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Comment by vasili111 | Hacker News Reader

1. How easy/difficult to get Switzerland citizenship if you live and work there?

2. How popular is English language is in Switzerland IT companies?

I can comment on 2 as a swiss developer: It depends. While it might not be the prevalent spoken language, all small companies and startups i worked at so far had code comments, commit messages and issue tracker stories in english. The larger, more estabilished companies had most text in german. But everybody is willing to switch to spoken english in my experience.

This guide answers a lot of questions: https://swissdevjobs.ch/blog/how-to-find-job-as-software-dev...

Long story short: it's super easy if you are from the EU. If not, it is quite hard.

AS an American I am sure its almost impossible. On a positive note I do speak German already.

It is a lot easier than the other way around ;)

We managed to hire Americans (and Russians, Chinese, Indians, ...) all right at my previous job. Not every employer is willing or able though, so it definitely limits your options.

Not easy at all if you don't have any connection. Applying by simply sending a CV won't work at all. It's a different story once you're in then finding a job is pretty easy. I have several friends that have tried and the ones who made it moved first to the Switzerland subsidiary of the company they were already working for. Other had relatives in Switzerland and didn't had any reply to their applications when staying in their birth country. After moving to their relatives in Switzerland they found a job within one month.

1. (See above answer as well.) It's definitely difficult if you don't have a familial connections. Once you get in, though, it's pretty easy to stay and if you stay for 10+ years, you can get citizenship fairly easily.

2. It is mixed. I've had local interviews in (high) German but they were comfortable enough to switch to English if needed. Most jobs list proficiency in English + German as a requirement.

Citizenship is relatively hard: you have to be a resident for 12+ years to start the process. A lot of people never bother - a long term residency permit ("C") is almost as good, but you don't vote and do not have military duties.

Everybody speaks English; I know a number of people in Zürich who never bothered to learn German, as there is a large expat community and everything is multi-lingual.

> I know a number of people in Zürich who never bothered to learn German

I think Zürich is just a typical large city exception (similar to Berlin or Amsterdam). I think German (or French or Italian) is pretty necessary outside of Zürich/Geneva.

If you have children and want citizenship for them, one of the parents must be Swiss.

As for language, I took an intensive French class at the University of Geneva when I worked there. At the end of the class everyone in it, students from all over the world, spoke better English. We studied French but socialized in English.

It's 10+ years for citizenship as of a few years ago. Also, I doubt the military duties will apply to the vast majority of people that move there as adults and then start the process of residency and naturalization.

> 1. How easy/difficult to get Switzerland citizenship if you live and work there?

I know someone who was born there, raised there, currently lives there (after a while in North America) and does not having citizenship or want to go through the hassle.

From what she says it's a massive pain in the ass.

"How easy/difficult to get Switzerland citizenship if you live and work there"

"From what she says it's a massive pain in the ass."

This statement is true, but geting citizenship is not required to stay in Switzerland basicly vor ever as long as u have work

She has an EU passport for her and her kid (husband is american though).

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