Family reunification under EU rules: five things worth knowing

Plenty of couples look at the ordinary Danish reunification conditions and conclude they cannot meet them. Before accepting that, it is worth checking whether the EU route is open, because it removes several of those conditions outright.

1. The 24-year rule can fall away

Under the Danish rules both spouses must have turned 24. Where an EU citizen has exercised free movement, that age limit can in many situations be set aside entirely.

2. So does the attachment requirement

The attachment requirement normally asks whether the couple’s combined ties to Denmark outweigh their ties to any other country, a test that sinks a great many otherwise strong cases. It is not applied under EU rules at all.

3. The financial conditions are lighter

Neither the self-support requirement nor the financial collateral requirement applies in the same form. The EU citizen still has to be able to support the family, but the standard is markedly more flexible than the Danish benefit rules.

4. “Family” is defined more widely

The EU definition reaches beyond spouses and children to registered partners, established cohabitants, and in some circumstances relatives in the ascending or descending line. That opens routes the Danish rules simply close.

5. A different authority, and different evidence

EU cases go to SIRI rather than the Danish Immigration Service. Processing tends to be quicker, and the documentation is different in kind, the focus falls on the EU citizen’s exercise of free movement rather than on the couple’s ties to Denmark.

When is this route actually available?

Typically in three situations:

• You are a Danish citizen who has lived or worked in another EU country and is now returning with your family.
• Your spouse is an EU citizen moving to Denmark and exercising free movement.
• You are a Turkish national, where the Ankara Agreement confers wider rights.

The conditions are technical and the evidence has to be built deliberately, free movement is something you demonstrate, not something you assert. If reunification under EU rules might apply to you, have the case reviewed before anything is filed.