British Citizen to join immediate Belgian family in Belgium

Greeting,

Apologies in advance if this is a duplicate question, I searched a lot but couldn't find relevant thread.

I am a British Citizen and my children and wife are all Belgian. We are married for 10 years and were living in the UK together. My family (wife & children) have moved back to Belgium and I am working in the UK full time. I want to join my family in Belgium now but I am not sure how to join them in a way that I can start my work in Belgium. Before Brexit it was easy I suppose, but after Brexit I don't know which route to follow and what's the correct route. Before quitting my work in the UK I want to make sure that I have correct status and documents to start living and working with my family in Belgium. Please can you help me with this question. I hope I've put all the necessary information here, any question please let me know. Thanks.

Not at all familiar with Belgian immigration regulations, however you might find this page useful:
https://dofi.ibz.be/en/themes/ressortis ... associated
This is a government site, the heading here is:
"The sponsor is a national of an EU or associated country" - that would be your wife being your sponsor.
It might also be helpful to you if your wife contacts the to her local office of the immigration administration.

@alterhase58 - Thank you for the information and link. I think I will need to apply for a family permit type of document to Belgium Embassy while I am in the UK?

I remember before Brexit, Belgium used to give an EU Family Member residence card, which was more straight forward and has used to access to work and public resources like health, education etc.

Anyone else with first hand experience please, I will be grateful. Thanks

As your wife is a Belgian citizen, your residence will most likely be covered by local laws, so alterhase58's link is not quite correct - it's about the Directive, which you're not covered under.
The right link: https://dofi.ibz.be/en/themas/onderdane ... n-national
You need to apply for a D visa, yes.

meself2 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2023 2:14 pm

As your wife is a Belgian citizen, your residence will most likely be covered by local laws, so alterhase58's link is not quite correct - it's about the Directive, which you're not covered under.
The right link: https://dofi.ibz.be/en/themas/onderdane ... n-national
You need to apply for a D visa, yes.

The wife did exercise her freedom of movement when UK was part of EU so under the discretion of the Belgian immigration they can consider his wife as a returnee who has exercised her EU rights. He just need to contact the relevant authorities about it before his move .

yousuf2015 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2023 1:44 pm

@alterhase58 - Thank you for the information and link. I think I will need to apply for a family permit type of document to Belgium Embassy while I am in the UK?

I remember before Brexit, Belgium used to give an EU Family Member residence card, which was more straight forward and has used to access to work and public resources like health, education etc.

Anyone else with first hand experience please, I will be grateful. Thanks

First contact the Belgian embassy and local authorities and make sure you inform them your wife was exercising her freedom of movement before Brexit. They may or may not agree for you to use the EU directive. If they do, you will not need to apply for family unification visa in UK.

If family reunification visa will be an issue for you, you can use Netherlands or some border town with Belgium as a backdoor. Register there, get a residence card, stay there with your wife for 6 months and then return to Belgium with her. Then you can use EU Directive in Belgium instead of national law.

@Angel99 - Thank you much, that's a very good response and seems a good solution to my situation. I have all documents which proves that my wife was exercising treaty rights / freedom of movement before Brexit since 2006. I have the scanned copies of blue cards, the EU settled status for my wife. I also exercised freedom of movement myself and can prove it from documents. We also registered our marriage with Belgium Embassy 10 years ago as married couple.
I will contact the Belgium Embassy in the UK as we been in constant contact with the Embassy and registered there so which may proves freedom of movement was exercised way before Brexit. Many thanks once again.