Work permit (Belgium)
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The issuing of work permits in Belgium is partially governed by the transposition of EU law, especially the principle of free movement of labour, and partially by Belgium-specific regulations.
There are three types of work permits for non-EU nationals: type C for students, relationship/family reasons and humanitarian reasons, type B for special categories of work (mostly in the context of training and posting of workers), and type A if you have repeatedly been granted a type B permit.
Nationals of "old" EU Member States (EU-15 + accession 2004)
Nationals of Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom are treated like Belgian workers, i.e. they do not need a work permit.
Nationals of "new" EU Member States (Accession 2007)
Nationals of Bulgaria and Romania still have to apply for work permits. These transitional restrictions to the Belgian labour market may apply for up to 7 years after the accession (= 1 January 2014). However, those nationals can profit from a fast-track procedure for work permits for professions for which it is officially recognised that labour is short.
EU long-term residents
Persons who have acquired long-term resident status[1] in Belgium are treated like Belgian workers, i.e. they do not need a work permit.
Persons who have acquired long-term resident status in another EU country can profit from a fast-track procedure for work permits for professions for which it is officially recognised that labour is short.
Nationals of countries with which Belgium has special agreements
Nationals of successor states of former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and of certain Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey) may obtain a work permit type B even if they do not fall under the special categories mentioned there. They can also apply for a work permit type A one year earlier than nationals from other non-EU countries.
Work permit type C
Characteristics:[2]
- Maximum validity period: one year
- Valid for all employers
- Valid for all paid occupations
- Granted to persons whose stay is temporary
The latter applies to
- a student (registered in an education institution in Belgium for full-time studies) who wants to work outside the school holidays, if this employment does not exceed twenty hours per week.
- a person living in cohabitation in the framework of a durable relationship with a partner of EEA nationality (European Economic Area i.e. EU-27 plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway)
- According to the website diplomatie.belgium.be, this can only be a heterosexual or same-sex couple. The partners have to submit a declaration of statutory cohabitation.[3]
- However, the website www.belgium.be states that you may as well live in cohabitation with a member of your family or any other person with whom you have a relationship without sexual connotation.[4]
- the spouse or registered partner
- of an EEA national who is employed in Belgium since at least one year with an open-ended contract
- of special residence permit holders from the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Croatia
- of a diplomat or consul
- of a non-EEA national whose application for a residence permit (beyond work) or whose request for reconsideration of the decision to refuse the residence permit is being examined
- a non-EEA national's spouse or registered partner who has been granted the right of residence on the basis of Belgian family reunification law (Article 10 of the law of 15/12/1980)
- a non-EEA national's relative in the descending line who has been granted the right of residence on the basis of Belgian family reunification law (Article 10 of the law of 15/12/1980)
- the child (under 18) of a diplomat or consul
- the child of a non-EEA national whose application for a residence permit (beyond work) or whose request for reconsideration of the decision to refuse the residence permit is being examined
and further to
- an applicant for refugee status (asylum seeker)
- a beneficiary of subsidiary protection
- a recognised victim of trade in human beings
- a person authorised to a stay for medical reasons on the basis of Belgian law (Article 9ter of the law of 15/12/1980)
- a person whose prolongation of residence authorisation for humanitarian reasons is depending on employment
- a person staying in the framework of temporary protection