Hi Maricar, come to Belgium with a 90-days tourist visa (Type C) will do in most cases.

Hi Ilyas, I believe you can apply for a cohabitation visa in Belgium because your girlfriend is from Dutch. But before the application, she should first have an address in Belgium, then apply for her permanent residence as an EU citizen before applying for a legal cohabitation for the both of you. For the procedure, you have to check with the commune where you live.

You do not need to have an income to apply for the legal cohabitation. Your girlfriend should be earning €1,505.78 nett/month and has worked continuously for 12 months. Please check out this article on her her requirements and solutions if she does not fulfil the minimum wage required to apply for an F Card for you.

I’m from Algeria, and I have been living with my Dutch girlfriend for a year and a half. A week ago, we moved to Belgium, and we want to apply for legal cohabitation. My girlfriend has her job in the Netherlands still, but she has sufficient resources to cover our living. My question is, it necessary to have income in Belgium, or it doesn’t matter as long as you have enough resources?

By the way, we are both young, and there is no age difference between us. We have never been married or cohabitating before. We got all the evidence of our relationship. I’m looking forward to hear from you.

You will get a final decision from the Immigration Office within 6 months after you receive your Orange Card. However before that, after you declare a legal cohabitation, it can take another 3 to 6 months to receive your Orange Card.

The total time length for the cohabitation process is between 9 to 12 months after signing the cohabitation paper. It can be even longer in some cases.

I presume you can continue working while holding an au pair visa. After your working visa ends, you may not be able to work. You need to double-check with the Stadhuis on this.

You make an appointment in the Stadhuis / Districthuis / Gemeentehuis of where your boyfriend lives. Get him to make an appointment. He will know how to do it online or in person.

Ask him to go with you if you do not speak the local language. Not every staff there is willing or can speak English. Also, if you go alone, they may not want to entertain you too much.

It is not easy to understand the cohabitation procedure in one read be it from the official website or blogs from other people’s experiences. Sometimes, you have to repeat the reading several times over the months to get it.

Here is my cohabitation visa timeline for your reference. The dates will tell you how one event leads to another. You may not get the same step, but the overall process is more or less the same.

How long will it take to receive the final decision?

So while I’m waiting for an orange card, can I still work here?

Do you know where I can make an appointment and ask for my case?

And thank you so much for replying my messages. Even though I try to read your case and some others who asked you questions, I still don’t get it yet and have a lot of questions about this application.

Thank you.
Natt

Hi Natt,

You will get an Orange Card while waiting for the final decision. You can work if your partner is a Belgian or EU citizen after receiving it.

You do not have to tell them about your intention. Isn’t being with your boyfriend the reason for making you stay?

You can try to ask your family to send you the documents in Thailand. I am not sure how it works in your country and whether the authority allows others to collect and legalise the documents on your behalf.

Thank you for the answer. I have other questions.

When I apply for the legal cohabitation, will I get an orange card? And can I work here?

And what should I say to them if I don’t want them to know my intention to stay here longer?

I don’t have any document with me at all. So I have to ask my family in Thailand to do it for me and send them to me here, don’t I?

About the marriage, we don’t have any plan about that yet since we’ve been together for a short time, we wanna work out on this cohabitation first. So marriage case is dropped from now.

Thank you in advance
Natt

Hi Natt,

You can apply for legal cohabitation while holding an au pair visa. You also have to change your residing address to that of your boyfriend.

However, as you have not met the 1-year mark of living together with him, you have a high risk of getting your cohabitation visa rejected. Since you have expressed your intention to stay longer, after the first rejection, you can reapply the cohabitation visa the second time and continue staying in Belgium until you get your Belgian residence card.

By that time, you would have likely lived together with him for 1 year. When the cohabitation visa process is running, you can stay in Belgium even when your au pair visa has expired. Note that you cannot apply cohabitation close to your au pair expiry date because the authority can reject your application.

Do you also have your Certificate of Celibacy (and your Birth Certificate) with you? Both must be legalised and usually obtainable only in your home country. Moreover, the Certificate of Celibacy is usually the first submission to the Stadhuis.

Alternatively, consider marriage as an option if you do not have the number of years together. Still, you need to have the relevant documents with you as mentioned in the last paragraph.