Visa

General information

You can apply a maximum of 180 days and a minimum of 15 working days before your planned travel date. Therefore please start the process as early as possible. The time it will take to treat your application is highly dependent on your application and our workload. There is no fixed timeframe, nor a maximum or minimum.

Please note that during peak season (April to August) appointments may not be available immediately as we are regularly fully booked for up to three weeks or more. Make your appointment early!

Visa fee and payment information: see Payment. Ensure you pay before applying for a visa and submit your proof of payment with your application.

All Schengen visa applicants must appear in person to have their 10 fingerprints and their photograph registered. These data are stored for 59 months in the VIS. The applicant is not obliged to present themselves in person to give their fingerprints again if he/she applies for a new visa within these 59 months. In this case the application may be sent in by courier service (please enclose a prepaid return!). The photograph has to be taken or scanned and integrated in the VIS with every new visa application. Attention: if the embassy has any doubt as to the identity (e.g. the quality of the fingerprints taken at the time of the first application is very bad), or if the applicant is no longer exempt from giving his fingerprints when submitting the new application (e.g. when submitting the first  application he/she was temporarily unable to give their fingerprints), the embassy has the right to demand that the applicant presents themselves in person.

The fingerprint registration procedure only takes a few minutes and identifies you with certainty as the sole licensee of the visa. It protects you against falsification or abuse of your identity (for instance, if your passport is stolen) and optimizes the border crossing. For more extensive information, we refer you to the European Union website. 

Even though fingerprints for children younger than 12 years old are not taken, children still need to appear in person.

If you travel to different countries during your stay in the Schengen zone it needs to be determined what your main destination is in order to determine at what embassy you should apply for your visa. In general, your main destination is the country where you will spend most of your time or that is your reason for travel. We advise you to send us your full and detailed travel plans by email (kingston@diplobel.fed.be) for further advice.

If you pass through the Schengen zone to a final destination outside of the Schengen zone (transit) it is possible that you will need a visa. Always check with your airline whether you will need to leave the transit zone at the airport to check in for your ongoing flight. If such is the case, you are actually entering the Schengenzone and you will need a visa C. If however you do not have to leave the transit zone, you will not need a visa. Click here (PDF, 40.76 KB)for further details.

Required documents

All required documents are to be submitted at the Embassy at the time of your appointment.

!! Submitting an incomplete application will lead to a refusal !!

Your original passport needs to be submitted and is retained by the Embassy during the treatment of your application. Should you need your passport before we have finalized treatment, please send us a clear email indicating this. You will be able to pick up your passport as soon as we confirm this to you.

• Tourist visit (PDF, 97.18 KB)
• Visiting family or friends (PDF, 124.29 KB)
• Business travel (PDF, 114.03 KB)
• Seamen – to join ship (PDF, 87.96 KB)
• Artist - music, dance,… (PDF, 102.98 KB)
• Sporting event (PDF, 104.2 KB)

Applying for a short stay visa

Please proceed to visaonweb.diplomatie.be to start the application process. Via this link you will register as a new user, after which you will fill out the application form online, submit it electronically and then make an appointment online.

Note the following:

When registering as a new user you need to create a password. Your password should be a combination of letters and numbers with at least one capital letter and at least one symbol (#, @, $, *, %, etc.).

PREPARING FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT

Please pay attention to the following instructions:

• All applicants must be seated inside the Embassy on time but maximum ten (10) minutes before their appointment time. They should bear in mind that they will need to sign in at the security before entering. They will not be allowed to enter for the appointment once the appointment has started.
• There is a fixed time for each session. As a result, applicants must ensure that all their documents are in order and are ready to be submitted (see Required Documents). No extra time will be given. Applicants should not be organizing their applications during their appointments. If they are not ready to submit their application when they are called they may lose their appointment.
• Applicants must bring their own pens.
• Applicants must turn off their phone fully before entering the Embassy. If the applicant does not comply, he/she will be asked to leave the Embassy.