The visa · Belgium
Belgium
Belgium has no visa or permit written for remote workers, and the routes that exist are governed by the three regions rather than by Brussels alone. The realistic openings are the professional card for the self-employed, paired with a long-stay D visa, and the single permit or EU Blue Card for those with a Belgian employer. The one thing to settle before applying is which region the activity will be based in, because the criteria, the salary thresholds and the fees all differ between Flanders, Brussels-Capital and Wallonia.
- Nomad visa · September 2026None as suchRoutes6Bases2
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The routes
Researched 6 September 2026 · rules as of September 2026 · as published, not legal advice
Freelance / self-employed
Professional card (self-employed) with a long-stay D visa
Beroepskaart / Carte professionnelle — professional card, with a national long-stay visa (visa D)
Non-EEA freelancers, consultants and founders willing to register a Belgian self-employed activity and be assessed on the economic value of that activity in one region.
- Income floor
- Flanders requires stable, sufficient and regular means of subsistence of at least 110 per cent of the guaranteed average monthly minimum income under collective labour agreement no. 43, and start-up capital of at least 22,838 euro where the added value claimed is economic. Brussels-Capital publishes no fixed figure and assesses viability from the business plan. The euro value of the Flemish 110 per cent threshold is indexed and is not published on the requirements page itself.
- Duration
- Up to five years. Brussels-Capital normally issues a first card covering a two-year probationary period, with renewal to a maximum of five years subject to tax compliance, social contributions and evidence of profitability.
- Cost
- Brussels-Capital: 140 euro on lodging the application and 90 euro when the enterprise counter issues the card. The residence side attracts a contribution fee of 242 euro, indexed on 1 January 2026, plus the consular long-stay visa fee, set at 250 euro (225 pounds) at the London post from 1 July 2026.
- Processing
- Brussels-Capital publishes three months for a complete file. The D visa application may be lodged up to six months before departure and must be lodged at least fifteen calendar days before travel; consular posts state that the decision time depends on the quality of the file.
- Eligibility
- Non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals only; EEA and Swiss nationals are exempt, as are recognised refugees and certain family members of EEA or Belgian citizens. Flanders requires at least a level 4 qualification and no threat to public order or security. Regulated professions require recognition by the competent Belgian authority. The activity must show economic, innovative, sporting or cultural added value for the region.
- Work rights
- Self-employed activity only, limited to the activity and the region stated on the card. The card does not authorise salaried employment, which requires a separate single permit. Remote work for clients abroad is performed through the Belgian self-employed registration, which brings Belgian social contributions and, above the threshold, VAT registration.
- Dependants
- A spouse or registered partner and minor children may follow under the ordinary family reunification rules, which require stable and sufficient means of subsistence, housing and sickness insurance cover.
- Leads to
- Yes. Lawful residence on this basis counts toward five years of continuous legal residence, which opens the EU long-term-resident permit and the main declaration route to Belgian nationality, subject to language, integration and economic-participation conditions.
- Apply
- The competent regional administration — Flanders, Brussels-Capital, Wallonia or the German-speaking Community — either through a Belgian diplomatic or consular post abroad alongside the D visa, or through an accredited enterprise counter inside Belgium where residence is already lawful.
Documents Completed professional card application form lodged with the competent regional administration · Business plan, capped at twenty pages in Brussels-Capital, covering target market, competition, SWOT and marketing · Diplomas, licences or evidence of professional experience in the sector · Extract from the criminal record, translated, notarised and apostilled, less than six months old · Copy of the passport and two recent identical photographs · Medical certificate on the embassy form, less than six months old · Original certificate of approval of the professional card, for the D visa file · Proof of payment of the contribution fee to the Immigration Office account · Evidence of capital, bank guarantee or projected turnover
Long stay
Single permit (highly qualified employment)
Gecombineerde vergunning / Permis unique — single permit for work and residence over 90 days
Remote workers who can convert to, or already hold, a contract with a Belgian employer or a Belgian entity of an international group.
