Moroccan Woman Loses Swiss Citizenship After Divorce and Remarriage

A divorce that complicates life. In 2010, a Moroccan woman married a Swiss man 15 years her senior, and acquired facilitated naturalization in September 2015, reports 20 minutes. Six months later, the couple had no children. The woman decides to divorce. Her wish is fulfilled in June 2017. Three months later, she remarries in Lebanon. She will give birth to a child in 2018.

This second marriage is detrimental to the Moroccan residing abroad (MRE). In January 2020, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) cancels her naturalization. Her passport is de facto withdrawn. The quadragenarian brings the case before the Federal Administrative Court to request the annulment of the decision. She will not prevail. According to the court, the annulment of the naturalization of the MRE is legal.

"The SEM can, with the consent of the authority of the canton of origin, cancel the facilitated naturalization obtained by false statements or by concealment of essential facts. For a facilitated naturalization to be annulled, it is not enough that it was granted when one or other of its conditions was not met. It must have been acquired through disloyal and deceptive behavior," the judges of Mon-Repos recalled.

Citing case law, the Federal Court recalled that a separation that occurred shortly after the granting of naturalization is an indication of the absence of a common and intact will to maintain a stable marital union.