Author
Eligible family members
Family members eligible for family reunification include:[1]
- Parents of a minor child for family reunification of unaccompanied minors;
- Spouses and registered partners, where the marriage / partnership existed before fleeing the country of origin. In case concluded in another country, the marriage / partnership must be legally valid in the country of origin;
- Children who are minors at the time of the application;
According to the VwGH, siblings in themselves are not considered a family member eligible for reunification.[2] However, underaged siblings will be allowed to reunite as well when an unaccompanied minor beneficiary of international protection reunites with their parents.[3]
Essentially, the same rules apply for same sex spouses in theory. As the precondition requires an equivalent to the formally registered partnership in Austria which does not exist in many countries of origin same sex couples are barred from family reunification in practice.[4]
Beneficiaries of international protection who get married after having arrived in Austria cannot reunite with their spouses under the AsylG. They will have to go through the regular family reunification procedure as opposed to the one specific to the asylum law. In such a case, in addition to the material conditions set out below, spouses must also pass a German exam before entering Austria. They are also subject to the annual quota on family reunification.[5]
Regarding family on the territory during the asylum procedure, all underage, unmarried child of an asylum applicant who resides in federal territory is considered to have received protection when an application for international protection was lodged by the asylum applicant now beneficiary of international protection. Indeed, if one family member qualifies for international protection, the other members must also enjoy the same level of protection.
Three years after receiving subsidiary protection, family members of those individuals may apply for entry permits via family reunification. They must also show proof of suitable housing, health insurance, and sufficient income.
Date of assessment of age for the purposes of family reunification
On 12 April 2018, the CJEU ruled in case A. and S. on the right to family reunification of unaccompanied children who reach the age of majority after lodging an asylum application. The CJEU concluded that an asylum applicant who is below the age of 18 at the time of their entry into the territory of a Member State and of the introduction of their asylum application in that State, but who, in the course of the asylum procedure, attains the age of majority and is thereafter granted refugee status, must still be regarded as a “minor” for the purposes of that provision.[6] This judgement of the CJEU was taken into consideration by the VwGH in its decision of 3 May 2018.[7] However, the VwGH saw no basis for changing its previous decision-making practice. If an unaccompanied minor attains the age of majority during the asylum procedure, the family status of the parents and thus the conditions for joining an asylum-entitled child who is an adult at the time of the decision, cease to apply.
In order to clarify open questions arising from the ECJ’s judgment C-550/16, the Vienna Administrative Court itself submitted a reference for a preliminary ruling, numbered C-560/20: is it necessary that the parents of the third-country national comply with the period for submitting an application for family reunification referred to in the judgment of the CJEU of 12 April 2018, C-550/16, A and S, paragraph 61, namely ‘in principle within a period of three months of the date on which the “minor” concerned was declared to have refugee status’?
Alternatives to family reunification
The refusal to grant an entry title in the context of family reunification refers to proceedings that are regulated under the Settlement and Residence Act (Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz – NAG). The NAG further regulates the legal route for third-country nationals seeking to obtain a residence permit in Austria. This legal way via NAG is often the only way for family reunification in cases where the application for legal entry was not lodged within three months of the date when the asylum status was granted to the anchor family member in Austria. Family members that do not fall under the restrictive definition of “family member” in the asylum law also have to apply for family reunification via NAG. Family members of persons entitled to asylum may be granted, under certain conditions, a residence permit called “Red-White-Red-Card-Plus” in accordance with Article 46 NAG. This card grants access to the labour market, is valid for one year and can be prolonged to 3 years.
In the case of family members of holders of a residence title “Red-White-Red – Card”, the period of validity of the title shall be determined by the period of validity of the residence title of the sponsor. The residence title “Red-White-Red – Card plus” issued to family members of holders of a residence title “Red-White-Red – Card plus” shall be issued for a period of two years.