- Income floor
- Set regionally and indexed on 1 January. Brussels-Capital, from 1 January 2026: 3,703.44 euro gross per month for highly qualified staff, 6,647.20 euro for executives, 5,460.20 euro for an intra-corporate transfer manager, 4,510.60 euro for an ICT expert and 2,611.40 euro for an ICT trainee. Flanders and Wallonia publish their own figures, which differ and are revised separately.
- Duration
- Issued for the duration of the authorised employment and renewable while the salary continues to meet the threshold in force; indexation on 1 January each year applies immediately to running permits.
- Cost
- Contribution fee of 152 euro for the residence element, indexed on 1 January 2026, plus the consular long-stay visa fee where a visa D is needed.
- Processing
- Not published as a single national figure. The region decides the employment element and the Immigration Office the residence element. From 4 May 2026 the Brussels employment administration states that applications for work authorisation for non-European nationals must be lodged through the federal One-Stop counter.
- Eligibility
- Non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals. A Belgian employer must lodge the application. Salary must meet the regional threshold for the category claimed, and the highly qualified category requires the corresponding qualification.
- Work rights
- Employment with the named employer in the region that authorised it. Self-employed activity on the side requires a professional card. Brussels-Capital states that a worker teleworking from abroad for a Brussels employer still needs a short-term work authorisation for up to 90 days and a long-term one beyond that.
- Dependants
- Family reunification is available to a spouse or registered partner and minor children, with the sponsor showing stable and sufficient means, adequate housing and sickness insurance.
- Leads to
- Yes. Time held counts toward five years of lawful residence for the EU long-term-resident permit and toward the nationality-declaration route.
- Apply
- Lodged by the employer with the competent regional employment administration; in Brussels-Capital through the federal One-Stop counter since 4 May 2026. The D visa is then collected at a Belgian post abroad.
Documents Employment contract meeting the regional minimum remuneration · Copy of the passport · Qualification evidence for the highly qualified category · Medical certificate · Extract from the criminal record · Proof of payment of the contribution fee
Long stay
EU Blue Card
Europese blauwe kaart / Carte bleue européenne — EU Blue Card
Graduate-level specialists with a Belgian offer well above the ordinary highly qualified threshold, who want mobility across other EU member states later.
- Income floor
- Brussels-Capital, from 1 January 2026: 4,748.00 euro gross per month, equal to the average gross monthly salary in the region. Flanders: at least 130 per cent of the average gross annual salary, currently 63,586 euro gross per year. Wallonia sets its own figure.
- Duration
- Tied to the employment contract and renewable; regional thresholds must continue to be met throughout, and the 1 January indexation applies immediately.
- Cost
- Contribution fee of 152 euro for the residence element, plus the consular long-stay visa fee where required.
- Processing
- Decided by the competent regional employment administration, then by the Immigration Office for residence; no single statutory figure is published nationally.
- Eligibility
- Non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals with higher-education qualifications or, in some categories, equivalent professional experience, holding a qualifying Belgian employment contract. Certain categories are expressly excluded by the Brussels administration.
- Work rights
- Employment with the sponsoring employer in the authorising region. Self-employed activity alongside requires a professional card.
- Dependants
- Family members may join under family reunification, with the favourable treatment the EU Blue Card directive provides.
- Leads to
- Yes, and with the intra-EU mobility and cumulation advantages attached to Blue Card residence when moving to another member state.
- Apply
- Employer application to the regional employment administration — Flanders, Brussels-Capital or Wallonia — followed by the D visa at a Belgian post abroad.
Documents Employment contract meeting the regional Blue Card threshold · Higher-education diploma or recognised equivalent experience · Copy of the passport · Medical certificate · Extract from the criminal record · Proof of payment of the contribution fee
Working holiday
Working Holiday Programme
Working Holiday Programme — national long-stay visa under a bilateral working holiday agreement
Nationals aged 18 to 30 of the five partner countries who want a year in Belgium and the freedom to take casual local work alongside remote income.
