In Switzerland, You Can Be Denied Citizenship for Being Too Annoying


If you plan on moving to Switzerland, you’d better brush up on your manners. That’s because applications for naturalization in Switzerland aren’t decided at the federal level, but by the country’s municipalities. The drawback is that your neighbors have a say in whether you get in or not. In 2015, a woman’s application for citizenship was denied, simply because she’s a vegan who's very vocal about it, and her neighbors had enough of her opinions. She was rejected by 144 of the 206 residents of her town. According to Switzerland’s Federal Act on the Acquisition and Loss of Swiss Citizenship — established in 1952 — a person applying for citizenship must have lived in the country for at least 12 years, must speak at least one of Switzerland’s primary languages (German, French, Italian or Romansch), must be no danger to the country, must be familiar with Swiss customs and traditions, and must integrate into the Swiss way of life. That last one helped the woman’s fellow villagers to transform the casual ostracism into something more official.