Citizenship Test Valais 2026 – Two Hearings, One Questionnaire

Anyone looking for "the Valais citizenship test" will not find one. The canton has no standard exam. Its citizenship act asks that you are integrated in the Valais community and accustomed to the way of life of the country, and it leaves the checking to your commune of residence, working together with the cantonal Service de la population et des migrations (SPM). In practice that means a hearing before a communal commission of 15 to 30 minutes. The SPM's guide for the communes sets the rules: questions may be asked in writing or orally, one third of them should concern your commune and region, they must be understandable for someone at level B1/A2, and there are no marks, only an overall assessment that has to be positive.

A second hearing follows at cantonal level. A sub-commission of the Grand Conseil's Commission de justice receives every candidate for an informal conversation of 10 to 15 minutes about the authorities of Confederation, canton and commune, the institutional system and your motivation. The guide calls it "pas un examen", but questions are asked, and about one in ten candidates is sent away to improve for up to six months.

The good news is that the canton publishes what may come up. Its questionnaire "Valais" lists around 140 possible questions with a separate answer file, and our 50 Valais questions cover the cantonal part of it.

The residence rules stack up in three layers. Federal law wants ten years in Switzerland, three of them in the five years before you apply; years between ages 8 and 18 count double, with at least six years actually spent here. Cantonal law adds five years in Valais and three years in the commune where you apply, and those three years may be spread over at most two Valais communes. For spouses applying together, it is enough if one of them meets the five-year cantonal period. You need a settlement permit C, and you stay domiciled in the commune while the procedure runs.

Valais accepts French or German, not Italian, even for someone who has lived for decades in a Valais commune. The level is B1 spoken and A2 written, proven with the fide language passport or a certificate on fide's list. Native speakers, people with five years of compulsory school in the language and holders of an upper-secondary or tertiary qualification taught in it are exempt. The guide adds a warning: a German speaker in the French-speaking Valais, or the reverse, meets the language condition, but not knowing the language of your own commune may raise questions about the other integration criteria. At the hearings themselves, language is no longer tested.

The other conditions are the federal ones applied strictly. No social assistance in the three years before the application or during the procedure, unless fully repaid. No entry in the criminal record and no pending criminal proceedings. No open debt enforcement or loss certificates from the last five years and no tax arrears; the debt-enforcement extract must cover five years. The civil registry office will not even take up a file that fails one of these points.

Because the format is the commune's choice, it pays to read your own commune's page. In the Upper Valais, Brig-Glis invites you to a written test and an interview with its naturalisation commission, which writes an integration report for the Stadtrat; Visp runs a written and an oral exam before its commission, and the Gemeinderat decides. In Sion, the Commission municipale d'octroi du droit de cité, made up of city councillors, administration staff and the naturalisation officer, first sends you a questionnaire on your personal data, motivation and references, then hears you on language, integration, motivation and your life path.

Sierre hears candidates before its Commission du droit de cité and runs a four-evening preparation course on geography, history, the political system and customs four times a year for CHF 20. Martigny offers an Info-naturalisation drop-in on Tuesday evenings at the integration office and preparation courses that are free for residents. Monthey adds a step of its own: an individual interview with the municipal police, which writes an enquiry report, before the hearing on Monthey, Valais and Switzerland in front of the Commission de Naturalisation, held in two sessions a year; the Maison du Monde prepares candidates free of charge in its "Infos Natu" drop-in.

Common to all of them: every adult in the application and every child from age 12 is heard, the invitation arrives at least a month ahead and says whether there is a written part, and minutes are kept. If your knowledge falls short, the commune may suspend the file for up to six months and point you to a course or a volunteer mentor before a second hearing.

The cantonal fee has been CHF 600 for a single person, minor or adult, and CHF 1,000 for a family since 1 April 2020, plus a CHF 55 health stamp. The SPM invoices it once your commune has granted communal citizenship and before the hearing by the Grand Conseil sub-commission, and it is due whether the cantonal opinion turns out positive or negative. Before that you pay the civil registry office for confirming your civil-status data, and if you need the fide language passport, the test costs extra.

