🇧🇪 Belgium

Foreign diploma equivalence in Belgium is decided community by community, not federally. The Flemish Community routes through NARIC-Vlaanderen (within AHOVOKS), the French Community through the Service des équivalences de l'enseignement secondaire (with a separate higher-education service at equisup.cfwb.be), and the German-speaking Community through the Ministerium der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft.

Non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss workers need a single permit — *permis unique* / *gecombineerde vergunning* / kombinierte Erlaubnis — for stays over ninety days. It combines work and residence authorization in one electronic document; the Type B short-stay permit covers stays under ninety days and cross-border workers. Four regional authorities issue them — Flemish, Walloon, Brussels-Capital, and German-speaking — and the employer applies through the federal Working in Belgium portal before the worker arrives.

Belgium has two paths for opening a personal current account. The commercial path is a direct application to a retail bank such as KBC or Belfius. The statutory path — the *basisbankdienst* / *service bancaire de base* — is a right under the Code of Economic Law that every consumer-account bank must offer to any qualifying resident, with no prior refusal required, capped at a maximum annual fee indexed each year.

Every resident of Belgium registered in the National Register must affiliate with one recognised health insurance organisation to access reimbursed care. Affiliation is obligatory; the choice of fund is free. Belgium recognises five private mutualist unions, the public auxiliary fund CAAMI/HZIV, and the railway-personnel fund HR Rail.

Belgium pairs your identity document with population-register enrollment in one commune procedure. Booking, photo, biometrics, and a police residence check produce both the *Rijksregister* number and the card.

Belgium runs a unified electronic-residence-card regime under the Loi du 15 décembre 1980 and the Arrêté royal du 8 octobre 1981. The Office of Foreigners (Office des Étrangers / Dienst Vreemdelingenzaken) decides each file; the commune of intended residence opens the file, captures biometrics, and delivers the card. Six routes feed the same workflow — Worker, two family-reunification routes, Long-term EU resident, Student, and EU/EEA/Swiss registration — each mapping to a specific card type and opening annex.

Three foreign-licence groups face three different paths in Belgium. EU/EEA holders are recognised automatically and only exchange on triggers such as loss, theft, or an indefinite-validity licence held over two years. Recognised non-EU/EEA holders (Vienna Convention 1968, Geneva Convention 1949, or a bilateral agreement under the Arrêté royal du 23 mars 1998) exchange within 185 days of commune registration. Non-recognised country holders take the full Belgian theory and practical tests.