After six failures on the Dutch test, this Moroccan woman gets her visa refusal overturned
Married to a Dutchman since 2019, a 57-year-old Moroccan woman still cannot join him. After six unsuccessful attempts at the integration exam, her visa was refused. Dutch justice has just overturned that decision.
The Moroccan woman submitted a first family reunification application on November 16, 2021. After it was rejected, she restarted the procedure on May 13, 2024, to obtain a residence permit allowing her to live with her husband in the Netherlands.
The administration refused again. It considered that the Moroccan woman had not passed the mandatory integration exam and that her situation did not justify any exemption.
Yet the woman in her fifties had never attended school during her childhood. Since 2019, she has taken courses at two institutions, changed institutes to join a program reserved for illiterate people, and attempted the exam six times.
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Certificates also reported concentration and memory difficulties. Her psychiatrist considered that she suffered from a lasting inability to pass the tests. The administration dismissed this document because it had not been completed by a doctor designated by the embassy.
A refusal deemed discriminatory
In its decision of August 28, 2026, the Hague court first recalled that the exam was imposed on this woman because of her Moroccan nationality. Following previous case law, it considered that this difference in treatment was not sufficiently justified and violated several international prohibitions on discrimination.
The judge also faulted the minister for failing to seriously examine the request for an exemption. The Moroccan woman’s age, lack of schooling, medical problems, years of courses, six attempts, and the expenses borne by her husband should have been assessed together.
The court noted that the couple had been financing the training, exams, and necessary travel for several years. Despite these efforts, the spouses still live apart. In another family reunification case, a Moroccan woman had already had a visa refusal overturned after it was based on a difference of only 65 euros.
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The administrative decision is therefore annulled. The minister must re-examine the case within six weeks and pay 1,868 euros in procedural costs. The court does not directly grant the visa, but the administration will no longer be able to rely on its previous reasoning.