Work Permits B (employment or assignment of less than 90 days) 

Employees can finally travel to Belgium. Once the work authorisation is issued, it is required to request and obtain a Certificate of Essential Travel with the Belgian Embassy or Consulate-General abroad. You will have to prove the essential nature of the employee’s presence in Belgium. A support letter from the Belgian company or client should suffice.

Expat Management Group has successfully obtained those certificates and can ensure that your employees for whom you applied for Work Permits B (not single permit applicants, so no D visa to be obtained), can come to Belgium and start working again.

Non visa nationals only require this certificate to travel, visa nationals obviously need to obtain a C visa (but no certificate required).

 

EU ICT Permit

The Belgian Federal Government has finally implemented Directive 2014/66/EU on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (EU ICT Directive).

The regional authorities had implemented this in their regulation already some time ago, but it was not possible to apply for an EU ICT permit (you could only make use of the short term EU ICT mobility).

We are happily surprised to see that this happened during this Covid-19 crisis and in a time we are without a government (we now have a government in current affairs).

The Law of 31 July 2020 entered into force on 1 September 2020. It partially transposed Directive 2014/66 (ICT), but various provisions still have to be transposed by Royal Decree (including the model residence card).

 

Only after publication of this Royal Decree can ICT applications be processed according to the specific ICT criteria. Pending entry into force, an application must be submitted as highly skilled. Only the exemption for short-term mobility has direct effect and is already in force.

 

Travel ban to Red Zone Countries

As of Friday, September 25, 2020, the government has taken the decision to replace the travel ban to a red zone with a travel advice, which strongly advises against traveling to such a zone. This advice does not change the procedure: measures applicable in the event of return from a red or orange zones remain in force.

 

As of October 1, the period of quarantine is reduced from 14 to 7 days. In concrete terms, the new quarantine system means that anyone who has symptoms of Covid-19 must see a doctor who will immediately quarantine the person in question for seven days. The patient should get tested as soon as possible. If the test is positive, the person will remain in quarantine. If the test is negative, that person may stop the quarantine, if his / her health condition permits. Another condition is that you have to be symptom-free for three days to be allowed to come out of isolation.
In case of questions, please do not hesitate to contact Massimo Maesen at maesen@expatmanagmentgroup.com