A and B, Afghan nationals were married in 2017, in a ceremony in which the couple was not present in person but remotely by video call, with A in Afghanistan and B in Finland. The marriage was legalised and registered in the Finnish Population Information system. A applied for family reunification with B, as family gatherer but the Finnish Immigration Service (FIS) rejected the application. The FIS analysed the validity of the marriage in view of compliance with the conditions for granting a residence permit. The FIS considered that the validity is not related to the data in the population information system. However, the Supreme Administrative Court assessed that the applicant and the family reunifier had a nexus to the country of marriage and that in Afghanistan video marriages are considered legal and valid. A marriage can be considered valid in Finland too in terms of the principle of favori matrimonii. In addition, an assessment shall be conducted to see if special reasons were invoked to consider the marriage valid in Finland since the family reunifier did not provide a valid reason for not traveling to Afghanistan for the marriage.

The Supreme Administrative Court noted that the reasons for marriage via video link did not seem convincing but the family reunifier participated in the wedding ceremony quite soon after the online and was an argument to be considered. The Supreme Administrative Court considered the spouses’ links with the State of marriage and to the length of family life. The Supreme Administrative Court evaluated the report on living together and communicating to find that the spouses had shown by their actions that their intention was to spend family life as married people. The Court found not indications of marriage being contracted in a different way and for other purposes than a family life.

The Supreme Administrative Court considered that the marriage was valid in Finland and returned the case for re-examination to the FIS.