On Monday June 25, the Norwegian tabloid newspaper VG reported that a Morrocan national who had previously been expelled from Norway is now married to a temporary employee of the UDI.

The report may give the impression that there is a relation between his marriage to the UDI employee, and the fact that he may now reside in Norway and apply for family immigration, and eventually the outcome of his application.

It is important to clarify that this man no longer is expelled from Norway. And in accordance with the regulations, he was residing legally in Norway when the UDI employee started working temporary in April this year.

Obviously, his application for family immigration will be processed on an equal basis to all other cases in accordance with the current regulations.

In addtion, I would like to emphasise that the UDI employee does not process individual applications;rather works with preparing cases for further processing. Neither does she work in the divison that processes family immigration cases.

The UDI processes 90 000 cases annually and have clear guidlelines for handling cases concerning employee impartiality when it concerns employees with immigrant backgrounds or close family ties with persons with immigrant backgrounds. The guildelines have been followed in this particular case.