Belgium | 5 years of continuous employment before applying for the Belgian citizenship is sufficient as proof of knowledge of one of Belgian languages: no further testing allowed.

In order to obtain Belgian citizenship and at moment of deposition of a statement of nationality at the Registrar of civil status you will need to prove in some cases the knowledge (level A2) of one of the three official languages ​​of Belgium.

The Royal Decree of January 14, 2013 lists eight possibilities to submit evidence of language skills. Among others, prove of 5 years of continuous employment before applying for the citizenship is listed as prove of sufficient knowledge of one of our national languages.

Many expatriates living in Belgium will often not have followed language lessons in Belgium.

But they can satisfy the language requirement if they can show that they have worked continuously during 5 years in Belgium prior to the declaration of nationality, even if they would not have knowledge of French, Dutch or German at speaking level A2.

Recently the Court of Appeal of Ghent, in its judgment on December 24, 2015 (Docket 2014/1095) has explicitly confirmed the above. The Belgian legislature has clearly opted for a documentary system. Therefore pay slips demonstrating five years of continuous employment are eligible to prove language skills.  Having same controlled by the holding for example of a conversation with a local police officer will not be allowed in the current state of the law.

For more information regarding immigration and Belgian nationality we invite you to contact attorney Dirk De Beule by mail on info@a-law.eu or phone 03 / 232.68.88