Apply for family reunification on the Faroe Islands

Provided that certain conditions are met, family reunification can be granted to:

• spouses and cohabiting partners
• children under the age of 18
• parents over the age of 60
• other relatives or similar of a Faroese resident

Applications for Family Reunification in the Faroe Islands will be processed by the Danish Immigration Service in accordance with the terms of Ordinance 182 of 22 March 2001 – “Application of the Aliens Act in the Faroe Islands”, if you have submitted your application before 1 September 2024.

Since the Faroe Islands are not a part of the European Union, EU regulations for family reunification of EU/EEA and Swiss citizens do not apply in the Faroe Islands.

If you have previously held Danish citizenship or are of Danish/Faroese descent, Faroese immigration regulations permit you to apply for a residence permit.

Read more about residence permit on the Faroe Islands on the grounds of strong attachment

If you are a Nordic citizen

If you are a citizen of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden, you are free to enter, reside, study and work in the Faroe Islands. You do not need a visa or residence and work permit.

As a citizen of a Nordic country, you can enter the Faroe Islands without a passport. However, you must be able to identify yourself if required. Such could be the case if you are staying in a hotel or other form of temporary residence. A driving licence or debit card is sufficient identification.

If you have family members who are citizens of a Nordic country, they do not need to apply for a residence permit. They may freely enter the Faroe Islands according to the rules for citizens of Nordic countries.

If you hold a Danish residence permit

If you hold a Danish residence permit and would like to travel to the Faroe Islands to visit family, for holiday or other type of short visit, you must apply for a Faroese entry permit. A Danish residence permit does not give you the right to reside in the Faroe Islands.

Applications for Faroese entry permits should be submitted to the Immigration Service by mail. Please indicate the purpose of your visit and how long you intend to stay in the Faroe Islands.

If your spouse or cohabiting partner lives in the Faroe Islands, you can apply for a residence permit on the grounds of family reunification. However, you and your spouse/partner, as well as your relationship, must meet certain requirements.

There are a number of specific requirements relating to your spouse/partner living in the Faroe Islands (also known as your 'sponsor'). These requirements primarily concern the grounds for your sponsor's residence in the Faroe Islands, as well as your sponsor's ability to support you and whether or not he/she has adequate housing.

Below follows a list of requirements which you and your spouse/partner must meet.

Requirements to your marriage

• your marriage must be valid under Faroese law
• the primary reason for your marriage may not have been for you to obtain a residence permit (marriage of convenience)

Requirements relating to you and your spouse/partner

• you must both be over the age of 18
• you must live together at the same address in the Faroe Islands when your residence permit is granted (also known as the 'cohabitation requirement')
• if your sponsor is not a Danish citizen, your combined attachment to the Faroe Islands must at least as great as your combined attachment to any other country (also known as the 'attachment requirement')

Requirements relating to your spouse/partner in the Faroe Islands

Your sponsor must either:

• be a citizen of one of one of the Nordic countries
• hold refugee status in the Faroe Islands, or
• have held a permanent residence permit in the Faroe Islands for at least three years

Furthermore, your spouse/partner in the Faroe Islands:

• must reside permanently in the Faroe Islands, and must normally
• have accommodation of adequate size at his/her disposal (known as the 'housing requirement'), and must normally
• be able to support you (known as the 'support requirement'). This is not required if your sponsor is a citizen of a Nordic country or a refugee

Special requirements for cohabiting partners

If you and your partner are not legally married, your relationship must be of a permanent and lasting nature.

There is no minimum time limit on the length of your relationship. The Immigration Service will assess, based on all relevant information, if your relationship can be considered permanent and lasting. When making our assessment, we will consider the length of time you have known your partner, as well as any periods of joint residence in the Faroe Islands or abroad. Normally, joint residence for a period of 18 to 24 months will be sufficient to prove that your relationship is of a continuing nature. Furthermore, you must normally be able to document that you have lived with your partner for 18-24 months. Such documentation includes a lease with both your names, certificate of residence, letters received at the same address, joint insurance policies or bank accounts.

If your sponsor in the Faroe Islands is not a citizen of a Nordic country or a refugee, he/she must sign a declaration that he/she will support you financially.

Must you meet all requirements?

If you cannot claim an exemption from Faroese immigration law as a citizen of Nordic country or as a refugee, you should normally expect that all requirements must be met. However, there may be special situations in which you and your spouse/partner can be granted family reunification even though one or more of the requirements are not met.

