Moving to Brussels - visa, travel & accommodation

Last year I moved to Belgium to work as a language assistant for the year. This required insane amounts of paperwork and research. This post shares my experience with getting a work permit and visa, travelling to Belgium from Scotland and finding accommodation in Brussels.

Getting a Belgian visa was an extremely lengthy and costly process. I got confirmation of my work placement at the beginning of May 2025 and began the process immediately. This first involved getting an International Child Protection Certificate and a medical certificate in order to apply for a work permit. The ICPC took around 1 month to arrive and cost £100 but was straightforward to apply for. The medical certificate was a bit of a nuisance because there are only two centres in Scotland, both costing around £400 which was a lot more than I had expected to pay. I decided to check the prices for all the medical practices in the UK (there are only about 11 that offer this service) and the cheapest one I found was down in Winchester at £170. Still expensive, but even with a return train fare it was still cheaper than the Scottish ones and I could combine the trip with visits to friends down south. The medical examination only took 5 minutes and they just checked my heart rate and blood pressure. The tests they do seem to vary massively from practice to practice as I know other people were given x-rays, blood tests and various other tests at their appointments. A complete rip off but I got the form signed at least and by mid-June I had all the documents to be able to apply for the work permit.

At the start of September my work permit, the Annex 46, was finally approved and I could apply for a visa. I was able to get an appointment fairly quickly at the visa centre in Edinburgh - my employer managed to expedite the process since it was getting so close to the start of my contract. At the first appointment the staff were a bit confused as to how to process the visa because I needed an internship visa which was apparently something they didn't see very often. After calling over several other people to help they finally worked it out and I was able to go back about a week later to collect my passport with the visa in it. At first I as a bit concerned because the visa duration was only 6 months but I discovered that this is normal and they extend it once you arrive in the country and acquire a residency permit. I got the visa on the 16th of September with just 2 weeks to go until the beginning of my contract in Belgium.

With my visa secured I could then start making travel plans. Luckily Brussels is a very accessible location so there were plenty of options. I looked at flights, trains and buses and eventually opted for a 21 hour coach trip with a change in London. This may not seem like a sensible option but I had my reasons! Though flights were very cheap, once I factored in baggage costs as well as airport connections, it ended up costing as much or more as the other options, plus I hate flying. I was hoping to do a mixture of trains and buses but the timings just didn't work very well and would have required a night in London. The bus only cost £40, the timings were perfect and I could take as much luggage as I wanted so I went for it. The overnight Edinburgh-London leg was a bit rough as I was in the back row, sandwiched between two strangers and I couldn't put my seat back at all so sleep was minimal. However, I really enjoyed the London-Brussels stretch. It was my first time doing it during the daytime and it was nice to see Dover and Calais and to be on the ferry on a lovely sunny day. This bus was also half empty so I got a double seat to myself and I was able to get a few more hours sleep in. I arrived in Brussels around 5pm which was perfect.

My first few days in Belgium involved a lot of getting things sorted out. The main priority was to find accommodation since I had just booked to stay in a youth hostel for the first two nights. I did try to find accommodation before I arrived but it's really not an easy task. I spent hours on every possible accommodation site and Facebook group scrolling through ads and sending messages to people. It was very difficult to find something in the right area, at the right price, available for an 8 month contract starting in October, etc. And most of the people I messaged didn't even reply. And when they did I was convinced most of them were scams. In the end I decided that in order to avoid being scammed it would be safest to view the properties on arrival so I managed to set up two viewings for the day after I arrived. I would have liked to view more but that was all I could find.

I went to view the two apartments on my second day in the city and luckily I could imagine living in either of them. It was then a very difficult decision to choose between them. One was further from the centre but near to my work and with a nice communal area. The other was a very central location but with no communal seating space and more expensive. In the end I went for the one in the centre and I'm very glad I did as it is so good being able to walk or cycle everywhere and it would have been a pain to come into the centre at night from the other place. I was able to move in the following day which was ideal as I didn't need to book any additional nights in the hostel.

During the first few days in Brussels I also bought a cheap bike from Facebook Marketplace. This was another great decision. With my bike I can go anywhere I need to in the city and I very rarely use public transport which is a big saving. There are bike paths on most of the streets and cars are generally quite forgiving to bikes so it's not a bad city to cycle around. It's also fairly flat.

Within 7 days of arrival you're supposed to register at the commune you're living in in order to get a residency permit and an ID card which allows you access to certain services. However, registering within 7 days was just not possible. First of all I did not have long-term accommodation sorted yet when I arrived in Brussels so I didn't know which commune I'd need to register with. Secondly, once I knew I was staying in the commune of Ixelles, there were no appointments available for the next 5 weeks. Luckily, I learnt that as long as you had proof that you had an appointment with the commune you would not be fined. Over a month later I had my first appointment where they checked my documents over. A policeman then came round to make sure I lived where I'd said I lived. I could then make a second appointment to pay for my residency permit. After this a letter was sent to my house giving me a code to go and collect my card. Finally, in December, I was able to collect my residency permit. Another lengthy process!

After 4 months I think I'm now finally set up here with everything organised. it was quite surprising to me just how awful Belgian bureaucracy and organisation seems to be!