Family Reunification Stop: Government Initiated Proposal in Asylum Law

It is intended that the government will have the ability to temporarily suspend applications for family reunification by decree. The pause is set to begin in mid-May of this year.

Specifically, it is still possible to submit an application for entry for the purpose of applying for family reunification at the respective representative authority. However, the further course of the procedure and the deadlines contained therein are generally suspended until the decree is withdrawn or amended.

Pausing Family Reunification: Exceptions Provided

However, exceptions are provided in cases where this is required by European law. This would be the case, for example, for individuals whose German language skills are so good that no additional burden on the systems is expected. Furthermore, the explanations to the draft law specify, for example, children who do not have adequate caregivers in their country of origin and can thus follow their parents. The same applies to children and adolescents who have traveled ahead, whose parent in the country of origin is the only available caregiver.

It is ensured that minors in Austria do not reach adulthood due to the suspension of the procedures, which would mean that the parents could not follow later. The age at the time of application applies here.

Pause on Family Reunification: Asylum System "at the Limit of Capacity"

"We are at the limit of capacity here, and that is why we are pressing the stop button," explained Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP) once again after the government meeting, regarding the government's plan from ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS in the asylum sector. The goal is to protect the systems from further overload, according to the official explanation also to the EU Commission. Above all, the school system is reaching its limits due to the influx of partially illiterate refugees.

According to Plakolm, Austria is allowed to deviate from EU asylum law with the application and a corresponding decree. The new special regulation can be made applicable by decree of the federal government in agreement with the main committee of the National Council in the event of corresponding system overload and will be introduced temporarily until the end of September 2026. Accompanying this, a quota system is to be developed to limit the extent of family reunification in the future.

(APA/Red.)

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