Bringing along family members
This procedure applies to the family members of Students, Researchers and Visiting Professors who intend to stay in Belgium for a period of three months or longer. The Belgian Migration Law of 15 December 1980 has made the procedure for bringing along family members into Belgium more complex. As a result, it may take a few months before your family members receive the special Authorisation for Provisional Sojourn.
Again, based on your nationality, there are three possibilities for applying for visas for your family members for a long period of stay in Belgium.
For those from EEA countries:
Your family members may already join you to Belgium on account of the free movement of persons who are citizens of EEA countries. For those who will stay in Belgium for a period of less than one academic year, they need to register at Leuven City Hall and receive an Attestation of Immatriculation. For those who will stay in Belgium for a period of at least one academic year, they will receive a Registration Certificate after registration at City Hall.
For those from non-EEA countries that are NOT required to issue a visa for you to enter Belgium for a period of three months at most:
Your family members may join you already when you come to Belgium. For all certainty, they must bring along a proof of solvency. If they will stay with you in Leuven for a period of three months at most, they will only need to declare their arrival at the Foreigners Office at Leuven City Hall with you. They will receive a Declaration of Arrival in Belgium. If your family members will stay with you in Belgium for a period longer than three months, it is advisable that they also apply for a special Authorisation for Provisional Sojourn, based on the legal principle of the re-unification of families (see nr. 3 below). Technically, they may also enter Belgium simply on the basis of their passports, then first register at Leuven City Hall as tourists and then apply for a change of status from tourist to 'family reunion'. If they choose this option, they must submit all the required documents that are normally needed for a regular student visa application. But, this is a complicated procedure and takes too long and is therefore not advisable.
For those from non-EEA countries:
If your family members intend to stay with you in Belgium for a period of three months at most, then you will have to apply for Schengen visas for each of them at the Belgian embassy or consulate in your home country. With the Schengen visa, your family members will be able to travel with you to Belgium.
If your family members intend to stay with you in Belgium
for a period of three months at most, then you will have
to apply for Schengen visas for each of them at the
Belgian embassy or consulate in your home country.
With the Schengen visa, your family members will be
able to travel with you to Belgium.
However, if your family members intend to stay with you in
Belgium for a period longer than three months, then they
will have to apply for a special Authorisation for Provisional
Sojourn, based on the legal principle of the re-unification of
families, at the Belgian embassy or consulate in your home
country. In principle, you yourself will have to travel to Belgium
first while your family later applies for the special visa.
Afterwards, when already in Leuven and have found suitable
housing for your family, Leuven City Hall will send a police
agent to visit you at your accommodations in order to draw
up a report for the City Hall. Then, City Hall will provide you
with the document ‘annex 7’, which you will need to send
to your family as proof that suitable housing is ready. You will
also need to obtain an attestation from your health insurance
company that states that your family members will also be
covered by a health insurance in Belgium. You will need
to send this document to your family as well. They will
need to submit the document ‘annex 7’, the attestation
from the health insurance, along with the other required
documents to the Belgian embassy or consulate when
they apply for their visas.
Upon their arrival in Leuven, the spouse and children of
regular Students will need to register at Leuven City Hall.
Afterwards, City Hall sends a police agent for a visit at your
residence to see that all your family members are together
with you. When this procedure is complete, they will receive
the Certificate of Inscription in the Alien's Register.
The spouse and children of Researchers and Visiting<
Professors, upon their arrival in Leuven, will need to
register at Leuven City Hall after which they will first receive
an Attestation of Immatriculation for the period of one
year. After this first year, they will receive the Certificate
of Inscription in the Alien's Register.
Documents required
- valid passports
- a legalised copy of your marriage certificate
- legalised copies of your birth certificate and those of your spouse and children
- medical certificates for each member of the family
- certificates of good conduct for each adult member of the family
- proof of solvency that is sufficient for the whole family
- document from City Hall attesting to suitable housing in Leuven for the family (annex 7)
- attestation from health insurance company
Translation of the documents
- if the required documents are not in English, Dutch, French, or German, they need to be translated into one of these languages
- the translation of the documents must be authenticated
Authentication of the documents
- Please inquire at the Belgian diplomatic office in your country of residence who should authenticate the original documents and any translations thereof. In certain situations, this may be done by the Belgian diplomatic office itself, or by your local government authorities themselves, by affixing an ‘apostille’ to the documents.
Note: a person who is granted a family reunion visa to join one’s spouse studying in Belgium, will also have to leave Belgium together with one’s spouse when the latter has finished the study programme. However, if a student’s spouse is later also accepted for enrolment at K.U.Leuven and will need to stay in Belgium longer in order to complete the study programme, she or he must apply for a change of status of their residence permit to 'student' at the Foreigners' Office at the City Hall.
