Background:

The right to family life is one of the basic human rights secured by international legal instruments, in particular by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Under French law, a “personal and family links” residence permit may be granted to foreign nationals who cannot be issued with other residence permits, following careful assessment of personal and family ties. The Office for Family Immigration of the Directorate for Immigration within the French Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories is looking for information on the legislation of EMN Member and Observer Countries concerning the above-mentioned and other related residence permits.

EMN France has launched this ad hoc query to collect information more specifically on how Article 8 of the ECHR is applied in EMN Member and Observer Countries. It also wants to know whether these countries strictly apply the criteria related to the "right to respect for private and family life".

Respondents:

21 EMN Member and Observer Countries (including BE) provided a public answer to this ad hoc query.

Findings:

A preliminary analysis of the results of the ad hoc query shows that:

• 10 EMN Member countries transposed Article 8 of the ECHR into their national legislation through one or more specific articles (CZ, ES, FR, GR, LU, LV, NL, PL, SK and SE). In 5 of these Member countries (FR, LU, NL, SK and SE), legal provisions allow a residence permit to be issued on the basis of personal and/or family ties to third-country nationals who cannot be issued with a residence permit as of right, and who do not meet the conditions for family reunification.
• Several EMN Member and Observer countries state that they did not expressly transcribed Article 8 into their national legislation, but they refer to national legal provisions that may implicitly refer to this article and thus enable it to be implemented (BE, BG, EE, HR, LT, RS, SI). Some countries mention the transposition of European provisions into their national legislation. Indeed, the granting of a residence permit to a family member in application of the European directive on family reunification is cited by 4 countries (BE, HR, HU and SI).
• Several Member countries mentioned various criteria to be taken into consideration when assessing private and family ties, such as: the duration and nature of the relationship, the best interests of the children concerned, whether the foreign national's minor child attends school in the host country, the duration of residence in the host country, living conditions in the host country, age, state of health, economic and/or social integration in the host country, any work and study links and their duration, family and personal ties in the country of origin.

For further information, please read the summary of the ad hoc query attached above, and for more details, the compilation of answers.