After six failed Dutch language tests, this Moroccan woman gets her visa refusal overturned

The Moroccan woman filed her first family reunification application on 16 November 2021. After it was rejected, she restarted the procedure on 13 May 2024 to obtain a residence permit allowing her to live with her husband in the Netherlands.

The authorities refused again. They considered that the Moroccan woman had not passed the mandatory integration exam and that her situation did not justify any exemption.

Yet the woman in her fifties had never attended school during her childhood. Since 2019, she had taken courses at two institutions, changed institutes to join a program reserved for illiterate people, and attempted the exam six times.

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Certificates also reported concentration and memory difficulties. Her psychiatrist considered that she suffered from a lasting inability to pass the tests. The authorities dismissed this document because it had not been completed by a doctor designated by the embassy.

A refusal deemed discriminatory

In its decision of 28 August 2026, the Hague court first points out that this woman is required to take the exam because of her Moroccan nationality. Following earlier case law, it considers that this difference in treatment is not sufficiently justified and violates several international prohibitions against discrimination.

The judge also criticizes the minister for failing to seriously examine the request for an exemption. The Moroccan woman’s age, lack of schooling, medical problems, years of classes, six attempts and the expenses borne by her husband should have been assessed together.

The court notes that the couple has been financing the courses, exams and necessary travel for several years. Despite these efforts, the spouses still live apart. In another family reunification case, a Moroccan woman had already had a visa refusal overturned after it was based on a difference of just 65 euros.

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The administrative decision is therefore annulled. The minister must reconsider the case within six weeks and pay 1,868 euros in procedural costs. The court does not grant the visa directly, but the authorities will no longer be able to repeat their previous reasoning.