Criteria and conditions

Author

Greek Council for Refugees Visit Website

According to PD 131/2006 transposing the Family Reunification Directive, as supplemented by PD 167/2008 and amended by PD 113/2013, only recognised refugees have the right to apply for reunification with family members who are third-country nationals residing in their home country or in another country outside the EU.

As per PD 131/2006, “family members” include:

• Spouses;^[1]
• Unmarried minor children;^[2]
• Unmarried adult children with serious health problems which render them incapable to support themselves;^[3]
• Legally adopted children of the refugee and/or his/her spouse, either in Greece or in another country.^[4]
• Parents, where the beneficiary solemnly declares that they had been living with them and taking care of them before leaving their country of origin, and that they no longer have other family members to care for them and support them;^[5]
• Unmarried partners with whom the applicant has a stable relationship, which is proven mainly by the existence of a child or previous cohabitation, or any other appropriate means of proof.^[6]
• If the recognised refugee is an unaccompanied minor, they have the right to be reunited with their parents or their legal guardian or any other member of the family, where the refugee has no relatives in the direct ascending line or such relatives cannot be traced.

Documentation required

If a recognised refugee requests reunification with their spouse and/or dependent children, within three months from the service of the decision granting them refugee status, the documents required with the application are:^[7]

• A recent family status certificate, birth certificate or other document officially translated into Greek and certified by a competent Greek diplomatic authority, proving the family bond and/or the age of family members; and
• A certified copy of the travel documents of the family members.

All the documents must be certified firstly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country of issuance and then by the competent Greek Consulate.

If the refugee cannot provide these certificates, the authorities take into consideration other appropriate evidence. In GCR’s experience, this is not the case when it comes to travel documents, as the refugees who cannot objectively provide certified copies of travel documents of their family members are not given alternative solutions [e.g., laissez-passer, acceptance of commitment letter of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)].^[8]

As per information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December 2024, “in 2024, nine (9) temporary travel documents were provided following family reunification applications, while no travel document of the Red Cross namely Emergency Travel Document (ETD) was issued to family members for family reunification”.^[9]

As far as the Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) of the International Committee of the Red Cross are concerned, it has to be mentioned that, contrary to data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during 2024 three (3) ETDs were issued. More precisely, in a case represented by GCR and pending before the European Court of Human Rights, the ICRC in September 2024 issued ETDs to stateless refugees’ family members following a positive family reunification decision.^[10]

Regarding ETDs, it is stressed that, according to ICRC’s regulations, they cannot be issued without a prior positive family reunification decision, while pursuant to P.D. 131/2006, copies of travel documents must be submitted as a prerequisite for the issuance of positive family reunification decision.

On the other hand, if the refugee is an adult and the application refers to their parents and/or the application is not filed within three months from status recognition, apart from the documents mentioned above, further documentation is needed:^[11]

• Full Social Security Certificate, i.e., certificate from a public social security institution, proving the applicant’s full social security coverage; or
• Tax declaration proving the applicant’s fixed, regular and adequate annual personal income, which is not provided by the Greek social welfare system, and which amounts to no less than the annual income of an unskilled worker – plus 20% for the spouse and 15% for each parent and child with which they wish to be reunited;
• A certified contract for the purchase of a residence, or a residence lease contract, or other certified document proving that the applicant has sufficient accommodation to meet the accommodation needs of their family.

The Asylum Service, implementing the law properly, requires either a social security certificate or a tax declaration. On the contrary, the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police (“old procedure”) requests the cumulative submission of both documents. To date, in only one case represented by GCR before the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police, a positive decision on family reunification has been issued, solely upon the submission of the social security certificate, following GCR’s statement of grounds and several interventions.^[12]

The abovementioned additional documents are not required in case of an unaccompanied child, recognised as refugee, applying for family reunification after the three-month period following status recognition.^[13] The Asylum Service has decided that unaccompanied or separated children who are recognised refugees, under the age of 15 years old, and have applied for family reunification do not require a family reunification interview. Instead, a written memo has to be submitted before the Asylum Unit for Beneficiaries of International Protection (AUIPB). Despite the fact that P.D. 131/2006 does not include siblings as family members, the AUIPB, in cases of unaccompanied minors, is asking from the Director of the Asylum Service an ad hoc exception in order to issue a positive family reunification decision also for the refugee’s siblings.

