My partner is seeking residence status and I’m an EU citizen

Hello I’m an EU citizen and I want to get married to my boyfriend of one year who is an asylum seeker in Germany. He’s been there 3 years waiting for official refugee status. For info, he has no passport and he is on aufenthaltsgestattung. I will move to Germany in December so we can be together permanently. We want to get married so we can start our life and family together (because we are born again Christians this is important).

Here are my questions regarding the situation:

1. Does he need to be officially accepted as a refugee to be able to get legally married?

2. Refugee status acceptance or not, does he need to get documents from his home country embassy in order to get married? This could be dangerous and it scares me if he has to do that. Christians are heavily persecuted in his country (converts get imprisoned and executed). So for obvious reasons it’s not safe to go to the home country embassy. Furthermore, it could mess up his refugee application if he goes to the embassy.

3. If my boyfriend’s refugee application situation has not progressed in 3 years in Germany is it likely to be successful at all?

4. What if he gets a deportation notice? Can I take him with me to my home country (Ireland) if we manage to get married beforehand?

I’m worried about his situation. Please advise. Thank you.

2 Comments

Reply (2)

Barbara__Community_Manager

Updated:

Hey @rachym19 , thank you for your question. Our experts from the @LIFE__Initiative will answer your questions as soon as possible. Best wishes Barbara

LIFE__Initiative

Hello @rachym19 , I'm sorry that you must have so many worries in this situation. In Germany you can only get married with a valid passport. You also need a certificate of no impediment to marriage ("Ehefähigkeitszeugnis") if you have foreign citizenship. You usually have to apply for this from at the relevant authority in the home country or from the relevant embassy. It is possible to apply for an exemption from the certificate of no impediment to marriage ("Ehefähigkeitszeugnis") in court. You can find more information about it here: https://handbookgermany.de/en/marriage#faq_480. Asylum seekers usually receive the asylum decision 12 months after submitting the application. However, it can also take longer. Here you can find general information about the asylum procedure: https://handbookgermany.de/ar/asylum-procedure. Here you will find a guide in English on what asylum decisions can be made, what they mean and what you can do if you have received them: https://life-initiative.org/en/asylentscheidung/. We cannot give you an assessment of how the decision on the asylum application will turn out because we do not have enough information and cannot offer legal advice. We recommend that you visit an asylum procedure advice centre ("Asylverfahrensberatung") or a migration counselling service for more information. You can search at: https://adressen.asyl.net/language/en/welcome-to-informationnetwork-asy… or https://bamf-navi.bamf.de/de/Themen/Migrationsberatung/. (Enter your postal code and you will find advice centers near you). Here you will find a guide in English on how to find a suitable advice centre: https://life-initiative.org/en/beratungsstelle/. You can also look for a lawyer and ask them for their assessment. You can search for a lawyer in your area here: https://bravsearch.bea-brak.de/bravsearch/index.brak. You can also look here: https://anwaltauskunft.de/anwaltssuche. Or here: https://rechtsberaterkonferenz.de/mitgliederliste/. Choose a lawyer who specializes in migration law. Here you will find a guide in English on how to find a suitable lawyer: https://life-initiative.org/en/anwaltssuche/. You have to pay for this kind of help.
I hope this information is helpful for you.
Kind regards,
Franziska

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