New Single Work Permit Procedure - Belgium
I finally had received my single permit and Visa from Belgium consulate in New york at end of Feb. I was planning to arrive in Mid march but due to corona situation I delayed my trip.聽 I plan to come in June to Belgium
My question is since I have valid long term VISA D - Am I allowed Entry into Belgium or not? According to IBZ website only essential travel is allowed. Is travelling for job considered essential travel?
My furniture from US was already shipped to Brussels and I am staying with family in US for the time being.
I cannot delay my move any further, If I do not come by end of June, I will not be able to come at all.
Thanks
Have a look on Belgian Embassy website. You will find the actual position of Belgium.
Please verify directly with the competent services for residence (Immigration Offices) the status of your file.
I kindly recommend you to inform them as well that all files has been send to the immigration office on the general address for single permit on 03/05/2020 at 09.43
Do not hesitate to transfer this mail to the Immigration Office
Does that mean my wp is issued and sent to immigration office for聽 residence permit
gskataria1 wrote:Hello Everyone
I finally had received my single permit and Visa from Belgium consulate in New york at end of Feb. I was planning to arrive in Mid march but due to corona situation I delayed my trip.聽 I plan to come in June to Belgium
My question is since I have valid long term VISA D - Am I allowed Entry into Belgium or not? According to IBZ website only essential travel is allowed. Is travelling for job considered essential travel?
My furniture from US was already shipped to Brussels and I am staying with family in US for the time being.
I cannot delay my move any further, If I do not come by end of June, I will not be able to come at all.
Thanks
End of June seems safe, our schedule here is 4 Mai - Stores that can keep the social distance, 11 Mai - All remaining stores, 18 Mai - Some restaurants (No buffets) and Schools, 8 June - Everything else and Travels (but again this is Belgium, doesn't mean external).
I recommend to keep an eye on these decisions, they are changing everytime. And as your visa is Belgium, i recommend your Immigration to be on Belgium, not other EU.
I will wait till early June to see flights get started to Belgium or take the risk of going to Amsterdam.
gskataria1 wrote:Thank you. I will wait and see. But right now hardly any flights to Belgium. I can find some flights to Amsterdam not sure if it will cause any issues with immigration in Amsterdam and driving across the Border to Belgium.
I will wait till early June to see flights get started to Belgium or take the risk of going to Amsterdam.
Usually is the same, to be fair Zaventem is a HUB for only few companies, the biggest international companies will fly to Schiphol, Paris, London. You can have a Flying here, but with a stop. Brussel Airlines will only restart flying after 1 June.
In usual times you won't have any problem, but in these confuse times i hard to say. Probably Schiphol is a safe option, even you if can't find a fly here (to Charleroi in this case) you can pick a Train (there is one each 15min).
just avoid the Charles de Gaulle as a Stop.
Please can you start a new thread regarding flights, you are going off-topic as this topic is regarding New Single Work Permit Procedure.
SimCityAT
Expat Team
SimCityAT wrote:Hi everyone
Please can you start a new thread regarding flights, you are going off-topic as this topic is regarding New Single Work Permit Procedure.
SimCityAT
Expat Team
Hi mate,
If you only look the title, you're right. But if you read the first post, you're wrong.
But whatever, it's great to have you on our forum.
Have a nice day
Finally received my Single Permit today, so I thought I would share the timeline with you that are still waiting:
Region: Brussels
Submission: 04/12/2019
Admissibility: 09/01/2020 (only communicated along with the WP)
Work Permit: 22/01/2020
Single Permit (Annex 46): 07/05/2020
The Single Permit was sent today (08/05/2020) via email to my employer, with me and with the local consulate-general responsible for visa emissions in copy.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned here that I contacted the dofi helpdesk and got as a response that they "had not find any process under my name". I guess it was just a misplacement, as the final decision still came under the 4 months time range.
