My spouse/child/ren got separated from me and he/she/them is/are now in Turkey. Can he/she/they come to Greece through family reunification?
There are very limited chances that this will work quickly or work at all. As long as you are in the asylum procedure in Greece, there is no official legal pathway, but in very rare cases specifically of unaccompanied minors back in Turkey, these worked with the help of UNHCR when the family members had passports and IDs and proof that they are family. Ask a lawyer for advice on that.
Once you get asylum in Greece you have the right to bring your close family members also from Turkey through family reunion and the Greek embassy in Turkey, but you will again need identity documents of your home country and in the best case also proof of being family (if not DNA tests can theoretically be conducted instead). This procedure – if preconditions are met – will usually take a lot of time though and success depends on many factors, such as the documents you have (or lack), the cooperation of the involved embassies, your asylum status etc.
Can I bring my spouse/minor children from my country or origin (or a transit country outside of Europe) once I get asylum in Greece?
In case you received refugee status, you can apply for family reunion at the Greek Asylum Service to bring your core family (spouse/minor children) and in exceptional cases if they are dependent on you, also adult children or parents. You should request family reunification within 3 months of receiving your refugee status - if you want to reunite with dependent adult children or parents, there is always more documents needed, but if you want to reunite with your spouse or minor children, the documents required are much less if you start the procedure within the 3 month deadline.
The procedure is initiated by you in Greece at the Asylum Service and proceeds in cooperation with the competent Greek embassy nearest to the place of residence of your relatives. Necessary documents are: valid passports, identity cards and documents proving your family status and relation to the family members you want to bring (family book, birth certificates, marriage certificate etc). All these documents should be verified by the Greek consulate in the country of origin. This actually creates huge obstacles, as many Greek consulates/embassies are reluctant to process these cases. A precondition to apply for family reunion is also that you have mentioned the existence of those relatives before the Asylum Service during your asylum procedure. After you submit the family reunion application you will go through an interview at the Asylum Service.
Attention! According to Greek law ONLY recognized refugees have the right to apply for family reunion and NOT those that have the subsidiary protection status.
Attention! In practice family reunion procedures to refugees resident in Greece often take many years but it is still very important to file your application within the deadline to document your attempt to reunite your family also for the future. Consult a lawyer before the application appointment at the Asylum Service to get detailed information and advise in advance.
Attention! All EU countries give you the right to bring your family with the same procedure and preconditions once you get refugee status. If your relatives hold subsidiary status (or other) consult a lawyer once you move to another EU-country to get information about other options that may exist based on national law, the duration of the respective procedures, and the actual practice in that country.
My close family member is in another European country, can I go to them?
If you and your family member are still in the asylum procedure there might be also the option of family reunification via the Dublin-procedure. The European DUBLIN III Regulation includes the possibility to request family reunification if you have close family members in another European country.
Dublin family reunification is different to other family reunion visa applications, because under Dublin you are requesting to have your claim for asylum transferred to the country where your family is - that means if your request is successful, you go to that country to continue your asylum claim, you don’t automatically have a visa to stay with your family.
This is why, to request family reunification under Dublin, you must first claim asylum in Greece even though you don’t want to stay here. You cannot request your asylum claim to be transferred to another country if you have no asylum claim! So that the Greek authorities know as soon as possible that you are a “Dublin”- case, they ask during the registration of your asylum claim i.e. in Malakasa/Diavata or on the islands (Lesvos, Samos, Kos, Leros, Chios) if you have family members elsewhere in Europe. The procedure is initiated by you in Greece (not the relative in the other EU country).
According to law, the preconditions for Dublin family reunification are: that your relative(s) is/are in the asylum procedure in the other country and applied for asylum before you applied for asylum in Greece (the date of registration of the asylum claim is counted) and that most family members live in the other country. Otherwise a family reunification could be requested in reverse manner, from the country where your relative(s) live towards Greece. In the last years, and due to the bad conditions for asylum seekers/refugees in Greece and the refusal of Greece to take back most asylum seekers, family reunification in most of the cases goes out of Greece and to the family member(s) in the other EU country - even when you applied for asylum before your relatives abroad did and even if most family members are in Greece.
Attention! Stay always update on recent changes in Dublin returns and Dublin family reunifications by competent lawyers and advisors in order to understand if this situation changes.
Attention! Your relative(s) don’t necessarily need to have already received an asylum decision in order for you to apply, however if the relative has received a negative decision and an appeal is pending the procedure has lower chances to succeed as the country of residence is not obligated to accept your family reunification request! If the person(s) received a final rejection the asylum procedure is considered concluded negatively and family reunification will most likely be rejected. If your relative has received a positive decision other than international protection (refugee status or subsidiary status) like i.e. a national humanitarian stay again the country of residence is not obligated to accept your family reunification application. If your relative has applied for asylum but had prior fingerprints in another EU country and thus is still in the admissibility procedure pending a decision, family reunification to this relative is not possible.
Attention! In any case, before applying for family reunification, check what your relative(s) stated to the authorities concerning his/her/their family. Ask him/her/them to send you: a. A copy of their papers from the country of residence (both sides); b. the address and phone number; c. any documents that prove your relationship/family status (birth certificates/marriage certificates or other); d. a copy of their asylum interview in order to check if you are mentioned in their asylum case and how your name/birthdate or age were recorded there.
