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Registration and residence formalities in Belgium for EU mobile citizens
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A citizen of the European Union has the right to enter Belgium:
Any citizen of the European Union, the European Economic Area or any Swiss citizen has the right to stay in Belgium for a period of up to three months, whatever the purpose of his/her stay (tourism, family visit, professional reason, ...), and after a few formalities.
Check first:
Then do the required formalities according to your situation:
If you, as EU citizen or citizen of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, want to stay more than three months in Belgium, you are considered as a resident and will have to go through a range of formalities to obtain a residence permit or “long-term stay”.
A citizen of the European Union has the right to stay for more than 3 months in Belgium:
If you are in one of the situations giving you the right to stay for more than 3 months in Belgium, you may ask for your registration at the municipal administration of the place where you reside, within the three months following your arrival in Belgium. Depending on your situation, you will need to submit some documents.
At your first appointment, you will receive a document entitled "application for a registration certificate" (Annex 19) which will mention the documents you have provided. If your file is complete, you will receive a certificate of registration (Annex 8).
A police survey will be conducted to verify your address.
In the event that some required documents are missing, you will have a period of 3 months to provide them to the Aliens’ Service.
After having sent all the documents required for your first registration in Belgium and following the statement by the police that you reside at your address, you will receive an invitation to make an appointment to order your E residence card.
A citizen of the European Union has the right to stay permanently in Belgium after five years of uninterrupted residence.
The starting point for this five-year period is the date on which the municipal administration gives you an "application for a registration certificate" (Annex 19).
Submit your application for permanent stay to the municipal administration by means of a form (Annex 22).
Once all the conditions of the Annex 22 are met:
Note: extended stays outside the Belgian territory may have consequences on your right to permanent residence (condition of uninterrupted stay of 5 years).
Situation 1
You leave Belgium before having obtained the right to stay there permanently:
Situation 2
You leave Belgium after having obtained the right to stay there permanently:
When leaving Belgium definitely (for undetermined time), you are required to inform the Aliens’ service before departure. It will carry out your removal from the register of foreigners.
You have two options to report your departure from Belgium:
Note: extended stays outside the Belgian territory may have consequences on your right to permanently reside there (condition of uninterrupted stay of 5 years).
European civil servants and SNEs can chose from the start to register directly at the commune or to get a special ID card via their own institution.
Special Identity Card (SIC)
In Belgium, civil servants working for a European or international organization, and seconded national experts, have the right to ‘simplified residence’, which amounts to the issuance of a ‘special identity card’ by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and not by the municipal authority. The members of their family can also take advantage of this system unless they are working in Belgium. Indeed, it is forbidden to work for a Belgian employer with a SIC! Holders of these special cards must not register in the commune where they live. They are however included in a separate local authority register and receive a national number (though this does not appear on their special identity card).
SIC is valid for 5 years and can be renewed.
Children can receive a SIC until a certain age (25 for civil servant’s children and 18 for SNE’s children) After 25 or 18 they have to enroll on the municipal register where they are living and must hand in their SIC. This also applies to children under these ages who are engaged in a paid or student job.
It is also always possible to give back the SIC and decide to go to the municipality to obtain the Belgian residence permit.
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