2023-05-15 03:59:32
Eric contacted us via the orange button Alert us. He has been married for a year, but does not have the opportunity to live with his wife. The problem? The latter is Senegalese and cannot obtain a visa for Belgium. The application for family reunification was refused twice. The couple no longer knows what to do.
A fairy tale with a bitter taste. “We didn’t expect that at all“, regrets Éric. This 52-year-old man from Namur did not think he would find love when he went on vacation to Cape Verde at the beginning of last year. However, there he met Marietou, a Senegalese woman who is now become his wife.”It really happened by chance“, he says. He continues: “I came back a few days following we met, I had no choice for the job, so I left her there. We talked for a long time on WhatsApp, I have a whole collection of messages.”
A few months following this Cape Verdean idyll, the couple decides to move up a gear and get married. “This is where the problems started“, says Éric. Worries in the relationship? Far from it. The young couple wanted to live together and when it was time to submit the request for family reunification, they came across a bone.”The first request was refused in June 2022“, explains Éric. It is a rather cumbersome procedure and the man recognizes that for this first attempt, some administrative concerns came into play.
“It’s getting painful”
Full of goodwill, Éric and Marietou submitted a new request in November, “time to reintroduce the new documents“. This time, they called in a specialized lawyer. Yet the result is the same: “The request was denied in February.“The second refusal goes badly.”It’s a love story, a real story, we want to live together and they break everything“, the young groom is upset. Moving to Senegal, he thought regarding it, but independent horticulturist, he doesn’t have one “not the possibility“.
Éric is having a hard time with this long year spent far from his sweetheart and … his wallet too: “In one year, I went to Senegal 12 times. I flew 12 times, it cost me a lot of money“Another disappointment: the high season will start for him and he will not be able to make the trip.”It becomes painful. It’s a beautiful story that turns into hell.”
How it works?
In Belgium, it is possible to apply for family reunification for members of the “nuclear family“, that is to say, the husband or wife and the children. To do this, there are three essential conditions to be respected for the person who is on the territory: to be in order of mutual insurance, to provide proof of ‘sufficient accommodation to accommodate the “regroup” and have stable and sufficient income. The threshold is set at €1,969 net per month.
It is this last point that is lacking for Eric. However, the independent has provided an accounting document certifying that his income is higher than the required €1,969. It’s not the only problem. Marietou has a 10 year old daughter and to be able to accompany her mother, a document signed by her father is necessary. It has been sent but there is obviously something stuck.
To see more clearly, we contacted the Foreigners’ Office which “in accordance with the legislation in force cannot communicate to third parties information concerning individual cases“. We are also told that “each case is unique and is subject to individual examination“.
Always more complicated
The research carried out and the interlocutors surveyed all seem to point in the same direction: it would be more and more complicated to obtain a visa in the context of family reunification in Belgium. To better understand, we turned to Medina M. and Christine P., social workers at Caritas, a Belgian solidarity NGO. These grassroots actors see more than 300 requests for family reunification per month.
If, like the Immigration Office, they cannot comment on Eric’s particular case, they note many difficulties related to the applications. “The assessment of income is left to the discretion of the Foreigners Office. In practice, we see that he is relatively strict with my freelancers“, we are told. Everything is studied on a case-by-case basis, “the same goes for housing“.
In absolute terms, these social workers notice all the same “increased difficulty“which is due in particular, according to them, to the standard of living which has changed and which makes the requirements more difficult to meet.
Not to give up
Eric, determined to live with his wife, has lodged an appeal. If by chance, it doesn’t work, Eric can still try his luck. The only downside: the slowness of the procedure which “generally varies from 4 to 6 months” according to the SPF. At Caritas, the sad record is 11 years before bringing together the members of the same family.
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