1. Country Overview
Political context : Belgium's migration and asylum policy underwent a significant shift following the federal and regional elections of June 2024. After seven months of negotiations, a five-party centre-right coalition – known as the "Arizona" coalition (N-VA, MR, Les Engagés, CD&V and Vooruit) – took office on 31 January 2025. Both the Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, and the Minister of Asylum and Migration, Anneleen Van Bossuyt, are members of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie). The coalition agreement commits to the strictest migration policy in Belgian history.
Non-compliance with judicial decisions: The defining feature of this reporting period is the continued and openly assumed policy of non-execution of binding judicial decisions. This posture, initiated by the previous government (Secretary of State De Moor, CD&V, October 2023) and reinforced by Minister Van Bossuyt, concerns condemnations by Belgian labour courts ordering reception of asylum seekers, Rule 39 interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights, and judgments of the Constitutional Court and the Council of State.
Reception crisis : Fedasil's reception network remained structurally saturated. In 2025, 34,439 applications for international protection were registered (–13% compared with 2024's record of 39,615). The number of persons without accommodation despite a binding judicial order remained at several thousand.
Temporary protection : (Ukraine) 92,257 persons benefitted from temporary protection in 2024. Belgium did not anticipate the end of the temporary protection regime, scheduled for 4 March 2027, and lacks the administrative and judicial capacity to process all such persons under the ordinary asylum rules. As the pathways to economic migration (single permit, professional card) are too restrictive to absorb this population, calls have been made for a work-based regularisation scheme, which enjoys majority support in Belgian public opinion.
Litigation on long-term resident status for holders of special residence permits: Significant litigation has developed concerning access to EU long-term resident status for persons who held special residence permits (NATO, SHAPE, Eurocontrol and EU institution staff), whose periods of residence are subject to a restrictive administrative interpretation by the Immigration Office, even though certain special statuses are not excluded from entitlement to long-term resident status (a prerequisite for an application for Belgian nationality).
2. Legislative Changes
Family reunification reform: The Act of 18 July 2025 (Belgian Official Gazette of 8 August 2025, in force 18 August 2025) introduced stricter conditions: minimum age for spouses raised to 21 years, shorter deadlines for family members of refugees, new waiting periods for relatives of persons with subsidiary protection, and higher financial requirements. Concerns have been raised as to compatibility with Article 8 ECHR and the Family Reunification Directive. The detail of the new rules by category is set out in section 4.
Constitutional Court, judgment no. 38/2026 (2 April 2026) : The Court held that the Immigration Office is required to take into account the foreign applicant's own income, not only that of the Belgian sponsor. This obligation, which ran counter to established administrative practice and gave rise to extensive litigation, now applies to all family reunification files.
Frontex Act :The Act adopted in spring 2024 is fully implemented and applied. It has expanded the coercive tools available for removals and authorised the deployment of Frontex officers in support of Belgian authorities. See section 6 for details.
EU Pact on Migration and Asylum : Belgium has prepared preliminary draft laws to implement the Pact, which should be transposed before 12 June 2026, or with a delay.
Bill on lifetime entry bans : On 26 February 2026, the government tabled a bill (DOC 56 1377/001) enabling the Immigration Office to impose lifetime entry bans on persons registered in the T.E.R. database (terrorism, extremism, radicalisation). The Council of State (Opinion no. 78.486/4) raised serious reservations, notably on compatibility with the Return Directive 2008/115/EC, which defines an entry ban as a measure of specified duration, and on proportionality as regards minors from the age of 12. A preliminary reference is pending before the CJEU (Case C-446/24).
Reform of CCE procedure : A new Act rewrites the entire procedural framework before the Council for Alien Law Litigation (CCE) as of 12 June 2026. It establishes a three-track procedure: ordinary (30 days), accelerated (10 days for Dublin transfers, CGRA inadmissibility decisions and return orders combined with removal) and urgent (5 days for border procedures and certain decisions accompanied by detention). Written procedure becomes the default; oral hearings the exception. Applications are capped at 25 pages. AVOCATS.BE and the President of the CCE have raised serious concerns as to compatibility with Article 47 of the EU Charter and Article 13 ECHR.
