Going native: How to become Belgian

You live here, but have you considered making it permanent and applying for Belgian citizenship? The advantages for non-EU citizen of becoming Belgian are obvious: you may be obliged to vote in Belgian and EU elections, but that’s a trade-off for the freedom to move and work throughout the EU, with fewer visa restrictions elsewhere. According to VUB cultural philosopher Eric Corijn, “Becoming Belgian is no big deal.”

Even for established EU citizens – and not just Brits following Brexit – there are advantages. For Frenchman Ludovic, for example: “It was very important to be able to vote in Belgian parliamentary elections.” Latvian Juris adds: “The EU project is collapsing. Putin is challenging Nato, and my country is in a similar situation to Ukraine. If something happens, Belgian citizenship is an investment in my future.”

Alex and his wife can relate: given the political situation in Russia, they have no plans to return to Moscow. With three children and a fourth on the way, they’ve decided to make Belgium home. “Getting quality, affordable healthcare in Mexico is difficult,” said fellow expat Jorge. “But my main motivation is that people from all over settle in Belgium, especially the ‘regular guy’, so you can learn easily from other cultures and live the European dream. It’s a goldmine here.”

Asked why he chose to seek Belgian citizenship, Ali from Pakistan simply said: “This is my home.” He came to join his partner; when the relationship crumbled, he “fell in love with Brussels instead. I love being here, Belgium’s a fun country.”

Naturalisation or declaration

If the whys are many, so too are the hows. Equal rights non-profit Objectief (allrights.be) offers an interactive tool that determines which application procedure to follow. Generally – unless you’re under 18 or stateless; an adult born in Belgium; married to or born to a Belgian; a parent of a Belgian minor; disabled or pensionable – two procedures are possible: naturalisation or declaration.

Applying for naturalisation is free, but you must be 18, a legal resident and not only linguistically, socially and economically integrated but also possess exceptional scientific, athletic or socio-cultural merit, and prove ineligibility for the declaration procedure. Supposedly, the Belgian parliament gets back to you within two years, but Alex and his wife, and Ali, haven’t heard anything since their 2012 applications. “I stopped calling in 2014,” Ali said. So they, like most, ended up applying via the declaration procedure.

Doing so costs €200. You must be a permanent resident – in other words, hold the five-year identity card issued after five years’ continuous residence – and prove you’ve worked in Belgium continuously for those five years. Got a gap? If your commune doesn’t turn you away, the legal system will. One expat, Akira, “was rejected for a three-week gap in seven years”, appealed to the court of first instance and three years later is still waiting for a court date. Another similarly rejected applicant waited two years to get a date another year ahead. Lesson: a tiny application flaw can lead to years of legal entanglement.

Ali wanted to apply sooner. He worked at DHL for a year, earned a master’s from VUB, then worked for UPS and now has his own consulting company. Told he hadn’t worked continuously for five years – the DHL job didn’t count once he stopped work to study – he waited until he got permanent residence, applied via declaration and was told a response would take four to six months. Ali has lived in five communes; Schaerbeek and Brussels Centre are horrible, he says. “Some clerks don’t know the law or are uncooperative. One gave me a list of required documents; my next commune said it was wrong and provided another.”

Alex and his wife applied via declaration in 2015 and were told they’d get an answer in four months; when they didn’t, Alex called and got good news. “I know what I’m doing, I work in immigration.” He helps businesses deal with Belgium’s governments. “My clients bring added value to Belgium yet their papers, which must be renewed annually until they get permanent residence, are repeatedly held up, and so is their business. There’s no communication from Belgian administrations.”

Plain sailing

Ludovic, meanwhile, had a strange experience in Brussels Centre: it went flawlessly. The clerk meticulously reviewed his documents. “In France, they’d just take them, then send a letter months later saying something is missing.” Four months later he was Belgian. “The only hitch was having to cross town to pay the registration fee at the Palais de Justice and bring back proof of payment. You’d think that could be done at the commune.”

Jorge extracted his birth certificate from Mexico’s bureaucracy personally. “It’s just too hard to get from afar.” He applied last November in Etterbeek. “The EU presence makes them very aware of foreigners; they even speak English,” he says. “They checked I had everything and said it would take six months.” The good news came in June.

If it matters to you, make sure your home country allows dual nationality. Then go to your commune’s civil registrar (l’Etat civil/Burgerlijke stand) for the list of required documents, and don’t apply until you can follow it to the letter. Becoming Belgian might be no big deal, but trying to, if done imperfectly, can become one big headache. 

Small world city

City, citizen, citizenship. The concept was born of the Greek polis, ‘city-state’, and its kosmopolites, ‘citizens of the world’. This came to mind when VUB cultural philosopher Eric Corijn described how expats and immigration have changed Belgium, and what Brussels could become.

“From 1945 to the 1980s, Belgium imported guest workers from Italy, Spain, Poland, Turkey and Morocco,” he explains. Thereafter, globalisation stripped Belgium, including Brussels, of manufacturing, and the EU arrived in earnest. “The city’s economy is 90% service-oriented. Its international functions provide 120,000 jobs. It’s the world’s highest skilled labour market.” Immigration, meanwhile, continued unabated, especially from North Africa, while Europeans of all stripes came thanks to the internal market. Result: “Brussels went from being Belgian to an international society.” One in three residents isn’t Belgian.

“It’s a small world city: 61% of households are multilingual, 5% Dutch-speaking only and 33% French-speaking only.” So the Flemish and French-speaking communities are minorities in their own capital. “Brussels could have a future as Europe’s permanent cultural capital,” says Corijn. “A city lives on the basis of difference. There’s no Brussels street with just one nationality. That makes becoming a Bruxellois an inherently international endeavour.” Or, you might say, a cosmopolitan one.

Official links
http://www.belgium.be/en/ (Belgian government official information)
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/en/services/services_abroad/nationality (Foreign Affairs)
https://www.bruxelles.be/artdet.cfm/4875#a_8 (Brussels City website)
http://emploi.wallonie.be (regional authority, Wallonia)
http://www.werk.be (regional authority, Flanders)
http://www.bruxelles.irisnet.be (regional authority, Brussels)
https://dofi.ibz.be/sites/dvzoe/EN/Pages/home.aspx (Immigration Office)
http://www.newintown.be/ (Federal Migration Centre)
http://www.kruispuntmi.be/ (immigration legal aspects)
http://www.adde.be/ressources/fiches-pratiques (immigration legal aspects)
http://eid.belgium.be/en (Belgian electronic identity card)

Conditions for declaration procedure based on five-year residence
At least 18
Permanent residence
Five years’ uninterrupted legal residence
One national language
Social integration
Five years’ uninterrupted work (also fulfils preceding two conditions)

Documents needed
Birth certificate, certified (“apostille”), officially translated and legalised
Commune certificate proving five years of uninterrupted residence
Commune-certified Belgian ID front/back photocopy
A2 level national language knowledge
Proof of social integration, or:
diploma or certificate (minimum high school);
proof of 400 hours of professional training;
completion of integration course in place of residence;
five years’ uninterrupted work as employee or self-employed.
Proof of economic participation: pay stubs/account statements for employed work; certificate of payment for six quarters of social contributions for self-employed.

Costs
€150 registration fee
€50 application fee

Processing
4-8 months