Belgium’s Federal Immigration Office has confirmed that, from 1 May 2026, **all** short-work and commuter-permit applications must be submitted exclusively through the ‘Working in Belgium’ digital portal. The measure, published on 19 April 2026 and first reported by The Economic Times, closes the last e-mail loophole that many employers still used for urgent assignments of up to 90 days or for weekly cross-border commuters who live in France, the Netherlands, Germany or Luxembourg. The step is part of a two-year digital-transformation programme that has already brought single-permit (work + residence) filing and most renewal requests online. Officials say the new rules will improve data quality, cut processing times by giving every file a ‘live’ status stamp, and help regional authorities (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels-Capital) spot duplicate or fraudulent submissions faster. The portal now automatically checks salary thresholds, labour-market tests and quota ceilings before an employer can press “submit”.
![Belgium moves remaining paper-based work-permit categories online from 1 May 2026]()
Organisations that don’t have the bandwidth to master Belgium’s fast-evolving rules can lean on VisaHQ for support: the platform’s dedicated Belgium page (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) provides up-to-date checklists, document-upload tips and real-time assistance for short-work, commuter and other visa categories, streamlining compliance in just a few clicks.
For mobility managers the practical impact is immediate: Power of Attorney mandates must be created inside the portal; PDF forms or e-mail attachments will be rejected. Fragomen and other immigration advisers recommend that HR teams verify their enterprise Belgian eID or Itsme credentials this week and schedule buffer time because first-time mandate activation can take 24-48 hours. Applicants will also have to upload biometric-quality photos and a scan of their full passport, not just the ID page. Regional transition periods are short. Flanders and Brussels will switch off the e-mail intake channel at midnight on 30 April, while Wallonia allows a grace period until 31 August 2026. Companies that miss the deadline risk having to restart the procedure, potentially derailing project timelines that rely on short-notice technical interventions or shift cover. The move continues a broader European trend towards end-to-end digital immigration workflows. Neighbouring Netherlands and France made similar changes in 2024 and 2025, and the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) now feeds departure data back into national databases—meaning overstays linked to paper permits will be flagged automatically. For Belgian employers, digitisation should ultimately mean fewer physical visits to town halls, but in the short term they must update internal checklists, train line managers and budget for possible system outages during the first weeks of the rollout.
Organisations that don’t have the bandwidth to master Belgium’s fast-evolving rules can lean on VisaHQ for support: the platform’s dedicated Belgium page (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) provides up-to-date checklists, document-upload tips and real-time assistance for short-work, commuter and other visa categories, streamlining compliance in just a few clicks.
For mobility managers the practical impact is immediate: Power of Attorney mandates must be created inside the portal; PDF forms or e-mail attachments will be rejected. Fragomen and other immigration advisers recommend that HR teams verify their enterprise Belgian eID or Itsme credentials this week and schedule buffer time because first-time mandate activation can take 24-48 hours. Applicants will also have to upload biometric-quality photos and a scan of their full passport, not just the ID page. Regional transition periods are short. Flanders and Brussels will switch off the e-mail intake channel at midnight on 30 April, while Wallonia allows a grace period until 31 August 2026. Companies that miss the deadline risk having to restart the procedure, potentially derailing project timelines that rely on short-notice technical interventions or shift cover. The move continues a broader European trend towards end-to-end digital immigration workflows. Neighbouring Netherlands and France made similar changes in 2024 and 2025, and the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) now feeds departure data back into national databases—meaning overstays linked to paper permits will be flagged automatically. For Belgian employers, digitisation should ultimately mean fewer physical visits to town halls, but in the short term they must update internal checklists, train line managers and budget for possible system outages during the first weeks of the rollout.
