She has lived in Morocco for 60 years, yet the Netherlands still doubts she will return there

The Moroccan woman applied on 22 November 2024 for a short-stay visa to join her husband in the Netherlands. The authorities refused it on three grounds: the conditions of the trip had not been sufficiently established, her financial resources were deemed insufficient, and her return to Morocco was not sufficiently guaranteed.

To assess this latter risk, the authorities examined her social and economic ties to Morocco. This is a criterion that has already played a decisive role in the case of another Moroccan woman whose children remaining in Morocco ultimately weighed against the visa refusal.

On Bladi.net : Schengen Visas Morocco: 437,000 Approved in 2024

In this new case, the authorities noted that the woman had no children, did not work, and that her husband as well as several members of her family lived in the Netherlands. She did have a brother in Morocco, but nothing demonstrated that she had to care for a relative or fulfill significant obligations requiring her presence in the Kingdom.

Even the fact that she had lived in Morocco for approximately 60 years was not enough to overturn this assessment.

Even real estate in Morocco does not guarantee a return

The situation was just as surprising from an economic standpoint. The Moroccan woman had provided evidence concerning an apartment in Morocco, her home and a substantial sum available in her bank account.

But the Dutch authorities considered that this did not physically compel her to return. Real estate can be managed, rented out or sold remotely, while money held in a bank account remains accessible from abroad. The absence of employment and regular income in Morocco also counted against her.

The Hague court upheld this part of the reasoning. In other words, owning real estate in Morocco does not, by itself, constitute a sufficient guarantee that an applicant will leave the Schengen area before their visa expires.

The Moroccan woman nevertheless argued that there was another, much more personal consequence. Married for nearly seven years, she explained that applying these criteria could prevent her from visiting her husband for a prolonged period. She maintained that she did not want to settle in the Netherlands, but simply to obtain a multiple-entry visa allowing her to join him once or twice a year for a few months.

It is precisely on this point that the authorities failed. In its decision, issued by the Hague court on 30 March and republished in corrected form on 31 July 2026, the judge noted that the ministry had not explained whether the refusal was proportionate, given the potential impossibility for this woman to visit her husband.

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The ministry had also sent no representative to the hearing and had filed no written defense allowing it to clarify its reasoning. The court therefore annulled the decision and ordered it to rule again on the application.

The Moroccan woman does not receive her visa directly: the doubts about her ties to Morocco remain legally admissible. But the Netherlands will now have to explain whether those doubts genuinely justify preventing her from visiting her husband.