Wiedereinbürgerung — restoration after loss (BüG Art 26-29)

An applicant for Wiedereinbürgerung must, under BüG Art 26(1): (a) be successfully integrated if resident in Switzerland; (b) be closely connected with Switzerland (eng mit der Schweiz verbunden) if living abroad; (c) observe public security and order; (d) respect the values of the Federal Constitution; and (e) pose no threat to the internal or external security of Switzerland. For applicants not resident in Switzerland, conditions (c)-(e) apply mutatis mutandis (Art 26(2)). The timing rule of Art 27 is decisive for the residence requirement: a person who has lost Swiss citizenship may apply for restoration WITHIN TEN YEARS of the loss (Art 27(1)) — and within that window no Swiss residence is required, so the applicant may be living abroad. After the ten-year window has lapsed, restoration may be applied for only by a person who has had THREE YEARS' residence in Switzerland (Art 27(2)). The eng-verbunden (close-ties) test for abroad applicants is operationalised by BüV Art 11: at least three stays in Switzerland of at least five days each within the six years before the application, oral competence in a national language, basic knowledge of Swiss geography/history/politics/society, and contacts with Swiss people, with conditions (a) and (d) confirmed by reference persons resident in Switzerland. The applicant must previously have HELD Swiss citizenship and lost it through a qualifying loss event; a person whose claim to Swiss citizenship was never validly established uses the determination procedure (Art 43, CH-CBN-04) rather than restoration.

The substantive requirements track Art 26(1) and divide by the applicant's location. RESIDENT applicants must be 'successfully integrated' — assessed via the BüG Art 12(1)-(2) integration criteria (respect for public security/order, respect for constitutional values, oral B1 / written A2 competence in a national language per BüV Art 6, participation in economic life or education per BüV Art 7, and support for family-member integration). ABROAD applicants must instead be 'closely connected with Switzerland', operationalised by BüV Art 11 (at least three stays of at least five days each within the prior six years; everyday oral competence in a national language; basic knowledge of Swiss conditions; contacts with Swiss persons confirmed by Swiss-resident reference persons). ALL applicants must additionally satisfy the public-security/order, constitutional-values, and internal/external-security conditions of Art 26(1)(c)-(e); the security threshold is the concrete-threat test of BüV Art 3, and the public-order assessment uses the VOSTRA criminal-record criteria of BüV Art 4. The RESIDENCE requirement is conditional: NONE within ten years of loss (Art 27(1)); THREE YEARS' Swiss residence beyond ten years (Art 27(2)). The prior loss must be of a kind that leaves citizenship recoverable — forfeiture (Art 7), release (Art 37-41), or loss by law (Art 5/6) — and the applicant must establish the cantonal/communal citizenship last held for the Art 28 effect.

Core documentary set: (1) proof of prior Swiss citizenship — Swiss birth certificate, expired Swiss passport/identity card, Zivilstandsregisterauszug naming the Heimatort, or the Einbürgerungsurkunde for a previously naturalised applicant — this also fixes the cantonal/communal citizenship to be restored under Art 28; (2) proof of the loss event and its date — for Art 7 forfeiture, confirmation that no retention/declaration was registered before completed age 25 (/037); for Entlassung, the Entlassungsurkunde; for filiation-annulment loss, the relevant civil-status judgment (Art 5); (3) for abroad applicants, the eng-verbunden evidence under BüV Art 11 — records of qualifying stays, a national-language indication, and reference-person confirmations; (4) for resident applicants beyond the ten-year window, residence evidence covering the three years of Art 27(2) plus integration proof (language certificate per BüV Art 6, economic self-sufficiency per BüV Art 7); (5) a current criminal-record / police-clearance extract for the Art 26(1)(c)-(e) security and public-order checks (assessed against BüV Art 3/4). The SEM determines the precise document list with the application form (BüV Art 14(4)/15(5)). Federal fee for a restoration decision: CHF 500 for an adult applicant, CHF 250 for a minor applicant (BüV Art 25(1)(c)); a certificate of Swiss citizenship costs CHF 60 (Art 25(1)(f)); statutory ceiling — fees may at most cover costs (BüG Art 35(2)).

Step 1 — Document the loss event and the prior holding: gather evidence of the original Swiss citizenship (Swiss birth certificate, prior Swiss passport, Zivilstandsregisterauszug from the Heimatort commune, or an Einbürgerungsurkunde if previously naturalised) and of the loss (SEM correspondence, a foreign-naturalisation record, or confirmation that no Art 7 retention was registered before age 25). Step 2 — Timing check under Art 27: if the application is within ten years of the loss, no Swiss residence is required (abroad applicants permitted); if more than ten years have passed, the applicant must show three years' Swiss residence (Art 27(2)). Step 3 — File the Gesuch um Wiedereinbürgerung: applicants resident in Switzerland file with the SEM (BüV Art 14(1)); applicants abroad file at the competent Swiss representation, which checks completeness, holds a personal interview, and conducts the close-ties enquiry (BüV Art 15). Step 4 — Investigation (Erhebungsbericht): the SEM tasks the competent cantonal authority (resident applicants, BüV Art 18) or the Swiss representation (abroad applicants, BüV Art 19) with the enquiry into the Art 26 conditions, including the eng-verbunden assessment under BüV Art 11 for abroad cases. Step 5 — Hearing the canton: before granting, the SEM hears the canton (Art 29(1)). Step 6 — SEM decision: a grant restores Swiss citizenship and confers the cantonal/communal citizenship the applicant last held (Art 28). The SEM as a rule decides a restoration within twelve months of receiving the Erhebungsbericht (BüV Art 23(2)). Minor children may be included under Art 30-31.

The constitutional anchor is BV Art 38(1) (SR 101), under which the Confederation regulates acquisition and loss of citizenship and, expressly, Wiedereinbürgerung ('Wiedereinbürgerung' is named in the constitutional text) (/072). The operative statute is BüG Art 26-29: Art 26 sets the integration / close-ties / security conditions; Art 27 the ten-year window and the post-window three-year residence rule; Art 28 provides that restoration confers the cantonal and communal citizenship the applicant LAST held ('das Kantons- und Gemeindebürgerrecht, das die Bewerberin oder der Bewerber zuletzt besessen hat'); Art 29 vests the decision in the SEM, which hears the canton before granting, with the Federal Council regulating procedure. The loss provisions that generate restoration candidates sit upstream: Art 7 forfeiture at completed age 25 for born-abroad dual nationals (C6 — age 25 NOT 22), Art 5 loss by annulment of the transmitting filiation, Art 6 loss by adoption by a foreigner, and Art 37-41 voluntary release / Entlassung. The non-retroactivity rule (Art 50) anchors each loss to the law in force at the determining event; restoration is decided under the current Art 26-29 regime. The common provisions Art 30-32 (minor-child inclusion, representation, ZGB-Art-14 majority) apply to restoration as they do to ordinary and facilitated naturalisation. C1: Switzerland is a NON-SIGNATORY to the European Convention on Nationality (CETS 166), so restoration carries no treaty-derived obligation.