Last Fall, when preparing to move to Belgium, I corresponded with a blogger who was about 6 months ahead of me in the process. (Hi Julie!) She gave me a list of documents I would need and clued me into the red tape of Belgium residency cards. I’ll admit it..I disregarded some of what she said because I was sure our process would be different. We’re an American/EU citizen couple, and we thought we were going to get to skip through the whole process. We were way off..in fact, my American/American friends who arrived at the same time as us got their cards months earlier. Mine took 9 months…

Here’s how it worked… Note: Every commune (neighborhood) seems to have different rules. I live in Ixelles.  If you live in another commune, your process probably has some differences.

1. Collect information in US
There were several documents we had to collect before we moved. Unfortunately, the list varies depending on what commune you live in. We did not know where we were going to live yet, so we collected them all just to be sure. First, I requested a certified copy of my birth certificate and marriage license. Though I could go into the Atlanta office for the marriage license, the birth certificate was on the other side of the country and had to be ordered by registered mail. These documents had to be apostilled, sort of like a notary but by the state department. Next, I got a physical and a notarized medical certificate (preferably by an approved doctor) that I was healthy. Finally, I was fingerprinted at the police station and sent the fingerprints to the FBI for a copy of my official criminal history record. It was also recommended that we get these all translated into French or Dutch, but we didn’t.

2. Moving in
As I mentioned before, your residence card depends on what commune you live in. Therefore, we couldn’t start the process for the first month while we were in temporary housing. Soon after we moved into our permanent apartment, we were visited by the police. No, we weren’t partying too loud – they just wanted to confirm that we really lived there. We weren’t home when they visited us, but they noted our names on the mailbox and left a note with an appointment to come to the station to fill out some forms. Some of our friends have had them come in their homes and request to see their passports.  After filling out the forms, they gave a letter stating that they checked us out.

3. First visit to commune
Though we moved into our permanent apartment February 1st, we were not able to get an appointment at our commune until the end of the month. At our appointment, we took all of our documents from Step 1 and 2, plus 4 passport photos each and filled out more forms requesting our residency cards. They looked only at our birth certificates and marriage license.  At this point, Thomas was very anxious for his residence card so he could buy a motorcycle and get a Belgian driver’s license, but that’s a whole other story. They told us that when everything is ready, they’ll mail us a PIN number to pick up our cards.

4. Thomas gets his card
Four weeks later, we got our PIN and went in for our appointment. Thomas got his permanent residency card, but I was told that I would have to wait 5 months while they investigated that our marriage is legit. Supposedly, if I had gotten a spousal visa before moving, this would not be required, but we did not know. I was given a temporary card and told that I couldn’t leave Belgium for the 5 months. (Shhh! Just ignore the Around the World category on this blog.) Actually, the issue was that I couldn’t get my passport stamped, but there are  25 EU countries (Schengen states) that don’t stamp passports when traveling from Belgium. I just stuck to those, but I did have to cancel my flights to Ireland and the US.

5. Five months pass
I guess I passed the marriage test because at the end of August, I got an invitation in the mail to visit the commune again. I arrived first thing in the morning and it took all of 15 minutes to fill out the paperwork for my card. They took my temporary card and 4 more passport photos and told me to wait for my PIN in the mail.

6. The final appointment
Two weeks later, I got the PIN in the mail and headed back to the commune. Again, I was there first thing in the morning and seen right away. I handed in my letter and my PIN number and they handed me my residency card. It’s a type F (family) card, which means that I’m married to an EU citizen. If Thomas moves away from the country, I’m not allowed to stay, but I am allowed to work here in the meantime.

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I'm now a card-carrying permanent resident of Belgium.

Thank goodness we had our relocation company to help us. Our commune was very flexible in speaking English to us, but having help reduced the headaches. This experience helped illustrate to me what this process must be like for people entering the US. It’s not a fun deal.

Note: There were some fees paid at the commune for our residency cards, but our relocation person handled that, so I’m not sure what they were. They weren’t much though.

Related posts:

  1. Handmade Greeting Card Swap
  2. My Belgian Driver’s License
  3. Moving Update
  4. Greeting Card Swap Recap