be de­clared null and void with­in two years of the SEM be­com­ing aware of the leg­ally rel­ev­ant cir­cum­stances, and at the latest with­in eight years of the nat­ur­al­ised per­son ac­quir­ing Swiss cit­izen­ship. A new two year lim­it­a­tion peri­od be­gins after each in­vest­ig­at­ive act that has been no­ti­fied to the nat­ur­al­ised per­son con­cerned. The lim­it­a­tion peri­ods are sus­pen­ded dur­ing ap­peal pro­ceed­ings.

³ Sub­ject to the same re­quire­ments, a nat­ur­al­isa­tion de­cision un­der Art­icles 9–19 may also be de­clared null and void by the can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

⁴ Nullity ex­tends to all chil­dren whose Swiss cit­izen­ship is based on the nat­ur­al­isa­tion de­cision that has been de­clared null and void. Ex­emp­ted there­from are chil­dren who:

a.

at the time of the de­cision on the de­clar­a­tion of nullity are over the age of 16 and who meet the res­id­ence re­quire­ments of Art­icle 9 and the per­son­al re­quire­ments of Art­icle 11; or

b.

would be­come state­less as a res­ult of the de­clar­a­tion of nullity.

⁵ After the de­clar­a­tion of nullity of a nat­ur­al­isa­tion be­comes leg­ally bind­ing, two years must elapse be­fore a new ap­plic­a­tion for nat­ur­al­isa­tion may be made.

⁶ The wait­ing peri­od in para­graph 5 does not ap­ply to chil­dren in­cluded in the de­clar­a­tion of nullity.

⁷ The for­feit­ure of the iden­tity doc­u­ments shall be ordered when the de­clar­a­tion of nullity is is­sued.

¹ Swiss cit­izens shall on re­quest be re­lieved of their Swiss cit­izen­ship if they are not res­id­ent in Switzer­land and hold or have been as­sured of an­oth­er na­tion­al­ity. Art­icle 31 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

² Re­lief of cit­izen­ship is gran­ted by the au­thor­ity in the can­ton of ori­gin.

³ Loss of can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship and thus of Swiss cit­izen­ship take ef­fect on ser­vice of the cer­ti­fic­ate of re­lief of cit­izen­ship.

¹ Re­lief of cit­izen­ship also ap­plies to minor chil­dren who:

a.

are un­der the par­ent­al care of the per­son re­lieved of cit­izen­ship;

b.

are not res­id­ent in Switzer­land; and

c.

hold or have been as­sured of an­oth­er na­tion­al­ity.

² Minor chil­dren who are over the age of 16 years are only in­cluded in the re­lief of cit­izen­ship if they give their writ­ten con­sent.

¹ The can­ton of ori­gin shall is­sue a cer­ti­fic­ate of re­lief of cit­izen­ship in which every per­son covered by the cer­ti­fic­ate is lis­ted.

² The SEM shall ar­range for the cer­ti­fic­ate of re­lief of cit­izen­ship to be served and shall no­ti­fy the can­ton when the cer­ti­fic­ate has been suc­cess­fully served.

³ It shall post­pone ser­vice if it is not ex­pec­ted that the per­son re­lieved of cit­izen­ship will be gran­ted the for­eign cit­izen­ship of which he or she has been as­sured.

⁴ If the place of res­id­ence of the per­son re­lieved of cit­izen­ship is un­known, no­tice of re­lief of cit­izen­ship may be pub­lished in the Fed­er­al Gaz­ette. Such pub­lic­a­tion has the same ef­fect as ser­vice of the cer­ti­fic­ate of re­lief of cit­izen­ship.

The can­tons are en­titled to charge fees to cov­er the costs of the pro­ced­ure for re­lief of cit­izen­ship.

¹ Swiss cit­izens with cit­izen­ship of two or more can­tons may sub­mit their ap­plic­a­tion to any one of their can­tons of ori­gin.

² If one can­ton of ori­gin de­cides on the ap­plic­a­tion for re­lief of cit­izen­ship, Swiss cit­izen­ships and the cit­izen­ship of all the can­tons and com­munes con­cerned is lost on form­al ser­vice of the de­cision.

³ The can­ton that has de­cided on re­lief of cit­izen­ship shall no­ti­fy the oth­er can­tons of ori­gin ex of­fi­cio.

