BackIn a judgment delivered on 10 September 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union outlined that EU Member States are obliged to admit to their territory a third-country national who wishes to stay for more than three months for study purposes, where that national meets the general and specific conditions listed in the corresponding EU directive.
The judgment is based on a Council Directive from 2004 regulating the conditions for admission of third-country nationals “to the territory of the Member States for a period exceeding three months for the purposes of studies, pupil exchange, unremunerated training or voluntary service” and establishing “the rules concerning the procedures for admitting third country nationals to the territory of the Member States for those purposes.”
The recent judgment followed the Case Mohamed Ali Ben Alaya v Germany. Ben Alaya had appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union after German authorities had repeatedly refused several applications for a student visa.
Following the judgment, the Court noted that the directive would allow Member States to exercise a measure of discretion when considering applications for admission, but “discretion relates only to the conditions laid down by the directive”.
The full Press Release is available HERE.
