Annulment of Facilitated Naturalization for Lack of Marital Community

Facts

G., a Turkish national, applied for facilitated naturalization in Switzerland after marrying B., a Swiss citizen. Although married to B. at the time of the naturalization procedure, the court found that the marriage was purely fictitious and that G. did not have the genuine intention to maintain a marital community with B. Shortly after obtaining Swiss nationality, the marriage was dissolved. The Federal Department of Justice and Police therefore annulled G.'s facilitated naturalization on the grounds that it had been obtained fraudulently.

Considerations

According to the case law of the Federal Tribunal, the condition of marital community within the meaning of Art. 27 of the Nationality Act is not limited to the mere formal fact of marriage, but requires the existence of a genuine community of life. This community can only be recognized if the common will of the spouses to maintain a stable union is intact. The fact that divorce proceedings were initiated shortly after naturalization may be an indication of the lack of will of the spouses to preserve their community of life.

In the present case, the elements of the divorce file made it possible to establish that G. did not have the genuine intention to maintain a marital community…