EU Family Members

Published 07.08.2022

In accordance with the Act No. 404/2012 Coll. on Residence of Foreigners and on the Amendment and Supplement to certain Acts:

A Member State shall be understood as the member state of the European Union, apart from the Slovak Republic, other state which is a contracting party of the Treaty on the European Economic Area and Swiss Confederation.

A Union citizen is everybody who is not the state citizen of the Slovak Republic and who is the citizen of another member state.

A family member of the Union citizen is understood as the third country national who is 

a) his/her spouse;

b) his/her child younger than 21 years of age, his/her dependent child and dependent children of his/her spouse;

c) his/her dependent direct relative in descending or ascending line and such a person of his/her spouse;

d) any other family member to whom par. (a) to (c) do not apply and he/she is a dependent person in the country of his/her origin;

e) any other family member to whom par. (a) to (c) do not apply and he/she is the member of his/her household;

f) any other family member to whom par. (a) to (c) do not apply and he/she depends on his/her care due to serious health reasons;

g)  his/her partner with whom the Union citizen is in a permanent, duly certified relationship;

h) a third country national with the right of residence in the same member state in which the Union citizen has the right of residence, and the Union citizen is a Slovak Republic national with whom the third country national returns or whom he/she joins to reside with back in the Slovak

 

Republic territory and fulfils some of the conditions specified in (a) to (g) in connection with the Slovak Republic national;

 

The right of entry of the citizen of Union 

The right of entry shall be demonstrated by a Union citizen by means of submitting a document or in another trustworthy way in which he/she duly demonstrates his/her identity and citizenship of a member state. 

 

The right of entry of a family member of the citizen of Union

A family member of a Union citizen may enter the Slovak Republic territory, if he/she is accompanied by the Union citizen or if he/she travels in order to join the Union citizen; this shall not apply, if the family member of the Union citizen has the right of residence as the family member of the Union citizen in some of the members states. 

The family member of the Union citizen shall demonstrate the right of entry by submitting a document or in another trustworthy way in which he/she duly demonstrates his/her identity and family relationship with the Union citizen. A person who declares that he/she is a Union citizen or a family member of a Union citizen is allowed by the police department to demonstrate these facts in a trustworthy way within due period of time.

The family member of a Union citizen who is subject to visa obligation shall submit a valid visa at the entry; this shall not apply, if he/she submits a valid document of residence of a family member of a Union citizen or a document of residence according to special regulation. 

 

Visa application

When applying for a visa the family member of a Union citizen shall present the following supporting documents: 

1) a completed application form

The application must be filled-in properly and signed by the applicant; in case the applicant is under 18 or lacking legal capacity, the application must be signed by a parent or guardian who is required to attach a copy of the document identifying him/her as the applicant’s legal guardian.

Visa application forms are available for downloading.

 

The applicant may also fill in the application form via Electronic visa request. The completed form is delivered to the applicant's e-mail address for the print out. Please note that filling in the application via Electronic visa request may be obligatory when lodging the application at certain diplomatic missions. Further information will be provided by the diplomatic mission.

2) a valid travel document;

 

3) a full-face colour photo, conform to ICAO standards; 

 

4) allow the collection of his fingerprints, where applicable;

 

The following applicants are exempt from the requirement to give fingerprints: 

(a) children under the age of 12; 

(b) persons for whom fingerprinting is physically impossible; 

(c) heads of State or government and members of a national government with accompanying spouses, and the members of their official delegation when they are invited by Member States’ governments or by international organisations for an official purpose; 

(d) sovereigns and other senior members of a royal family, when they are invited by Member States’ governments or by international organisations for an official purpose.

 

The fingerprints of the applicant are collected once in 59 months. During this period they are stored in the Visa information system (VIS) and can be used in the future visa applications submitted by the applicant. However, there are several reason for which the applicant may be required to submit his fingerprints even during the 59 months period.

  • if there is reasonable doubt regarding the identity of the applicant; 
  • if at the time when the application is lodged, it cannot be immediately confirmed that the fingerprints were collected within the period of 59 months; 
  • if the low quality of fingerprints stored in VIS does not allow their repeated use.

 

5) supporting documents confirming:

a) identity and nationality of the Union citizen; 

b) that the visa applicant is a family member of the Union citizen, e.g. a marriage certificate, birth certificate, evidence relating to dependency, serious health grounds, durability of partnerships, etc.

c) that the visa applicant will accompany or join the Union citizen in the host Member State. 

 

The family members may be required to provide additional documents in the context of determining the Member State competent for examining and deciding on an application, or determining territorial competence for visa applications in order to establish their links with the country in which they lodge their entry visa applications.

Family members of Union citizens are granted as soon as possible, within 10 days of submitting the application.

The visa applications of the family member of a Union citizen is not be subject to the payment of the visa fee.

 

Member states of European Union are: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Austria, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. 

 

Member states of the the European Economic Area are: member states of the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein.

 

The above also applies to family members of UK nationals who are EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaires and who join the UK national in the host State after the end of the transition period.