Naturalization in Luzern After SEM Authorization – Every Step

Canton Luzern follows the classic three-tier order: commune first, then canton and Confederation, then the canton again. The Kantonales Bürgerrechtsgesetz (KBüG) of 2017 puts it like this: commune assures communal citizenship → Abteilung Gemeinden checks the file and applies for the federal authorisation → SEM grants it → the Department of Justice and Security grants cantonal citizenship.

Who decides at communal level depends on the commune. By law the Gemeindeversammlung assures communal citizenship, but the voters can delegate the decision to the Gemeinderat, the communal parliament or a commission (section 30 KBüG). The City of Lucerne has done that: its seven-member Einbürgerungskommission decides after a personal interview and performs every task the act assigns to the commune. Whatever the body, the commune publishes the names of the people it has assured citizenship to (section 16), and a refusal can be appealed to the department (section 35).

The assurance is not yet citizenship. The ordinance obliges the commune to tell you that the naturalisation only becomes valid once the federal authorisation is in and the department has granted cantonal citizenship.

Once the commune has assured communal citizenship, its administration sends your file to the Abteilung Gemeinden of the Justiz- und Sicherheitsdepartement in Lucerne. The department's staff check the file again, request any missing documents and apply to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) for the federal naturalisation authorisation.

When the SEM has granted it, the file comes back to the canton. Shortly before naturalisation you receive the form «Beachten der Rechtsordnung», a declaration that you respect the legal order. If everything is in order, the Abteilung Gemeinden grants cantonal citizenship on behalf of the department, and with the legally binding decision communal and cantonal citizenship take effect at the same time: you are Swiss (section 14 KBüG).

You receive the department's decision by post and have nothing more to do. Order your passport and identity card from the Passbüro of the Canton of Lucerne. The City of Lucerne invites its new citizens to a ceremony in the Rathaus every autumn.

Neither the act nor the ordinance sets deadlines for the Lucerne procedure, so the honest answer is a range built from official figures.

Communal phase: depends on the commune The canton says so itself and tells you to ask your commune. In the City of Lucerne the average time from application to the commission's decision was 14 months in 2025, after 10 months in 2024.

Canton and Confederation: 4 to 6 months After the communal assurance, the Abteilung Gemeinden's check, the SEM's federal authorisation and the grant of cantonal citizenship together usually take four to six months, longer if additional enquiries are needed.

Total: about one and a half years The City of Lucerne's information sheet puts the whole procedure at roughly one and a half years. Communes with faster communal phases can be quicker; the federal ten-year residence rule and the communal three-year rule determine when you may file at all.

Good to know: if you move to another commune or canton during the procedure, the commune and the canton where you applied stay competent as long as the examination for the assurance is complete (section 15 KBüG).

Here is the complete procedure in Canton Luzern, step by step:

1. Contact your Gemeindekanzlei (in the City of Lucerne the Bürgerrechtswesen) for the form and the document list
2. Get entered in the Swiss civil register at the civil registry office, a prerequisite for the application
3. Obtain the German certificate at B1 spoken and A2 written, unless one of the exemptions applies
4. Gather the documents: extracts from the civil register, the federal criminal register and the debt enforcement register of your commune, proof of residence, language certificate
5. File the application with the commune; the commune informs the Department of Justice and Security at once
6. Naturalisation report drawn up by the commune according to the department's directives, with further enquiries where needed
7. Interview with the commune's competent body, in the City of Lucerne the Einbürgerungskommission, on your knowledge of Switzerland, the canton and the commune and on your integration
8. Assurance of communal citizenship by the Gemeindeversammlung or the delegated body, publication of the names
9. File forwarded to the Abteilung Gemeinden, which checks it and applies to the SEM
10. Federal authorisation by the SEM
11. Form «Beachten der Rechtsordnung» shortly before the end
12. Grant of cantonal citizenship by the department, effective when legally binding
13. You are Swiss: order passport and ID at the cantonal Passbüro

Residence:

• 10 years in Switzerland, 3 of them within the 5 years before the application; the years between 8 and 18 count double, with at least 6 actual years
• 3 years in total in the naturalising commune within the last 5 years, including at least 1 uninterrupted year immediately before naturalisation
• No separate cantonal residence period

Permit: a valid C permit. Permits B and C count in full towards the ten years, permit F and the FDFA legitimation card half, other titles not at all.

Language: German at B1 spoken and A2 written. The proof counts as provided for native speakers, after five years of compulsory school in German, with an upper-secondary or tertiary qualification in German, or with a certificate based on a recognised test (Goethe, telc, fide).

Integration (sections 19 to 25 KBüG): respect for public order and the values of the Federal Constitution, no entry in the federal criminal register visible to the authorities, fulfilment of public and private obligations (no debt enforcement, no certificates of unpaid debts, no tax arrears), participation in economic life or education with no social assistance in the three years before the application or during the procedure unless repaid, support for the integration of your spouse and minor children, and familiarity with local life: basic knowledge of Switzerland, the canton and the commune, participation in local social and cultural life, contacts with Swiss citizens. Shortly before the end you sign the form «Beachten der Rechtsordnung».

Documents (section 2 KBüV): extracts from the Swiss civil register, the federal criminal register and the debt enforcement register of your commune, proof of residence, plus the language certificate. Before applying you must be entered in the Swiss civil register. The commune may obtain documents itself and bill you.

Two of the three fee levels are fixed for the whole canton, the third is set by each commune.

Confederation and canton (cantonal fee sheet in force since 1 January 2017):

• Adult: CHF 100 federal + CHF 350 cantonal = CHF 450
• Minor filing an own application: CHF 50 + CHF 200 = CHF 250
• Spouses filing jointly: CHF 150 + CHF 450 = CHF 600

Commune: the act only says the fee may at most cover costs (section 32 KBüG), so it varies. The City of Lucerne charges a flat CHF 500 per application, whether for one person or a couple, and waives it for minors filing alone and for adults under 25 at the time of filing (Einbürgerungsreglement, article 8a, edition of 1 April 2026). Ask your own commune for its tariff.

Other costs: civil-register and other extracts, the German certificate if you have no exemption, and a preparation course.

For an adult in the City of Lucerne the official fees therefore add up to CHF 950; a couple pays CHF 1,100. Elsewhere in the canton, replace the CHF 500 with your commune's fee.

Cantonal authority: Justiz- und Sicherheitsdepartement des Kantons Luzern, Abteilung Gemeinden Bundesplatz 14, 6002 Luzern Phone: 041 228 64 83 Website: gemeinden.lu.ch/Einbuergerungen

City of Lucerne, Bürgerrechtswesen: Obergrundstrasse 1, 6002 Luzern Phone: 041 208 83 35 Email: buergerrechtswesen@stadtluzern.ch Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00

In every other commune your first step is the Gemeindekanzlei, which hands out the form, explains the documents and tells you how it checks knowledge and integration. For the federal rules see the State Secretariat for Migration at www.sem.admin.ch.