How I obtained Belgian Residency
Posted by: Lydia in Brussels, Leuven, Belgium, tags: Brussels, citizenship, Leuven, paperworkJuly 2007:
Got married to Adrian in Canada.
Nov 2007:
Adrian claims UK citizenship by descent, thus I become married to an EU citizen.
Sept 2008:
Decide to move to Belgium.
Dec 2008:
Submit our Canadian marriage certificate to the Canadian High Commission in Australia for legalisation.
Feb 2009:
Present ourselves to the Leuven Town Hall.
Discover that the marriage certificate actually needs to be certified by the Belgian Embassy in Canada.
A friend retrieves the certificate from Canberra and posts it to Canada.
March 2009:
Receive my legalised marriage certificate.
Bring my legalised marriage certificate, passport, and rental contract to the Leuven Town hall to initiate my request for residency.
The police verify my address.
April 2009:
I am granted a five-month temporary residency and work permit until August.
July 2009:
We move house, and present ourselves to the Saint Gilles Town Hall. The police will have to verify our address before they can acknowledge our residency.
September 2009:
The police come to our apartment and go through our wardrobe to ensure our marriage is legitimate. Apparently this is quite normal in Brussels.
October 2009:
I receive an appointment at the Saint Gilles Town Hall. I present proof that we are living in Saint-Gilles. They take my temporary work permit, and tell me I will receive the codes to activate my 5-year permit in 15-21 days.
November 2009:
I go to the Town Hall to inform them the codes have not arrived in the post, and request new codes.
January 2010:
We inform the Town Hall that the codes have still not arrived.
February 2009:
I receive a letter from the Town Hall informing me that my codes have arrived.
I go to the Town Hall, and I am given a ticket to return the next morning at 8am.
I return the next morning, and I am told to return the following morning at 8am.
I return the next morning, and I am presented with my very own “carte de sejour de membre de la famille d’un citoyen d l’Union”.
October 2014:
I become eligible for Belgian citizenship if I demonstrate sufficiency in one of their official languages.
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Congratulations! I love that they went through your wardrobe! I would say ‘only in Belgium’ but it’s probably not true…
Wow, that is quite a bureaucratic journey! But at least with Leuven and Saint-Gilles you picked some really nice town halls
Going through the wardrobe is quite normal in many European countries, though I doubt it’s effectiveness in finding fake marriages. I know a Dutch/Israeli couple that moved to Belgium to get married because it was so difficult to do so in Holland. Congratulations! I would die to get something like that. I never know what is going to happen at the end of the year cause I always have to renew the damn thing every year, that’s why I haven’t even gotten around to buying a car.
Oh … I slipped in under the bar, applying before the language law came into being. Although, I did the whole, living here for 5 years, having married a Belgian somewhere along the way. The police visit was hilarious because she asked about my photographs and I thought she must have known I was a photographer … all my framed works were down and she had to explain … the photos of me and Gert. No wardrobes were searched though. She really wanted to go to NZ and couldn’t comprehend anyone moving to Belgium … it had to be genuine love