According to figures from Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, Berlin granted 53,598 family reunification visas during the first half of 2026, even though the government of Friedrich Merz had announced the suspension of this entry route.
The figure contrasts with the statements made during the federal election campaign. In April 2025, a month before taking office as Chancellor, Merz declared on X that his government would “manage and control migration better” and “suspend family reunification.”
Family reunification was suspended for two years on June 27, 2025, with Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder insisting on television that it amounted to “a return to the way things were before 2015 when it comes to law and order.”
The official records, however, show a gradual decline rather than a halt. In the first half of 2024, 63,637 visas of this type were granted; in the same period of 2025, around 57,000, a 10% drop; and in the first semester of 2026, a slightly lower figure. If the same pace is maintained in the second semester, the annual total would once again exceed 100,000 arrivals through this route.
The discrepancy between what has been promised and the figures is explained by the actual scope of the measure. The approved suspension affects only beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, a status granted to those who obtain neither the right to asylum nor recognition as refugees, but who could suffer serious harm if returned to their country of origin. It is a subgroup within the broader category of family reunification, not the whole of it.
Recognized refugees and people entitled to asylum therefore retain their usual reunification conditions. German diplomatic missions can also continue to issue visas in cases of particular hardship, under sections 22 and 23 of the Residence Act.
The key point here is that, since the 2015 crisis, many of those formerly known as “economic migrants” began applying for refugee status. A status that, moreover, does not usually extend beyond four years in most cases without a compelling cause. As has become clear over time, many of those who came under refugee status (whether genuine or not) end up staying in Europe.
The available breakdown confirms the weight of the unaffected categories. Between January and May 2026, Germany issued 7,946 reunification visas for spouses of German citizens and another 35,793 for general family reunification, adding up to 43,739 before June’s data is included. None of these categories form part of the suspended segment.
The suspension of reunification for those under subsidiary protection was one of the central migration measures in the program of the Merz coalition. Its implementation is yet another example of the wide gap between what was promised during the campaign and what is currently happening in Germany.
