1. Country Overview

Immigration has been at the center of the political stage in Belgium.

In December, the Prime Minister resigned after government collapses in a dispute over the signing of the UN migration pact. The right-wing Flemish party (N-VA) left the government after the PM refused its demand to drop his support for the migration pact, and secured parliamentary approval to go ahead and sign the pact on 10 December.

A law modifying the Belgian Nationality Code was adopted and published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 2 July 2018. It entered into force on 12 July 2018.

It introduces new important developments.

1. Country Overview

This year, many immigration-law reforms have been adopted and some bills are still being debated.

The changes primarily concern labor migration, such as the gradual implementation of the single permit directive and shorter real-world processing times for issuing work permits or business cards.

With regard to asylum, measures to facilitate detention and access to personal data were adopted.

Throughout the world, there are common law relationships that are recorded by a public authority but do not have the same effects as marriage. In Belgium, these are known as ‘legal cohabitation’.

As of 1 April 2017, Article 328(3) of the Belgian Civil Code explicitly provides that the recognition of a child conceived by the unmarried parent can take place at any time during the pregnancy on the basis of a medical certificate issued by a doctor or a midwife (law of 20 February 2017, Belgian official journal 22 March 2017).

The most important legislative changes in Belgium in the past year are the following :

1.1 Financial contribution for most of the residence or visa applications
As of March 2nd, 2015, the processing of some visa D applications and some residence applications require payment of a contribution either €215 (usual amount), € 160 (student and family reunification), or € 60 (long-term residents and certain family members).

Altea is the winner of the 2014 Corporate Intl Magazine Global Award :

‘Immigration Law Firm of the Year in Belgium’