Applicants for the red passport are required to prove a high degree of social integration
As Swissinfo.ch notes, perhaps only one provision of the new version of the citizenship legislation can be considered a simplification of the naturalization procedure: now applicants must have lived in Switzerland for at least 10 years. Previously, this threshold was at least 12 years. For children aged 10 to 20, one year counts as two. For refugees and residents of Switzerland with a residence permit of category "F" (temporarily admitted), on the contrary, time will pass twice as slowly.
Applicants for the red passport are still required to prove a high degree of social integration, but the new law formulates the integration criteria more precisely than before. For example, the applicant must maintain regular contacts with Swiss citizens.
Clear criteria for refusal of naturalization are also stipulated. For example, those who have been convicted by a court and have served a prison sentence (or received an equivalent suspended sentence) of three months or more have no chance of obtaining a passport.
In a number of cantonal parliaments, the question of how to reconcile the upcoming new federal legislation with the citizenship laws already in force in the cantons (federal subjects that actually carry out the naturalization procedure in Switzerland) has been discussed in recent months. In many cases, during the debates, primarily from right-wing conservative politicians, demands were made to significantly tighten local citizenship legislation.
For example, in the canton of Bern, it was proposed to require applicants for citizenship to prove that they had not used social assistance at all during their entire stay in Switzerland. But ultimately, this proposal was rejected. However, in the canton of Thurgau, at the beginning of December 2017, language requirements were significantly tightened: candidates there must have oral German at level B2 and written German at level B1. For comparison, federal authorities everywhere require knowledge no higher than level B1, but the canton, having every right to do so, decided to raise the language barrier.
But overall, it should be emphasized that in the future, the requirements for those wishing to naturalize in Switzerland will only increase. For example, MP Erich Hess from the Swiss People's Party (SVP) proposed an initiative in parliament in December 2017 that would equate those eligible for citizenship under a simplified scheme with those who will have to obtain a passport on general terms.
Recall that the right to "simplified naturalization" is held by foreign spouses of Swiss citizens who have lived in the country continuously for 5 years, of which at least 3 years in marriage. This initiative, as reported by the newspaper "Tages Anzeiger", was supported not only by his party colleagues but also by leading representatives of other parties, including President of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) Gerhard Pfister and MP and President of the Swiss Farmers' Union Markus Ritter.
The advent of the new legal order of naturalization had an impact on the citizenship situation already at the end of 2017. In the canton of Zurich, for example, the number of people who hastened to start naturalization under the old rules increased sharply, almost twofold (from 3,000 to 6,000). Partially, they were prompted by the authorities themselves: the mayor of Zurich, socialist Corine Mauch, in late May 2017 ordered personal letters to be sent to nearly 40,000 residents eligible to "apply for a passport", urging them not to "sleep" and to remember that in 2018 it would be more difficult to obtain Swiss citizenship.
Among the newly filed naturalization applications, there were especially many persons with a temporary, annually renewable residence permit of category "B", because from 2018, for naturalization, they will first need to wait for a permanent residence permit of category "C". There were also those who had received social assistance in the three years prior to filing the passport application.
According to the new rules, such applicants will now not be able to apply for Swiss citizenship without having lived without social support for three consecutive years. The only alternative is that they must repay the entire amount of assistance, down to the centime, back to the budget.