Work

Steps

1. Register with the employment service of your Region (Actiris, Forem, VDAB or ADG): vacancies, advice, language training.
2. Also search on EURES, the European jobs portal.
3. Check whether your profession is regulated in Belgium (European database of regulated professions). For a regulated profession (teacher, health professions…), recognition is mandatory. Diploma obtained in the EEA: professional recognition (Directive 2005/36/EC); in the FWB, teachers apply to the Direction de la reconnaissance des diplômes étrangers (equisup.cfwb.be), healthcare workers to the Direction de l'agrément des prestataires de soins de santé. For a higher education diploma, the equivalence is requested online: in the FWB at equisup.cfwb.be (level equivalence €65, €200 if a committee examines it, rates displayed in October 2026), in Flanders at NARIC-Vlaanderen (e-loket and online guidance tool). Certain foreign diplomas are automatically recognised as being of the same level, without any procedure.
4. Read your contract: duration (open-ended or fixed-term), joint committee (commission paritaire, which sets the minimum wage of your sector), working hours.
5. If you arrive with unemployment entitlements from another country, bring your U1 (periods of work) and, if you continue to be paid by that country during your search, your U2.

Documents

• Identity document or passport, and National Register number (or BIS number) once registered with the municipality.
• Form U1 to have your periods of work in the EU, the EEA, Switzerland or the United Kingdom counted.
• Diplomas and, for a regulated profession, the recognition decision.

Costs and timelines

• 2026 minimum wage: €2,233.61 gross a month (age 18 and over) since 1 July 2026, applicable when your joint committee has not set a minimum. Indexed amount: check it at each adjustment.
• Working time: 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week at most, 38 hours a week on average over the year in the private sector.
• Annual leave: 4 weeks a year, that is 20 days in a 5-day week, calculated on your work in the previous year. In the first year, the European holidays (vacances européennes, supplementary holidays) top up your days after 3 months of activity.
• Probationary period: abolished for contracts concluded since 1 January 2014, except students and agency workers (first 3 days). Since 1 August 2026 (law of 3 June 2026, article 37/2 of the law of 3 July 1978 on employment contracts), a contract can be terminated with one week's notice, by the employer as well as by the worker, as long as the worker has less than six months' seniority. This is not a trial clause to be written into the contract: the rule applies automatically to the contracts concerned.
• Unemployment (since 1 March 2026): 12 months as a base, extended by up to 12 months depending on your work history, 24 months at most; integration allowances after studies limited to 1 year. To be entitled, you must prove 312 days of work (or equivalent days) over the previous 36 months (ONEM, situation from 01.03.2026); work abroad can extend this reference period, by 15 years at most.

Common pitfalls

• Counting on your years of work abroad without working in Belgium. Periods in the EU, the EEA, Switzerland or the United Kingdom (proved by the U1) in principle count only if followed by at least 3 months of salaried work in Belgium (in one or several periods, consecutive or not), except for certain frontier workers and posted workers.
• Ignoring your joint committee. The legal minimum is only a floor: your sector's scale is often higher.
• Going on holiday in the first year without accrued days: find out about European holidays before you book your leave.
• Frontier workers who live in Belgium and work in France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg or Germany: in the case of full unemployment, it is in principle the country of residence that pays; ask for your U1 from the country of employment.
• Regions and languages. In Brussels, many vacancies ask for French and Dutch; in Flanders, Dutch is often required.

What changes by country of origin

• EU, EEA, Switzerland: no work authorisation; registration with the municipality for residence.
• British citizens (Scots included) who arrived after 2020: like any non-EU and non-EEA national, you need a single permit (permis unique, residence and work of more than 90 days). It is generally the employer who applies for it, to the Region of the main place of work; since 4 May 2026, the application must go through the federal "Guichet unique" portal (Bruxelles Économie et Emploi). Exemptions exist (family reunification, frontier worker, assignments of 90 days at most…). If you have lived lawfully in Belgium since before 1 January 2021 and have an "M" or "N" residence card (or have applied for it), you are protected by the withdrawal agreement and need neither a work permit nor a visa (UK Government, "Living in Belgium", updated on 11 December 2025).