Facts
The applicants, [A.] and [B.] , are Turkish nationals of Kurdish ethnicity. [A.] arrived in Switzerland in 2006 and filed an asylum application, which was rejected. However, he was recognized as a refugee and provisionally admitted. [B.] lives in Turkey and filed an application for residence in Switzerland for family reunification in 2011. The two applied for preparation of marriage to the civil registry office of Bern-Mittelland.
The Migration and Civil Status Office of the Canton of Bern did not consider the application. An appeal filed with the Police and Military Directorate of the Canton of Bern was unsuccessful. The appeal filed against this decision was dismissed by the Administrative Court of the Canton of Bern.
[A.] and [B.] appeal the cantonal final judgment of the Administrative Court of the Canton of Bern in public law matters. They request that the lower court be instructed to enable the applicant to enter Switzerland for the purpose of marrying the applicant and to grant her a short-term residence permit for the preparation of the marriage.
Considerations
The Federal Court must examine whether the applicants have a claim to the issuance of a visa for marriage in Switzerland. The lower court examined a possible claim of the applicant to the issuance of a (short-term) residence permit under Art. 8 ECHR.
The Federal Court comes to the conclusion that the applicants could not reasonably be expected to marry in a country other than Switzerland. It would therefore fundamentally violate Art. 14 Cst. and Art. 12 ECHR to make it impossible for the applicant to enter Switzerland for the purpose of marriage.
However, the Federal Court has also found that the applicant has neither a residence permit nor can he obtain one through…