Belgium Expat Forum

Permanent Residency

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thiswildride

7/17/2012 23:12 EST

My husband and I are trying to become permanent residents of Belgium as soon as possible with an eye to retiring there as Belgian citizens. We are trying to get answers to several questions about the correct bureaucratic pathway: Can entry on retirement visas lead to an unrestricted permanent resident status? How do we show real ties to Belgium? Will purchase of a home there with a mortgage accomplish that? Do we need to start a business to show the real ties? Etc., etc. We think that we need professional advise, but are reluctant to contact a large Belgian law firm because we don't want to spend 15,000 euros to get answers to a few questions.

Has anyone had experience with this set of questions? Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced Belgian immigration attorney?

Thanks.

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Lekitanin

7/30/2012 12:07 EST

Most of your questions could be answered by any Belgian Consulate in your home country or by a consular section of Belgian Embassy. I am just curious - why Belgium? Have you been to Belgium before? Myself, I have a "soft spot" for Belgium because I was spending there all my vacations during my college years and still have some fond memories. I do not think (my personal opinion of course) that Belgium is "the best" retirement location - very expensive with terrible climat and not very friendly residency laws. Again - only my personal view. Good luck to you!

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thiswildride

7/30/2012 18:35 EST

Hi, Lekitanin. We have visited BE a lot, have friends there, etc. I actually love the weather. I come from Los Angeles where there is no 'weather'. It might seem odd to some but I'm looking forward to lots of rain.

Re: Consulate suggestion. We've visited the local consulate and got no help At All. We were quite disappointed and have researched the internet mightily too. We're traveling to BE beg of Sept and will head for the Immigration authorityto hopefully get better answers. In the meantime, I thought I'd ask the expats out there if they knew the answers to any of these more esoteric questions.

Best to you too!

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thorbergers

8/7/2012 05:29 EST

i reacted before and can help you

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AlbertHeger

11/15/2012 11:04 EST

As a Belgian citizen I remember the ways to gain Belgian nationality: by birth, by marriage or by naturalisation. It is possible that you qualify for the 3d option. Consult the consular section of the Belgian embassy or its internetsite. It's free.

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