The Basel community has decided to reduce its fee for acquiring citizenship in Basel-City from 300 francs (€319) to 150 francs (€159).
The new decision will become effective from October 1, 2024. However, naturalisation remains free of charge up to the age of 19.
A report from Le News published earlier this year revealed that about a quarter of the population in Switzerland is not Swiss.
Back in 2018, the Parliament of Switzerland changed the rules on who could naturalise. A study provided earlier this year revealed how the new rules changed the profile of those qualifying for and becoming Swiss citizens.
The study commissioned by The Federal Commission on Migration (FCM) revealed that since Switzerland introduced a new citizenship law in 2018, citizens are more likely to be highly educated and high-income earners than before.
Up to 2018, about 35 per cent of new Swiss citizens had a university degree. For a period from 2018 to 2020, this fraction increased by more than 57 per cent. At the same time, the percentage of those with no tertiary education decreased from 8.5 per cent to 23.8 per cent.
Under the new rules, applicants are required to have a C permit. Acquiring one means finding a job and staying employed. The new rules make it harder for those who struggle financially to obtain a Swiss passport, especially for those without work.
Swiss Citizenship Can Be Acquired After Living in This Country For 10 Years
A previous report from Schengen. News revealed that foreigners can file an application for Swiss citizenship after ten years of living in this country, given that three of them were in the five years prior to filing the applications.
Besides, cantonal legislation requires at least two to five years of residence in the commune and in the canton concerned.
Germans Main Country of Origin for Naturalised Citizens in Switzerland
In March this year, it was reported that Germany was the main country of origin for naturalised citizens in the city of Lucerne for 2024, accounting for a total of 40 per cent of the total 307 naturalisations.
The statistics from Lustat revealed that a total of 117 Germans obtained Swiss citizenship back in 2022, followed by Italians and Serbs.
According to local media reports, citizens of Germany accounted for a total of 18.2 per cent of all internationals, thus indicating that they are the city’s largest nationality group of internationals.
