Belgium
Belgium Visa from the UK: The Complete Guide for Non-UK Nationals
If you live in Britain on a visa or with settled status and you are travelling to Belgium, whether for a weekend in Bruges or a week of meetings in Brussels, this is what the application asks for, what it costs, and where applications go wrong.
Written and kept current by a UK consultancy that prepares Schengen applications every week.
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Independent consultancy. Not affiliated with any government, embassy, consulate, or with TLScontact, who operate Belgium's visa application centre in the UK. Official fees are paid directly to the relevant authority.
Who this is for
Do you actually need a Belgian visa?
If you hold a British passport, no. You can travel to Belgium and the rest of the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. This page is not for you. From October 2026 you will need an ETIAS travel authorisation, which is applied for online and is not a visa.
If you are a non-UK national living in Britain, it depends on your passport, not your UK status. If your nationality requires a Schengen visa, you need one, and indefinite leave to remain, a work visa, a student visa or an eVisa does not exempt you.
What your UK status does decide is where you apply. Because you live here, you apply from here.
Everything below concerns the short-stay Schengen visa, up to 90 days. Moving to Belgium to work or study is a different application under different rules.
Three separate costs
What a Belgium visa costs from the UK
The official Schengen visa fee is EUR 90 for an adult and EUR 45 for a child aged six to eleven. Children under six are free. The fee is set by the European Union, is the same for every Schengen country including Belgium, and is not refunded if your application is refused.
| What it is | Who you pay | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Official Schengen visa fee | The consulate, via the centre, on the day | EUR 90 adult · EUR 45 child aged six to eleven · free under six |
| TLScontact service fee | TLScontact, on the day | Set and published by TLScontact; check their current figure when you book |
| Our consultancy fee, if you use us | Flypass Holidays | From £95, confirmed in writing before any work begins |
We never collect, handle or forward official fees.
Two separate systems
How a Belgian application works
Belgium uses two separate systems, and starting in the wrong one is the most common early mistake.
1. Visa On Web.
Belgium's own government application portal, run by the Belgian foreign ministry. This is where the application itself is completed. It is not France-Visas and it is not TLScontact, and its name gives no clue that it belongs to the Belgian government, which is exactly why people miss it.
2. TLScontact.
The appointed provider that operates Belgium's visa application centre in the UK. This is where you attend, hand over your documents and give your biometrics.
3. You attend in person.
Fingerprints and a photograph. Nobody can attend in your place.
4. The Belgian authorities decide.
TLScontact does not, and neither do we.
You may apply up to six months before you travel. Applying early is the most useful thing you can do about your timeline and it costs nothing.
TLScontact operates the Visa Application Centre for Belgium in London and publishes the current address and opening hours on its Belgium pages, so check them close to your date. Belgium's foreign ministry also publishes a direct TLScontact contact route for Belgian visa enquiries in the UK, which is worth using if you have a question the website does not answer.
Proof of UK status now usually means an eVisa share code. The core Schengen document set applies: a valid passport, the completed Visa On Web application, a compliant photograph, travel medical insurance with at least EUR 30,000 of cover, proof of your UK residence status, financial evidence, and evidence of your travel plans.
Information gain one
If you are travelling by Eurostar
Belgium is one of the few Schengen countries most people reach from the UK by train rather than by air, and Brussels is under two hours from London.
Your rail booking is your travel evidence.
A Eurostar reservation does the same job as a flight reservation: it shows how you are arriving, when, and how you are getting back. Book a return, and make sure the dates match everything else in your file.
Your biometrics still happen in London before you go.
Travelling by train changes nothing about the application. You still attend the visa application centre in person, and you still do it well before your travel date.
And your passport will be with your application.
This catches people out on short-notice trips more than on any other route, because a Brussels weekend feels spontaneous in a way a long-haul holiday does not. You cannot book a last-minute Eurostar while your passport is sitting with the consulate.
Information gain two
Business trips to Brussels
Brussels is the seat of the European Union institutions and the headquarters of NATO, and it hosts one of the densest conference calendars in Europe. A large share of Belgian short-stay applications are business rather than tourism, and a business file is not a tourist file with the word “meetings” swapped in.
