PARIS, June 20: The final decision is expected for September, but it has been learned that Switzerland has decided to make it easier for its foreign residents to acquire Swiss nationality. The new measures will particularly affect the 700,000 foreign residents who have been on Swiss soil for more than 12 years, indeed the 120,000 who have lived in Switzerland for more than 30 years.

Until now, Switzerland had the strictest rules in Europe with regard to granting nationality — that is, outside of Germany — and most persons who applied for Swiss citizenship, even those who had lived here for a quarter-century or more, were almost systematically turned down. Until now, Swiss nationality had been largely reserved for the wealthier foreign residents who are able to hire one of the powerful attorneys who until now effectively controlled access to Swiss citizenship.

When the final rules are handed down later this summer, Switzerland will significantly lift the ceiling on the number of annual naturalisations that the country accords, which in recent years have been limited to 30,000.

In a first phase, given the new rules, the annual number should rise to between 35,000 to 40,000 during the first year alone.

The new regulations will make it notably easier for the children of foreigners born on Swiss soil to accede to citizenship, specially as the years spent in Switzerland between the 10th and 20th year will now count double in qualifying the children of immigrants for Swiss nationality.