- Income floor
- At least 2,500 euro available to cover initial expenses.
- Duration
- Twelve months, not renewable.
- Cost
- Contribution fee of 242 euro, indexed on 1 January 2026, plus the long-stay visa fee charged by the competent Belgian post.
- Processing
- Lodged as a national long-stay visa application; the post may be approached up to six months before departure and at least fifteen calendar days before travel.
- Eligibility
- Nationals of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea, aged 18 and not yet 31 at the date of application. The holiday must be the main purpose of the stay; work is only to supplement resources. Insurance cover must be in place.
- Work rights
- Exempt from the requirement to hold a work permit, so local employment is open, subject to Belgian employment standards and social security. Remote work for a foreign employer or foreign clients is not separately restricted, but the holiday must remain the main purpose.
- Dependants
- Not provided for; the programme is for the individual applicant.
- Leads to
- no
- Apply
- The competent Belgian embassy or consulate in the country of nationality. Registration at the local municipal administration within eight days of arrival.
Documents National long-stay visa application form · Valid passport · Evidence that a holiday is the main purpose of the stay · Proof of at least 2,500 euro in available funds · Insurance policy · Medical certificate
Temporary stay
Schengen short stay (visa-free or visa C)
Short stay in the Schengen area — up to 90 days in any 180
Remote workers testing Belgium for weeks rather than years, and those waiting on a professional card or single permit decision from outside.
- Income floor
- None published for the stay itself; sufficient means of subsistence for the intended stay must be shown at the border or with the visa application.
- Duration
- 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen area, not extendable for convenience.
- Cost
- Nil for visa-exempt nationals until the European Travel Information and Authorisation System starts. Schengen visa C fees apply to visa-required nationals.
- Processing
- Schengen visa C applications are lodged through the outsourced visa application centres, TLScontact at several posts, within the standard Schengen decision periods.
- Eligibility
- A passport valid for the intended stay, travel medical insurance for visa-required applicants, and no entry ban or Schengen Information System alert.
- Work rights
- No local employment. A Schengen C visa or visa-free entry does not authorise work in Belgium. Working remotely for a foreign employer on this stay is not expressly addressed in Belgian published guidance and is treated as a grey area in practice; it becomes a clear problem once the stay, or the pattern of stays, points to residence rather than tourism.
- Dependants
- Each traveller counts their own 90 days in 180.
- Leads to
- no
- Apply
- No application for visa-exempt nationals until ETIAS starts; visa-required nationals apply at the Belgian consulate or its visa application centre in the country of residence.
Documents Passport valid for the trip plus three months and issued within the last ten years · Proof of accommodation and onward travel · Evidence of sufficient means of subsistence · Travel medical insurance where a visa C is required
Residence
EU, EEA and Swiss free movement registration
Registration of a Union citizen with the municipal administration under the free movement rules
Passport holders of an EU or EEA state or Switzerland, which is the largest single group of remote workers actually living in Belgium.
- Income floor
- None for workers and the self-employed. Those who are economically inactive or self-sufficient must show sufficient resources not to become a burden on the social assistance system, and sickness insurance cover.
- Duration
- Registration is open-ended; permanent residence follows five years of continuous lawful residence.
- Cost
- Municipal administrative charges only; these vary by commune.
- Processing
- Set by the commune; registration must be started within three months of arrival, after which the residence document follows an address check.
- Eligibility
- Nationality of an EU or EEA member state or Switzerland, and one of the free movement grounds — worker, self-employed, student, self-sufficient or family member.
- Work rights
- Full. No professional card, work permit or single permit is required, whether the work is remote for a foreign employer, for local clients, or under a Belgian employment contract.
- Dependants
- Family members, including non-EU family members, derive rights under the free movement rules.
- Leads to
- Yes. Five years of continuous lawful residence gives permanent residence, and the same period supports a nationality declaration subject to the statutory conditions.
- Apply
- The foreigners department of the commune of residence.
