EN
For practical information and dedicated assistance related to entry conditions, visas, work permits, salary/fellowship (status, earnings, social security, taxation), pension rights, health care, insurance, recognition of diplomas, intellectual property rights, job opportunities, accommodation, access to the culture of the city and the region, language courses, day-care facilities and schooling, please contact:
Nathalie SCHELLENS
Research Administration
Boulevard du Jardin botanique 43
B-1000 Bruxelles
tel : +32 2 211 79 99 - fax : +32 2 211 79 97
email : euraxess@fusl.ac.be
website : www.usaintlouis.be
Several question may arise when planning your stay in Belgium, notably concerning the entry condition and visa formalities.
Do you need a visa to come to Belgium?
What documents are required to apply for a visa?
Where should you apply for your visa?
How much does a visa cost?
You'll find the answer to all these questions on the official Website of the Belgian Foreign Affairs on the following address :
http://diplomatie.belgium.be/en/services/travel_to_belgium/visa_for_belgium/visa_needed/index.jsp
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact us: euraxess@fusl.ac.be
All people who are not nationals of the member states of the European Economic Area (EEA) (1) must be in possession of a valid work permit in order to exert a profession in Belgium, except for those coming to Belgium in the frame of a hosting agreement (scientific visa)
Until further order, nationals of some states (2), despite the fact they are members of the EEA, still come under the requirements to hold a permit.
The work permit must be obtained in advance and is subject to a specific procedure.
The personnel department is in charge of sending requests to the relevant Belgian minister.
The procedure to receive a permit and the waiting time can vary, particularly depending on the status of the person in question and whether or not the future employee is living in Belgium or not.
If the interested party is living abroad, a visa must be applied for at the Belgian consulate in his/her country of origin. The visa is granted based on – amongst other things – the nature of the stay and, where the stay is for a worker, the presentation of a work permit.
(1) Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein,Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,Sweden, United Kingdom
(2) Bulgaria, Romania
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact us: euraxess@fusl.ac.be
Accommodation is an important thing to consider if you want to make sure your period of study or research in Belgium runs smoothly. Accommodation should be reserved as soon as possible and several months in advance; this is even more important if you are not planning to spend the whole academic year in our university.
Our housing services are here to help you to find an accommodation in the near surrounding of the University.
If you plan a stay at the Saint-Louis University, Brussels and you need help concerning accomodation issues, please contact Mrs Chantal de Haan or Mrs Bénédicte Waucquez (dehaan@fusl.ac.be or waucquez@fusl.ac.be).
To open a current or checking account you will need a proof of identity (a valid passport) and a proof of legal residence in Belgium. Some banks may ask you for an extra document to prove your identity and residence in Belgium (e.g. a certificate of enrolment at your host university). Once the account is opened the bank will send you a debit card, probably with the Bancontact/Mister Cash logo. This card has to be signed and activated by choosing and confirming a personal PIN code. With this current account you will be able to carry out all standard bank transactions in Belgium such as cash withdrawals, debit card payments for items bought in shops, transferring money from your bank account to somebody else’s bank account, etc.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact us:
euraxess@fusl.ac.be
In Belgium, employees and freelancers must take out health insurance; it is part of the compulsory liability for social security. In the case of employees, contributions are directly deducted from their salaries by the employer on behalf of the employee. Freelancers must make voluntary contributions to a social security fund for freelance workers.
If you are a citizen of the European Union, your European Health Insurance Card (which replaces the forms E128 and E111) will prove that you already have insurance coverage in your home country. This Card will guarantee access to health care during your stay in Belgium: it facilitates (partial) reimbursement of medical costs and allows obtaining a reduction at the pharmacist.
If you don’t have a Health Insurance Card, you will have to approach a health insurance company (“ziekenfonds / mutuelle”), immediately upon your arrival in Belgium, in order to obtain insurance coverage. There are several health insurance companies in Belgium.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact us: euraxess@fusl.ac.be
During your research stay in Belgium, you will be building up pension or retirement rights through the social security contributions which are extracted directly from your fellowship. But what happens with your Belgian pension if you move back to your home country after you finished your research stay in Belgium?
If you move to a country inside the European Economic Area (EU and its 27 members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and you retire there, your Belgian pension will be exported according to Regulation 1408/71. According to this Regulation, which also applies to non – EEA nationals since Regulation 859/2003 entered into force, every Member State where a person was insured for at least one year will have to pay a proportional old age pension, corresponding to the insurance period completed in that country. However, the pension of a country will only be paid if you have reached the retirement age of that country, meaning that you will be entitled to your Belgian pension at the age of 65.
If you retire in a country outside the European Economic Area, your Belgian pension will be exported only if you are citizen of the European Economic Area or if you are a national of a country with which Belgium concluded a bilateral social security treaty (Algeria, Australia, Canada, Chile, Israel, Croatia, Morocco, the Philippines, San Marino, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States and the independent states that used to form the former Yugoslavia). If you are not a national of one of these countries, you will only receive a pension if you stay in Belgium.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact Mrs Anne-Michèle Lepers, Human Resources: lepers@fusl.ac.be
In principle, you will only be able to profit from Belgian unemployment benefits if you can legally stay in Belgium after your employment contract was ended. If you can extend your legal residence in Belgium, you can ask for a C4-form at your host university. With this form, you can go to the Belgian Unemploment Services (RVA) and apply for an unemployment allowance. Next to legally residing in Belgium, you will have to fulfill other requirements in order to receive these benefits. One of the conditions is that you must have worked for a number of days during the period of reference relevant for your age.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact Mrs Anne-Michèle Lepers : lepers@fusl.ac.be
If you are a citizen of the European Union, your European Health Insurance Card (which replaces the forms E128 and E111) will prove that you already have insurance coverage in your home country. This Card will guarantee access to health care during your stay in Belgium: it facilitates (partial) reimbursement of medical costs and allows obtaining a reduction at the pharmacist.
