Norway limits family reunification, hikes annual income level requirement

By Macel Ingles

Filipinos ranked 4th in the number of applications for family reunification in Norway. This new measure may make petitions to bring families to the country extra challenging, especially for those who earn below the new income requirement. (Photo credit: Unsplash/Daiga Ellaby)

If you are planning to bring your family to Norway or your spouse from Norway is planning to bring you over from the Philippines, you need to know this. 

Norway has raised the income requirement of those who are thinking of bringing their family to the country.  From February 1, one needs to earn KR400,000 every year, or equivalent to P2 million, to fulfill your dream and fly the family to the land of Northern Lights, Midnight Sun and rich Viking heritage.

The Norwegian government has increased the annual income requirement for family reunification, also called family immigration, by 65,000 kroner (P336,000) from previous KR335,000 (P1,800,000).

This means those earning less than KR400,000 will no longer be eligible to apply for family reunification. The new measure will impact students who are not working full-time and retired people receiving minimum pension benefits.

The new measure aims to reduce the number of people entering Norway through family reunification in order to ease the pressure on schools, health services, according to Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl from the Center Party. 

However, the higher income level requirement imposed by the government has caused concern for the Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers, or NOAS. 

NOAS Secretary General Mads Almaas told public broadcaster NRK, that the new measure will affect the integration of those who are already in the country.

The justice department is also looking into disallowing parents over 60 years old to join their adult children in Norway through family reunification. 

It is however unsure whether this proposal on reunification with elderly parents will be followed up by the new justice minister, Astri Aas-Hansen from the Labor Party, who  was recently  replaced after her party hastily left the government coalition over agreements with the Labor party on the EU Directive on Energy. 

Most people who come to Norway outside the EU, including Filipinos, enter the country through family reunification.

Filipinos are the fourth largest group after Indians, Pakistanis and Syrians to have entered Norway through family reunification from 2018 to 2023, according to Statistics Norway.

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