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Belgian marriage with non-EU
Hello,
I have declared Belgian citizenship in 2012. Having a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend for 7 years now we decide to marry. She is non-EU and we are planning to marry in our origin country. I am working in Belgium and we would like to live here.
She is asking for her company for an internal move (local or xpat contract) to Belgium as the company is active in Belgium. If they provide a position here she will be granted work permit and residence permit. If she does not get a position she will be in dependent on me so a residence permit will be required.
My question is:
1. For the sake of less bureaucracy what is the best way for a Belgian to marry non-EU (who is not in Belgium)? Should we marry in Belgium? If so she has to travel to here with a visa.
2. What are the rights of my spouse when we marry? Will she have a work permit?
Thank you in advance.
Get married in Belgium - much easier for everything that requires the marriage certificate and then no translations... She will have the right to work if you were granted belgian nationality - no permit needed.
It's not QUITE as simple as siomah350 suggests.
Getting married here is definitely the eaiest way but, with any marriage involving a non-EU partner, you have to satisfy the authorities that the marriage is genuine and not just in order to allow the non-EU partner to get access to the EU.
How you do this will probably depend on your commune and that is the place to start asking questions. Definitely do not assume that you will automatically be allowed to marry without any questions being asked.
Ideally you want to be able to prove that the relationship is long-term and is genuine rather than just, say, a pen-friendship. You want to produce letters or emails going back over the years, proof of calls betwen the two of you and of regular visits to her and by her to you if she has been here - you will have problems convincing people that the relationship is genuine if you haven't seen each other for years - and anything else that you can think of that will help.
FYI- 10 years ago I married my Belgian husband in the U.S. (though we were living here). It caused no problem except in translating documents. I was already here on a 5 year visa, though.
