Almost everything you will need in Belgium — a bank account, health insurance, a phone contract, a tax number, the itsme app that logs you into every public service — runs through one document: the electronic ID card. And the eID runs through one procedure: registering your address with the commune. This guide explains who has to register with the commune in Belgium, by when, what the police check involves, and the part nobody mentions: the apartment you choose decides whether registration is possible at all.
The rules depend on your passport and on how long you are staying.
Situation | Deadline | What the commune issues |
|---|---|---|
EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, staying under 3 months | Report your presence within 10 days of arrival | Annex 3ter (declaration of presence) |
EU/EEA/Swiss citizen, staying over 3 months | Apply for registration within 3 months of arrival | Annex 19, then Annex 8 and an EU card after the police check |
Non-EU citizen arriving on a long-stay (D) visa | Report to the commune within 8 working days of arrival | Annex 15, then an A card after the police check |
Non-EU family member of an EU citizen | Within 3 months | Annex 19ter, then an F card |
Missing the deadline is an administrative offence with a fine of around EUR 200, but the practical cost is higher: nothing else can start until you are in the register. An assignment of five or six months is long enough to need the eID and short enough that a slow registration eats a third of it.
Requirements vary slightly between communes, but the core list is stable:
a valid passport or national ID card
your signed lease, which is the proof of address
proof of health insurance
documents that match your status: an employment contract or secondment letter, proof of self-employment, proof of enrolment for students
passport photos, in most communes
The lease is the document that matters most and the one that goes wrong most often. The commune needs a contract in your name, for the address where you actually sleep, for a period that makes residence plausible. A hotel confirmation does not qualify. A short-stay booking in someone else's name does not qualify. If a colleague or relative is hosting you, most communes accept a signed declaration from them with a copy of their ID and proof of their own residence.
Registration in Belgium is not a paperwork exercise. After you file, a local police officer visits the address to confirm you live there. In practice this means your name on the doorbell and the letterbox, and a short conversation at the door. If you are out, the officer leaves a card asking you to make contact. In Brussels, officers may also check that energy contracts at the address are invoiced in your name, or at least that someone is genuinely living there.
Only after a positive report does the file move on. From that point the commune assigns your national number and orders the card. Budget two to eight weeks from filing to collecting the eID, longer in communes with heavy demand.
Follow the chain backwards. No eID without a positive police check. No police check without an address where you can be found. No address without a lease that the commune accepts and a landlord who accepts being your registered address.
That last point is where furnished, short-term housing splits into two categories. Some providers explicitly forbid tenants from using the property as their official residence, because domiciliation has consequences for the owner. Others allow it. If you or your employee will be in Belgium for more than three months, ask this question before signing anything: "Can I register with the commune at this address?" Get the answer in writing. If the answer is no, the accommodation is fine for a project stay and useless for anything that needs an eID.
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The answer also depends on the length of the contract. A lease of a few weeks does not make residence plausible to a commune, whatever the landlord says. For stays where registration matters, a contract of at least three months at one address is the practical minimum.
Brussels. Nineteen communes, and you register with the one you live in, not with "Brussels". Each runs its own appointment system, in French or Dutch, and processing times differ noticeably between them. The regional Expat Welcome Desk (commissioner.brussels) gives free guidance in English for people working for or around the EU institutions. For the commune itself, assume French.
Antwerp. Antwerp is in Flanders, and Flemish communes are required by law to conduct official business in Dutch. The counter will help you, but the letters, the forms and the appointment system are in Dutch. Registration is by appointment through the city's website, and slots go quickly in September and January.
Ghent. The same Dutch-only rule, one city administration rather than districts, and a migration desk that works by appointment. Ghent is smaller, which usually means shorter waits than Antwerp.
Decide whether registration is needed. Anything over three months, yes. A stay of ten weeks with a return ticket, usually no; the declaration of presence within 10 days still applies to EU citizens.
Choose housing that allows domiciliation. Ask the provider in writing. Do this before the arrival date, not after.
Get the lease in the right name. If the company signs, the employee must still appear as the occupant, or the commune has nobody to register.
Book the commune appointment before arrival. In Brussels and Antwerp the first free slot can be weeks out. Eight working days is not much.
Brief the employee about the police visit. Name on the doorbell, be reachable, respond to the card if they miss the officer.
Plan the bank account after the eID, not before. Most Belgian banks want the national number. Salary in the first month usually goes to a home-country account or a fintech account opened on the passport.
With the card in hand the rest falls into place quickly: a Belgian bank account, registration with a mutuelle (health insurance fund), the itsme app, a phone contract on a plan rather than prepaid, and access to MyMinfin for tax. None of these need to be pre-arranged; all of them are blocked until the card exists.
Many furnished short-stay options cannot be used as a registered address. Globexs apartments can, when the owner agrees. We house individuals and teams in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent on contracts from one to eleven months. To ask, send a written request to your rental agent: we contact the owner, obtain written permission, and tell you the decision. Registration does not change the rent, the contract or the deposit, and the process is the same in all three cities.
If registration is part of the brief, mention it in your first enquiry, so the owner's answer is known before anyone signs. The signed lease you receive is the proof of address the commune asks for first.
Corporate housing across Belgium · Brussels · Antwerp · Ghent · How renting with Globexs works
If you are an EU citizen you must declare your presence within 10 days of arrival; you receive an Annex 3ter and do not get an eID. Non-EU visitors on a short-stay visa follow the rules of that visa. Full registration is for stays over three months.
Eight working days from arrival, at the commune of the address where you live, with your D visa and passport. You receive an Annex 15 while the file is processed.
No. The commune registers you at the place you actually live, and the police will visit it. You need a lease in your name and a landlord who accepts domiciliation.
An officer visits the address, checks your name on the doorbell and mailbox, and confirms you live there. If you are out, they leave a card. Registration continues only after a positive report.
Typically two to eight weeks from filing to collection, depending on the commune and the season. The Immigration Office has up to six months to decide on EU registrations, but most are faster.
Most Belgian banks want the national number, which you receive after the police check. Some digital banks open accounts on a passport; use one of those for the first weeks if you need a local IBAN immediately.
The one your address is in. Brussels is nineteen separate communes, each with its own counter and appointment system.
Yes, if the owner agrees. Send a written request to your rental agent; we ask the owner for written permission and let you know. Registration does not change the rent, the contract or the deposit, in Brussels, Antwerp or Ghent. Ask before you sign so you know the answer in advance.
Globexs was founded in Antwerp in 2002 by Lodewijk Cuypers, a Belgian entrepreneur from Eeklo who studied at the University of Antwerp and is Honorary Consul of Belgium for Valencia and Castellón. The company has rented furnished apartments in Antwerp since 2009 and today lists 135 properties in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent.
