Details

Parent Category: News Archives

Created on Thursday, 05 April 2007 20:30

Last Updated on Friday, 28 December 2012 18:50

Expulsion Due to Need of Welfare after Separating

After separating from her husband, an Iranian woman became dependant on state welfare. The Ausländeramt (= foreigners office) wanted to expel her on account of her financial dependency. The OVG Lüneburg settled this dispute on February 8, 2007 (re 4 ME 49/07).

[PPD_PAYTOREADMORE]

§31 AufenthG grants the foreign spouse with a status classified as dependent on the marital partner the right to remain one further year in Germany after they split up. Normally, being a welfare dependent gives grounds for expulsion (§55 II no. 6 AufenthG). The foreigners authority wanted to expel the plaintiff for exactly this reason. However, in deciding the case, the court held, that the authority had not taken §31 IV Residency Act under consideration. This section of the law determines that collect-ing benefits under Sozialgesetzbuch (= Social Code) for the first renewal of the residence permit after split up of a married couple does not cancel the right to remain. This exemption was exactly intended by the lawmaker.

After this first renewal of the residence permit, any further extensions with be subject to the normal rules. One such requirement in accordance with §§8 I, 5 I no. 1 AufenthG is to be able to provide for one's livelihood - unless certain reasons prevail. One such exception would be taking care of a minor child. Such was the case for the plaintiff. She had to take care for her three-year-old child and also was participating in an integration course for migrants. Each of these two grounds gives rise to an exemption for welfare dependency. But normally, anyone will end up having to leave Ger-many if he can't provide for his own financial needs, who is not an EU citizen. In the case at hand, the governmental authority's decision was evidently wrong since these circumstances were not taken into account.

Published on the old CMS: 2007/4/5
Read on the old CMS till November 2008: 1,471 reads