The border closures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic separated countless couples and families, including many unmarried partners who previously had the privilege of accessible transnational family lives. This investigation contributes to the literatures on the transformation of intimacy and family migration in particular, immigration regulation for unmarried same- and opposite-sex partners. Even in “cohabitation land,” these appeals ultimately come up against immigration control. We investigate three sites of contestation where appeals are made to intimacy norms: The Liberal party’s “love visa” proposal, sponsors’ statements in case files, and protests from same-sex couples. While unmarried partners have a right to family reunification after two years’ cohabitation, this requires prior permission to live in the same country. Societal norms around coupledom have shifted toward Giddens’s “pure relationship.” Yet, immigration regulations have focused on “problematic marriages,” such as forced marriages or marriages of convenience. From this point of departure, we reexamine Norwegian family immigration regulation for unmarried partners from the 1980s onwards. Pandemic border closures separated previously transnational couples, including unmarried partners, revealing under-researched forms of transnational family life.
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