You file with your municipality, the Immigration Office decides
If you are already in Belgium, you usually start at the foreigners’ desk of the municipality where you live. It checks your file and passes it to the Immigration Office, which decides on your right to stay, and the municipality then arranges your residence card. While you wait you may receive a temporary document. Students are often helped by their school or university, and EU, EEA and Swiss citizens use the same desks to ask for permanent residence.
How it works
Find the immigration office and the right application for your stay.
If you are not an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, you usually need a residence permit to live in the country for more than a few months. The type of permit depends on why you are staying, such as work, study, family or protection, and each has its own conditions and documents. Apply for a renewal well before your current permit expires; in many countries, applying on time lets you stay while your application is processed. A first application, a renewal and collecting your card are usually separate steps.
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At a glance
In many towns you contact the desk before visiting
Expect to phone, email or book before you visit: many municipal foreigners’ desks work that way, and some serve groups such as students or EU citizens through separate teams. Both first applications and renewals go through that desk, and the municipality hands over the card once the Immigration Office has decided.
Guides
Related services
For people who cannot cover rent, food or other essentials: what the local social welfare centre can arrange and how to ask for an appointment.
A paper or digital certificate showing where you are registered, with versions for address history or household. Find the municipal office that issues it.
Reset an eID PIN, replace activation codes or set up a digital key for online services. Useful for residents, residence card holders and some non-residents.
The eID for teenagers and adults and the Kids-ID for children. See how applying works and find the municipal office that handles your card.
For anyone who has moved house in Belgium. See who reports, what happens after the address check and which office handles it in your new town.
Learn whether you need an extract or a full copy, who can request it and how to reach the civil registry office in your municipality.
Other countries
Moving on, or comparing before you decide? See how this works elsewhere.
Most offices in Cologne, Hamburg, and Aachen
Most offices in A Coruña, Alicante, and Almería
Most offices in Opole, Białystok, and Bielsko-Biała
Where to next
Municipal foreigners’ desks by city, and how each one handles new applications, renewals and replacement cards.
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