Country-wide policy
A Region Decides Whether You May Work, and the Federal Permit Waits on It
Part of what this site records about Belgium is decided by a government the federal statute book does not speak for. The Act of 15 December 1980 says a third-country national applies for a work authorisation to the competent regional authority, that the application counts as a residence application too, and that the residence authorisation the federal minister grants is valid only on condition that the regional authority finally authorises the work. The split is visible in the texts themselves and not only in their references. The Act of 19 February 1965 on self-employment, once one federal statute, is now printed by the official database several times over - a federal article, then a Flemish one, a Walloon one, one for the German-speaking Community and, for some articles, one for Brussels-Capital - and the header carries two repeal notes: it has been repealed for the Flemish Region since 1 January 2022 and for Brussels-Capital since 1 October 2024. The royal decree on driving licences and the road traffic Act of 1968 are printed the same way, with regional variants of article after article. A reader who stops at the federal answer has part of one, and which part depends on where in Belgium they mean to live.
Topics it changes
At a glance
- Where a work application goes
- The competent regional authority
Article 61/25-1, first paragraph, of the Act of 15 December 1980.
- What the federal authorisation depends on
- A final regional decision authorising the work
Article 61/25-2, § 3, second paragraph.
- The self-employment Act today
- Parallel texts on one record - federal, Flemish, Walloon, German-speaking Community, and Brussels-Capital on some articles
Justel prints the article once per version, and the contents page lists them one after another.
- Where that Act has been repealed
- The Flemish Region and Brussels-Capital
The repeal notes are in the header of the Justel record: a Flemish decree of 15 October 2021 and a Brussels ordinance of 1 February 2024.
- Driving
- The road traffic Act and the licence decree are printed with regional versions too
Article 23, § 3 of the Act of 16 March 1968 reads differently in the Flemish version, which is quoted here.
- What this site holds of the regional law
- Nothing - no decree, ordinance or regional implementing act was read
What the law says
«Les dispositions du présent chapitre s'appliquent aux ressortissants de pays tiers qui introduisent une demande d'autorisation de travail, ou de renouvellement de cette autorisation, dans le Royaume auprès de \[3 l'autorité régionale compétente\]3, \[2 à l'exception des ressortissants de pays tiers qui sont soumis aux \[3 dispositions du chapitre VIII, du chapitre VIIIbis et du chapitre VIIIter\]3\]2 L'introduction de cette demande vaut introduction d'une demande de séjour.»The application goes to the region, and it is simultaneously the application to stay.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Conformément à l'article 17, alinéa 3, de l'accord de coopération du 2 février 2018, lorsque le ressortissant d'un pays tiers est autorisé à séjourner en application des dispositions du présent chapitre, l'autorisation de séjour n'est valable que sous la condition que \[2 l'autorité régionale compétente\]2 prenne une décision définitive autorisant le ressortissant d'un pays tiers à travailler sur le territoire du Royaume.»And the federal decision hangs on the regional one.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«19 FEVRIER 1965. - Loi relative à l'exercice, par les étrangers, des activités professionnelles indépendantes (NOTE: Abrogé pour la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale par <ORD 2024-02-01/18, art. 25, § 2, 014; En vigueur : 01-10-2024>) (NOTE : abrogé pour la Région flamande par DCFL 2021-10-15/14, art. 35, 012; En vigueur : 01-01-2022)»The two repeals, with the instruments that made them and the dates they took effect.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(Tout étranger qui exerce, sur le territoire \[1 de la Région flamande\]1, une activité professionnelle indépendante, soit en tant que personne physique, soit au sein d'une association ou d'une société de droit ou de fait, doit être titulaire d'une carte professionnelle.)»The same sentence as the federal article, with the territory changed. This is what a regionalised statute looks like on the page.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(Tout étranger qui exerce, \[1 en Région de langue allemande\]1, une activité professionnelle indépendante, soit en tant que personne physique, soit au sein d'une association ou d'une société de droit ou de fait, doit être titulaire d'une carte professionnelle.)»And a third version for the German-speaking Region, which is a language area rather than a Region.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Le Gouvernement flamand peut préciser les conditions et modalités applicables :»Driving is split the same way: the Flemish version hands to the Flemish Government what the federal version leaves to the King.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Act repeatedly cites an accord de coopération du 2 février 2018 between the federal state and the regions, and a second one of 6 December 2018. Those agreements are the machinery of the split and neither was read here.
The German-speaking Community appears in this record because the self-employment Act has a version for it. It is a Community rather than a Region, and what it may legislate is not something this record states.