Proof of family ties
Costs of DNA tests for the purpose of proving family links are reimbursed where these are ordered by the BFA. These tests are ordered systemically by the authority.
The Administrative High Court has emphasised that an application for family reunification cannot be dismissed on the ground that there are doubts on the family ties, without having informed the concerned persons about the possibility to undertake a DNA test.[8] Also, there have been cases pending before the Administrative Court on the question of whether an application for family reunification can also be filed within the EU.
In case of rejection of an application for family reunification, the applicants can file an appeal against the decision of the embassy before the BVwG.[9] The complaint has to be in German language. The Court does not have to conduct an oral hearing. As the Court is bound to all facts already brought in into the procedure and does not accept any new proofs, the appeal procedure is not often started in practice. In reality, the applicants rather put forward a new application.[10]
In order to benefit from family reunification, family members of persons entitled to asylum or subsidiary protection make an application at the Austrian embassy. In that regard, the BFA conducts a probability diagnostic for the grant of family reunification, during which the family ties are particularly examined. In 2018, the BFA conducted a total of 3,068 of these probability evaluations.
Waiting periods and material conditions
Family members of refugees can apply for an entry visa immediately after status recognition of the sponsor. However, several restrictions have been put in place as of 1 June 2016. If the application is submitted to an Austrian representation within 3 months, no further requirements are imposed.[11] If it is submitted after the 3-month time limit has lapsed, a number of conditions are imposed: (a) sufficient income; (b) health insurance; and (c) stable accommodation.[12] These are material requirements set in line with requirements for other third-country nationals. However, contrary to other third country nationals, no language knowledge is required for asylum law family reunification, nor is there a quota.
Subsidiary protection beneficiaries’ family members can only submit an application after at least 3 years from the sponsor’s recognition.[13] The aforementioned requirements – sufficient income, health insurance and accommodation – in force since 1 June 2016 are always applicable to beneficiaries of the subsidiary protection,[14] with the exception of family members of unaccompanied children.[15]
The fact that a beneficiary of subsidiary protection must wait three years before initiating a family reunification procedure has been ruled as non-discriminatory by the Constitutional Court.[16] The case concerned a 13-years-old unaccompanied minor from Syria who had received subsidiary protection in July 2016 and who had therefore to wait for 3 years to benefit from family reunification instead of 1 year (the previous waiting time imposed). In its ruling, the Constitutional Court considered that differentiating between persons entitled to asylum and persons entitled to subsidiary protection did not pose a risk of unequal treatment, as they are evident differences between these two groups (e.g. with regards to the temporary right of residence). Following the judgement by the ECtHR in the case M.A. against Denmark which found the 3-year waiting period to be in conflict with art 8 ECHR, beneficiaries of subsidiary protection applied for family reunification before the 3-year-limit had passed. In one case, the Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal and did not put the regulation in question.[17]
Procedure and statistics
The law provides that the authorities have to decide on family reunification requests within 6 months.[18]
NGOs have expressed concerns in relation to the time limit for applying for family reunification, given that applications must be submitted personally to an Austrian embassy. In the past, waiting times have been an issue of concern, and the situation deteriorated in 2021 due to the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan: the responsible embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, scheduled appointments with several months of waiting time. The situation worsened in 2022: due to the high number of applications and lack of resources at the Austrian Embassy in Syria, which is located in Beirut, the waiting time for the registration appointment at the Embassy is more than 12 months, increasing the length of procedure to at least 2 to 3 years according to reports from the Austrian Red Cross.
Regarding specific difficulties, the Austrian Red Cross (ÖRK) established that the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan made it increasingly difficult for Afghan families to obtain the necessary documents (especially passports) for family reunification. Moreover, the large number of cases has dramatically extended the waiting periods and the duration of procedures at Austrian embassies.
In 2023/24, as the Ministry of External Affairs outsourced certain registration steps to an external service provider, the waiting periods improved and the average length of procedure decreased substantially: Indeed, the average procedural length decreased from up to two years to 6.5 months as of January 2024, between the visa application via family reunification at the embassy and entry in Austria.
