Before you start

For third-country nationals: an approved Flemish single permit or a professional card, and a type D visa
For EU/EEA and Swiss nationals: no permit, but the same duty to register with the city
An address in Antwerp with your name on the letterbox and doorbell
Legalised birth and marriage certificates — begin these months before the move

Step-by-step

1
Have your employer file with Flanders, not with Brussels
The region is set by where the job is. Flanders' 2026 floors are annual: €48,912 gross for a highly skilled worker, €39,129.60 for under-30s on a local contract, €78,259 for management, €63,586 for an EU Blue Card (130% of the highly-skilled floor). A Brussels employer's template quotes monthly figures and will not survive a Flemish assessment.
Via employerWho: Your employer4–5 months before the start date
2
Budget for the new Flemish fee
On top of the federal contribution of €377 per file for highly-skilled, Blue Card and intra-corporate transfer applications since 1 January 2026, Flanders charges its own non-refundable €180 regional retribution on applications lodged from 1 September 2026 — and does not begin processing until it is paid. Brussels and Wallonia charge no equivalent.
Via employerWho: Your employer
3
Report to the city within eight working days of arriving
Go to the loket for foreign nationals with passport, visa, permit and proof of address. You receive a Bijlage 15, which is a paper slip and not an identity card, but for the next few weeks it is the only proof you are here legally.
In personWho: YouWithin 8 working days of arrival
4
Be findable for the wijkagent
The neighbourhood officer calls at the address unannounced to confirm you live there. Name on the bell, name on the letterbox, neighbours who recognise you. A negative report stops the file and you begin again — this is the most common stall in the whole process and it is entirely avoidable.
In personWho: YouDays to a few weeks after registering
5
Collect your national register number and eID
After a positive report the city registers you and invites you back for the electronic card. Choose and keep your PIN and PUK. The national register number arrives with it and is what every bank, health fund and government portal will actually ask for.
In personWho: You2–8 weeks after the police check
6
Start the inburgering path if you are obliged to
Non-EU newcomers aged 18+ with a permit of more than three months, registered in a Flemish municipality, must follow the civic integration path: social orientation, Dutch to at least A2, and career or education guidance, with 80% attendance required. In Antwerp this runs through the city agency Atlas rather than the regional agency. EU, EEA and Swiss nationals and their family members are exempt, along with several other categories.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the type D visa
The approved Flemish single permit or professional card
Registered lease or ownership title as proof of address
Legalised and translated birth certificate, and marriage certificate if applicable
Passport photographs to Belgian specification
Diploma, potentially with proof of authenticity under the 2026 Flemish rules

Things most newcomers don’t know

Flanders rewrote its labour migration rules on 1 January 2026, and the changes are restrictive.

Roles at qualification level 2 are no longer eligible for a combined permit at all; the mid-level shortage-occupation list lost fourteen functions while gaining six; level 3–4 roles now require a vacancy published on VDAB and EURES for nine weeks in the preceding four months plus evidence that recruitment failed; contracts must specify workplace, duration, salary and joint-committee classification; and the government can demand proof that a diploma is authentic. Applications lodged before 31 December 2025 for now-removed functions remain valid. Anyone working from a 2024 or 2025 guide to Flemish permits is reading a superseded regime.

Source: Flemish Government / Vlaanderen.be

A Flemish permit and a Brussels permit are different instruments with different numbers.

Belgium devolved work authorisation to the regions. Flanders expresses its thresholds annually and grants up to three years for highly skilled workers; Brussels-Capital expresses them monthly (€3,703.44 gross for a highly qualified profile in 2026) and typically issues shorter. Because Antwerp is thirty minutes from the Brussels boundary, employers and candidates routinely carry the wrong figures across, and a file quoting the other region's test gets refused rather than corrected.

Source: Vlaanderen.be; Brussels Economy and Employment

Civic integration is a legal obligation in Flanders, and Antwerp runs it itself.

Where Brussels has a reception pathway with its own scope, Flanders imposes inburgering on most non-EU newcomers with a permit over three months: social orientation, Dutch to at least A2, and guidance, with an 80% attendance rule. Antwerp and Ghent are the two cities that run their own agencies rather than using the regional one, so in Antwerp you are referred to Atlas. People arriving from Brussels or from another EU country often assume it is optional or informational. It is neither.

Source: Vlaanderen.be; City of Antwerp

The wijkagent visit is real, and the whole sequence hangs on it.

Belgian communes verify residence in person before entering you in the register. There is no appointment and the officer decides when to call. Because the national register number depends on that report, and the bank account, ziekenfonds, phone contract and itsme app all depend on the number, a single missed check can cost a month of everything else. Put your name on the letterbox on day one and tell the neighbours you have moved in.

Source: FPS Home Affairs (IBZ)

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying Brussels salary thresholds to an Antwerp job, or the reverse.
Overlooking the new €180 Flemish retribution and having the file sit unprocessed.
Missing the eight-working-day window to report to the city after arrival.
Not being findable for the wijkagent and restarting the registration.
Treating the inburgering obligation as an optional welcome programme.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.