Documents Valid identity card or passport · Proof of address in the commune · Evidence of employment, self-employment, resources or study · Sickness insurance cover for the non-economically active
Without a visa, by passport
The stay you get on arrival, and whether working remotely on it is tolerated
- EU / EEA / SwitzerlandUnlimited; registration with the commune within three months of arrivalRemote work is fully lawful, whether for a foreign employer, foreign clients or a Belgian employer. No work authorisation of any kind applies.
- United Kingdom90 days in any 180Grey. No local employment is permitted. Belgian guidance does not address remote work for a foreign employer on a short stay; from 12 October 2025 the Entry/Exit System records each crossing, so repeated near-90-day stays are visible at the border.
- United States90 days in any 180Grey. A long-stay D visa is required for anything beyond 90 days, and the short stay does not authorise work in Belgium.
- Canada90 days in any 180Grey for remote work for a foreign employer; local work is forbidden without authorisation. Canada is one of the five working holiday partner countries for applicants aged 18 to 30.
- Australia90 days in any 180Grey for remote work; local employment is forbidden without authorisation. Australia is a working holiday partner country.
- New Zealand90 days in any 180Grey for remote work; local employment is forbidden without authorisation. New Zealand is a working holiday partner country.
- Brazil90 days in any 180Grey. No work authorisation attaches to the visa-free stay; a professional card or single permit is needed for anything beyond it.
- Japan and Republic of Korea90 days in any 180Grey for remote work. The Republic of Korea is a working holiday partner country for applicants aged 18 to 30.
- IndiaSchengen visa requiredA Schengen C visa allows a maximum of 90 days in 180 and does not authorise work in Belgium. Longer stays require a D visa tied to a professional card or single permit.
- South AfricaSchengen visa requiredA Schengen C visa allows a maximum of 90 days in 180 and does not authorise work in Belgium; a D visa is needed for any work route.
- TurkeySchengen visa requiredA Schengen C visa allows a maximum of 90 days in 180 and does not authorise work in Belgium.
- Taiwan90 days in any 180Grey for remote work. Taiwan is one of the five working holiday partner countries for applicants aged 18 to 30.
Tax
When the country starts counting you as its taxpayer
- Residency trigger
- Belgian law uses no day count. Residents are those who have established their domicile in Belgium or, failing a domicile, their centre of economic interests there. Entry in the population register of a Belgian commune creates a presumption of residence. For married couples and legal cohabitants, tax residence is fixed by the place where the family home is located, which overrides individual travel patterns.
- Special regime
- The special tax regime for inbound taxpayers and inbound researchers, in force since 1 January 2022 in place of the 1983 expat circular. The Law of 18 December 2025 raised the tax-free reimbursement of employer costs from 30 to 35 per cent of gross remuneration, abolished the 90,000 euro annual cap and cut the minimum annual gross salary from 75,000 to 70,000 euro, all retroactive to 1 January 2025; researchers face no salary minimum but must meet degree and time-allocation conditions. Circular 2026/C/51 of 1 April 2026 set the implementation terms, with retroactive applications due by 9 April 2026 and contract amendments by 1 July 2026. The regime runs five years, extendable by three, and the application must be filed within three months of the start of Belgian employment. It is built for employees and company directors recruited from abroad, not for independent freelancers on a professional card.
- Social security
- Self-employed persons in a main occupation must join a social insurance fund before starting, failing which the National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-Employed assigns them to the National Fund after thirty days. Contributions run at 20.5 per cent of net taxable professional income plus a management fee of roughly 3 to 4 per cent, paid provisionally on income from three years earlier and regularised later, with a minimum quarterly contribution reported at 890.42 euro for 2026 and a reduced starter contribution for a first four quarters where income is expected to stay low; those quarterly figures come from practitioner sources rather than a published official page and should be checked against the social insurance fund. Joining a mutuality is compulsory on registration. Within the EU, EEA, Switzerland and bilateral-agreement countries, a posted or multi-state worker can stay covered abroad on an A1 or a certificate of coverage, and the multilateral framework agreement on cross-border telework of 1 July 2023 allows habitual cross-border teleworkers to remain in the employer's state where telework stays under 50 per cent.