The Immigration Service cannot make its decision about whether you and your spouse/partner can receive an exemption from one or more of the requirements until the Immigration Service has received and processed your application.

Below, you can read more about the special circumstances that can result in an exemption from one or more of the requirements.

In accordance with the Faroe Islands’ international obligations to protect the right to family life, exemptions from the following requirements can be granted to certain groups of applicants:

• the attachment requirement
• the housing requirement
• the support requirement

An exemption can be granted if your spouse/partner in the Faroe Islands has a child from a previous relationship who is living in the Faroe Islands with an adult other than your spouse/partner, and if your spouse/partner has custody of the child or has visitation rights and sees the child on a regular basis.

Furthermore, an exemption can be granted if your spouse/partner in the Faroe Islands is elderly or has a serious illness or a debilitating handicap, and a lack of adequate care and treatment in your country would make it indefensible from a humanitarian point of view to force him/her to relocate there.

Foreign nationals under age 18 who have a parent or parents living in the Faroe Islands can be eligible for a residence permit, provided that certain conditions are met:

• the child must be under 18 at the time the application is submitted
• the parent in the Faroe Islands must be able to document his/her relationship to the child
• after the family reunification, the child must live together with his/her parents or a parent who has full or joint custody of the child
• the child may not have a family of his/her own – either by marriage or cohabiting partnership

All requirements must be met.

Furthermore, the following may be considered:

• whether the parent living in the Faroe Islands has adequate housing at his/her disposal (the housing requirement)
• whether the parent living in the Faroe Islands can support the child financially (the support requirement). Not required if the parent living in the Faroe Islands is a citizen of Denmark or another Nordic country or is a refugee

If the parent living in the Faroe Islands is not a citizen of a Nordic country or a refugee, he/she will normally need to meet the requirements, provided that the parent in the Faroe Islands has chosen not to have personal contact with his/her child for an extended period prior to the application being submitted.

Parents

If you are a foreign national with a child living in the Faroe Islands, you qualify for a residence permit if:

• you are over 60 at the time the application is submitted,
• your relationship to the child can be documented and
• the child living in the Faroe Islands is a citizen of Denmark or another Nordic country or is a refugee

In order to qualify for a residence permit, your child must sign a declaration that he/she assumes responsibility for supporting you financially.

The child living in the Faroe Islands must also:

• be able to support his/her parent and
• have adequate housing.

Other family member

In certain special circumstances, you may qualify for a residence permit if you have a close relationship with a person living in the Faroe Islands.

Such relationships include:

• a child being adopted as part of a family adoption,
• a foster child
• esidence with close relations
• parent with a child living in the Faroe Islands who is not a citizen of Denmark or another Nordic country or a refugee

The Immigration Service will make its decision on a case-by-case evaluation. In order to qualify, your personal bond with the person living in the Faroe Islands must go beyond the family relationship itself.

In order to qualify for a residence permit, your child must sign a declaration that he/she assumes responsibility for supporting you financially.

The child living in the Faroe Islands must also:

• be able to support his/her parent and
• have adequate housing

You may qualify for a Faroese residence permit if you:

• have previously held Danish citizenship (and have not be stripped of it) or
• are of Danish/Faroese descent

Please note that the Faroese authorities (Útlendingastovan) have taken over the processing of family reunification cases in the Faroe Islands for applications submitted from 1 September 2024. If you wish to submit an application for family reunification in the Faroe Islands, you must therefore go to Útlendingastovan's website. Read more about how to submit an application for family reunification in the Faroe Islands

On this page you can read about the conditions for applications submitted before 1 September 2024.

If you submit your application for family reunification in the Faroe Islands and the Immigration Service accepts your application for processing, you may be granted procedural residence while you wait for a ruling. Procedural residence means that you are allowed to stay temporarily in the Faroe Islands while awaiting a decision about whether you can be granted a residence permit.

If you wish to travel abroad during this period, you will normally need to apply for a re-entry permit. Without a re-entry permit, you may not be allowed back into the Faroe Islands.

While you have procedural residence, you are not allowed to work, even if it is voluntary/unpaid work. If you work illegally, you risk fine or imprisonment, as does your employer. You also risk expulsion and a temporary re-entry ban, that is, you will not be allowed to enter the Faroe Islands for a certain period of time. If you hold procedural residence, you have only a limited right to medical assistance. If you require acute medical assistance or hospital care, you will be required to contact local authorities first.

Read more about re-entry permit at Útlendingastovan's website