The SEM may, with con­sent of the au­thor­ity in the can­ton of ori­gin, re­voke the Swiss, can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship of a per­son hold­ing dual na­tion­al­ity if his or her con­duct is ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al to the in­terests or the repu­ta­tion of Switzer­land.

¹ If there is doubt as to wheth­er a per­son holds Swiss cit­izen­ship, the au­thor­ity in the can­ton of which the cit­izen­ship has been called in­to ques­tion de­cides, on re­quest or ex of­fi­cio.

² The SEM may also re­quest a de­cision.

In or­der to ful­fil its du­ties un­der this Act, the SEM may pro­cess per­son­al data, in­clud­ing per­son­al­ity pro­files and par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive data on re­li­gious be­liefs, polit­ic­al activ­it­ies, health, so­cial as­sist­ance meas­ures and ad­min­is­trat­ive or crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings and pen­al­ties. It shall main­tain an elec­tron­ic in­form­a­tion sys­tem for this pur­pose in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 20 June 2003⁶ on the In­forma­tion Sys­tem for For­eign Na­tion­als and Asylum Mat­ters.

¹ In re­sponse to a writ­ten and jus­ti­fied re­quest re­lat­ing to a spe­cif­ic case, the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act shall dis­close to each oth­er the data re­quired to:

a.

de­cide on an ap­plic­a­tion for or­din­ary nat­ur­al­isa­tion, sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion or re­in­state­ment of cit­izen­ship;

b.

de­clare a nat­ur­al­isa­tion null and void;

c.

de­cide on an ap­plic­a­tion for re­lief of Swiss cit­izen­ship;

d.

is­sue a with­draw­al of Swiss cit­izen­ship;

e.

is­sue a de­clar­at­ory rul­ing about a per­son’s Swiss cit­izen­ship.

² In re­sponse to a writ­ten and jus­ti­fied re­quest re­lat­ing to a spe­cif­ic case, oth­er fed­er­al, can­ton­al or com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies are re­quired to dis­close to the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act the data re­quired to carry out their du­ties pur­su­ant to para­graph 1.

The can­tons shall ap­point ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies to act as the ul­ti­mate can­ton­al courts of ap­peal in re­la­tion to de­cisions to re­fuse or­din­ary nat­ur­al­isa­tion.

¹ Ap­peals against fi­nal rul­ings by the can­tons and against de­cisions by the fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies are gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.

² The can­tons and com­munes con­cerned also have a right of ap­peal.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­ing this Act.

The re­peal and amend­ment of oth­er le­gis­la­tion are reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

¹ The ac­quis­i­tion and loss of Swiss cit­izen­ship are gov­erned by the law in force at the time that the rel­ev­ant cir­cum­stances oc­curred.

² Ap­plic­a­tions made be­fore this Act comes in­to force shall be pro­cessed in ac­cord­ance with the pre­vi­ous law ap­plic­able up to and in­clud­ing the de­cision on the ap­plic­a­tion.

¹ A for­eign child of a mar­riage between a Swiss moth­er and a for­eign fath­er whose moth­er held Swiss cit­izen­ship pri­or to or at the time of the child's birth may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion if he or she has close ties with Switzer­land.

² A for­eign child born to a Swiss fath­er be­fore 1 Janu­ary 2006 may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion provided he or she meets the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 1 para­graph 2 and has close ties with Switzer­land.

³ A for­eign child born to a Swiss fath­er be­fore 1 Janu­ary 2006 whose par­ents marry ac­quires Swiss cit­izen­ship as if from birth if he or she meets the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 1 para­graph 2.

⁴ The child ac­quires the can­ton­al and com­mun­al cit­izen­ship that the Swiss par­ent holds or last held, and thus Swiss cit­izen­ship.

⁵ The re­quire­ments of Art­icle 20 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

Third gen­er­a­tion im­mig­rants who are over the age of 25 but have not yet reached the age of 35 when the Amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 to this Act comes in­to force and who meet the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 24apara­graph 1 may ap­ply for sim­pli­fied nat­ur­al­isa­tion with­in five years of the said Amend­ment com­ing in­to force.⁸

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 2018⁹