Our law firm devotes a great many publications and commentaries to problems relating to immigration to Germany, since, despite clearly established statutory requirements for those wishing to obtain a German residence permit, each individual case is reviewed strictly on its own merits — which is why there exists such varied, and constantly evolving, case law.
A residence permit may be sought by persons with valid grounds for staying in Germany for an extended period — that is, for more than 90 days in a six-month period. The most common grounds for granting a residence permit in Germany include: learning German, pursuing higher education, employment, business immigration, family reunification, and so on.
Conditions for Family Reunification
Family reunification in Germany generally requires proof of sufficient income, adequate housing, and, for spouses, a basic A1-level language certificate (Section 30 AufenthG).
A person who has obtained a residence permit for a specific purpose — employment, for example — cannot claim that their family members are automatically entitled to move to Germany with them. A residence permit is issued to a specific person for a specific purpose in Germany.
German law, however, does provide for family members of a foreign national permanently residing in Germany, or who has acquired German citizenship, to obtain their own residence permit.
Section 27 of Germany's Residence Act (Gesetz über den Aufenthalt, die Erwerbstätigkeit und die Integration von Ausländern im Bundesgebiet) accordingly provides that a residence permit may be granted to an applicant's foreign family members for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a marriage and family enjoying special state protection.
Such a permit may be granted for a period no longer than the residence permit of the person with whom reunification is taking place. The first residence permit is generally issued for a period of up to 3 years, after which it may be extended.
Depending on the degree of kinship between the applicant and the person residing in Germany, however, different requirements may apply for obtaining a residence permit.
Iryna (name changed), a native of Kazakhstan, became a client of our law firm. More than 15 years ago she married a German citizen and moved to Germany. Iryna successfully completed her studies at a German medical university and, over time, opened her own medical practice. Our client's husband was a successful businessman, so the family's financial situation was stable. Over the years, the couple purchased a large house, where our client's parents were also frequent guests, visiting their daughter on tourist visas.
As the years passed, however, Iryna's parents' health declined; chronic conditions began to appear, requiring medical examinations and regular medication. As a result, our client's parents visited less frequently, and Iryna, in turn, could not regularly visit her parents in Kazakhstan either, since she was unable to be away from her patients for long.
Naturally, this situation no longer suited our client, and she decided to seek qualified advice from an experienced attorney on the possibility of bringing her parents from Kazakhstan to Germany.
Having listened to the details of the situation, our attorney explained to Iryna that Section 36(1) of Germany's Residence Act does indeed provide for the possibility of reunification with adult children. However, parents of adult children and other family members of a foreign national permanently residing in Germany — or of a person who has already acquired German citizenship — may be granted a German residence permit only in exceptional cases, where issuing the permit is necessary to prevent serious hardship (Section 36(2) of the same Act).
The term "serious hardship" is not precisely defined by statute, which is why Germany's immigration authority (Ausländerbehörde) reviews all the circumstances of each specific case and decides whether the situation constitutes an exceptional case requiring a residence permit to be granted.
Drawing on many years of experience with such matters and dealing with German government bodies — in particular, the immigration authorities in Germany — our attorney explained that serious illness on the part of the parents could justify granting them a permit to stay in Germany, but that evidence would need to be provided that the parents were unable to care for themselves and required ongoing supervision by others. Moreover, the immigration authority often considers these factors alone insufficient, meaning it must also be thoroughly explained why the parents' care could not be provided in their own country of residence.
Having carefully reviewed the medical certificates Iryna provided, issued by her parents' treating physicians, our attorney concluded there was a high risk that their conditions would not be considered serious enough.
For this reason, the attorney suggested that our client not rush matters and instead closely monitor her parents' state of health.
Iryna was satisfied with the attorney's explanation, understanding that, should her parents become unable to care for themselves, the possibility of having them cared for in Germany still existed.
Almost two years after that consultation, our client returned to our law firm, explaining that her parents were currently in Germany, but that around five weeks earlier her mother had begun experiencing constant dizziness and sharp blood-pressure fluctuations, resulting in hospitalization and an almost total inability to move independently. In addition, doctors suspected that Iryna's mother had acquired dementia, since she showed a significant loss of previously acquired knowledge and practical skills and had difficulty acquiring new ones.
Iryna's father, who had previously cared for his wife, had been in a constant state of distress owing to his wife's significant decline in health and had begun suffering from depression, which had in turn worsened the Alzheimer's disease he himself had been diagnosed with around a year earlier.
For these reasons, both of our client's parents required ongoing medical care and could not return to Kazakhstan. Since the tourist visa on which her parents were staying in Germany was soon due to expire, Iryna urgently asked our attorney to help her parents obtain the corresponding permits to stay in Germany.
In order to draft a legally sound application for a German residence permit, our attorney requested from Iryna every available medical certificate, physicians' findings, her parents' insurance policies, and so on. Once the necessary documents had been obtained, a corresponding application was submitted to Germany's immigration authority on behalf of our client's parents.
In this application, the attorney first noted that Iryna's parents were staying in Germany on valid tourist visas, due to expire in two weeks. It was explained in detail that our client's parents required ongoing medical care because of serious conditions and worsening chronic illnesses diagnosed by German doctors. Moreover, a long flight back to Kazakhstan was strictly contraindicated for both spouses. Every fact our attorney relied on was confirmed by corresponding medical certificates and findings from various physicians.
Our attorney also noted that Iryna's parents could not care for themselves or manage even everyday tasks, and therefore had to remain under constant supervision and regularly take their prescribed medication. Since their daughter Iryna was herself a doctor with her own medical practice, she could easily — and wished to — care for her parents personally. In addition, Iryna and her husband had a large house in which they were prepared to accommodate Iryna's parents. Their daughter's financial solvency was likewise confirmed by corresponding documents, meaning Iryna could independently support her parents, including paying for their health insurance.
The attorney accordingly maintained that every prerequisite had been met for granting Iryna's parents the corresponding permits to stay in Germany, given the need to prevent the serious hardship that could arise if our client's parents were forced to return to Kazakhstan immediately.
Germany's immigration authority carefully reviewed the arguments our attorney had presented and concluded that Iryna's parents could indeed be granted permits to stay in Germany for one year, under Section 36(2) of Germany's Residence Act.
This example from our law firm's practice clearly illustrates that only a qualified attorney with broad experience resolving problems in the relevant field can correctly identify the necessary arguments, choose the right approach for dealing with government bodies, and help you achieve your goal quickly and effectively.
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