Are you getting your Swiss citizenship? Curious about how difficult of a process that is.
I am going to get my Swiss citizenship. The process isn't easy but it's helped by the fact that I'm married to a swiss citizen. Basically, I need to live and pay taxes in the same 'gemeinder' for five years in a row (to show some stability or something I don't know why really) and still be married at the end and then I can go for it. This has caused me a couple problems as my wife is from Bern and so that's where I first registered myself when I moved here. Unfortunatley, the job market in Bern, despite it being the capital city, is really thin for non native German speakers. The main employer in the city is the government, and they're understandably mainly interested in hiring Swiss people. The second biggest is Die Post, and again, it's pretty hard for a non native german speaker to get in there. So I've ended up working in Z?rich for two years and now in Schaffhausen for the past while and have had to take another apartment in those cities while still maintaining my apartment in Bern as my primary address. Rent is pretty crazy expensive in this country, especially in Z?rich, so it's been very expensive to pay for two apartments at the same time. My 650 sq. foot apartment in the suburbs of Z?rich, about a 20 min train ride from the center, cost 1550 USD per month, and I got a pretty good deal on it.
I also have to pass some kind of basic test about Switzerland and it's history and show I've made an effort to learn one of the four official languages here, I've been told this is nothing to worry about though and as I speak two of the four languages here I'm not concerned. After that I think I have to pay about 1000 CHF and I'm done.
If you're not married to a swiss citizen, the five years becomes twelve, otherwise I think it's the same. The issue when you're not married to a swiss citizen is getting into the country in the first place. If you don't have a European Union passport, getting a working visa can be very difficult as your potential employer will have to prove that there is no one in the EU who wants to come here and is capable of doing the same job. It's not impossible, but that makes things a lot harder. Switzerland is a very attractive destination for lots of Europeans as while things are very expensive here, the salaries are pretty high to match. I make almost double what I made in Canada here for doing the same job but my expenses are only about 50% higher. Overall I'm really happy I made the move here and even if things eventually one day end with my wife I think I would stay here.
I'm from Calgary too Ichu, where did you go to high school?