Now waiting for the consulate general to restart the suspended visa activities if the deconfinement plan goes well, hopefully.
Good luck to all still waiting
Please kindly help me.
I am moving to Ghent on single permit in June. I read that I will submit Rental contract as part of the documents required during City hall registration.
Is 3-months rental contract (without domicle) accepted by City Hall?
Also, I learnt you have to register within the first 8 days upon your arrival. what happens if you delay due to accommodation search.?
Why would you delay? You just need to go to the City hall present yourself, with the Passaport and Annex 46/47. Then you can have your time and look for a permanent residence.
They do not accept any non-permanent residence, and do not even try to use these addresses.
fmmaciel wrote:Hello everyone,
Finally received my Single Permit today, so I thought I would share the timeline with you that are still waiting:
Region: Brussels
Submission: 04/12/2019
Admissibility: 09/01/2020 (only communicated along with the WP)
Work Permit: 22/01/2020
Single Permit (Annex 46): 07/05/2020
The Single Permit was sent today (08/05/2020) via email to my employer, with me and with the local consulate-general responsible for visa emissions in copy.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned here that I contacted the dofi helpdesk and got as a response that they "had not find any process under my name". I guess it was just a misplacement, as the final decision still came under the 4 months time range.
Now waiting for the consulate general to restart the suspended visa activities if the deconfinement plan goes well, hopefully.
Good luck to all still waiting
Great! Boa Sorte!
If you need any help don't hesitate to contact me.
Berheme wrote:Hello,
Please kindly help me.
I am moving to Ghent on single permit in June. I read that I will submit Rental contract as part of the documents required during City hall registration.
Is 3-months rental contract (without domicle) accepted by City Hall?
Also, I learnt you have to register within the first 8 days upon your arrival. what happens if you delay due to accommodation search.?
You just have to go to the commune and let them know that you havent found a permanent accommodation yet. They will give you a future time-period by which you will have to find something permanent.
For me, When I went to register, they asked me to come back when I have a permanent rental contract. So its not a big issue. Just present yourself at the commune in 8 days of your arrival.
Thanks
Arjun
fmmaciel wrote:Hello everyone,
Finally received my Single Permit today, so I thought I would share the timeline with you that are still waiting:
Region: Brussels
Submission: 04/12/2019
Admissibility: 09/01/2020 (only communicated along with the WP)
Work Permit: 22/01/2020
Single Permit (Annex 46): 07/05/2020
The Single Permit was sent today (08/05/2020) via email to my employer, with me and with the local consulate-general responsible for visa emissions in copy.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned here that I contacted the dofi helpdesk and got as a response that they "had not find any process under my name". I guess it was just a misplacement, as the final decision still came under the 4 months time range.
Now waiting for the consulate general to restart the suspended visa activities if the deconfinement plan goes well, hopefully.
Good luck to all still waiting
Congratulations! Hopefully mine will be also out soon...
I have got two question regarding Visa D documents.
1. It is mentioned that the apostille of birth certificate and marriage certificate should NOT BE MORE THAN 6 MONTHS OLD. Is this true?
Any experience?
2. Same goes for Police Clearance Certificate not being more than 6 months old and Medical not being more than 3 months old. Any experience? We will be missing this requirement of time by a few weeks if the visa application resumes by end of this month in our country.
Would appreciate a response on this. Thanks.
The embassy should tell you about that, not us

They complain a little but it passed (again, they were still valid).
You can verify if your consulate, but they hardly will accept. But again, don't come to Belgium without the VISA, get Family reunion is 10000x harder then present the correct documents in the embassy.
WP Application:26/02/2020
Required additional document on 12/04/2020
WP Approval on 29/05/2020
SP Approval:27/05/2020
Good luck for all.

WP Application:09/01/2020
WP Approval on 04/02/2020
SP Approval:26/05/2020
I guess all I had to do was to wait!
Good luck to who ever is waiting!
