Belgium’s 1 May Portal Shift for Short-Work Permits

What changes on the permit side

Belgium is moving short-work and commuter permit filings to the federal Working in Belgium portal and the switch is exclusive from May 1. Paper, email, fax and post are out for these cases, which, honestly, is a cleaner system if your file is complete, but a headache if your employer setup is sloppy.

The rule covers temporary assignments of up to 90 days and frontier workers crossing in from nearby countries. Complete files may move faster, with processing cut from about 10 days to as little as 3 days, weirdly enough, once the automated checks do their job.

Who feels this most

Employers hiring non-EEA workers will feel it first, along with companies that rely on cross-border staff from France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. Digital nomads doing paid short-term work through an employer-sponsored assignment are in scope too, while ordinary tourists and visa-free short-stay visitors aren’t.

Long-stay single permits sit outside this change, so this isn’t a blanket visa shake-up. Still, for anyone working in Belgium for a short stint, the portal now matters a lot and honestly, missing one document can kill the file before it starts.

What to do before the deadline

Employers need a CBE registration, a legal representative with a Belgian eID and the right portal mandates in place or the application can get rejected automatically. They’ll also need full passport scans, biometric photos and the supporting labor and salary checks the system asks for.

Flanders and Brussels stop accepting email on April 30, while Wallonia keeps email as a fallback until August 31. If you’re planning a short work assignment, get the employer side sorted now, then use the portal for anything tied to paid work, because the old submission routes are shutting down fast. Read our full Belgium guide for the complete picture.