Communal fees vary. The cantonal tariff act caps them at CHF 1,000, with room to go up to five times that in special cases, and the SPM suggests CHF 500 for a single person and CHF 1,000 for a couple or family, which is exactly what Brig-Glis and Visp charge. Sierre and Monthey use a finer scale since 1 January 2022: CHF 500 for a minor or apprentice, 800 for an adult, 1,200 for a couple, 1,000 for a single parent with children and 1,500 for a family, payable whether or not communal citizenship is granted. Sion does not publish its own tariff but puts the total across all three levels at roughly CHF 1,000 for a single person and CHF 2,000 for a family, paid in three instalments.

The Confederation charges CHF 100 per adult, CHF 150 for a married couple applying together and CHF 50 for a minor applying alone; children included in a parent's application are free, and a federal refusal costs CHF 300. The SEM asks for the money in advance before it starts its examination.

Start with the SPM's questionnaire "Valais" of 17 May 2021 and its answer file of 11 August 2022, both linked from the cantonal naturalisation page. It calls itself a non-exhaustive range of possible questions and runs to around 140 items in eight blocks: civics and general knowledge of Switzerland and Valais, the Confederation, the canton, the commune, geography, customs, social and economic integration, and four personal questions about why you want to become Swiss and how you prepared. Questions for children from 9 and for teenagers from 14 to 16 are marked; from 17 the whole list applies.

The cantonal block is where a Valais-specific preparation pays off: the 13 districts and the 13 stars on the flag, the language border between Salgesch and Sierre, the entry into the Confederation in 1815, the Grand Conseil with its 130 deputies and 130 substitutes, the Conseil d'État with 5 members, the names of the Valais members of the Council of States, the amphitheatre of Martigny, the pyramids of Euseigne, the Aletsch glacier, the bisses, the cow fights, the blacknose sheep and the Swiss Guard museum in Naters. The guide for the communes adds a long list of themes, from the dams of Grande Dixence and Emosson through the castles of Valère, Tourbillon and Stockalper to the Foire du Valais, the Gampel festival, the Patrouille des Glaciers and the Tschäggättä of the Lötschental.

Then add the third that is local: your commune president, the communal legislature (assemblée primaire or conseil général), the coat of arms, the neighbouring communes, the river, the main associations and events. Our Valais canton questions rehearse the cantonal layer in quiz form; the lessons on Swiss politics, history and geography cover the federal blocks.

The order in Valais is not commune, canton, Confederation and done. After your commune grants communal citizenship and the Grand Conseil sub-commission gives a positive cantonal opinion, the SPM forwards the file to the State Secretariat for Migration, which asks for the federal fee in advance, checks the integration criteria and security, and as a rule issues the federal naturalisation authorisation within eight months. That authorisation is valid for one year. Only then does the Grand Conseil vote, on a list of candidates, in its May or November session. The date of that vote is your naturalisation date, and the specialised civil registry office enters it in Infostar.

One step remains, and it is compulsory: the oath. Twice a year, from late May to mid June and from late November to mid December, the new citizens of Valais stand before one or more members of the Conseil d'État, accompanied by the guard of honour, raise their right hand and answer "Je le jure" or "Je le promets" to the promise of loyalty to the Confederation and the canton. Straight afterwards you receive your certificate of origin, which you hand in with your C permit at your commune's residents' registry, and you can book an appointment for a Swiss passport or identity card, which arrives two to three weeks later.

How long does the whole thing take? The canton gives no total. The City of Sion says two to three years or more, depending on the number of files. The fixed rhythms explain why: sub-commission hearings in two series a year, about eight months at the SEM, a Grand Conseil session in May or November, the oath two to three weeks later, and up to six months of suspension whenever a hearing goes badly. Refusals by the commune or the Grand Conseil are only summarily reasoned; you have 30 days to ask for a full decision and then 30 days to appeal to the Cantonal Court.