Before you start

For third-country nationals: an approved Walloon 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 your commune
An address in Liège or a neighbouring commune with your name on the letterbox and doorbell
Legalised birth and marriage certificates — start these months before the move

Step-by-step

1
Have your employer file with Wallonia, and check the right number
The region is set by where the job is. Wallonia's 2026 annual gross floors are €53,220 for a highly qualified worker, €42,576 if the worker is under thirty at the time of application, €88,790 for a management or executive function, and €68,815 for an EU Blue Card — with €55,052 where the Blue Card applicant relies on under three years of relevant experience. Intra-corporate transfers run €68,815 for a manager, €55,053 for a specialist and €34,408 for a trainee, and an artist's floor is €44,396. Every one of these is above the equivalent Flemish figure.
Via employerWho: Your employer4–5 months before the start date
2
Check the salary against the guaranteed minimum too
Whatever category applies, the remuneration must also clear the national guaranteed average minimum monthly income, which is €2,189.81 gross per month from 1 April 2026. For most permit categories the category floor is far higher, but for au pair placements — where the requirement is €750 a month in pocket money — and for edge cases, the minimum wage rule is the one that bites.
Via employerWho: Your employer
3
Report to your commune within eight working days of arriving
Go to the foreigners' desk of the commune where you actually live, with passport, visa, permit and proof of address. You receive an Annexe 15 — a paper slip, not an identity card, but for the next few weeks the only proof you are here lawfully. In this agglomeration your commune may be Seraing, Herstal or Ans rather than Liège, and it is that commune's counter you need.
In personWho: YouWithin 8 working days of arrival
4
Be findable for the agent de quartier
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
Collect your national register number and eID
After a positive report the commune 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, mutuelle and government portal actually asks for.
In personWho: You2–8 weeks after the police check
6
Start the parcours d'intégration through the regional integration centre
If you have been in Belgium under three years and hold a permit of more than three months, you are a primo-arrivant and the pathway is compulsory. EU, EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members are exempt. It runs in four parts: a welcome module with a social assessment and a French-level test, French tuition of at least 400 hours where needed, citizenship training of at least 60 hours, and socio-professional orientation. You have eighteen months from the residence-permit application, extendable, and administrative fines are provided for. It is free.
In personWho: YouWithin 18 months of the permit application

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the type D visa
The approved Walloon 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
Employment contract showing gross annual remuneration against the applicable Walloon floor

Things most newcomers don’t know

Wallonia asks for a higher salary than Flanders, which is the opposite of what everyone assumes.

The instinct is that the region with lower wages and higher unemployment will set an easier test. It sets a harder one. On 2026 figures Wallonia wants €53,220 gross a year for a highly qualified worker where Flanders wants €48,912, and €68,815 for an EU Blue Card where Flanders wants €63,586 — a gap of roughly 8% across the board. For a Liège offer pitched at the Flemish level, the file fails on arithmetic rather than on merit, and the employer will not necessarily know why. Establish which region owns the file, then look up that region's own table.

Source: emploi.wallonie.be — 2026 salary thresholds

The Walloon integration pathway is more demanding than the Flemish one and costs nothing.

Wallonia requires at least 400 hours of French where needed and at least 60 hours of citizenship training within eighteen months of the permit application, delivered free through the regional integration centres. Flanders requires social orientation, Dutch and guidance towards work, with 80% attendance — and since September 2023 charges the newcomer €180 for social orientation and €180 for Dutch, plus books and retakes. So the two regions differ on hours and on money in opposite directions, and any Belgium-wide article that describes 'the integration requirement' is describing one of them and not the other.

Source: wallonie.be — parcours d'intégration; Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering

Your commune is probably not the City of Liège, and it decides your tax rate.

The Liège agglomeration is a patchwork of separate communes — Liège, Seraing, Herstal, Ans, Saint-Nicolas, Chaudfontaine, Grivegnée within Liège and more besides. Each runs its own foreigners' desk and each votes its own communal surcharge on your income tax. A five-minute walk can move you between two administrations with two different rates, and it is your registered address on 1 January that decides which one applies for the year. Newcomers say 'I live in Liège' and are then surprised that a specific town hall, not the city, holds their file.

Source: FPS Finance; commune administrations

Everything here is transacted in French, and that is a harder bar than the Flemish cities' Dutch.

Wallonia has no bilingual status: French is the language of the administration, the courts, the schools and effectively the whole labour market outside a handful of international employers. Flanders is officially Dutch too, but Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges are full of people who will conduct your life in English while you learn. Liège is much less so — and the integration pathway's 400 hours of French tuition exists precisely because that is the realistic entry cost. Budget the time rather than assuming you will absorb it.

Source: community-reported; wallonie.be

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying Flemish salary thresholds to a Liège job — they are roughly 8% too low here.
Missing the eight-working-day window to report to your commune after arrival.
Going to the City of Liège's counter when you actually live in Seraing, Herstal or Ans.
Not being findable for the agent de quartier and having to restart the registration.
Treating the parcours d'intégration as optional because it is free.

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