- Treaties
- Belgium has an extensive double-taxation treaty network. Under the standard employment article, remuneration is taxable where the work is physically carried out, so days worked from Belgian soil are Belgian-source even where the employer sits abroad; the 183-day exception only shelters short assignments where the employer is not resident in Belgium and no permanent establishment bears the cost. Independent contractors are taxed in Belgium on income attributable to a fixed base there. Sustained remote work from Belgium for a foreign employer also raises the risk of creating a permanent establishment or an employer registration obligation for that employer.
Practicalities
- Address registration
- Third-country nationals must report to the foreigners department of the commune within eight days of arrival; EU, EEA and Swiss nationals have three months. The local police then verify the address before the residence document is issued.
- National register number and tax identifier
- Allocated on registration in the national register or the register of foreigners; it doubles as the tax identification number and is required for almost every administrative step.
- Health insurance
- Joining a mutuality or health insurance fund is compulsory alongside registration with a social insurance fund, and covers sickness and disability. Long-stay visa applicants must show insurance cover with the visa file, and Schengen visa C applicants must hold travel medical insurance.
- Bank account
- Banks ask for an identity document and, in practice, a Belgian address and national number; Belgian law provides for a basic banking service for those who cannot obtain an ordinary account.
- Mobile SIM
- Prepaid SIM cards must be registered to an identified holder, so a passport or residence card is needed at activation.
- Self-employed setup
- An enterprise number is obtained through an accredited enterprise counter, which is also where a D visa holder collects the professional card; VAT registration follows where the activity is liable. Brussels charges 90 euro when the counter issues the card.
- Fees to budget
- Contribution fees as indexed on 1 January 2026: 152 euro for work permits, highly qualified workers, researchers and intra-corporate transferees; 242 euro for D visa applications including working holiday; 218 euro for family reunification; 251 euro for students in public higher education; 377 euro for in-country applications on exceptional grounds. The long-stay visa fee was 250 euro, or 225 pounds, at the London post from 1 July 2026.
- Overstay
- Since 12 October 2025 the Entry/Exit System records entries and exits at the Schengen external border and calculates the 90-in-180 allowance automatically, so overstay is detected mechanically. An overstay can result in an order to leave the territory and an entry ban recorded across the Schengen area.
Belgium for remote workers: no nomad visa, a regional professional card instead
Where remote workers base, and why the region decides everything
Brussels-Capital draws the largest concentration, on the back of the EU institutions, NATO and the international law and consultancy firms that follow them, and it is the only region that is bilingual by law, which lowers the language barrier for arrivals without Dutch or French. Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven attract a smaller, more settled crowd around logistics, universities and the biotech cluster, at lower rents and with Dutch as the working language of the administration.
The choice is not lifestyle alone. Work authorisation in Belgium is regional, not federal. A professional card is valid for the region that issued it and for the activity declared on it; the salary thresholds behind a single permit or a Blue Card differ region by region and are indexed separately on 1 January. Brussels-Capital charges 140 euro on application and 90 euro on issuance, publishes three months for a complete file, and starts most applicants on a two-year probationary card before renewal up to five years. Flanders instead publishes a structured added-value test — economic, innovative, sporting or cultural — with a minimum level 4 qualification, start-up capital of at least 22,838 euro for the economic route, and a means-of-subsistence floor of 110 per cent of the guaranteed average monthly minimum income under collective labour agreement no. 43.
The federal layer is residence. The Immigration Office handles the D visa, the contribution fee and the residence permit, while the regions handle the right to work. Both halves must be in place, and the professional card decision has to be in the file before the visa is lodged.
