December 21, 2025, 3:08 p.mDecember 21, 2025, 3:08 p.m
Despite significant tightening by the black-red federal government, more than 100,000 visas for family reunification were issued this year. This emerges from figures from the Foreign Office, which “Welt am Sonntag” reported on.
Accordingly, by the end of November, 101,756 visas had been approved for the five nationalities with the most applications alone. The main nationalities were Turks (14,907) and Syrians (13,148), followed by Indians (9,286), people from Kosovo (7,143) and Albania (4,426).
A little more than a third of the cases (37,227) involved visas for children to join their parents. Conversely, around 3,500 visas were issued so that parents could move in with their children. Visas were most frequently issued to spouses of foreigners living in Germany, with 44,426 cases. There were a further 16,298 visas so that someone could move in with a spouse with a German passport.
Restrictions since summer
The right to reunification usually only applies to the nuclear family, i.e. spouses and minor children. There are exceptions for a few cases of hardship and, since a traffic light reform in March 2024, for parents and parents-in-law of highly qualified and skilled workers who can independently secure the livelihood of the entire family.
In July, the federal government suspended family reunification with people with limited protection status – unlike recognized refugees – for two years. Only in “hardship cases” should those entitled to subsidiary protection – many people from Syria fall into this category – be allowed to bring spouses, minor children and, in the case of unaccompanied minors, their parents. (sda/dpa)