Austria: Decline in marriages with foreigners

Austria has less marriages due to stricter police supervision. The number of marriages has gone down by 38%, according to Austrian media.

An important reason for that is that through police checks, more pseudo-marriages are discovered, according to the police. These are marriages between Austrians and foreigners, in which the Austrians help their so-called partner get a residence permit in exchange for money. According to Kronen Zeitung, Serbs, Turks and Africans especially want to get Austrian nationality in this way. The paper claims that in the EU this is a business of millions and claims that barely 20% of these pseudo-marriages are discovered.

The number of marriages between Austrians and non-EU residents in Austria dropped by 54% last year.

Source: AD (Dutch)