What the application process actually looks like
The self-employed route runs in a fixed order: regional professional card decision first, then the national long-stay visa at a Belgian post abroad, then registration at the commune within eight days of arrival, then collection of the physical card at the enterprise counter named on the application form. Consular document lists are demanding and unforgiving on age: the criminal record extract and the medical certificate must both be less than six months old, the criminal record must be translated, notarised and apostilled, and everything is submitted in original plus two photocopies. Applications may be lodged up to six months before departure and must be lodged at least fifteen calendar days before travel; posts decline to give a firm decision date and state only that it depends on the quality of the file.
The business plan is where files fail. Brussels caps it at twenty pages and asks for evidence that the activity will benefit the region's prosperity, through services in demand, job creation or innovation. Flanders asks for target market, market size, competitive analysis, a SWOT and a marketing strategy, and separately for evidence of capital. A remote worker with a single foreign client and no Belgian economic footprint is a weak fit for a test built around local added value, which is the structural reason Belgium remains a poor match for the classic location-independent freelancer.
In August 2026 several visa aggregator sites reported that a royal decree had created a twelve-month Belgian digital nomad visa, renewable once, with a 42,000 euro income requirement. No such route appears on the Immigration Office site, on the Foreign Affairs consular posts, on the Flemish or Brussels employment administrations, and the official gazette link those reports cite does not resolve. Commenters on the original piece asked for corroboration and received none. Treat the claim as unverified; the routes described here are what the government publishes.
Money, contributions and the tax bite
Registering as self-employed brings compulsory membership of a social insurance fund before the activity starts, and automatic assignment to the National Fund if that is not done within thirty days. Contributions run at 20.5 per cent of net taxable professional income plus a management fee, and the system is provisional: contributions in the current year are calculated on income from three years earlier, then regularised once the real figure is known. That lag catches out newcomers, who pay comparatively little at the start and then receive a large adjustment. Practitioner sources put the 2026 minimum quarterly contribution for a main occupation at 890.42 euro with a reduced starter rate available, figures that are not published on the federal portal and should be confirmed with the fund.
Belgium taxes residents on worldwide income and defines residence by domicile or centre of economic interests rather than by a day count, with registration in a commune's population register raising a presumption of residence and the family home settling the question for married couples and legal cohabitants. Under the standard treaty employment article, days physically worked from Belgium are Belgian-source even where the employer and the payroll sit abroad, and prolonged remote work for a foreign employer can create a permanent establishment or a Belgian employer registration obligation for that employer.
The special regime for inbound taxpayers is now more generous than at any point since it replaced the 1983 circular: 35 per cent of gross remuneration free of tax, no annual cap, and a minimum gross salary of 70,000 euro. It is also narrow. It applies to employees and company directors recruited or transferred from abroad, must be applied for within three months of the start of Belgian employment, and does nothing for a freelancer on a professional card.
What is changing
The border is being digitised around the remote worker rather than for them. The Entry/Exit System started its progressive rollout on 12 October 2025 and reached full operation on 10 April 2026, replacing stamps with biometric records that compute the 90-in-180 allowance automatically. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System is scheduled to follow in the last quarter of 2026, with transitional and grace periods, adding a pre-travel authorisation for visa-exempt nationals. Neither system detects work, but both make the repeating 89-days-in, 91-days-out pattern legible at the booth.
Administration is consolidating federally even as substance stays regional: since 4 May 2026 the Brussels employment administration requires work authorisation applications for non-European nationals to go through the federal One-Stop counter, while thresholds, fees and added-value tests remain a matter for each region and reindex every 1 January.
Nothing in the published record points to a Belgian route for remote workers as such. The direction of travel is instead a more competitive package for salaried arrivals — a larger tax-free allowance, no cap, a lower salary floor — which favours those who can attach themselves to a Belgian employer over those who cannot.
Researched from dofi.ibz.be · dofi.ibz.be · dofi.ibz.be · dofi.ibz.be · vlaanderen.be · vlaanderen.be · economy-employment.brussels · economy-employment.brussels · unitedkingdom.diplomatie.belgium.be · republicofkorea.diplomatie.belgium.be · the authority