Indicative cases illustrating the obstacles

Three family reunification cases, represented by GCR, have been brought before the ECtHR in 2023 and are still pending:

The first one concerns a stateless Rohingya unable to obtain travel documents (ECtHR, Suji v. Greece, communicated case – 13250/23).[14] Even though Mr. Suji had submitted to the Greek authorities a commitment letter by the ICRC, ensuring the issuance of Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) as soon as a positive family reunification decision would be issued, no such decision was issued for more than four (4) years. The family was reunited in Greece in November 2024, after five years of continuous interventions and an application before the ECtHR.[15]

The second one concerns a case of an Afghan national, unable to obtain family reunification documents other than those issued by the Taliban regime, which are not recognised by the Greek State and are not certified by the competent Greek Consulate (ECtHR, Dotani v. Greece, communicated case – 31077/23).[16]

The third case concerns the family reunification of a refugee from Burundi with his family members who are asylum applicants in South Africa. As a result, they cannot obtain travel documents required by law (ECtHR, T.N.v. Greece – 41855/23).[17]

All the aforementioned cases were prioritised by the Court as cases of exceptional importance. The decisions are pending.

Furthermore, a damages action (αγωγή αποζημίωσης) for a recognised refugee from DRC regarding the delay of the enforcement of the family reunification decision for more than 6 years from its issuance was submitted before the Administrative Court of Athens in December 2023 and is still pending as of May 2026. On 7 April 2025, a request for priority scheduling of a hearing was submitted before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens due to the seriously deteriorating health condition of applicant. Despite the submission of extensive documentation, the request was rejected. As of the time of writing, the are still awaiting the scheduling of a hearing date.[18]

An application for annulment (case No. AK347/2025) was filed in March 2025 before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens, in a case represented by GCR,following the implicit rejection by the Asylum Service of a family reunification request submitted on behalf of a recognised refugee from Yemen. The case concerns a request for family reunification with his spouse and his nephew, of whom he is the legal guardian following a Yemeni court decision, as adoption is not permitted under Yemeni law. A hearing had been scheduled for 20 March 2026; however, it was adjourned ex officio by the Court to 23 October 2026. The underlying application was rejected by the Asylum Service on the basis of a narrow interpretation of the relevant legal provisions, without taking into account the broader concept of family life in refugee contexts, the impossibility for refugees to comply with requirements that are objectively impossible, the need for an in-depth assessment of the family situation, or the best interests of the child. The appeal submitted before the competent Asylum Unit concerning International Protection Beneficiaries was never explicitly decided, leading to judicial recourse against the implied refusal before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens.

In May 2025, an application for annulment (case No AK668/2025) was filed by GCR before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens against a negative decision rejecting an application for family reunification concerning the mother of a recognised beneficiary of international protection, who remains stranded in Gaza. The rejection was based on the reasoning that the applicant allegedly had a supportive network in her country of origin and was able to support herself, thereby disregarding the well-known and ongoing critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, which cannot reasonably sustain such an assessment In the present case. The Asylum Unit of International Protection  did not issue a decision on the administrative appeal lodged against the negative first-instance decision. Consequently, GCR filed an application for annulment due to the tacit/implicit rejection of the appeal. More generally, there appears to be a practice within the Asylum Service of not issuing decisions on administrative appeals, in contrast to the practice that previously existed under the jurisdiction of the Hellenic Police Headquarters in matters of family reunification prior to the establishment and operationalisation of the Asylum Service. As of the time of writing, no hearing date has yet been scheduled for the examination of the application for annulment.

In 2026, the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens issued judgment AΔ114/2026 concerning an application for annulment against the refusal of the Greek Consulate General in Cairo to issue a family reunification visa to a Palestinian national, spouse of a recognised refugee in Greece. The Court found that the refusal was insufficiently reasoned, based on vague and unsubstantiated findings, and vitiated by a serious procedural defect, namely the failure to keep official minutes of the family members’ interviews at the Consulate. It annulled the decision and referred the case back to the administration for reconsideration. This constitutes the first positive judgment of its kind in Greece concerning the annulment of a consular refusal of a family reunification visa.

A Joint Ministerial Decision was issued in August 2018 on the requirements regarding the issuance of visas for family members in the context of family reunification with refugees.^[19] Among other provisions, this Decision sets out a DNA test procedure in order to prove family links and foresees interviews of the family members by the competent Greek Consulate. The entire procedure is described in detail in the relevant handbook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^[20] The cost of the DNA test is borne by the refugee, unless it can be covered otherwise.^[21] In addition, the DNA kit must be sent from the Forensic Science Department (Διεύθυνση Εγκληματολογικών Ερευνών) that conducts the test, to the Greek Consulate in the diplomatic post of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is a procedure which can be very lengthy.

In response to GCR’s request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December 2024, the latter replied that “In 2024, in one case a DNA test was carried out at the Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul to establish the family relationship of a Syrian national. In other cases, DNA testing was not carried out because either it was not considered necessary following interviews, or because the family relationship had been established through documents, or because the Asylum Service had accepted the family relationship with a positive decision.”^[22] During 2025, a DNA test was carried out in one family reunification case handled by GCR. However, it remains unclear how many DNA tests were conducted in general, as the Ministry  of Migration and Asylum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not yet responded to relevant inquiries submitted in the context of the preparation of the present report at the time of writing.