Deprivation of nationality : Act of 8 February 2026 – Published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 18 February 2026, the Act extends the cases in which dual nationals convicted of at least five years' imprisonment for serious crimes (organised crime, homicide, sexual offences) may be stripped of Belgian nationality, and makes deprivation automatic in terrorism cases. Myria and the Federal Human Rights Institute criticised the disproportionate extension of scope and the breach of the principle of equality.
3. Business Immigration
The statistics show a slight decrease in the issuance of long-stay visas for professional purposes: 7,874 visas were issued in 2024, a fall of 9% compared with 2023.
In the area of student migration, 11,582 long-stay visas for study purposes were issued in 2024 (+7%). The main countries of origin were China, Morocco, Cameroon, Turkey and Pakistan. Concerns have been raised about the increasing issuance of orders to leave the territory to students despite pending renewal applications.
The most significant reform concerns Flanders. As of 1 January 2026, the list of medium-skilled shortage occupations has been reduced to 21 professions (down from 35), with fourteen professions removed, including historically high-demand jobs (heavy goods drivers, butchers, mechanics). The residual "other" category is now subject to three cumulative conditions: the position must appear on the shortage occupations list; it must have been advertised for nine weeks on VDAB and EURES; and it must correspond to EQF qualification level 3 or 4. Level 2 functions have been abolished. A new Flemish administrative fee of approximately €200 per application has been introduced. This reform marks a significant tightening of access to the Flemish labour market for foreign workers, at a time when employers continue to report persistent talent shortages.
4. Family-Based Immigration
New rules by category (following the reform described in section 2):
- Reunification with a settled Belgian national (Article 40ter) : Minimum age for spouses raised to 21 years. Financial requirements increased. Constitutional Court judgment no. 38/2026 now requires the Immigration Office to take into account the foreign applicant's own income in addition to the Belgian sponsor's. Constitutional Court judgment no. 131/2024 of 21 November 2024 (delivered on a preliminary question from the CCE) held that the requirement of a valid identity document imposed on the parent of a Belgian minor child violated Articles 10, 11, 22 and 22bis of the Constitution. The Act of 10 March 2024 further introduced an obligation for the ascendant seeking reunification with a Belgian minor child to demonstrate that they are effectively caring for that child.
- Reunification with a third-country national : New waiting periods for family members of beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and of persons with an unlimited right of residence. Shorter deadlines for family members of recognised refugees. Practitioners must be alert to the date of the Immigration Office's decision, given that the new provisions apply immediately in the absence of transitional provisions (CCE, 28 February 2025, judgment no. 322,678).
- Reunification with an EU citizen or equivalent (Article 40bis) : Two successive Acts have amended the applicable conditions (Act of 10 March 2024, in force 1 September 2024; Act of 18 July 2025, in force 18 August 2025). In cases involving reunification with an ascendant of a minor EU citizen, the CCE applies the Chavez-Vilchez line (CJEU, 10 May 2017, C-133/15) and the Subdelegacion del Gobierno judgments (CJEU, 5 May 2022, C-451/19 and C-532/19), requiring a thorough examination of the dependency relationship under Article 20 TFEU.
5. Asylum and Reception
The coalition agreement envisages centralised collective reception centres, priority to subsidiary protection over refugee status, and access to applicants' phones for identification purposes. The Camara v. Belgium judgment (ECtHR, app. no. 49255/22, 18 July 2023) has not been fully executed; Belgium has continued to deny accommodation to thousands of applicants despite binding judicial orders, with imposed penalty payments largely left unenforced.
