24.10.2022

Official Journal of the European Union

C 408/4

(Case C-279/20) (*)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Area of freedom, security and justice - Immigration policy - Right to family reunification - Directive 2003/86/EC - Article 4(1), first subparagraph, point (c) - Concept of ‘minor child’ - Article 16(1)(b) - Concept of ‘real family relationship’ - Child applying for family reunification with her father who has obtained refugee status - Relevant date for assessing status as a minor)

(2022/C 408/04)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Defendant: XC

Joined party: Landkreis Cloppenburg

Operative part of the judgment

1.Point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 4(1) of Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification must be interpreted as meaning that the date to which reference must be made in order to determine whether the child of a sponsor who has been granted refugee status is a minor child, within the meaning of that provision, where that child has attained his or her majority before the parent sponsor was granted refugee status and before the application for family reunification was submitted, is the date on which the parent sponsor submitted his or her asylum application with a view to obtaining refugee status, provided that an application for family reunification was submitted within three months of the recognition of the parent sponsor’s refugee status.

2.Article 16(1)(b) of Directive 2003/86 must be interpreted as meaning that in order to find that there is a real family relationship, within the meaning of that provision, in the case of family reunification of a minor child with a parent who has been granted refugee status, where that child has attained his or her majority before the parent sponsor was granted refugee status and before the application for family reunification was submitted, the legal parent/child relationship is not sufficient on its own. However, it is not necessary for the parent sponsor and the child concerned to cohabit in a single household or to live under the same roof in order for that child to qualify for family reunification. Occasional visits, in so far as they are possible, and regular contact of any kind may be sufficient to consider that those persons are reconstructing personal and emotional relationships and to establish the existence of a real family relationship. Furthermore, nor can the parent sponsor and his or her child be required to support each other financially.

(*) Language of the case: German.

ECLI:EU:C:2022:140