EU citizenship through marriage: Member States may verify the validity of marriages retroactively

Brussels – A young man from outside Europe arrives in Ireland to study. There he finds love: he meets a girl, they get engaged, and eventually marry. An apparently ordinary story — the kind you’d expect in a romance novel or a sentimental film script — but one that ends up in court, with judges calling everything into question to the point of establishing that retroactive checks on the validity of granted citizenship are permissible. Here lies the plot twist: perhaps classic in books and films, but rather unusual from a legal standpoint. The Court of Justice of the EU, in a judgment, establishes a principle for identifying sham or suspect marriages, thereby combating irregular immigration.

The judges in Luxembourg ruled on a case concerning citizenship acquired by a non-EU national following marriage to an EU citizen. The man, Beshtame (a fictitious name, for reasons of confidentiality), a third-country national, married in 2015 shortly before his student residence permit was due to expire. Since then, his right to move within the EU has derived from his status as a spouse. The timing aroused the suspicion of the Irish authorities, who feared that the marriage was a sham and that the right of residence had been obtained fraudulently.

 The Court of Justice of the EU has no doubt: “Member States may investigate past fraud and establish its
existence, even if the person concerned has acquired the nationality of the host Member State.” According to the judges, the provisions of the right of residence relating to the fight against fraud and abuse of rights “also apply to past situations,” and, therefore, Member States may “take measures concerning rights conferred previously, even if the
person is no longer, at the time of the authorities’ intervention, a beneficiary of the directive.” Moreover, the judgment states, “any contrary
interpretation would undermine the objective of combating marriages of convenience and fraudulent practices, which are
often detected belatedly.” 

When carrying out the necessary investigations, where there are grounds for suspicion, the Member State must, however, refrain from revoking acquired rights until the investigation has been concluded. On this point, the Court of Justice of the EU wishes to be clear: legal safeguards and protections must be maintained in all circumstances. Where there is a suspicion of a marriage of convenience arranged for the sole purpose of enabling the acquisition of citizenship, the individual remains a citizen until proven otherwise.