The 24-year rule: when it bites and where the gaps are

The 24-year rule is usually the first thing a couple runs into when looking at family reunification, and often the last. It is a hard rule. It is not, however, a complete wall.

What it requires

Both spouses or established cohabitants must have turned 24 before reunification can be granted under the ordinary Danish rules in section 9(1)(1) of the Aliens Act. It was introduced in 2002, aimed at forced and sham marriages.

Three ways around it

1. EU rules

Where an EU citizen has exercised free movement, the EU right of residence can displace the 24-year rule. The classic case is a Danish citizen who has lived in another EU country and is returning home with a spouse.

2. The Ankara Agreement

Turkish nationals can in certain situations rely on the Ankara Agreement, whose standstill clause preserves rights that later Danish tightening cannot remove.

3. Dispensation, rarely

In genuinely exceptional circumstances a dispensation may be granted, serious illness, the interests of children the couple share, or a refusal that would conflict with Denmark’s international obligations, particularly under the European Convention on Human Rights.

You have to prove it

The burden sits with the applicant. Claiming an exception is not enough; it has to be evidenced, EU employment records, tenancy documents from another member state, medical evidence for a dispensation request. Files that assert an exception without documenting it are refused like any other.

If you are both under 24 and no exception applies

The realistic options are:

• wait until you both reach 24
• apply under EU rules, if the conditions can genuinely be met
• apply for dispensation, if there are real grounds
• or look at temporary residence on another basis, study or work, in the meantime.

After a refusal

A refusal grounded in the 24-year rule is often final, unless something new emerges about EU ties or exceptional circumstances. Where it does, reconsideration followed by an appeal to the Immigration Appeals Board is the route, and it is worth taking where the file contains anything that could engage a dispensation or an EU right.

Every case is different, and this is an area where the difference between a strong file and a weak one is usually decisive. Send us the details and we will tell you honestly whether there is a route.