Family Members Dependency & EU Treaty Rights
An EU citizen’s right to move and reside freely within the EU territory can also be granted to family members of the EU citizen whatever their nationality.
If a family member seeks a visa, for example, the Minister must be satisfied the person is a qualifying family member or permitted family member under reg. 5(1) of the European Communities Regulations of 2015.
If the family member who sought the visa was a brother, for example, of the EU citizen, they have to prove dependency on EU citizen.
There can be a lot of confusion as to what constitutes dependency but CJEU jurisprudence has a helpful summary in Reyes v. Migrationsverket of 2014 to give guidance on the essential requirements, for example:
- The EU national must give financial support to the third-county national when the person is in their country of origin
- What are the financial and social conditions in the country of the third-county national will be assessed
- The third-county national must not be able to support him/herself or obtain monetary support from their country of origin
- The financial support must be necessary to allow the third-county national support him/herself
- There must exist a real situation of dependency
- The need to the material support should exist in the country of origin or country to which he/she came.
The financial support payments made should be regular and overtime.
If you are a family member of an EU citizen and wish to obtain an opinion on visas or residency matters, we can be of assistance to you.
Disclaimer
Please be advised that the above-mentioned material is intended as an overview and as a broad out-line of the topic discussed. It should not be considered as complete and comprehensive legal advice, nor act as an appropriate substitute.
Due care has been taken in the publication of this article and we do not accept legal liability as a result of reliance on any material covered in the above article.