Belgium refuses her visa because her husband might one day receive assistance: court overturns decision

On 12 May 2023, the Moroccan woman submitted an application for a family reunification visa to the Belgian embassy in Rabat in order to join her husband, who is a Belgian national. The procedure is particularly important for Moroccans, since family remains the main reason for Moroccans’ residence in Belgium.

On 6 November, the Immigration Office refused the visa. The reason: the husband’s resources were deemed insufficient in light of the conditions imposed for family reunification. However, the couple had provided numerous elements intended to demonstrate that their actual needs were limited.

The husband lived free of charge in accommodation owned by his son, who also covered the energy expenses. He was repaying no loans, owned no car and stated that he did not have particularly expensive leisure activities. His mutual insurance cost him 8.10 euros per month. According to the information provided to the authorities, he had approximately 1,535.86 euros left after his fixed expenses.

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The Immigration Office was nevertheless unconvinced. It considered that these reduced expenses did not make it possible to guarantee that the couple would never become a burden on the public authorities.

An allowance he does not even receive

The authorities then put forward a particular argument. The husband does not receive the guaranteed income for elderly people (GRAPA), but they considered that it was not impossible that he might become eligible for it after his wife arrived in Belgium.

In other words, social assistance that he was not receiving when the application was submitted was used to justify the refusal, on the grounds that he might possibly receive it in the future. GRAPA is precisely an allowance for which retired Moroccans in Belgium must meet strict residence conditions.

The Moroccan woman challenged the decision before the Council for Alien Law Litigation (CCE). In its judgment no. 309.531 of 11 July 2024, the court first noted that the Immigration Office had not actually determined the resources this household needed in light of its particular situation.

The law indeed requires the authorities, when the income threshold is not met, to examine the couple’s specific needs in order to determine the means necessary to live without depending on the public authorities. The free accommodation, the absence of loans and the low expenses therefore had to be included in this assessment.

But the CCE went further. It held that the Immigration Office had added a condition not provided for by law by relying on the possibility that the husband might subsequently become eligible for GRAPA. The Council described this element as “hypothetical and future.”

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The refusal of 6 November 2023 was therefore annulled for violating the law and for lack of reasoning. The Moroccan woman does not automatically obtain her visa: the authorities must review her file and issue a new decision.

Since then, Belgium has further tightened the financial conditions for family reunification. But in this case, the courts set a clear limit: a visa could not be refused on the basis of social assistance that the husband was not receiving and whose possible future payment remained purely hypothetical.