Key jurisprudential developments from the CCE's 2025 annual report:
- Country profiles: nearly one in five full-jurisdiction cases concerned Afghan applicants, followed by Palestinians (8.5%) and Congolese (8.2%). The CCE developed detailed case law on individual risk assessment relating to westernisation, transgression of religious norms and former security force members (CCE, 21 November 2025, judgments nos. 336,435 and 336,436 [AG] - Burundi; CCE, 28 November 2025, judgment no. 336,899 – Afghanistan).
- Gaza: the CCE granted refugee status to several Palestinian applicants from Gaza on the basis of UNRWA's inability to provide effective protection (CCE, 16 January 2025, judgment no. 320,159; CCE, 24 April 2025, judgment no. 325,730). The CCE also annulled refusals of humanitarian visas and family reunification requests in light of the exceptional situation in Gaza (CCE, 8 April 2025, judgment no. 324,738; CCE, 23 September 2025, judgment no. 333,061).
- Syria: the CGRA suspended processing of Syrian files from 9 December 2024 to 1 November 2025; the CCE annulled most refusal decisions for lack of sufficiently up-to-date country information on the post-Assad situation.
- Dublin: 4,400 cases were processed (down from 5,116 in 2024). Protection previously granted in Greece and Bulgaria remains a central issue, with individual examination required. Hungary has been designated as a responsible state again; all applications for extreme urgency suspension were rejected.
- Age assessment of unaccompanied minors: the CCE applied ECtHR judgment F.B. v. Belgium (6 March 2025, app. no. 47836/21), finding that Belgian bone-testing practice does not offer sufficient procedural guarantees under Article 8 ECHR.
- Female genital mutilation – Somalia: in four three-judge judgments (CCE, 12 December 2025, nos. 337,636, 337,637 and 337,853; CCE, 16 December 2025, no. 337,850), the CCE clarified the framework for assessing future risk of repeated persecution, based on the EUAA Country Guidance: Somalia of October 2025.
6. Return, Detention and Deportation
According to Myria, Belgium issued 37,672 return decisions and 2,653 entry bans in 2024 (+3.6% and +107% respectively). First detentions fell slightly to 4,804; police-escorted removals accounted for 16% of all repatriations. The proportion of removals following first detention remained around 78%.
The Frontex Act, fully applied, introduced the following measures: extension of the group of authorised escorts to foreign police officers; a statutory obligation of cooperation imposed on migrants subject to a removal measure; operational deployment of Frontex officers in support of Belgian authorities; and introduction of ICAM coaching as an alternative to detention. Detention of families with children remains prohibited. A bill tabled in February 2026 seeks to introduce lifetime entry bans for persons registered in the T.E.R. database (see section 2).
Around 30% of Belgium's prison population consists of irregularly staying detainees, many of whom cannot be removed for legal or practical reasons. No specific status for non-removable persons has been created.
7. Citizenship and Naturalisation
The Act of 18 July 2025 raised the registration fee for Belgian nationality declarations from €150 to €1,000 (indexed; currently approximately €1,030).
Significant litigation has developed before the Brussels civil courts on two issues. First, the ex tunc effect of the recovery of Belgian nationality: persons who have recovered nationality under Article 24 of the Belgian Nationality Code are challenging the refusal to recognise retroactive effect, which conditions in particular the status of children born in the intervening period. Second, the extension of the five-year period under Article 8 §1, 2°, b) of the Belgian Nationality Code for attribution of nationality following the birth abroad of a child to a Belgian parent: the civil courts are being asked to extend that period in the best interests of the child, in particular where the deadline was missed due to circumstances beyond the parents' control.
The Act of 8 February 2026 extending the cases of deprivation of nationality for dual nationals (see section 2) will generate additional litigation before the criminal courts and, potentially, before the Constitutional Court.
Céline Verbrouck
Attorney at the Brussels Bar
Specialised in immigration law, nationality law and international family law
www.altea.be
+32 2 894 45 70