GlobeQuest
Legal & ID🇧🇪 Ghent, Belgium

The Flemish single permit, the wijkagent, and an integration path Ghent runs itself

One permit, three levels of government. Your employer lodges a single permit with the Flemish government, which decides the work half against Flemish salary floors and a Flemish migration list, while the Immigration Office decides the residence half. On arrival you report to the city, receive a Bijlage 15, and wait for a neighbourhood police officer to verify you live at the address. Most non-EU newcomers then pick up a compulsory civic integration obligation — which in Ghent is delivered by the city's own agency, Amal, and which since September 2023 the newcomer part-pays for.

Total cost
A federal contribution per file for highly-skilled, Blue Card and intra-corporate transfer applications, indexed each January, plus a lower rate for family reunification. Flanders adds €180 per application from 1 September 2026. The type D visa is charged separately by the Belgian post abroad. A modest city fee follows for the eID card. Then, if you are obliged to integrate, €180 for social orientation and €180 for Dutch.
Time needed
Four to five months for the permit, then two to eight weeks from arrival to holding an eID. The inburgering path runs alongside for months afterwards.
Validity
Flanders issues a highly-skilled combined permit for up to three years and renews it; an EU Blue Card becomes valid for any employer after a year of effective employment, and a three-year card is issued on renewal after twenty-four months. Five years of continuous legal residence opens EU long-term resident status; Belgian nationality follows at five years with language, integration and economic-participation conditions, or ten on the declaration route.
Verified
August 2026
High confidence·Non-Belgian nationals settling in Ghent. Residence is federal and handled by the Immigration Office; work authorisation is Flemish, because the workplace is in Flanders; registration, your eID and the referral to civic integration are municipal.

Before you start

  • For third-country nationals: an approved Flemish single permit or a professional card, and a type D visa
  • For EU/EEA and Swiss nationals: no permit, but the same duty to register with the city
  • An address in Ghent with your name on the letterbox and doorbell
  • Legalised birth and marriage certificates — start these months before the move

Step-by-step

  1. 1

    Have your employer file with Flanders, not with Brussels

    The region is set by where the job is. Flanders' floors are annual: €48,912 gross for a highly skilled worker, €39,129.60 for under-30s on a local contract, €78,259 for management, and €63,586 for an EU Blue Card — the last set explicitly at 130% of the average gross annual salary. A Brussels template quotes monthly figures and will not survive a Flemish assessment.

    Via employerWho: Your employer4–5 months before the start date
  2. 2

    Budget for the Flemish retribution as well as the federal contribution

    The federal contribution is charged per file for highly-skilled, Blue Card and intra-corporate transfer applications. Flanders adds its own non-refundable €180 retribution on applications lodged from 1 September 2026 and does not begin processing until it has been paid. Brussels and Wallonia charge no equivalent.

    Via employerWho: Your employer
  3. 3

    Report to the city within eight working days of arriving

    Go to the municipal counter for foreign nationals with passport, visa, permit and proof of address. You receive a Bijlage 15 — a paper slip, not an identity card, but for the next few weeks the only proof you are here lawfully.

    In personWho: YouWithin 8 working days of arrival
  4. 4

    Be findable for the wijkagent

    The neighbourhood officer calls at the address unannounced to confirm you live there. Name on the bell, name on the letterbox, neighbours who recognise you. A negative report stops the file and you begin again — the most common stall in the whole process and entirely avoidable.

    In personWho: YouDays to a few weeks after registering
  5. 5

    Collect your national register number and eID

    After a positive report the city enters you in the register and invites you back for the electronic card. Choose and keep your PIN and PUK codes. The national register number arrives with it, and it — not the plastic — is what every bank, health fund and government portal actually asks for.

    In personWho: You2–8 weeks after the police check
  6. 6

    Start the inburgering path through Amal if you are obliged to

    Non-EU newcomers aged 18+ with a permit of more than three months, registered in a Flemish municipality, must follow the civic integration path: social orientation, Dutch, individual guidance towards work and diploma evaluation, with 80% attendance across each part. Flanders has only three delivery bodies and two are cities — Antwerp's Atlas and Ghent's Amal — so a Ghent newcomer deals with the city, not the regional agency. Budget €180 for the social orientation classes and first test and €180 for the Dutch classes and first test.

    In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

  • Passport with the type D visa
  • The approved Flemish single permit or professional card
  • Registered lease or ownership title as proof of address
  • Legalised and translated birth certificate, and marriage certificate if applicable
  • Passport photographs to Belgian specification
  • Diploma, potentially with proof of authenticity under the 2026 Flemish rules

Things most newcomers don’t know

Ghent does not use the regional integration agency, and that changes who you deal with from day one.

Flanders and Brussels are served by three bodies, not one: the Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering for most of the region, Atlas in Antwerp and Amal in Ghent. Every generic Flemish guide sends you to the regional agency's offices, and in Ghent that is the wrong address. Amal is the city's own service and it is where the commune refers you — a small thing that costs a wasted trip and, more often, weeks of confusion about who is actually holding your file.

Source: Vlaanderen.be; Amal (Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering Gent)

The identical integration programme is free in Brussels and costs €360 in Flanders.

Since 1 September 2023 a newcomer signing a Flemish integration contract pays €180 for the social orientation classes including the first test, and €180 for the Dutch classes including the first test; failed retakes and course books cost more. Personal counselling, the pathway to work and the participation programme stay free. In Brussels the whole thing is free of charge. It is one of the sharpest concrete differences between the two regions for someone who could plausibly live in either, and almost nothing written in English mentions it.

Source: Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering — costs of the civic integration programme

Flanders rewrote its labour migration rules on 1 January 2026, in a restrictive direction.

Roles at qualification levels 1 and 2 no longer qualify for economic migration at all; the mid-skilled shortage list was renamed and lost functions; a level 3–4 vacancy must now be published with VDAB for at least nine weeks with the employer cooperating in placement; the contract must carry specified details including the joint committee and function classification; and a regional retribution becomes payable during 2026. Anyone working from a 2024 or 2025 guide to Flemish permits is reading a superseded regime, and the transitional treatment of an application lodged before the changeover is something to check rather than assume.

Source: Vlaanderen.be — new economic migration rules since 1 January 2026

The wijkagent visit is a real administrative act and the whole sequence hangs on it.

Belgian municipalities verify residence in person before entering you in the register. There is no appointment; the officer decides when to call. Because the national register number depends on that report, and the bank account, ziekenfonds, phone contract and the itsme app all depend on the number, one missed doorbell can cost a month of everything else. Put your name on the letterbox the day you get the keys.

Source: FPS Home Affairs (IBZ)

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Applying Brussels salary thresholds to a Ghent job, or the reverse.
  • Overlooking the Flemish €180 retribution, which is separate from the federal contribution and blocks processing until paid.
  • Missing the eight-working-day window to report to the city after arrival.
  • Not being findable for the wijkagent and having to restart the registration.
  • Turning up at the regional integration agency instead of Amal, or budgeting nothing for a programme that now costs €360.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.

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Sources

Last verified August 2026. Government processes change — always confirm critical details against the official source before acting.

More on settling into Ghent

Driving
Exchanging a licence, a low emission zone inside the ring, and six sectors you cannot drive between
Banking
Opening an account, activating itsme, and the right to a basic account
Health
Joining a ziekenfonds, the GP file that pays for itself, and hospital supplements
Telecom
A SIM you must register, a coax city, and the six-month exit rule
Tax
50% at around €48,000, a 6.5% city surcharge, and the expat regime that changed twice
Ghent guideCost of livingLanguageCulture