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If you have been in Belgium for a long time and have integrated well into Belgian society, in certain cases you are eligible for what is known as humanitarian regularisation.

Humanitarian regularisation differs from other residence procedures in that there are no clear legal conditions that must be met. Immigration Department reviews each file individually. This means that it is advisable to submit a comprehensive and well-documented statement of case. Examples include certificates of proficiency in the national languages, diplomas or certificates of completed training courses, proof of previous employment, and letters of support from friends and/or acquaintances.

Humanitarian regularisation procedures (also known as ‘9bis’ procedures) have the main disadvantage of having a very long processing time. On average today, it takes about 14 months for the Immigration Department to make a decision. For the duration of the procedure, the applicant is not granted a provisional stay, so he is actually in the country illegally. As a rule, the application should be submitted to the embassy of the country of origin. Only if you can prove that it is completely impossible to submit the application in your country of origin may you submit the application in Belgium. You do this at the municipality of your place of residence.

In the past, “collective regularisations” were often organised. This means that a lot of people were regularised at once because they had been residing (legally or illegally) in Belgium for a long time. Collective regularisations are a purely political decision and find no legal basis. In the current political climate, it is to be expected that this type of collective regularisation will be a thing of the past: in other words, each case will be dealt with and assessed individually.

If the application is approved, the person is issued an A-card, which entitles the person to a temporary stay (usually one year). This card must then be renewed every year. Only after five years of temporary residence can the person apply for a B card, which entitles him or her to stay indefinitely.

In this case too, you can lodge an appeal against a refusal with the Council for Immigration Disputes.

You may not be able to return to your country of origin for health reasons. For example, you can no longer travel or your country of origin does not offer the medical care you need. In these cases, under certain conditions, you may qualify for a “medical regularisation” (also called a “9ter” procedure). You will then be given a (temporary) stay for medical reasons.

To qualify for medical regularisation, two basic conditions must be met.

• First, you must be suffering from an illness or condition that endangers your life or physical integrity.
• In addition, it must be shown that the medical care you need is not available or not readily accessible in your country of origin so that there is a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in the country of origin.

In practice, the Immigration Department only takes account of life-threatening conditions. In other words, the disease or condition must be sufficiently serious.

The care must be unavailable or at least inaccessible in the country of origin. This means that account is taken not only of situations in which care simply cannot be provided (e.g. due to war, lack of infrastructure, lack of medical knowledge or qualified healthcare personnel) , but also of situations in which care can be provided but is not accessible to the average citizen (e.g. due to cost, distance from the place where care is provided and the place of residence of the person concerned in their country of origin, etc.).

According to established case law of the Council for Alien Law Litigation, any informal care you might need can also be taken into account in assessing the application. In the event that you suffer from a condition that causes you to need help from friends or relatives in daily life, the Immigration Department will need to take this into account. This is particularly interesting if, for example, you no longer have any family in your country of origin but do have family members in Belgium.

The application must be accompanied by a standard medical certificate issued by the immigration authorities (DVZ) and completed by a licensed physician. This is an eligibility criterion: without this attestation, the DVZ will not even consider your application. As soon as your application is declared admissible, you will be granted a provisional stay.

If your application is approved, you will receive an A card, which is usually valid for one year. This card can be renewed annually if you can show that your medical condition remains the same (or has worsened). After a period of five years, you will receive a B-card valid for an unlimited time.

Is my foreign marriage automatically valid in Belgium? What steps should I take to get my marriage registered in Belgium as well? I want to get a divorce, but I was married abroad. Can I get a divorce in Belgium? And what legislation applies? As a mother, can I force the father of my child to acknowledge his child when this is not possible in my country of origin?

Whether you already had a family life in your country of origin or are starting from scratch in Belgium, you will often come up against practical, administrative, and legal obstacles when building your life as a foreigner in Belgium. As a foreign national, you should always keep in mind that there is an international component to these simple questions.

The basis for the legal rules governing these problems is the International Private Law Code. For example, Belgian courts will often be able to grant a divorce even if the marriage was contracted abroad, provided that the spouses have been living in Belgium for a sufficiently long period of time. It is possible that the law of the country of marriage will apply to those divorce proceedings, which means that the Belgian court will have to apply foreign divorce law.

If you wish to marry or make a declaration of legal cohabitation as a foreigner without legal residence in Belgium, your application will in all likelihood result in an investigation into a possible sham marriage (or sham legal cohabitation).

The aim of the law is to prevent foreign nationals residing illegally in Belgium from entering into a relationship with a Belgian citizen or someone legally residing in Belgium for the sole purpose of subsequently initiating family reunification proceedings on the basis of marriage or legal cohabitation.

Therefore, in these cases, investigations will be conducted to determine whether there is a genuine relationship. The law defines this as “the will to establish a sustainable community of life”. In other words, if the sole purpose of the marriage (or legal cohabitation) is to obtain right of residence, the municipality will refuse to perform the marriage or grant a deed of legal cohabitation.

The municipality uses a number of criteria on which to base its assessment of whether or not the marriage is a sham. Consideration can be given to age difference, the speed at which the relationship was established, the fact that the partners know little about each other, the lack of common interests, etc.

During the investigation, both partners are questioned by the police. They are asked the same questions about each other’s lives and these answers are then compared. The questions vary widely: where did you meet, what are the parents’ names and occupation, which side of the bed do you sleep on, etc.

