Citizenship Test Thurgau 2026 – "Mostindien" Canton Guide

Thurgau, the apple canton on Lake Constance that Swiss people fondly call Mostindien, became a full canton only in 1803 after 343 years as a common subject territory of the Confederates. Its naturalisation law is young too: the Citizenship Act of 6 December 2017 and the ordinance of 2018 have applied unchanged since 1 January 2018. They contain one sentence that shapes everything else: knowledge of local, cantonal and Swiss conditions must be shown by a test or in an interview unless it is obvious. The canton itself runs no test. Each commune decides how to check, and the larger towns have chosen written tests: Kreuzlingen tests in four areas, Amriswil with 30 questions in 15 minutes, Weinfelden exempts only those who went to school in Switzerland for six years, while Frauenfeld and Arbon speak of a basic knowledge test before the naturalisation commission. Everywhere a personal interview follows. This guide explains who can apply, how the tests and interviews work, what the three levels charge and how long the road to the Grosser Rat takes, all taken from the act, the cantonal office's information sheet and the towns' own brochures. The Thurgau canton page has the same facts with every source linked.

The federal rules come first: a C permit, ten years in Switzerland with three of them in the five years before the application, and years between the ages of 8 and 18 counting double with at least six actual years. Stays with a B or C permit count in full, provisional admission F counts half, and L, G, N and S permits do not count at all. Thurgau adds five years in the canton in total and the last three years without interruption in your political commune; registered partners of Swiss citizens need five years in Switzerland and the canton and the last three in the commune. The language bar is one of the highest in the country: German at B2 spoken and B1 written, proven by a recognised test such as telc, Goethe, ÖSD, SDS, fide-Test edu, TestDaF or ECL unless it is obvious because German is your mother tongue, you attended at least five years of compulsory school in German or you completed upper-secondary or tertiary education in German. Integration means respecting public safety and order and the legal system, having secure work or being in education, and supporting your family's integration. Anyone who received social assistance in the five years before the application or during the procedure must have repaid it in full, and there may be no open debt collections, certificates of unpaid debts or tax, health insurance or fine arrears in the five years before the application. Minor children in your household are included; from 12 they are assessed independently, from 16 they sign a written declaration, and a minor can apply alone from 16 through the legal representative. Spouses may apply independently.

Once the cantonal office has forwarded your file, the communal authority, usually a naturalisation commission, makes its enquiries, and the act allows it to demand a written test of your basic knowledge of the geography, history, politics and society of the commune, the canton and Switzerland. Kreuzlingen's brochure of October 2025 is the most detailed: everyone included in the application from age 15 sits a written knowledge test in four areas (history, geography, political system, general knowledge), each on Switzerland, Thurgau and the town; all three parts must be passed or the whole test counts as failed, one repeat is possible within six months and costs CHF 100, and minors get an age-appropriate version. The town clerk's office hands out civics material after you file but recommends books, the internet and newspapers as well. Amriswil's written exam on basic knowledge of Switzerland has 30 questions in 15 minutes and is passed with 40 of 50 points; it is based on the HEKS brochure Echo, supplemented by questions on the canton and the town, can be repeated once after three months, and after a second failure the town council will not support the application. Weinfelden tests in writing unless you attended at least six years of school in Switzerland; Frauenfeld and Arbon run a basic knowledge test before the commission. Then comes the interview: Kreuzlingen questions everyone from age 12 and spouses not included, asks for four adult Swiss references, two of them in Kreuzlingen, and may visit you at home; Weinfelden asks how you support your family's integration and take part in social and cultural life. No commune publishes a fixed catalogue of questions.

Unlike in most cantons, you do not file with your commune but with the cantonal Office for Commercial Register and Civil Status at Bahnhofplatz 65 in Frauenfeld (phone +41 58 345 70 77, sekretariat.hz@tg.ch), by post and with a long list of documents: the federal application form, an Infostar civil status certificate for each person, copies of permit and passport, residence confirmations from other cantons, CV, employment confirmation or school report, language certificate, a signed declaration on public safety and order from age 16, a debt collection register extract from age 16, a tax certificate and a social services certificate covering the last five years. The office invoices the cantonal fee immediately: CHF 800 per adult and 400 per minor with an application of their own, while children included with a parent are free; a withdrawal before the federal authorisation costs 300 per person, and if the fee is not paid the application is dismissed. Only after payment does the office check permit, residence, criminal record, public order and language and forward the file to your commune. The federal authorisation costs CHF 100 for an adult, 150 for a married couple and 50 for a minor. Communal fees vary: Frauenfeld charges CHF 780, 1,550 or 2,350 for youths, single persons and couples, Kreuzlingen 600, 1,300 or 1,800, Amriswil 600, 1,200 or 1,800. A single adult therefore pays CHF 2,450 in total in Frauenfeld and 2,200 in Kreuzlingen, a couple 4,100 or 3,550. The canton reckons in principle with two and a half years, its FAQ with two to two and a half, Frauenfeld with one to two; because of the high number of applications, the cantonal preliminary check alone currently takes three to five months.

Start with the language, because the canton checks it before anyone tests your knowledge: if you need a certificate, book a recognised exam (telc, Goethe, ÖSD, SDS, fide-Test edu, TestDaF or ECL) with B2 in speaking and B1 in writing, listening and reading. Then ask your commune what it hands out. Kreuzlingen provides civics material after you file, Amriswil bases its exam on the HEKS brochure Echo, and Amriswil's sheet also points to the course Die Schweiz kennen und verstehen at the vocational training centre in Weinfelden: 13 Thursday evenings or Saturday mornings in standard German for CHF 980 including material, covering the geography of Switzerland and Thurgau, history, civics and politics with political rights and the separation of powers at the three levels, the national government and parliament, the education system, social insurance and taxes. The communal tests ask about Switzerland, the canton and your own commune, so learn all three layers. For the canton, the facts that recur: the Habsburg lordship until the conquest of 1460, 343 years as a common subject territory, the Act of Mediation of 1803, the Reformation and the parishes shared by both confessions, Lake Constance, the Thur, the 80 communes, Frauenfeld as capital and largest municipality just ahead of Kreuzlingen, the Grosser Rat with 130 and the cantonal government with five members, apples, cider and the Seenachtfest. Our 49 Thurgau questions cover exactly this, and the federal lessons on federalism, direct democracy, rights and duties and history cover the Switzerland part, so you can practise the Thurgau questions here. For your commune, read its website, the local newspaper and the material your town clerk's office gives you.

Once the test and the interview are behind you, the body designated by your commune's constitution decides on communal citizenship: the communal assembly, the communal parliament, the executive or the naturalisation commission. In Kreuzlingen the application is published for ten days before the town council decides on the commission's motion; in Weinfelden an objection period of 20 days runs and the commission itself decides. A refusal must be reasoned and, under the act, requires a motion with reasons. The commune sends its decision to the cantonal office, which carries out the cantonal review and forwards the file with the canton's recommendation to the State Secretariat for Migration for the federal authorisation. Only then does the last stage start: the Department of Justice and Security tables a motion in the Grosser Rat, the cantonal parliament with 130 members, which grants cantonal citizenship. With that grant, communal and Swiss citizenship take effect; the office notifies you, and a refusal by the Grosser Rat can be appealed to the Administrative Court. If you move to another commune or canton after the communal decision, competence stays where it is; moving abroad ends the procedure. There is no cantonal ceremony prescribed by law, and no cantonal retake rule for the tests: repeats and their limits are set by each commune, as in Kreuzlingen and Amriswil.