Naturalisation in Basel-Stadt After the SEM Permit – The Final Steps

Basel-Stadt describes its procedure as three stages that must all agree: the commune, the Confederation and the canton. It starts at the cantonal Migrationsamt, which advises you, takes the application, holds the fact-finding interview and writes the enquiry report for the commune and the Confederation. The Bürgergemeinde of Basel, Riehen or Bettingen then invites you to its information event and its naturalisation interview and admits you to communal citizenship. Only after that does the file go to the State Secretariat for Migration for the federal permit, and after the federal permit the Regierungsrat grants cantonal citizenship, which is the moment you become Swiss.

So the SEM letter is the second of the three approvals, not the first. In the City of Basel the Einbürgerungskommission holds the recorded interview with test character and proposes the decision to the Bürgerrat; in Riehen and Bettingen the Bürgergemeinde interviews you itself. There is no written test in the canton. The Basel-Stadt canton page sets out the requirements with their sources.

When the SEM has issued the federal naturalisation permit, the Regierungsrat of Basel-Stadt grants the citizenship of the canton. With that decision you acquire Swiss citizenship at the same time, because communal citizenship is already in place. The decision is published in the Kantonsblatt, and the Bürgergemeinde hands over the Bürgerbrief at a ceremony. After that you can apply for a passport and an identity card.

If something goes wrong, the appeal routes are clear: against negative decisions of the Bürgergemeinde you appeal to the Regierungsrat, and against decisions of the Regierungsrat to the Verwaltungsgericht.

The canton gives one figure for the whole road, from the application at the Migrationsamt through the interview at the Bürgergemeinde and the federal permit to the Regierungsrat's decision: as a rule one and a half to two years. It publishes no split between the three stages, and any breakdown into months you read elsewhere is not the canton's.

One thing may stretch that estimate. The canton receives about 1,000 applications a year and, because the fees fell on 1 July 2026, expects temporarily about twice as many. The federal permit does not wait for you: under federal law the canton must decide within a year of receiving it, otherwise it lapses, so the cantonal stage is not a place where files can rest.

1. Advice and application at the Migrationsamt Basel-Stadt: since 2026 online through the canton's ePortal with all documents uploaded, or by post if you prefer; the communal fee is paid in advance.
2. Fact-finding interview at the Migrationsamt: it checks the requirements, makes the enquiries, talks with you and the family members on the application and writes the enquiry report.
3. Information event and naturalisation interview at the Bürgergemeinde of Basel, Riehen or Bettingen; in the city the Einbürgerungskommission records the interview and proposes the decision to the Bürgerrat. A positive decision admits you to communal citizenship.
4. Federal naturalisation permit from the SEM.
5. Cantonal citizenship by the Regierungsrat, published in the Kantonsblatt, Bürgerbrief at the Bürgergemeinde's ceremony.

The interview covers basic knowledge of Confederation, canton and commune. Anyone who completed compulsory school in Switzerland and all of lower-secondary school in Basel-Stadt is presumed familiar with it.

Ten years in Switzerland, three of them in the five years before the application, the years between 8 and 18 counting double and time with provisional admission half. A C permit. At least two uninterrupted years in the same commune of the canton, Basel, Riehen or Bettingen. German at B1 spoken and A2 written, proven with the fide language passport, a Goethe certificate, telc, ÖSD, the ECL exam or TestDaF levels 3 to 4; a course confirmation does not count. No certificate is needed for native speakers, five years of compulsory school in German in the German-speaking area or an upper-secondary or tertiary qualification in German. Applications of your own are possible from age 12.

Finances and record: no social assistance in the last three years unless it was fully repaid, no open debt enforcement or loss certificates, no criminal record; difficult personal circumstances are taken into account.

Since 1 July 2026 the canton charges nothing. The communes charge: the City of Basel CHF 800 per person and CHF 950 for couples and families, Riehen CHF 1,700, Bettingen CHF 1,400. Under 25 there is no communal fee, nor for people with premium reductions, supplementary benefits or social assistance through no fault of their own. The Confederation charges CHF 100 per person, CHF 150 for married couples and CHF 50 under 18. So a single adult in the city pays CHF 900 in fees, plus the fide test at about CHF 250 if a language certificate is needed; the Bürgergemeinde Basel offers that test and a compact preparation course.

Your first contact is the Migrationsamt Basel-Stadt, whose step-by-step page, forms and ePortal are linked on the Basel-Stadt canton page, together with the Bürgergemeinde Basel's pages on the interview, the fees and the courses.