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Belgian Citizenship Process

Question

I've been living in Belgium since October 2020. The first two years I was studying and then I started working from January 2023. During that time I met my Belgian girlfriend and we have been living together for the past 2 years. Today I went to our commune to receive my extended ID card (type A until end of 2028) and in the meantime I have also applied for card F given that I'm in legal cohabitation with my Belgian partner and my employer wouldn't need to apply for work permit anymore, but that process takes 6 month apparently.

I asked the commune about Belgian citizenship process and she gave a list (Decleration de nationalite sur base de l'aticle 12bis). The lady at commune mentioned that the judge who reviews my application might reject my case because I have a gap of 5 months and a gap of 6 months in my residency during these 5 years. But those gaps are because of administrative process not that I left Belgium. The first gap is because I got my ID card renewed while I was studying, and the second gap is because I changed status from student to employee. I couldn't find much information about this topic, except a document from European Migration Network (EMN) with the title "Pathways to citizenship for third-country nationals in Belgium" which mentions: This period of residence can be interrupted. The BNC provides expressly that the residence period required to trigger the acquisition through declaration may be interrupted. According to the BNC16, an interruption of maximum six months is tolerated. This may cover one period of absence of six months or several shorter periods combined. There is another limitation: at most the interruption cannot exceed one fifth of the periods required by the BNC for the acquisition of nationality.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with such process.I know there are several processes, I was also told that upon receiving my card F I can apply for the citizenship but I don't know if I still need this uninterrupted period of 5 year and if these gaps in my application are fine or not. Do I still need 5 years of uninterrupted stay if I can prove integration via French language and integration classes?

J

The easy way is to wait until the commune says you're good to go.

The difficult, uncertain and expensive way starts with lawyering up. If you have the inclination to go down that route, then you don't need free advice.

Oct 10, 2025 21:47