Procedure after family reunification decision (positive or negative)

The family reunification procedure following the issuance of the family reunification decision is set out briefly and schematically in the table below.

If the family members enter Greece, they must, within a month of their arrival, submit in person an application for the issuance of a residence permit as refugee family members.^[24]

Refugees’ children reaching the age of majority

Refugee family members who enter Greece through family reunification and for whom the Asylum Service is the competent authority cannot apply for the renewal of their residence permit if they reach the age of majority (18), despite the fact that P.D. 131/2006 explicitly provides for a special one-year residence permit until they reach the age of 21.^[25] Unlike the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police, the Asylum Service refuses to comply with the law and does not proceed to the renewal of residence permits of refugees’ children until the age of 21. A suspension and an annulment application was filed in February 2025 and April 2025 respectively,[26] before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens, challenging a decision refusing the renewal of the residence permit of a family member of a recognised refugee who had entered Greece through family reunification as a minor and reached adulthood. Despite repeated efforts, the hearing date for the annulment application remains pending, while the hearing for the suspension application was eventually scheduled for 27 May 2026. On 18 February 2026, the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens granted a temporary order in the context of the suspension proceedings for this case. This appears to be the first case of its kind brought before the Greek administrative courts concerning this special residence permit. It should be noted that the applicant entered Greece through family reunification several years before reaching adulthood, despite a positive family reunification decision having been issued approximately six years prior to entry and not executed by the Greek authorities. The issuance of the temporary order constitutes an essential interim judicial safeguard preventing irreparable harm pending full judicial review, particularly in light of the recent criminalisation of irregular stay introduced by Law 5226/2025,

Obstacles faced by refugees^[27]

Challenges include (i) the submission of family reunification applications at the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police, (ii) the exclusion of family members, (iii) the issuance of travel documents, (iv) the certification of documents and (v) the issuance of visas is very often delayed, making family reunification an extremely lengthy and onerous procedure.

• Unlike the Asylum Unit of International Protection Beneficiaries of the Asylum Service, there is no standard form of family reunification protection for refugees who fall under the jurisdiction of the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police. Thus, they have to write on their own the family reunification application in Greek. Taking into consideration that no family reunification interviews are conducted, the application must be in the form of statement of grounds (υπόμνημα) in writing, pursuant to which a request of family reunification with the family members is made and the existence of family relationship is proved and specified. Furthermore, they have to submit all the required documents at the same date they apply for family reunification.
• As per P.D. 131/2006, refugees can be reunited, among others, with their adopted children. However, in many third countries, Sharia prohibits adoption and only allows legal guardianship. Even in these cases of objective impossibility, the Asylum Service issues negative family reunification decisions on the grounds of non-submission of adoption decisions.
• No alternative solutions are provided when the refugees’ family members are objectively unable to issue travel documents.
• Certification of family reunification documents is an extremely difficult procedure, since it has to be made also by the Greek Consulates or Greek Honorary Consulates. Nevertheless, not every third country has a Greek Consulate. Moreover, it has been observed that the majority of Greek Consulates are reluctant to facilitate the certification procedure by requiring additional documents for the certification and/or by non-scheduling appointment in due time.
• According to the DH2 Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “As for the possibility of certifying the required documents in the framework of the family reunification procedure by the Honorary Consulates, Article 307 of the Regulation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (L. 4781/2021 Gov. Gazette 31/A/28.2.2021) is cited: “The Honorary Consulates perform the same tasks as the Consulates except for the issuance of passports and visas”. More precisely, and for the completeness of your information, it is noted that exception to certification by the Honorary Consulates is made for public documents issued by Ethiopia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Ghana, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, the certification of which can be done solely through the competent Greek Consulate. (for more information, see: http:www.mfa.gr/exoteriki-politiki/apodimos-ellinismos/keppa/)”.^[28]
• The majority of the Greek Consulates require the submission of recent, certified additional documents for the issuance of visas, which are not provided for in the law.
• No alternative solutions are provided to family members who are trapped in armed conflict zones.

