Conditions for family reunification in the European Union: Sweden National Report to the European Policy Centre on the Family Reunification Project 2011
Year: 2011
Type of text: Report
Published by: European Policy Centre
Language: English
Author: Riekkola, Susanne & Nilsson, Eva
Pages: 29
Available at: http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:471872/FULLTEXT03.pdf
Short description of text
Report formatted in a Q&A style on changes in national rules regarding family reunification.
Most important results
âQ.1 Did national rules regarding family reunification change after 2007? Yes No
Q.2 If yes, when have the new rules been adopted?
On 1 January 2010 new rules were introduced into the Swedish Aliens Act (SFS2005:716;amendments to the act through 2009:1542) which means that a person who is a refugee or other person in need of protection will be granted a status declaration. Furthermore, on 15 April 2010 rules (amendments to the Aliens Act made through 2010:175) regarding maintenance requirement for family member integration were introduced in the Aliens Act and in the Aliens Ordinance(SFS2006:97).â (p.2)
âQ.3 Are these rules of legislative or regulatory nature?
The rules are both of legislative and regulatory nature.The rules about status declaration are of legislative nature and derive from the Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons such as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection and the content of the protection granted (TheQualificationDirective).The rules about maintenance requirement for family member integration are of both legislative and regulatory nature.â (p.2)
âQ.4 Did these modifications touch upon conditions required for family reunification? Yes No
Q.5 If yes did they concern
Sickness insurance
Accommodation conditions
Resources
Integration measures
Minimum period of lawful residence
Other
In any of the above mentioned cases, please explain briefly (introduction of supplementary new conditions, reinforcement of existing conditions,…)
Accommodation conditions and resources:
Sweden introduced a maintenance requirement, derivative from the Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification (Directive on Family Reunification) which means that the sponsor must be able to support herself/himself and have an accommodation of adequate size and standard for herself/himself and the family member (Chapter 5 Section 3b of the Aliens Act, amendments made through 2010:175). There are exceptions to this principal rule (Chapter 5 Section 3câe of the Aliens Act, amendments made through 2010:175).
Other:
The new rules implementing the Qualification Directive mean that a person who is a refugee or other person in need of protection will be granted a status declaration. These amendments mean that the categories of persons in need of protection referring to the Aliens Act have increased, but the amendments do not involve any material change. From having two categories, there are now three separate categories: refugees, persons eligible for subsidiary protection and/or persons otherwise in need of subsidiary protection (Chapter 4 Section 1, 2 and 2a of the Aliens Act, amendments made through 2009:1542).The first two categories are covered by the Qualification Directive, but the third category is national. This change had an impact on the rule about family reunion for unaccompanied minors as the categories changed in accordance with the above mentioned amendments. Accordingly ,the amendments concerning family reunion does not involve any material change either. (Chapter 5 Section 1, first paragraph and Chapter 5 Section 3, first paragraph, point 4 of the Aliens Act,amendments made through 2009:1542.)â (p.2-3)
*see document for Q&A on specific provisions