If you are 1-17 years old at the time you register your claim for asylum and you are without any close family member in Greece you can apply for family reunification with:
A. Most efficient: Mother / father – brother / sister or persons who were the responsible adults in place of the parents already before leaving the home country (guardians)
B. Working well: Uncle – aunt – grandmother / grandfather who can take care of you
C. Possible: Other relatives
The family you want to be reunited with must be legally in the country you want to go to - they could be asylum seekers (in the process of their own case without a positive decision yet), recognised as refugees or with any other legal status (their case is finished and they have a residence permit /ID card).
If you are an adult you can apply for family reunification with:
A. Most efficient: Spouse or your minor unmarried child, if they - have refugee status/ subsidiary protection
B. Working well: - if they are in the asylum procedure (marriage/family relationship must have been already in the country of origin)
C. Possible: - have another right to stay
If you are an adult and you want to be reunited with your adult child(ren), brother / sister or mother / father, you can request reunification on the basis of dependency - that means that you and your family member(s) need each other for one of the following reasons:
• Pregnancy
• Newborn child
• Serious illness
• Severe disability
• Old age
As well as proving the dependency for one of these reasons, the relationship with your family member(s) must have existed in your home country and you must also show that they can take care of you and that they are legally present in the country they are now that you want to go to.
Attention! Requests for this kind of family reunification are very difficult - especially if you have been separated from your family member(s) for long periods of time and have managed to survive without them until now. For the best chance of success, you should have evidence from professionals - for example doctors, social workers, psychologists - to support your request and show why you need to be together with your family again.
If you wish to be reunited with family members not mentioned in this section so far, it may still be possible but based only on humanitarian reasons. These are very hard cases and you must show strong family, cultural or other reasons that you need to be reunited. Include as much evidence as possible to support your request.
If your family reunification request is rejected, you have 3 weeks to request your case is reconsidered - a new decision will then be issued. If it is negative again, you can again ask for your case to be reconsidered again. If your case is finally refused, try to find a lawyer in the country you’re trying to go to, to see if there’s any further possibility to challenge the refusal.
From the day your application for family reunification gets registered there are deadlines the authorities of the two countries have to respect that can give you an idea of the maximum duration of the procedure:
- Greece has three months to ask the other EU country for the family reunification. BUT if you miss this 3-month deadline, your case will be weaker. You cannot apply if you have already received a decision on your claim for asylum in Greece.
- The other country has two months to send its answer back to the Dublin office in Greece.
- After a positive decision, Greece has six months to “send” you to the country you applied to go. You cannot book your own ticket and go earlier. You do not need any passport to travel because your journey will be planned and facilitated by the authorities.
This means that the procedure should take a maximum of 11 months, starting when you first register your claim for asylum in Greece and finishing when you are transferred to the other country and reunited with your family. However, if you do not receive a positive answer to your request the first time, the time will be longer, as there could be month(s) spent re-examining your case.
Attention! There are right now a lot of people asking for asylum registration so nobody knows how long it will actually take until one can apply for family reunification. It is important to explain to any lawyer or authorities that you wish to request family reunification, so that they can try to prioritise your asylum registration.
Under specific circumstances your lawyer can try to fast-track the procedure (without guarantees of success). That’s the case for:
A. Unaccompanied minors applying for family reunification from within detention can ask for a fast track procedure, where the answer has to be submitted within one month.
B. If you or your relatives are seriously sick (physically or mentally) or await a serious operation and depend on your assistance urgently, get a doctor’s certificate and hand it to the authorities.
Attention! While the general procedures and conditions are outlined in the Dublin III Regulation for all EU countries in the same way, in practice each country may interpret details differently. Thus, each country may temporarily have a more restrictive practice. Ask your lawyer for further details on your specific case constellation.
Are there other ways to legally join my family in another European country?
Yes, once your relative(s) in another EU country receive(s) a positive decision in their asylum case you may also (in a separate procedure) be able to try requesting family reunion to them through the embassy of the other EU country where they reside. This procedure is started by the relative in the other EU-country by applying for family reunion in order to bring you to them and it is completed by you in the embassy of their country of residence in Greece (i.e. if your relative has refugee status in Germany, you will have to go to the German embassy in Greece). Applications by people with refugee status to reunite with core family members should usually be straightforward. Persons with subsidiary status may also have a right to apply but with less chances/a different procedure - always depending on national law.
Attention! Ask a legal advisor / lawyer in the country your relative resides/ holds asylum status to support your attempt of family reunion. In general the procedure between Greece and other EU countries is faster than the same procedure between an EU country and a non-EU country such as your home country, Turkey or other.
Attention! If your relative(s) received a positive decision you may proceed also parallel both with the above mentioned Dublin III procedure AND the embassy procedure.
Will a family reunification create a problem for my relatives…
A. Asylum case?
No, as long as you inform him/ her before applying and check exactly what he/ she said in his/ her asylum case in order not to say something contradictory and in order to write all your personal data correctly.
B. Living conditions?
No, as long as you can still apply to stay in a separate place, in case things don’t work out with staying together after reuniting.
Attention! If your relative feels nervous about the idea to apply for family reunification, give him/her a contact to someone who can explain him/ her the whole procedure so he/ she knows exactly what would happen.
I have been separated from my spouse and/or children or he/she/ them disappeared. How can I find them?
You can address the specialised Red Cross section which has offices in Greece and all over the world and file a missing person report and request from them to search one or more members of your core family.
Attention! It’s important to explain these events of separation also in your asylum interview.
Red Cross Greece / Tracing Section Email: tracingstaff@redcross.gr or ath_tracing@icrc.org. Call +30 2105230043 (Monday-Friday 08:00-14:00) or +30 210 8259069 (Monday-Friday 9:00-17:30). For more information download the info collected by the network Alarm Phone in your language here: https://w2eu.info/en/countries/greece/searching-for-missing-persons