Children reunification

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Child reunification is a term from German law on foreigners and regulated in Section 32 of the Residence Act (AufenthG). Child reunification is part of family reunification in Germany and is an embodiment of the constitutional protection of marriage and family ( Art. 6 GG )

Legal situation

Recognized refugees, according to §3 AsylG or §16a GG, can bring in family members from the country of origin or a transit country in which the family is legally resident. This type of family reunification is only possible for the "core family" (parents, children, spouses). Underage children can be brought to Germany from their country of origin in accordance with Section 32 . If you apply for reunification within three months of being granted refugee status, you do not need to provide evidence of livelihood or sufficient living space (Section 29 subs. 2 AufenthG). There is a right to reunification.

According to Section 32 , a minor (under 18 years old) unmarried child of a foreigner is to be granted a residence permit if

  • this parent has a right of residence for certain humanitarian reasons (section 25 subs. 1 or 2 or section 26 subs. 3 AufenthG) (persons entitled to asylum or recognized refugees with a residence or settlement permit ) or
  • Both parents or one parent with sole custody of the child have a residence permit, settlement permit or EC long-term residence permit and the child moves the center of their life together with their parents or the parent with sole custody of the child to the federal territory.

A 16- or 17-year-old child who does not meet these criteria has according to Section 32 (2) AufenthG entitles them to a residence permit if they “have a command of the German language or appear to be assured that they can fit into the living conditions in the Federal Republic of Germany based on their previous education and living conditions”. According to Section 2, Paragraph 12 of the Residence Act, the German language is mastered if the language skills correspond to level C 1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages .

The regulation on child reunification was supplemented in Section 32 (3) AufenthG in 2013 so that the residence permit for the child should also be issued if the reunification is only to take place with one parent who is not entitled to sole custody with regard to the child's right to determine the residence. However, in these cases the consent of the other parent with custody must be available or a decision by the relevant competent body that can effectively replace such consent. The background to the change was that in many countries, especially countries in Eastern Europe, legal sole custody of one parent cannot be achieved or only in extreme exceptional cases, and consequently it was often not possible to bring the child in a family member.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family reunification. Federal Association of Unaccompanied Minor Refugees, accessed on December 11, 2018 .