I have a question about the right of residence for long stay

Anyone in need of protection can apply for asylum inBelgium. Asylum is thus a form of international protection that allows a refugee to find himself outside the country of his nationality or, if he has no nationality, outside his country of origin. Asylum can be obtained when the person in question cannot or does not want to invoke the protection of that country because he fears persecution because of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

Persons who, strictly speaking, do not fall under that definition, but who face a real risk of serious harm if returned to their country of origin, can also receive protection under the subsidiary protection status in Belgium.

If you want to apply for asylum, there are a number of different ways to do so. You can apply for asylum both on Belgian territory by registering at the application center "Klein Kasteeltje" of the Immigration Office (Negende Linielaan 27, 1000 Brussels). Furthermore, you can also do so from a detention center or prison if this would be necessary. In addition, applying for asylum is also possible at the border, in this case your file will often be expedited.

When one registers the asylum application with the Immigration Department, it will typically always be done without the assistance of an attorney. Nevertheless, it is important to be complete. During this registration, you will have to provide a lot of information and the first time you will be briefly asked for the reason for your asylum application. Think carefully about this and mention all the reasons why you wish to apply for asylum.

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After registration, the Immigration Office will assess whether your asylum is admissible and whether Belgium is responsible to process your asylum application. This is also known as the Dublin investigation.

This investigation generally has two possible outcomes on the proceedings:

1. If your asylum application is admissible and Belgium is responsible , you will be invited again later to come and discuss your asylum application at the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons. You should be assisted by a lawyer who is familiar with these hearings.

Assistance at this hearing also allows the attorney present to act already with knowledge of the file in the event of an adverse decision. In most cases, an adverse decision will require an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals within 30 days.

2. If the Immigration Department judges that Belgium is not responsible or your asylum application is inadmissible for another reason, you will immediately receive a decision against which you can appeal to the Council for alien law litigation. Such a decision will often have to be appealed within a very short period of time. Therefore, do not hesitate to seek the help of a lawyer in time.

Frontline Lawyers provides assistance with hearings at the CGRS and can act in proceedings before the Board of Immigration Disputes or the Council of State. So do not hesitate to contact us to discuss the terms of this assistance or to learn if you qualify for pro bono assistance at our office.

The right to family reunification includes numerous possibilities and is one of the main grounds for migration. We distinguish three broad categories of persons who can claim family reunification:

- certain family members of Belgians or aliens with unrestricted right of residence

- spouses by marriage or a legally registered partner

- persons acknowledging or adopting a child of Belgian nationality

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Depending on the situation you find yourself in, you will have to apply for family reunification based on a whole number of documents and you will have to meet different conditions. So do not hesitate to seek specialized assistance from our office to see if a family reunification procedure is possible in your specific case.

Humanitarian regularization occupies a special place among residence procedures as it relies essentially on the discretionary power of the Minister for Asylum and Migration to grant a residence authorization. It is therefore an exceptional procedure that aims to grant a right of residence in the case of distressing humanitarian situations when it cannot be easily obtained on the basis of another existing procedure.

To apply for humanitarian regularization in Belgium, on the one hand, there must be humanitarian reasons to make the application that are not addressed in another residence procedure (9ter, asylum, etc.).

In addition, there must always be exceptional circumstances that make it very difficult for the applicant to return to his country of origin. Humanitarian regularization can therefore never be undertaken lightly and must be well considered and justified.

Contact us without obligation to get more information about this or to help you start proceedings.

Medical regularization is a specific procedure dedicated to providing protection when, for medical reasons, a person cannot return to his or her country of origin.

In order to submit an admissible request for Medical Regularization, quite a few documents must be presented and specific conditions met:

- Request art. 9b and accompanying documents must be in one of the three national languages or provided with a (sworn) translation

- Identity document of the applicant

- Proof of residence of the applicant

- Proof of a serious medical condition based on a standardized medical certificate

When this request is submitted, the request will first be assessed medically by a doctor from the Immigration Office. These review whether the medical condition is sufficiently serious to be declared admissible.

Only when all these conditions are met will a request be declared admissible and a decision made on the merits of the case. You should therefore seek the assistance of a lawyer familiar with this procedure.

If the Immigration Department rules that the request is inadmissible or unfounded, an appeal can be lodged with the Council for Immigration Disputes.

Contact us without obligation if you have further questions about this.

A stateless person is someone who is not considered a citizen under the law of any state to which he has a link. Since the New York Convention of May 12, 1960, many countries, including Belgium, have undertaken to try to exclude statelessness as much as possible. If you wish to submit an application, you must therefore prove that you do not have or cannot obtain the nationality of the countries to which you are related (e.g. country of birth, place of residence, nationality of parents, etc.).

Since the Potourri V law, the substantive jurisdiction to recognize stateless persons was granted to the Family Court and, in territorial terms, only the Family Court located at the seat of the Court of Appeals of the applicant's jurisdiction had jurisdiction to hear this claim.

If the Family Court recognizes you as stateless, you should note that your recognition does not automatically equate to obtaining a right of long-term residence in Belgium. This always requires a separate application for authorization.

If the Family Court denies your request, you can always appeal to the Court of Appeals.