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I am an EU citizen
Whether you are allowed to work in Belgium and which conditions apply depends on your nationality and right to reside in Belgium.
Are you an EU citizen and do you want to work for more than three months in Belgium?
If you want to work for more than three months in Belgium, you need to take the following steps:
- You should register with the municipality within three months of arriving in Belgium.
- You must prove that you are Swiss, an EU or EEA citizen (the best way is with a passport or identity card).
- The municipality is obliged to issue you with an ‘Annex 19 Declaration of Registration’ the same day and to register you in the waiting register at the address you provide.
- The municipality will tick the reason for your residence on the Annex 19: for example, as an employee (only if you have a signed contract with your employer), as self-employed (only if you already have the necessary documents to prove self-employed activity), as a job seeker, a student, an economically non-active citizen with their own means of livelihood…
Important: once your Annex 19 has been issued, the municipality will ask the community police officer to verify you live at the address you have provided. Only once the community police officer has confirmed that you live at the address, will you be registered in the foreign national register. In order to make the community police officer’s job easier and to ensure quick registration, it is important that you display your full name clearly under your doorbell and on your letterbox.
Important: from the moment your ‘Annex 19 – Declaration of Registration’ has been issued, you have three months to provide the supporting documents. Which supporting documents you must provide depends on the reason cited for your stay in Belgium. If you already have the supporting documents, please hand these over at the same time as you apply for an Annex 19.
Which supporting documents do you need to provide?
Een arbeidscontract. Dit contract moet een contract zijn van minimum 12 uur per week en het moet een contract zijn die aantoont dat je langer drie maanden voor deze werkgever zal werken (dit kan aangetoond worden met een werkgeversattest – bijlage 19bis). Als de tewerkstelling korter is dan 3 maanden zal de gemeente voor jou geen verblijfskaart aanmaken maar je wel een bijlage 3ter geven. Dit geeft je het recht om 3 maanden in België te verblijven. Je kunt een bijlage 3ter niet verlengen. Als je werkt met interim contracten werkt zal men pas een verblijfskaart E afleveren als je drie maanden loonfiches kan voorleggen en als uit die loonfiches blijkt dat je minimum 12 uur per week werkte. Tijdens deze drie maanden heb je enkel de bijlage 19.
Inschrijving bij de VDAB (Vlaanderen) of Actiris (Brussel) of Forem (Wallonië) of kopie van sollicitatiebrieven én bewijzen van reële kans hebt om werk te vinden (bijvoorbeeld: een CV met je competenties en je opleidingen, een kopie van diploma’s, behaalde attesten, taallessen, …
Ook zonder bijlage 19 kan je je inschrijven als werkzoekende bij de arbeidsbemiddelingsdiensten (VDAB, Actiris, Forem). Als je door hen echter actief wil worden begeleid kan het zijn dat ze eerst een bijlage 19 vragen.
Een inschrijving bij de kruispuntbank met het ondernemingsnummer + aansluiting bij een sociaalverzekeringsfonds voor zelfstandigen. Afhankelijke van het statuut waarbinnen je werkt als zelfstandige kunnen er bijkomende bewijsstukken worden gevraagd. Bevraag hiervoor je gemeente.
Dienst Vreemdelingen zaken zal dossier per dossier beoordelen er is in de wet immers geen bedrag vastgelegd dit mag ook niet volgens de Europese regels. Je moet bewijzen dat je niet ten laste zal zijn van de Belgische overheid. Een richtbedrag is het leefloon als je inkomen hoger is dan dit richtbedrag ga je immers geen recht hebben op sociale steun. Als je echter minder dan het leefloon verdient mag men je aanvraag toch niet automatisch weigeren. Dienst Vreemdelingen zaken moet u persoonlijke situatie bekijken en met al uw inkomsten rekening houden zoals bijvoorbeeld : een invaliditeitsuitkering, vervroegd pensioen, tegemoetkoming voor hulp aan bejaarden, vergoeding voor een arbeidsongeval of beroepsziekte, … Dit moet altijd gepaard gaan met een bewijs van ziekteverzekering.
Een inschrijving aan georganiseerde, erkende of gesubsidieerde onderwijsinstelling + ziekteverzekering + verklaring op eer dat je voldoende bestaansmiddelen hebt. Als EU, EER of Zwitserse student mag je ook werken er bestaan geen regels over het maximum aantal uren per week. Wel moet je hoofdbezigheid studeren zijn. Als je toch te veel uren werkt zal je onder het statuut van werknemer vallen wat een voordeliger statuut is.
What happens if after three months you still cannot provide the necessary documents?
If you have not handed over the supporting documents, the municipality will issue you with an ‘Annex 20 – Decision to refuse residency for longer than three months. This document gives you an extra month in which to collect all the supporting documents. In practice, this means you have four months to prove that you meet the conditions for residence.