If you don’t have a Health Insurance Card, you will have to approach a health insurance company (“ziekenfonds / mutuelle”), immediately upon your arrival in Belgium, in order to obtain insurance coverage. There are several health insurance companies in Belgium.
A mutuelle (mutual insurance company) will reimburse (in part or in full, depending on the type of care given) medical care and the cost of some medicine. You are free to decide which mutuelle suits you best: there are mutuelles of different persuasions: socialist, Christian, liberal and neutral. Some large insurance companies also have a ‘mutuelle’ department.
Joining a mutuelle means you will be reimbursed for part of your medical and dental fees, hospital fees, surgery, giving birth, etc. according to the very strict tariff set for the various types of care provided.
Unlike medical and dental care, where the (partial) reimbursement is made upon presentation of a document proving the provision, medicine is reimbursed when the purchase is made. There is also ‘supplementary’ (non compulsory) health care insurance, which assumes all or part of the costs which are not reimbursed by the mutuelles.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact us: euraxess@fusl.ac.be
Child allowances
According to Belgian legislation, your salary or fellowship will be subject to social security contributions. This means you will be entitled to child allowances.
Crèches
Crèches are for children between 0 and 3 years. In some crèches, which are approved and subsidised by the ONE (Office de la Naissance et de l’Enfance : www.one.be), the parents' contribution to fees depend on their professional incomes. Children are admitted on the condition that their parents are working. In non-subsidised crèches, the share paid by the parents is fixed and is slightly higher.
Schooling
Schools in Belgium are free of charge (a guarantee provided for under the Constitution) until the end of compulsory schooling. Children must attend school from 6 years old until the age of 18. The parents are free to choose which kind of school they want their child to attend. There is a large choice of schools: collèges, instituts, lycées, athénées, etc.
Schooling is organized according to the following system:
Basic education (nursery school – from 2.5 years until 6 years old – and primary school, from 6 years old until 12 years old). Duration: 3+6 years.
Secondary education 6 years spread over three levels, each lasting 2 years (from 12 years old until 18 years old). There are two subsidized teaching networks: the official network and the free network, which can be confessional or non-confessional. Schools ask parents to make a small financial contribution, which covers costs such as books, photocopies and regular outings.
The third network is private, and is not subsidized by the state. Here, parents are asked to pay tuition fees.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact us: euraxess@fusl.ac.be
Fellowship holders
According to Belgian law, fellowships are exempt from taxes if they are provided by authorized institutions and if following conditions are met:
• The fellowship facilitates extraordinary contributions to scientific research;
• The fellowship is awarded in circumstances which allow personal initiative by the fellowship holder in continuing his studies or conducting his research;
• The fellowship is granted free of charge, i.e. every dependency towards the grantor is excluded;
• The fellowship is directly nor indirectly financed by Belgian or foreign industrial, trading or agricultural companies, which may benefit, in one way or another, from the subsidized research activities.
Working contract holders
Income tax is assessed once a year. Employers withhold a percentage of your monthly income to offset the tax bill at the end of the year. This means that the amount of income tax due is normally paid before the end of the taxable year. You will have to complete an annual tax return reporting income received during the preceding calendar year, and return it usually in the last week of June of the following year. Some months after submitting the tax declaration, the tax authorities will issue a tax statement. It indicates the amount to be paid, or the refund to be received. If you have to leave Belgium but are still entitled to a tax refund, you should contact the tax office and ask for a form that will permit declaring your income in advance.
To avoid double taxation, treaties prescribe which of the involved countries may subject a certain income of a person to its national taxes. In this way, the income in one of the countries is exempt from taxation. Generally you will be liable for income taxation in the country where you reside, Belgium.
If your employer in your home country sends you to Belgium to work (as a ‘posted’ worker), you will only be considered as a “fiscal Belgian resident”, if you spend an aggregate of 183 days or more in Belgium in a certain tax year. This is called the ‘183-days rule’. This rule is only applicable if your employer is not a Belgian resident or is not established in Belgium.
If you did not find the answer to your question, or if you need help, please contact Mrs Anne-Michèle Lepers, Human Resources: lepers@fusl.ac.be
Requests for recognition of diploma has to be addressed to the Service of equivalence of the French Community of Belgium. Following documents have to be produced by the applicant: exact title of the diploma for which the applicant wishes to obtain the equivalence, name of the institution which deliver this diploma, legal duration of the higher education (for this diploma), country of issue, presence or not of final-year works (projects, thesis, dissertation, …), internship\Training courses, nationality, reasons for application.
Contact: equi.sup@cfwb.be
Job opportunities at Saint-Louis University, Brussels : www.usaintlouis.be/emploi
Before your depature, do not forget to enclose all administrative procedure which you began (annual tax return reporting income, health insurance, ...).
If you need further information or help, please contact us: euraxess@fusl.ac.be
or visit the website : www.usaintlouis.be
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