The reduction of the procedural length in connection with relatively high numbers of visa applications led to a high number of arrivals in the course of 2023/24. In 2024, 7,652 family members of beneficiaries arrived in Austria through family reunification. Almost 1/3 of all international protection applications in 2024 came through family reunification. The Ministry of Interior announced in spring 2024 that it would scale up DNA tests and that all entry visas would be revoked and re-checked. This led to a sharp decrease in people entering the country through family reunification and increased the average procedural time massively. In 2025, the average time between application for visa at the embassy and actual entry into Austria was more than 16 months.
Source: Data Ministry of Interior, diagram by asylkoordination österreich
Source: asylkoordination österreich, data by Ministry of Interior and Ministry of External Affairs
In 2022, 5,830 applications for an entry visa via family reunification were lodged of which 4,871 came from Syrian nationals, 490 from Afghan nationals and 254 from Somalian nationals. In 3,335 cases of Syrian nationals the forecast decision taken by the BFA was positive, in 169 cases were negative.[19]
2023 saw a sharp rise in family reunification cases: more than 14,000 applications were lodged before the embassies. In more than 10,000 cases an entry authorisation was issued. In 9,180 cases, an asylum application was lodged upon arriving via entry authorisation. 8,193 were lodged by Syrian nationals (89%), 356 by Afghan nationals (4%). 6,390 were children which amounts to 70% of all asylum applications via family reunification.[20]
The increase led to public debate, because most beneficiaries of family reunification move to Vienna. Vienna experienced pressure in the school system as around 90% of all beneficiaries of international protection that receive basic care or social subsidies in Austria live in Vienna. With approx. 5,000 additional students from Ukraine, the school system could not easily adapt to another 2,000 students without German language skills. Some politicians have suggested introducing an obligation for beneficiaries to reside in other provinces after receiving their status, while other parties have suggested restricting access to family reunification.[21]
In January 2024 the number of applications for family reunification peaked with more than 700 applications per week. In May 2024, the Ministry of the Interior[22] interrupted family reunifications that were already underway and stated that they should be checked more strictly to prevent abuse, notably through more frequent use of DNA tests. Family reunifications that had already been approved were cancelled and were re-examined. Many families were affected, including some where the flight tickets had already been purchased. Granting of visas for family reunification resumed from August/September 2024. However, the number of people arriving each month has fallen compared to the beginning of 2024. While there were around 250-300 people per month at the beginning of the year, in September there were around 100-150 people per month.[23] Upon request the Ministry could not present data as to how many cases led to a different result in re-examination than the original examination.
Source: asylkoordination österreich, https://shorturl.at/RfeHk.
The uptake in applications was also due to management of asylum applications in 2022 and 2023: as Austria saw a large number of applications in 2022 (more than 100,000), at which point the authorities focused on cases in which there was a low probability of recognition (applications from nationals from Tunisia, India etc). This resulted in a backlog of cases from Syrian applicants that were then decided in 2023. With higher numbers of positive decisions, family members then applied for family reunification at the embassies in a rush as there is a strict 3 months limit to be able to enter Austria without having to fulfil conditions regarding level of income.
By the end of 2023, the authorities and the BVwG had already changed their jurisprudence regarding Syria: in most cases, only subsidiary protection is being granted, leading to less family reunification cases as of early 2024. As mentioned above the situation calmed down in May 2024 due to the visa stop in the context of family reunification. At the beginning of September, the number of arrivals in Austria rose slightly, to around 100-150 people per month.[24]
While the change of jurisprudence concerning Syrian nationals already led to a sharp decrease, the fall of the Assad regime had an even bigger effect on family reunifications in December 2024, as visas that had already been issued were revoked by the authorities and all cases of family reunification re-examined yet again. The BFA started to initiate withdrawal procedures for BIPs in Austria, without issuing decisions on the merits of these procedures yet. The only legal consequence of the start of a withdrawal procedure is that visa applications of family members are all rejected. This led to a significant decrease of applications for asylum originating from family reunification.
