Belgium Moves Closer to Single Permit System

Belgium

Although Belgium has been referred to the Court of Justice by the European Commission for not complying with an EU directive to adopt a combined work and residence permit system by December 2013, on November 20, 2015, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved the first working document on the single permit implementation. It will be reviewed by stakeholders and if approved, would significantly reform the current Belgian immigration system.

Proposed New Single Permit Process

According to the proposal, applicants would follow the below process to obtain their single permit:

• The applicant would file their work and residency permit applications simultaneously with the regional employment authorities in Belgium;
• The federal immigration office would review the residency authorization application and upon approval, would return the file to the employment authorities who would approve the work authorization;
• The employee and employer would be notified of the decisions;
• Upon receipt of an approval notice, the employee would be able to obtain the visa at the Belgian diplomatic post abroad; and
• Upon arrival, the visa would be exchanged for a single permit at the local town hall of the employee’s place of residence.

Although the processing time for the application is expected to be at least four months from the employment authorities’ decision on the admissibility of the application, the working document proposes several fast track procedures.

What This Means for Employers and Foreign Nationals

If implemented, the single permit system would create a multi-step, consolidated work and residence permit application process for foreign nationals seeking to work in Belgium.

Fragomen is following the directive’s implementation and will provide further updates as they become available.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].

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