Flanders has started charging its own fee for the permit that lets a non-EU national work and live in Belgium. From 1 September 2026, every application for a single permit — the combined work-and-residence authorisation, the gecombineerde vergunning — for employment in the Flemish Region carries a regional retribution of €180. It applies to first applications and to renewals, it is paid through the Working in Belgium platform when the application is filed, and the file is not processed until the money has arrived. If payment is not completed within 15 days of the application being started, the application is closed without further processing, and the retribution is not refundable. The amount was fixed by a Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2026, published in the Belgisch Staatsblad on 8 July.
Background
Belgium splits responsibility for labour migration between the federal state and the regions. The federal Immigration Office handles the residence side; Flanders, Brussels-Capital and Wallonia each set their own rules for the employment side, which is why the same job can face different conditions depending on which side of a regional boundary the workplace sits. Flanders has spent 2026 tightening that employment side: a reform package took effect on 1 January 2026, and since June 2026 a single permit file has had to include a copy of every page of the employee's passport rather than just the identity page. The retribution is the money part of the same reform. Its legal basis was inserted as Article 81/1 into the Flemish Decree of 7 December 2018, through a decree published on 19 December 2025, with the amount and start date left to a ministerial decree — the one signed on 26 June 2026.
What exactly changed
The retribution is €180 per application, and it is genuinely per application rather than per worker or per year, so a permit renewed annually attracts it annually. It is due from the employer in the ordinary case; for single permits of indefinite duration, the employee pays it. It is collected digitally through the Working in Belgium platform, the Uniek Loket, at the point of submission, and the Flemish administration only begins processing once payment is received. Miss the 15-day payment window and the file is closed rather than suspended, which means starting again rather than paying late. Applications for a work card, the arbeidskaart used for employment of under 90 days, are exempt. The amount is indexed each 1 January and rounded up to the nearest euro, with the first indexation on 1 January 2027. Two things this fee is not: it is not a replacement for the federal charges, which continue alongside it, and it is not a Belgium-wide measure. Brussels-Capital and Wallonia have not introduced an equivalent.
Before vs after
- Old: a single permit application in Flanders carried federal charges only
- New: an additional Flemish retribution of €180 per application, first applications and renewals alike
- Who pays: the employer, except for single permits of indefinite duration, where the employee pays
- Exempt: work card (arbeidskaart) applications for employment under 90 days
- Deadline: unpaid after 15 days and the application is closed without processing; the fee is not refundable
- Indexation: annual on 1 January, rounded up to the nearest euro, first applied 1 January 2027
- Region: Flanders only — Brussels-Capital and Wallonia have no equivalent regional fee
Who it affects
Anyone whose Belgian job sits in Flanders. That is a wide net: Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Bruges, Hasselt and the Flemish municipalities ringing Brussels, which take in a large share of the country's logistics, chemicals, biotech and technology employment. A software engineer moving from India to a Ghent employer sees €180 added to the cost of getting in, and again at each renewal. An employer running twenty single permits through a Flemish site is looking at €3,600 a year in regional retributions alone, before federal charges. The group with the sharpest exposure is the smallest: holders of an indefinite-duration single permit, who pay the €180 themselves rather than having the employer carry it. And because the fee is charged per application rather than per person, the cost lands hardest on people renewing short permits year after year, not on the one-off arrival.
What to do about it now
If your Flemish employer is filing for you this month, the practical risk is not the money but the clock: the file is closed, not queued, if the €180 does not arrive within 15 days, so confirm who is paying before the application goes in. Employers should build the retribution into relocation budgets as a recurring line rather than a one-off, since renewals attract it too, and should note the separate federal increase earlier this year: the long-stay D visa fee rose from €180 to €250 on 1 July 2026, so a first arrival in 2026 costs meaningfully more than the same move in 2025. If your workplace is in Brussels or Wallonia, none of this applies to you today, though the regional pattern is worth watching. Our Belgium country guide (/country-guides/belgium) sets out the single permit process and the residence steps that follow.
When it takes effect
The retribution applies to single permit applications for employment in the Flemish Region submitted from 1 September 2026. The amount and start date were set by the Ministerial Decree of 26 June 2026, published in the Belgisch Staatsblad on 8 July 2026, under Article 81/1 of the Flemish Decree of 7 December 2018.
Confirm before you file
The 15-day payment window is the trap in this rule: an unpaid application is closed, not held, and the fee is not refundable, so a file that lapses has to be started from scratch. Settle who is paying before submission, and check the current amount on the Working in Belgium platform for applications filed after 1 January 2027, when the first annual indexation applies. Note also that the Belgisch Staatsblad reference for the decree is a query-style URL that may not resolve directly; the Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering notice is the more reliable public summary.
Key Takeaway
A single permit for work in Flanders now costs €180 more every time it is applied for or renewed, the employer pays it in most cases, and the application is closed rather than delayed if the fee is not paid within 15 days.