At the international level, the visa activity is limited to categories of travellers with an essential function or need:
- Healthcare professionals, health researchers, and elderly care professionals;
- Frontier workers;
- Seasonal workers in agriculture;
- Transport personnel;
- Diplomats, staff of international organisations, military personnel and humanitarian aid workers in the exercise of their functions;
- Passengers in transit;
- Passengers travelling for imperative family reasons;
- Persons in need of international protection or for other humanitarian reasons respecting the principle of non-refoulement;
- [EU citizens and citizens of Schengen Associated States and third country nationals legally residing in the European Union], as well as their family members (when entry visa is required for a short stay in Schengen), regardless whether or not they are returning home;
- third-country nationals travelling for the purpose of study;
- highly qualified third-country workers if their employment is necessary from an economic perspective and the work cannot be postponed or performed abroad.
However, the prerequisite for this recovery is that the outsourcing partner whom the embassy or the consulate collaborate with (VFS Global or TLS Contact) must be operational again.
Applications for visas for family reunification may be now submitted and visas may be issued in the event of a positive decision, but gradually and as far as possible. The precondition for this is that the outsourcing partner with which the embassy or consulate is working if necessary (VFS Global or TLS Contact) is operational again. Before submitting an application for family reunification or collecting a granted visa, the family member should contact the relevant embassy or outsourcing partner to make an appointment.
GOOD TO KNOW:
Travellers from third countries must in many cases take into account the current sanitary measures in Belgium, including a 14-day quarantine. On the other hand, every passenger to Belgium is obliged to complete a Public Health Passenger Locator Form prior to travel. On arrival in Belgium, the form must be handed over to the designated authorities at the border. This form can also be completed and sent electronically via https://travel.info-coronavirus.be/ where it is available in Dutch, English, German and French. This is a sanitary measure imposed by the Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment. Further information can be found on the form itself.
