Kantons-/Gemeindebürgerrecht (Heimatort) transmission + Art 24 child-of-naturalised facilitation (BüG Art 2 + Art 24)

CH-DSC-02 carries two related descent-adjacent strands. The first is the automatic cascade of cantonal and communal citizenship (Kantons- und Gemeindebürgerrecht, the Heimatort/Bürgerort) that accompanies any acquisition of Swiss citizenship: a child who acquires Swiss citizenship acquires by operation of law the cantonal and communal citizenship of the Swiss parent, and where both parents are Swiss the child takes the canton/commune of the parent whose surname it bears (BueG Art 2). This cascade is the operational expression of the constitutional definition that a Swiss citizen is whoever holds the citizenship of a commune AND of a canton (BV Art 37(1)) — federal citizenship being derivative of the communal+cantonal layers, not the reverse. The second strand is the facilitated naturalisation of a foreign child of a naturalised parent who was a minor when the parent filed and was not included in that naturalisation: such a child may apply for facilitated naturalisation, but only before completing the 22nd year of age (BueG Art 24). This age-22 cap is distinct from the born-abroad age-25 forfeiture of Art 7 (C6, /035). Minor children are otherwise included in a parent's acquisition under the common provisions Art 30-32.

Cascade strand (Art 2): no separate eligibility test applies — the cantonal and communal Bürgerrecht follows automatically from any acquisition of Swiss citizenship, whether by descent (Art 1), foundling acquisition (Art 3), adoption (Art 4), or naturalisation. A child of a single Swiss parent takes that parent's Heimatort; a child of two Swiss parents from different communes acquires both Heimatorte (multi-Heimatort holdings are administratively routine), with the surname rule of Art 2 governing where a single attribution is needed. There is no residence requirement, and the cascade extends indefinitely across generations alongside the federal transmission. Art 24 facilitation strand: eligibility requires (a) that the applicant is a foreign child of a parent who acquired Swiss citizenship by naturalisation or reintegration; (b) that the applicant was a minor at the time the parent filed and was NOT included in the parent's naturalisation; (c) that the application is filed BEFORE completing the 22nd year of age; and (d) that the applicant shows a total of five years' residence in Switzerland, of which three immediately before the application (BueG Art 24). The general facilitated-naturalisation conditions of Art 20 (integration criteria of Art 12(1)-(2) plus no security threat) also apply.

Cascade strand requirements are documentary only: proof of the Swiss parent's Heimatort in the civil register and of the parent-child relationship, from which the child's cantonal/communal Bürgerrecht is derived by operation of law (Art 2). Multi-Heimatort holdings simply require the corresponding multiple civil-register entries and Heimatscheine; there is no cap on the number of Heimatorte a Swiss may hold and no residence requirement. Art 24 facilitation requirements are cumulative: (1) the applicant is a foreign child of a parent naturalised/reintegrated in Switzerland; (2) the applicant was a minor when the parent filed and was not included; (3) the application is filed before completing the 22nd year of age — a hard cap; (4) five years' total residence in Switzerland, of which three immediately before the application; and (5) satisfaction of the general facilitated-naturalisation conditions under Art 20 — the integration criteria of Art 12(1)-(2) (respect for public security/order and constitutional values; communication in a national language; participation in economic life or education; encouragement of family integration) and no endangerment of internal/external security. The age-22 cap of Art 24 must not be conflated with the age-25 born-abroad forfeiture of Art 7 (C6).

For the cascade strand, the operative documents are the Heimatschein (a civil-status document issued by the cantonal Zivilstandsamt of the Heimatgemeinde evidencing the communal/cantonal Bürgerrecht) and civil-register extracts (Zivilstandsregisterauszüge / Familienbuch) establishing the Swiss parent's Heimatort and the parent-child relationship from which the cascade derives (Art 2). These are distinct from the Swiss passport or identity card, which evidence federal citizenship for travel but are not the instrument of the Heimatort itself. Where the chain is contested, the Art 43 Feststellung produces a conclusive determination. For the Art 24 facilitation, the applicant must document: the parent's naturalisation/reintegration and the applicant's exclusion from it; the applicant's minority at the parent's filing; the applicant's age at application (to satisfy the before-age-22 cap); proof of five years' total Swiss residence including three immediately prior; and evidence going to the Art 20/Art 12 integration and security conditions. Foreign-language civil documents require certified translation and apostille (Hague states) or legalisation.

Cascade strand: no application is required. At a Swiss birth, the communal Zivilstandsamt records the Swiss parent's civil-status data and derives the child's Heimatort, entering it in the civil register; the Heimatgemeinde is notified and a Heimatschein may be requested from the cantonal Zivilstandsamt or communal registry at any time. For a child born abroad to a Swiss parent, the birth is reported to the competent Swiss representation, which transmits the record for civil-register entry of the Heimatort. Where the documentary chain or the applicable attribution is ambiguous, the conclusive remedy is the Art 43 Feststellung (carried at CH-CBN-04). Art 24 facilitation strand: the foreign child of a naturalised parent files a facilitated-naturalisation application with the SEM before completing age 22, evidencing the 5-years-total / 3-years-immediately-prior residence and the Art 20/Art 12 integration and security conditions; the SEM decides after consulting the canton (Art 25), and the child takes the cantonal/communal citizenship connected to the acquisition. Minor children processed alongside a family application are handled under the common provisions Art 30-32, with independent age-appropriate assessment from age 12 and a written declaration of own will from age 16.

The cascade strand rests on BueG SR 141.0 Art 2, which provides that acquisition of Swiss citizenship simultaneously includes acquisition of the parent's Kantons- und Gemeindebürgerrecht, with the surname rule for two-Swiss-parent cases, operationalising the constitutional tri-level definition of BV Art 37(1). The Confederation's competence to regulate acquisition by descent and to set minimum naturalisation rules is BV Art 38(1)-(2). The facilitation strand rests on BueG Art 24, under which a foreign child of a naturalised parent, minor at the parent's filing and not included, may apply for facilitated naturalisation before age 22 on a 5-years-total / 3-years-immediately-prior residence basis; the SEM decides after consulting the canton (Art 25), and the general facilitated-naturalisation gate of Art 20 (Art 12 integration + security) applies. The inclusion and independent age-appropriate assessment of minor children, and the majority/minority reference to ZGB Art 14, are the common provisions Art 30-32. For pre-2006-born foreign children of a Swiss father, the relevant pathway is instead the Art 51 transitional facilitation, not Art 24.

Multi-Heimatort holdings: a child of two Swiss parents from different communes lawfully holds two cantonal/communal Bürgerrechte, recognised and administratively routine, with the Art 2 surname rule resolving any single-attribution need. The cantonal/communal layer is not merely formal: cantonal sovereignty (BV Art 3) and communal autonomy (BV Art 50) ground real cantonal and communal competence over the naturalisation and Bürgerrecht layers. Pre-2006 unmarried-paternal cohort: a foreign child of a Swiss father born before 1 January 2006 is NOT served by Art 24 (which is the child-of-naturalised-parent facilitation) but by the Art 51 transitional facilitation on meeting the Art 1(2) conditions and the close-ties test; this is a frequent point of confusion and the two pathways must be kept distinct. Loss cascade: loss of federal citizenship by operation of law carries the cantonal and communal Bürgerrecht with it (Art 8), so a broken descent link extinguishes the Heimatort as well. The age-22 cap of Art 24 is a hard limit and is separate from the age-25 born-abroad forfeiture of Art 7 (C6, /035).