New EU guidelines issued for sham marriages

The Department of Justice is concerned that sham marriages between EU nationals and non-EU nationals are taking place to enable people to get residency permits in this country.

Last year, the Government alerted the Latvian authorities that an unusual number of Latvians living in Ireland were marrying spouses from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The European Court of Justice were requested to review a case called the 'Metock case' involving four couples living in Ireland, there were four couples of non-Irish EU citizens and non-EU citizens, who took the Government to court over a threatened expulsion order.

Some member states, including Ireland, are concerned people from outside the EU are entering sham marriages with EU citizens and then moving to another member state in order to trigger a right of residency which is implicit in the directive.

The Commission says it wants to ensure the free movement of people, this a fundamental principle of EU law, which does not encourage criminality and marriages of convenience.

Ireland now has guidelines on how to tackle suspected marriages of convenience between non-Irish EU citizens and non-EU spouses in a way which is compliant with the Free Movement directive.

The rules allow the Irish authorities to challenge suspected sham marriages if the couple have not spent time together, or have combined their financial resources.

The new directions permit countries to expel non-EU spouses if they are repeat offenders, or are a clear threat to public order.

It is understood that the Government in Ireland and other EU governments want the Directive to be changed during the Swedish presidency, a demand the European Commission is resisting.