Documents for Belgium Work Visa

Soumen2255 wrote:

Hello,

I have aplied my work permit for belgium from India thru my employer and soon will be submitting the work visa for me and dependent visa for my dependent once WP is approved.

My question is:
Is affidavit of birth certificate and marriage certificate duely attested and apostilled work for both me and dependent ?
I also have the PCC done from RPO which will be apostilled.
Anyone got any visa rejection because of any documents issue?

When you apply for visa on the basis of work permit, you may not need birth certificate for the visa application, but once you reach Belgium, some communes (local offices) demand the birth certificate for registration here. Your dependents visa application: birth/marriage certificates must be apostilled and also PCC must be apostilled for all of you.

Thanks, i understand the guidelines you suggested.
My question is for dependent whether original birth and marriage certificate needs to be re-issued(I am having some problem getting birth/marriage certificate re-issued from my home town), or affidavit of marriage/birth certificate apostilled will work as well?

Would not like to be in a situation where my dependent visa is on hold because of document issue.

If you could guide on this, it would help.

Ah sorry.. i didnt catch the real query

Hmm.. I think the original certificates must be attested and apostilled. Certificates are not required to be re-issued, but the apostille stamp must not be older than 6 months from the date of application.

Thanks for your response,

In that case My dependent will loose the original marriage certificate and birth certificate because after apostille and visa submission it will be owned by the visa consultancy and not return back?

Dont worry    All the original documents are returned with your passport.

Get the below documents apostiled for you and your dependent.
1. PCC
2. Birth certificate
3. Marriage Certificate

Thanks, will keep you updated on the progress!

Hi This Is Vishal from India
looking forward to work in Belgium
I'm planning to stay in Belgium for job search
kindly let me know how to go further
are offices shutdown in December since what date and when it will open date.
kindly update if any recruitment agencies can help out.

vishalnaidu wrote:

Hi This Is Vishal from India
looking forward to work in Belgium
I'm planning to stay in Belgium for job search
kindly let me know how to go further
are offices shutdown in December since what date and when it will open date.
kindly update if any recruitment agencies can help out.

hello Vishal,


* I am not sure if Belgium has a job search visa. VFS website has more details on the visa types: http://www.vfs-be-in.com/
More official information: http://diplomatie.belgium.be/en/service … n_belgium/
(in short, you must first secure a job offer from a Belgian company to move to Belgium for employment. Else a job in India, which has the opportunity of on-site assignment in Belgium)

Some generic suggestions..
* Register to job portals that advertises jobs in Belgium - google is your friend. (Example: http://www.europelanguagejobs.com/candidates/index.php)
* Find & Join some linkedin groups for IT (or the industry you are interested in) jobs in Belgium

With English language skill, MNCs are the only potential hiring organizations. For local jobs, local language (pretty good conversational) skills are a must.

Hope this helps.

Also, I would like to encourage you to do some research (I know google search gives you a lot of information, but if you spend some time to collect the information, read through it, do more research on the job market and skill requirements, lifestyle, career growth opportunities in that job market, etc, you will get a good idea and direction) about the Belgian job market and if you have some specific questions, happy to help with what I know.

Aneesh

Hi Aneesh
Firstly I thank you for your kind reply
Aneesh I have planned to come to Brussels in December for Job search.
Information you provided is good
I will work on it deffinetely. meanwhile if you don't mind message your email I'd I will sent my Resume if possible kindly help me out to receive job.kindly provide you cellphone number if you don't mind I will call you or if you have Whatsupprivide your  number for chat. I'm trying very hard since months to get job in Brussels.
Thanks for being so kind plz

Hello Vishal,

I prefer answering your questions via the forum. If you have a direct question, feel free to PM me.

Good luck with everything.

Regards
Aneesh

Hello Aneesh,

Need some help from you on the below info-

My work visa D was approved after applying to the vfs but my dependent spouse visa was put on hold seeking additional document - I had submitted an apostilled affidavit of birth certificate and I called the embassy, they said they will need the original birth certificate apostilled.

Question: my spouse original birth certificate is very old and the paper is in bit brittle state( which is obvious since it was issued 30 years back), but still can be managable to get an apostille at the back of it after local attestation.
Can i procced to get an apostille stamp on the back of it with this document and submit to consulate as requested, will this work?

Or they nned to have a fresh birth certificate re-issued from municipality in last 6 months apostilled for acceptance?

Soumen, it would be better I think to go to the municipality and have them give a new official one. This was what I did for my American one before I moved, I got a couple official notarized copies from the county to bring with me here for when they are needed. It's generally not a good idea to give the true original documents unless specifically requested, in case they get lost (not to mention the fragility in this case).

Soumen2255 wrote:

Hello Aneesh,

Need some help from you on the below info-

My work visa D was approved after applying to the vfs but my dependent spouse visa was put on hold seeking additional document - I had submitted an apostilled affidavit of birth certificate and I called the embassy, they said they will need the original birth certificate apostilled.

Question: my spouse original birth certificate is very old and the paper is in bit brittle state( which is obvious since it was issued 30 years back), but still can be managable to get an apostille at the back of it after local attestation.
Can i procced to get an apostille stamp on the back of it with this document and submit to consulate as requested, will this work?

Or they nned to have a fresh birth certificate re-issued from municipality in last 6 months apostilled for acceptance?

Hello Soumen,

My 2 cents.

The 6 months period is applicable for apostle stamp, not issue date of the birth certificate. But in your case, It is better to get a new one issued as the document is physically not in good state. In my knowledge, it is a straightforward procedure to get a new one issued. Also nowadays in most of the states birth certificates can be downloaded from e-governance portals of the birth and death registration department. These are digitally signed documents normally. If the local authorities will attest this, then it is much easier.