If you're not there, and if I remember correctly they've 2-3 weeks to do the second visit.
If you're still not there, an appointment must be made (meaning you've to call them)
They have 21 days calendar to do the first visit.
Now... some communes are specialized and known to not respect the laws, especially some in Brussels...

As an example, in my commune, it took 6 days for the first visit of the police to check that my girlfriend was living at the same address as me. (it was on a Saturday)
One month ago, I I gave the family reunion file at the commune so my girlfriend could receive her F card. The police came the next day (on Saturday too).
So it really depends on the commune where you're living

I my case was like 4 weeks for the visit + 2 week till I get the letter from the Gemeentehuis, so was ok.聽
But my neighbor moved a little before Lockdown, took like 6 weeks for the visit, and + 4 for the letter.聽
So don't worry much about it, just be sure if you work to inform your available time to them.
I want to post my single permit application process timings.
WP Application:02/06/2020
WP Application (asked to fill in the consulate details and attached medical certificate and PCC): 16/06/2020
WP Application (documents complete status from Wallonia): 26/06/2020
Waiting for WP and SP soon. Let me know if any of you received SP these days and what is the time frame nowadays.
I recently got married to a belgian national, and fortunately was able to get a work contract with my company鈥檚 operation in Belgium. My employer鈥榮 consultant has maintained that it is much faster to get a single permit that applying for family reunification and has asked me not to initiate that process. They mentioned that the permit will be approved within 30 days and I can apply for a visa in the consulate in NY right after. I have had trouble getting them to respond to questions since between COVID and summer, it鈥檚 been hard to get a hold of them. I find the Belgian websites fairly confusing.
1. Now based on other posts in this forum, it seems like the approval process takes much longer than 30 days. Has anyone received their single permit within a month?
2. What is the difference between single permit and blue card application process other than the wage limit? I鈥檓 not entirely certain what application has been lodged in Flanders. I thought it was single permit, but I鈥檓 not sure since my company paid 363 administrative fee. The website for Flanders mentions single permit is free.
3. The embassy鈥檚 website in the US states that they are only processing visa for 鈥渉ighly skilled employee鈥檚鈥 with code B29 in their single permit. I haven鈥檛 been able to find what this B29 code refers to. Does anyone know what it means?
Thanks in advance for your response. I鈥檓 not sure someone probably answered this before, and I did go through several pages on this thread and in the forum before posting this. It is quite a take to go through 40 pages, but I think I covered 25% of the posts on here! 馃榿
From what I've heard and my own experience (check out a previous post of mine for summary of SP approval times)聽 a standard single permit takes way longer than 30 days. It looks like a 'B29' is a special type of Single Permit so maybe this is fast-tracked.聽
It's possible that your new company is using the services of Besox or someone that specializes in these visas (the HR is often just as confused as we are), so ask if they can give you the contact details of these people.
You'd get your """work permit""" in 2 weeks, as family member of EU doesn't need WP...
But that's not the case in these strange time right now...
So, yes they're right, let them do the unique work permit.
When you arrive in Belgium, get your A card at the commune.
Once you receive it, do start the family reunion from your commune.
No more work permit needed when you start the process, and you'll get your F card 6 months later.
(But you'll still have to pay around 200鈧 for the family reunion)
Before the covid, some single permit were done really fast depending of your country of origin (less than 3 weeks for the ones done by my company in Madagascar), but the generic time frame is +/- 4 months.
Family reunion 6 months.
Bring your certificate of birth & certificate of marriage with you, and most probably your criminal record too. (fresh news one before coming in Belgium)
+ apostile/legalization+translation
The 363鈧 is the normal fee for the work permit ( articles 9,聽 9bis, 61/11 & 61/27, law 15/12/1980 - article 25/2 from the 08/10/1981);
B29 is the code for high skill workers (which are currently allowed to come in Belgium during the covid19)
We鈥檒l see how long this process takes for me.
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