Despite the above obstacles, certain good practices followed by Greek Consulates should be mentioned:

1. The Greek Consulate in Nairobi /Kenya certifies family reunification documents and issues visas in due time. The same applies to Greek Consulate in Istanbul but only for Turkish nationals.
2. The Greek Consulate in Jerusalem certifies and even translates family reunification documents. Furthermore, it is the only Greek Consulate accepting documents by post to facilitate Palestinian refugees’ family members trapped in Gaza Strip.
3. The Honorary Greek Consulate in Douala / Cameroon certifies family reunification documents of Cameroonian nationals following GCR’s interventions to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Available statistics

During 2025 the Asylum Service received a total of 3,337 family reunification applications, the vast majority of which were submitted by refugees from Palestine (51.4%), followed by refugees from Syria (15.5%), Yemen (6.9%), Afghanistan (6,2%), and Somalia (4,3%). During the same year, the GAS issued a total of 1,142 decisions, primarily concerning cases of Palestinians and Syrians, the majority of which were granted.[29]

In what concerns refugees subject to the “old procedure”, during 2025, the Hellenic Police received a total of 5 applications for family reunification, only two of which, concerning a refugee from Iraq and a stateless refugee were accepted.[30]

GCR published the report “Family Reunification of Recognised Refugees in Greece – July 2025” on 8 July 2025. The report provides a comprehensive legal and practical analysis of the family reunification framework for recognised refugees in Greece, based on the implementation of Presidential Decree 131/2006 and the EU Family Reunification Directive 2003/86/EC. Drawing on the organisation’s extensive and long-standing field experience in handling refugee family reunification cases, it identifies persistent structural and procedural obstacles in practice, including administrative delays, restrictive evidentiary requirements, and inconsistent interpretations of the relevant legal framework. It is the first systematic practice-based report of its kind in Greece on refugee family reunification, reflecting many years of accumulated casework experience in the field.[31]

[1] Article 4(1)(a) P.D. 131/2006.

[2] Article 4(1)(a) & (b) P.D. 131/2006.

[3] Article 13(1)(a) P.D. 131/2006.

[4] Article 4(1)(a) & (b) P.D. 131/2006.

[5] Article 13(1)b) P.D. 131/2006.

[6] Article 13(1)(c) P.D. 131/2006.

[7] Article 14(1) PD 131/2006.

[8] Decisions 59/2018 and 861/2022 of the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens. See AIDA, Country Report: Greece, 2022 Update, June 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3PUOVk9.

[9] Reply of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DH2 Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to GCR’s request for information for the preparation of the updated Annual Report on Greece for 2024 in the framework of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) project, prot. no. Α.Π.Φ 171/ΑΣ 19 ΣΗΔΕ 195, 06 January 2024.

[10] ECtHR, Suji v. Greece, App. No. 13250/23, available in French here.

[11] Article 14(3) PD 131/2006, citing Article 14(1)(d).

[12]  Decision No. 95/148106 / 22.08.2024, Director of Aliens Directorate / Headquarters of the Hellenic Police.

[13] Article 14(3) PD 131/2006, citing Article 14(1)(d).

[14] ECtHR, Suji v. Greece, App. No. 13250/23, available in French here.

[15] GCR, Press release, Ανιθαγενής αναγνωρισμένος πρόσφυγας επανενώνεται με την οικογένεια του στην Ελλάδα μετά από χρόνια, available in Greek here.

[16] ECtHR, Dotani v. Greece, App. No. 31077/23, available in French here.

[17] ECtHR, T.N. v. Greece, App. No. 41855/23, available in French here.

[18] Application for priority scheduling of a hearing before the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens, case registration No. ΓΠ18301/7.4.2025.

[19] JMD 47094/2018, Gov. Gazette B/3678/28.08.2018.

[20] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration Code Handbook, 2019, 123-127.

[21] Ibid. According to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs “In 2023, in only one case a DNA test was carried out to prove the family link in a family reunification case in 2022.”, AIAD, Country report: Greece, 2023 Update, p. 261, available here.

[22] Reply of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DH2 Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to GCR’s request for information for the preparation of the updated Annual Report on Greece for 2024 in the framework of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) project, prot. no. Α.Π.Φ 171/ΑΣ 19 ΣΗΔΕ 195, 06 January 2024.

[23] FR: abbreviation for Family Reunification.

[24] Article 15(2) P.D. 131/2006.

[25] Article 11(1) P.D. 131/2006.

[26] Application  for Annulment No ΑΚ131/2025 and Application for Suspension No ΑΝΔ338/2025

[27] Greek Council for Refugees, Report, Family Reunification of Recognised Refugees in Greece, July 2025, available in English here.

[28] Reply of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DH2 Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to GCR’s request for information for the preparation of the updated Annual Report on Greece for 2024 in the framework of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA) project, prot. no. Α.Π.Φ 171/ΑΣ 19 ΣΗΔΕ 195, 06 January 2024.

[29] See RSA, Recognised refugee statistics in Greece in 2025, March 2026, available at: https://tinyurl.com/435psr2v, pp.5-6.

[30] Information provided by the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police on 28 February 2026.

[31] Greek Council for Refugees, Family Reunification of Recognised Refugees in Greece – July 2025, published 8 July 2025, available at: https://gcr.gr/en/gcr-reports/item/oikogeneiakes-epanenoseis-prosfygon-ioylios-2025/