In the first 4 months of 2024 (January to April), more than 4,000 persons entered Austria through family reunification. They represented 44% of asylum applications. In the same time period in 2025, the number of people entering via family reunifications was only 538 (9% of all applications in this timeframe).[25]
The high number of rejections of visa applications resulted in a decrease of pending procedures. As of December 2024, around 6,000 cases were pending. At the end of April 2025, only 2,200 cases (among which approx. 1,000 cases of Syrian nationals) were pending.
In April 2025, the Austrian legislature amended the relevant provision to allow the government to issue a directive suspending all family reunifications whenever public order or national security is deemed to be at risk.[26] In May, the government presented a draft of such a directive, accompanied by a written justification outlining why these measures are – in its view – necessary.[27] Several NGOs, including asylkoordination, criticised this move as unlawful under EU law, counterproductive to integration efforts, and a clear violation of the rights of refugees and displaced persons to reunite with their families, particularly under the EU Family Reunification Directive.[28]
Data: Ministry of Interior (unpublished); number of applications for family reunification
[1] Article 35(5) AsylG.
[2] VwGH, Decision Ra 2015/21/0230 to 0231, 28 January 2016, available here, Ra 2016/20/0231, 26 January 2017, available here.
[3] Report from Austrian Red Cross Family reunification unit to asylkoordination österreich, February 2024.
[4] Article 35 in connection with Article 2 (22) AsylG.
[5] Article 35 (2) in connection with Article 60 AsylG.
[6] CJEU, Case C-550/16 A. and S., Opinion of AG Bot of 26 October 2017, available here.
[7] VwGH, Decision No Ra 2017/19/0609, 3 May 2018, available in German here.
[8] VwGH, Decision Ra 2017/18/0131, 22 February 2018, available in German here.
[9] Article 9 (3) FPG, Article 11a FPG.
[10] Report from Austrian Red Cross to asylkoordination österreich, April 2024.
[11] Article 35(1) AsylG.
[12] Ibid, citing Article 60 AsylG.
[13] Article 35(2) AsylG.
[14] Article 35(2) AsylG.
[15] Article 35(2a) AsylG.
[16] VfGH, Decision E 4248-4251/2017-20,10 October 2018, available in German here.
[17] VfGH, Decision E 933/2022-16, 13 December 2022, available in German here.
[18] Article 73 (1) AVG.
[19] BFA, Detail-Statistik 1.-4. Quartal 2022, available in German at: https://bit.ly/3EXJCdI.
[20] Ministry of Interior, Answer to parliamentary request 17222/AB, XXVII. GP, 5 April 2024, available in German here.
[21] Der Standard, „Familiennachzug erhöht Druck auf Schulen“, 15 April 2024, available in German here; Wien ORF.at, Asyl: Länderdisput über Residenzpflicht, 21 June 2024, available in German here.
[22] Der Standard, ‚UNHCR kritisiert Verzögerung bei Familiennachzug als unmenschliche Härte‘, 13 June 2024, available in German here.
[23] asylkoordination österreich, NGO exchange meeting September and December 2024, unpublished.
[24] Report to asylkoordination österreich, April 2024.
[25] Ministry of Interior, Annual asylum statistics 2024, available in German https://shorturl.at/gUCqA.
[26] Parliament of Austria, „Nationalrat beschließt “Pause” für Familienzusammenführung“, 25 April 2025, available in German here.
[27] Draft – Directive of the Federal Government to determine the threat to the maintenance of public order and the protection of internal security, 13 May 2025, available in German here.
[28] asylkoordination österreich, Statements by various NGOs on the draft directive to stop family reunifications, available in German here.