Guide
Moving to Belgium from the UK: the post-Brexit map
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The rule in writing
“Affiliation to a mutualité, or to the CAAMI/HZIV, is compulsory in Belgium. The route in for most new arrivals is the resident category: people entered in the Registre national des personnes physiques. The trigger is commune registration on legal residence of more than three months, not employment. A resident with no Belgian professional income is inside the obligation and pays a personal contribution instead of paying through social contributions.”
Official source: Loi coordonnée du 14 juillet 1994, art. 32, al. 1er, 15°, read with INAMI circular to the mutualités no. 2023/15 of 23 January 2023 and socialsecurity.be — Last verified:
The rule in writing
“The Belgian Immigration Office asks for insurance at application stage, separately from the post-arrival affiliation duty. Its wording on the student visa D route is "proof that they have or will have health insurance covering all risks in Belgium during their stay" — qualitative, naming a territory and a scope, with no minimum amount or duration stated on that page as read on 20 August 2026. The family reunification Insurance page is the exception: it accepts travel medical insurance covering the risks in Belgium of minimum €30,000 for a minimum of 3 months, as an alternative to a fund certificate.”
Official source: Office des Étrangers / Dienst Vreemdelingenzaken (dofi.ibz.be), student visa D initial application page and "Insurance" page — Last verified:
The rule in writing
“There is no general waiting period for a first-time affiliate in Belgium. Article 121 §2 of the coordinated law permits a stage d'attente of at most six months, but article 130 §1 of the royal decree of 3 July 1996 applies that stage only to re-registration or re-affiliation after a previous registration lapsed for non-compliance with personal contribution obligations. The practical gap for a new arrival is administrative processing through the commune, the Registre national and the fund, not a legislated qualifying period.”
Official source: Loi coordonnée du 14 juillet 1994, art. 121 §2; AR du 3 juillet 1996, art. 130 §§1–2 — Last verified:
Quick check · the €30,000 figure
Several consulate checklists on this page anchor to a €30,000 minimum. Check your current policy's medical cover limit against that figure:
The figure is only one line of the rule: scope, duration, and the exact certificate wording matter too. Run the full policy check, or request a quote and a person reviews the wording for your file.
The routes, by what you will live on
Employment: the single permit combines residence and work authorisation in one application (visa D codes B14, or B29 for the EU Blue Card). One structural fact saves confusion: the salary thresholds are set by the Regions — Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels — not federally, so there is no single Belgian number and any page quoting one without naming a Region is unreliable. At first application, your employer's commitment to enrol you in a mutual insurance fund is accepted as the insurance proof.
Self-employment: the professional card (B15), also a Regional competence.
Passive income: Belgium is one of the few northern-European countries with a genuine retirement route — the B17 rentier visa, one year renewable, income pegged to the single-person living wage and transferred to a Belgian bank account, with health insurance covering risks in Belgium in the file.
Family reunification: a means test mid-transition between two figures — €2,173.88 net a month under the old provisions, €2,408.79 plus 10% per additional dependant under the new — with which one applies depending on when the application was lodged and the sponsor's prior status.
Source: Immigration Office (dofi.ibz.be), national entries (visa D) FAQ, read 26 August 2026.
What Brexit changed, concretely
The 90/180 rule now governs British visits: 90 days in any rolling 180 across the whole Schengen area, shared with every other Schengen country you visit that half-year. Scouting trips count.
The insurance question is now the third-country version. At the visa stage Belgium asks route by route — students must show cover for all risks in Belgium, family reunification accepts a fund certificate or travel medical insurance at minimum €30,000 for three months, the rentier route wants health cover in the file. Your GHIC is not any of those things.
And the paperwork stack is the full third-country set: criminal-record certificate, apostilled civil documents, a passport with the validity margin your route demands, and translations where the commune asks. Order the record check first; it is routinely the slowest document.
Source: Immigration Office (dofi.ibz.be), insurance, read 26 August 2026.
Arrival: the Belgian system in four sentences
Register at your commune on legal residence over three months and you enter the Registre national — from that point affiliation to a mutualité (or the public CAAMI) is compulsory, whatever your route in and whatever carried your visa file. There is no waiting period for a first-time affiliate — the six-month stage in the statute applies only to re-registration after a lapse for non-payment, so refuse any bridge cover sold against a wait that does not exist. Belgium is pay-then-claim: you advance the doctor's fee and the fund reimburses your Belgian account, which makes the bank account a day-one task rather than a settling-in one. What stays yours permanently is the ticket modérateur — capped annually — plus any supplements from non-conventionné providers, which sit outside both reimbursement and the cap.
The honest role for private cover in a British move: the visa file where your route requires it, the administrative gap between arriving and your fund opening your file, and top-up over those permanent patient shares. The Belgium hub carries every rule in writing with its source and date.
Source: Immigration Office (dofi.ibz.be), national entries (visa D) FAQ, read 26 August 2026.