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Regarding Permanent Residency and EU Blue card
Hi all,
I am a non-EU citizen and have lived and worked in Belgium since November 2014 with the work permit B. I have a few questions.
1. Although I started my work at Nov 2014, my residence permit has been initiated 2 months later, as from Jan 2015 (due to the processing time). Then is it Nov 2019 or Jan 2020 when I fulfill my 5 years residence in Belgium?
2. My current work permit (the 5th work permit) gets expired in Nov 2019. If my complete 5 years come at Jan 2020, does it mean that I need my 6th work permit to fill the gap?
3. Meanwhile, I received an offer from another company in the Netherlands.
To my understanding (https://www.expatica.com/be/moving/citizenship/applying-for-belgian-citi...), if I have a blue card from this company and have lived in the Netherlands, this period can count towards my five-year period.
Then, does it mean that I can move to the Netherlands and live there until Jan 2020 and come back to Belgium to request the permanent residence?
I will definitely make my visit to the local commune but according to several people, even the commune officers are not so familiar with EU blue card. Hence, I am looking for someone who already experienced similar things.
Many thanks.
regards,
You can ask your commune for a certificate of residence which will show the precise date from which your residence in Belgium is counted. Mine dated from the date of the police visit and I understand from my commune that that is the normal situation, it is certainly logical.
HI,
from my experiecne here are some hopefully useflul answers to your questions:
1. Belgian authoroties consider your legal stay starting with the day your first residence permit was issued, NOT when you arrived or was registered into national register, in your case it would be Jan 2020.
2. You better ask your employer and the commune, but I am afraid, yes, just to be on the safe side. If it is your employer who does this it should be matter of timely request.
3. If you leave Belgium and deregister from the commune before you reach legal 5 years residence you will be scrapped from the national register and your stay will interrupted. Besides I am not sure how can you request permanent residency in BE while being employed and assumingly living in NL. You better consult immigration lawyer on this matter.
Best luck,
D
