Brussels, 10/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member states have little discretion in assessment of requests for entry by non-EU nationals who wish to stay for more than three months for study purposes. States may not, for example, take motivation, the relevance of the proposed studies to the student's intended career or knowledge of the language of the host country into consideration, the Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday 10 September in case C-491/13, involving a Tunisian national who had been refused entry to Germany where he wished to study.
The young Tunisian was accepted several times to study at the University of Dortmund. The German authorities, however, each time rejected his visa application, questioning his motivation for wishing to study in Germany, particularly in light of his poor grades, his weakness in German and the fact that there was no connection between the studies he proposed to undertake and his chosen career.
The Administrative Court of Berlin asked if a national administration can have such discretionary powers. The Court replied that it cannot. From the moment that a non-EU national meets the general and specific conditions set out exhaustively in the directive on admission of third country nationals for the purposes of study, unpaid training or voluntary activities (2004/14/EC), member states cannot refuse to deliver a student visa. Neither can member states introduce further admission conditions as this would run counter to the objective of the EU which is to promote the mobility of students from non-EU countries, the Court argues.
In this case, the Tunisian student would seem to have met the general conditions laid down in the directive and does not represent a threat to public order, public security or public health - the three relevant facts that can be used by member states to reject student visa applications. The Court concludes, therefore, that the student should have been permitted to study at Dortmund. (JK)