If it is decided that the marriage is a sham, the municipality will refuse to perform the marriage (or grant deed to legal cohabitation). This decision may be appealed before the family court: it is then up to the judge to decide whether or not it is a sham marriage.

It is important to note that there is only a sham marriage if the intention of the relationship is solely to obtain residence rights. Thus, if the parties truly have a lasting relationship but enter into marriage partly to regularise the residence of either of them, this is not a sham marriage.

A similar procedure applies when you want to have a foreign marriage recognised in Belgium. Once the authenticity of a foreign document has been established, it will normally be automatically recognised in Belgium. An important exception to this is that recognition will be refused if it is contrary to public policy (for example, if one of the spouses is still a minor, or if it contravenes the Belgian ban on polygamy). However, this exception also applies to sham marriages: if there are suspicions that the parties are only married to obtain residence rights, recognition will be refused in Belgium, often after an investigation similar to that outlined above.

In line with the procedure for sham marriages, the law has recently introduced a procedure for sham recognition.

Lawmakers believed that some individuals recognised a child solely for the purpose of initiating family reunification proceedings with the child in order to regularise their residence status.

Therefore, the registrar of births, marriages and deaths (in other words, the municipality) can refuse to accept a parent’s recognition of a child if they suspect it is a sham recognition. In this case, the individual will have to initiate proceedings before the competent family court in order to obtain the judicial determination of parental relationship. A DNA test will almost always be demanded by the court, so it is advisable to anticipate this. Don’t have legal residence in Belgium and want to acknowledge your child? Then you would be well advised to have a DNA test carried out to establish biological parentage.

Was the child born in Belgium and is one of the parents Belgian? Then the child will automatically receive Belgian citizenship.

The same applies to a child born abroad and one of whose parents is a Belgian who was himself born in Belgium. Also, a child born in Belgium without Belgian parents, but where one of both parents was born in Belgium and had lived in Belgium for a period of five years prior to the birth.

A child automatically becomes Belgian after birth if either parent becomes Belgian before the child comes of age, provided the child resides in Belgium and the parent who becomes Belgian has parental authority over the child.

Children born abroad whose one parent is Belgian who was not born in Belgium can also become Belgian when the Belgian parent makes a declaration to this effect. Thus, the award is not automatic in that case.

There are specific rules in the case of adoption.

People who have no nationality of any country are called “stateless (see below).

Belgium, like virtually all Western European countries, is committed to preventing statelessness. If a child possesses no other nationality at birth, then in certain cases he or she is granted Belgian nationality. This is the case if:

• the child was born abroad, has a Belgian parent, but has no other nationality
• the child was born in Belgium and has no nationality
• the child is a minor, possesses no other nationality and is adopted by a Belgian citizen

If you have been legally residing in Belgium continuously for at least five years, you can apply for Belgian citizenship if you prove that you have been integrated.

Integration must be demonstrated both socially and economically. Social integration can be proven by, for example, attending secondary or higher education or following an integration programme. If you can provide proof of this, you have also automatically shown that you meet the criterion of knowledge of one of the national languages.

You prove economic participation by proving that you worked at least 468 working days in the five years preceding the application. Note that a work day is considered a full time work day. If you are self-employed, you prove economic participation by proving that you have paid at least 6 quarters of social contributions.

The Prosecutor’s Office will then advise on your nationality application. Typically, a negative recommendation will only follow if you had a criminal conviction in the past. A refusal is subject to appeal to the Court of First Instance.

If you have been legally residing in Belgium for at least five years without interruption and you are married to a Belgian citizen with whom you have been living for three years, you can apply for Belgian nationality by demonstrating that you are socially integrated..

Social integration can be proven by, for example, attending secondary or higher education or following an integration programme. If you can provide proof of this, you have also automatically shown that you meet the criterion of knowledge of one of the national languages.

In this case you do not have to prove that you were economically active in the years before your declaration of nationality.

If you have been legally residing in Belgium continuously for at least five years and you are the parent of a Belgian minor child, you can apply for Belgian citizenship by demonstrating social integration. You do not have to effectively live with your child in this case.

Social integration can be proven by, for example, attending secondary or higher education or following an integration programme. If you can provide proof of this, you have also automatically shown that you meet the criterion of knowledge of one of the national languages.

In this case you do not have to prove that you were economically active in the years before your declaration of nationality.

If you were born in Belgium, are of age and have lived in Belgium continuously since birth, you can apply for Belgian citizenship without having to prove that you are socially integrated. In this case, your social integration is presumed. No proof of economic participation is needed in this case.

If you have been legally residing in Belgium continuously for at least five years and you suffer from a disability or are disabled, you can apply for Belgian citizenship without having to prove that you are socially integrated. No proof of economic participation is needed in this case.

If you have been legally residing in Belgium continuously for at least five years and you are 65 or older, you can apply for Belgian citizenship without having to prove that you are socially integrated. No proof of economic participation is needed in this case.

If you have been legally residing in Belgium continuously for at least 10 years and you are 65 or older, you can apply for Belgian citizenship without having to prove that you are socially integrated. No proof of economic participation is needed in this case.

You do need to demonstrate participation inthe life of your host community. Examples of how you can prove this include proof that you work or have worked, went to school in Belgium, or have done volunteer work.