If you do not succeed in this, you will be issued once more with an Annex 20, but this time with an instruction to leave the territory. You will then have to leave Belgium, however you can always return and start this procedure anew. You can also appeal the decision, in which case you will not have to leave the country. During your appeals procedure, you will be issued with an Annex 35. If you hand in your supporting documents just after the four months have passed, the municipality may issue you with an Annex 19, which means you will not have to leave the country.
What happens if you have the necessary supporting documents within the four months?
If you do provide the municipality with the necessary documents on time (within the first four months of your Annex 19 being issued), and if those documents are checked and approved, the municipality will issue you with an ‘Annex 8 – Declaration of Registration‘or an electronic E-card. Both documents give you the same rights. You will receive the Annex 8 or electronic E-card no later than six months after the date you handed in the supporting documents mentioned on your Annex 19. The E-card is valid for five years and will be renewed through a simple application. You now have everything you need.
Are you an EU citizen and do you want to work for fewer than three months in Belgium?
If you want to work for fewer than three months in Belgium, you need to take the following steps:
- Apply to the municipality for a ‘Declaration of Arrival’ within ten days of arriving in Belgium.
- You must prove that you are Swiss, an EU or EEA citizen (the best way is with a passport or identity card).
- Take a passport photo and your Belgian address.
- The municipality will issue you with an ‘Annex 3ter Declaration of Presence’. Your address during your stay will also be mentioned on this document.
- There will be no address check by the community police officer.
- You will not be registered in the National Register.
You must take these steps every time you return to Belgium to work for a maximum of three months.
If you are staying in accommodation that by law must register you as a traveller, you do not have to do this in person. (Accommodation might include a hotel, a guesthouse etc.) You are also not obliged to do this if you are staying in a hospital or a prison.
If you do not register withing the ten working days, you are liable for a fine of 200 euros. This has not occurred in practice so far.
Can an employer recruit me even if my residence has not yet been sorted out?
Yes.
In order to register your employment contract, your employer must register you with Social Security. Normally, this is done with your BIS number. If your residence has not yet been sorted out, you will not yet have a BIS number. Your employer can apply for a BIS number from belgianIDpro. Once your employer has received this number, he can register you with Social Security and you can start work.
Important!: this does not mean that your residence has been sorted out so you must still register with the municipality as described above. Your employer has done what is required and cannot be penalised if you do not sort out your residence. However, you can be penalised even though at present, this is not being strictly monitored.
If I stop working, can my residence card be taken away?
Yes, during the first five year, your E residence card can be cancelled if you no longer meet the conditions of residence. That’s to say if you no longer work or are no longer self-employed.
If you stay for fewer than five years in Belgium with an E residence card and you claim benefits from the OCMW or other social support for longer than three months you are costing the Social Security money. In that case, the Immigration Service can decide to cancel your residence right.
If you lose your job and have to claim benefits from the OCMW in order to make ends meet, you can do that without any problems for a maximum of three months.
However, if you do continue to claim OCMW support for more than three months, the Immigration Service will be notified and they may decide to cancel your residence right but that is not automatic. If the Immigration Service decides to investigate whether or not you still meet the conditions for residence, you will be notified of that and given the chance to defend yourself.
You briefly had OCMW support but you have found a new job. In that case, you can decide to pay back the support, or part of it, that you received. Doing so would avoid any problems occurring when you renew your residence right. However, this is not obligatory.
Did you lose your residence right but you have found new work? In that case, you can request a residence card again for more than three months, as described above.
Important: in some situations, you can actually keep your residence right.
If you are temporarily unfit for work due to illness or accident
OR
- if you worked for more than one year and after that were made redundant. You do however have to register with an employment service (VDAB, Actiris, Forem).
- If you worked for less than one year (temporary contract or made redundant), you will keep your employee statuse for six months. You do however have to register with an employment service (VDAB, Actiris, Forem).
- If you start a vocational training course (no connection with the previous work activities is required unless the unemployment was voluntary)
Can I work as a frontier worker?
Yes
A frontier worker is someone who lives in one of Belgium’s neighbouring countries (the Netherlands, France, Germand and the Duchy of Luxembourg) but who comes to work in Belgium for a Belgian employer.
You do not need an employment card or a residence permit. Naturally, you will have to be able to present or obtain a valid residence permit from one of the neighbouring countries.
You must inform the Belgian municipality in which you are going to work of your presence in Belgium. You do this by going to the municipality in which you are going to work, taking with you a passport photo, your identity documents and your employment contract which states that you are coming to work in Belgium as a frontier worker. The municipality will issue you immediately with the necessary document (an Annex 15).
If you live in one of Belgium’s neighbouring countries but you work in Belgium and decide to move to Belgium, you must follow the procedure described above under the header ‘Are you an EU citizen and do you want to work for more than three months in Belgium?’ You will have to register with the Belgian municipality in which you are going to live. When registering, in addition to the other documents, you will also have to show your employment contract.
You can find more information about frontier work here for the Netherlands, Germany and the Duchy of Luxembourg.