From my experience of dependent visa
I am a dependent !!

We had to reissue the birth certificates including children.
My elder son has a USA birth certificate which also was reissued, similarly my younger son (born in India) who is 3 yrs old.

The birth certificate and marriage certificate has to be issued within 6 months.

Want to add one more point the name has to match exactly in all the documents.
My BC had short form of last name but full form in passports so we had to reissue BC with the full form as in old passport (which was before marriage name) the new passport had the after marriage name.

Please do apply the dependent visa along with the main applicant as it takes more than 6 months if they join later (my case still pending its been more than 4 months)
With my experience reissue and apostile of docs took 3 months then after applying in vfs its been 4 months and still in processing.

Hope the information is useful.

Hello Venra,

venra wrote:

The birth certificate and marriage certificate has to be issued within 6 months.

Where did you read this ? I mean, in the VFS page or so ? In my knowledge the appostle stamp is the one that matters (must not be older than 6 months), not the issue date of the document. I may have incorrect info, thats the reason I ask to clarify.

venra wrote:

Want to add one more point the name has to match exactly in all the documents.
My BC had short form of last name but full form in passports so we had to reissue BC with the full form as in old passport (which was before marriage name) the new passport had the after marriage name.

I was in the same situation. My wife's and kid's birth certificate had short names (as we use initials in India) while passport had expansion of initials (full names). I had no issue and was not told (by VFS or so) to have the expanded name on birth certificates also.  In this one also I would like to ask, "Did you pro-actively get the birth certificates issued with expanded names, or were you told officially to get it so ?"

Thanks in advance for your answers. It will help us to stay updated.

Thanks for the assistance.

I got a document from consulate where they mentioned that they need the original BC and it needs to be apostilled but no where did they mention that document has to be reissued in last 6 months.

I am going ahead with submission of the original BC apostilled, parallely procuring a re-issued BC(this will take sometime and my travel date is finalised, postponed the flights again targetting a next suitable date), hence in case they request a BC re-issued within last 6 months I will re-submit.

The marriage certificate has the name after marriage- in brackets name before marriage(surname changed), I am thinking now hopefully this should be ok.

That would be enough. Good luck

Apologies for late response !!!

We are applying visa through my spouse employer.
There were past rejections due to the short form and name difference in BC and passports therefore we were asked to match the names. But reissue of BC was asked by the VFS hence my son  BC was reissued and apostilled from USA. 
Though its not mentioned any where but vfs does ask to reissue of docs.
Also in my case my spouse went to Belgium and then later applied visa for dependents.
So the documents required differ case by case.
My marriage certificate was laminated and delamination was not possible so apostille stamp cannot be done on laminated document hence we had to reissue.
Hope the info is useful !!

Thanks , My wife visa was further approved and I just landed in Brussels this weekend.

Dear Aneeshks and others,

Thanks for all the valuable information so far.

Need some more help on commune registration, since in visa it is mentioned to report to town hall within 8 days of arrival, but i am currently staying on company provided accomodation for first 2 month, rental agreement is on company name. From the third month i will do the registration of my own rental accomodation in my name and then i can approach the commune for the resident permit.

Hope this will not create any trouble for me, but i have no other option then to initiate it from 3 rd month as i have no registration of accomodation in my name and i heard this is mandate to start the registration process at town hall.

Thanks for your valuable comments.

You can visit the commune and explain them exactly what you wrote above. They can give you an appointment for the actual inscription for a later date (when you will have the permanent housing. As it is a matter of a couple of months, I hope it will be ok for them.). Also, the reporting and actual inscription are two different events. The day you report, they just record your arrival and give you the list of documents you must present for actual inscription (registration) and an appointment for the inscription. Normally (in Evere, where we live), this appointment is a month or so (approx) after your reporting date. I am sure if you explain your situation (show the current agreement, and tell you will have another permanent contract when this expires, etc), they can suggest the best way forward.

@Soumen, Welcome to Brussels!

Please go to the commune and just do a ceremonial show of face So far I have not heard any exceptions to the 8 day rule. Best not to assume things at risk, I mean I don't know what consequences of not showing up within a deadline might be.

There are many Indian expats who first begin with company provided housing, I am sure your situation is known to the commune and they probably have a work around for it.

Hi @Aneesh and All,

One question on getting the documents legalised. Should the documents ( eg: Marriage Certificate) be

1. Attested in state department first and then apostilled in MEA ( very long process in some states)
OR
2. Apostilled in MEA ( with apostille sticket) with a Subdivisional magistrate notary only??

Please let me know what is expected in Belgium as in the site they have mentioned "These documents require only one single legalisation (Apostille) issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi or by one of their other offices in India".

Regards,
Pravin

Based on latest (practical) experiences, option 2 (direct mea attestation) is enough. Do confirm with vfs.

Hi,

I am from India and I have already received my WP. My start data in the WP says 17th April, 2017.

I still need to get my Visa Stamping done (bio-metrics etc.)

What is the time-frame or number of days beyond which i cannot enter Belgium? Is there a limit on the validity of the WP or I need to travel to Belgium within 60 days or 90 days from the WP stamping date.

Can someone please reply.

Regards
Anuj

I don't think WP expires or so if not used.

You can apply for (D type) visa with this work permit. Do get an email from your HR saying your start date in Belgium is changed, and the new start date is <date>. Printout and add it to the set of documents you submit for visa. That will explain why you are applying for visa this late.

Hope this helps.
Aneesh