What a business application needs beyond the standard set:
An invitation from the host organisation, naming you, stating the purpose and the dates, and identifying who is covering your costs
Conference or event registration, if you are attending one, with your name on it
A letter from your employer confirming your role, your salary, your approved leave and that you are expected back
A stated purpose that matches all of the above. If your invitation says a three-day summit and your hotel booking runs nine nights, the file needs to explain the other six
The most common business mistake is a file that reads as a holiday with a meeting attached, when the invitation says otherwise, or as business when the evidence is a hotel and nothing else.
We prepare business and conference applications as well as tourist ones, and the difference is mostly in whose documents you need and how early you have to ask for them.
Information gain three
The three-day declaration of presence
Belgium has a requirement that catches visitors out because almost nothing written for travellers mentions it.
Short-stay visitors to Belgium may be required to declare their presence to the local authority within three days of arriving. The requirement is published by the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs.
In most cases you will not have to do anything. If you are staying in a hotel or other registered accommodation, the accommodation handles this as part of checking you in, which is why most travellers never encounter it.
It matters if you are staying with friends or family, or in private accommodation. In that situation the responsibility may fall to you, and the declaration is made to the local commune.
If you are staying privately in Belgium, check this before you travel rather than after.
The main destination rule
Applying to Belgium when your trip covers more than one country
This matters more for Belgium than for almost anywhere else, because Belgium is small and extremely well connected.
Brussels to Amsterdam is under two hours by train. Brussels to Paris is under one and a half. A week that takes in Bruges, Amsterdam and Paris is a completely normal trip, and it is not automatically a Belgian application.
Apply to Belgium only if Belgium is your main destination, meaning where you will spend the most nights. If more nights fall in the Netherlands or France, the application goes there instead, even if you arrive in Brussels first. Where nights are split equally between two countries, it goes to the one you will enter first.
Count your nights country by country before you do anything else. Applying to the wrong consulate can have a file refused before anyone reads it properly, and that refusal stays on your record and is visible to every Schengen consulate afterwards.
Business travellers should be particularly careful here. A Brussels conference followed by four days of client meetings in Germany is a German application, not a Belgian one.
Casework patterns
Where Belgian applications run into trouble
- The wrong country. Covered above, and it is the commonest Belgian problem precisely because the country is so easy to leave.
- A business file with tourist evidence, or the reverse. Covered above.
- Starting in the wrong system. Visa On Web is the application. TLScontact is the appointment. People who begin with TLScontact lose time.
- Financial evidence that does not support the trip. Not whether you have money, but whether the trip you have described fits the financial picture your statements show.
- Gaps in accommodation. Every night needs evidence, including the nights you are elsewhere in the Benelux if the trip stays in Schengen.
- A previous refusal that has not been addressed. Refusals are recorded and visible to every Schengen consulate. The notice states the grounds, and those grounds tell you what has to be answered rather than repeated.
- Applying too late. Appointment availability, not the decision itself, is usually the binding constraint. We set out the full picture on our Schengen visa processing time page.
Honest service
How we can help, and what we cannot do
What we cannot do. We cannot issue a visa, influence a decision, or obtain or accelerate an appointment. Anyone who tells you otherwise is describing something they do not control.
What we do. We confirm Belgium is the correct country before you spend anything, which on a Benelux itinerary is not a formality. We build your document set around your actual status in the UK. For business trips we tell you exactly what to ask your host and your employer for, and how early. We draft your cover letter and itinerary so they reconcile with your bookings. We read your financial evidence the way an officer will. And we audit the complete file before you attend. This is what we prepare.
Abdul Mateen, who founded the practice, reads the cases himself. Our fee starts from £95, confirmed in writing before any work begins.
And when you do not need us, we say so. A three-day Brussels break, settled finances and time in hand is a straightforward application and plenty of people make it alone.
What travellers say
Reviews from people who sat where you are sitting
Rated 4.5 out of 5 based on 27 reviews
- September 2026
Lalian Sen
My Schengen visa just got approved. The agent helped me throughout the process. Just respond with the info they ask and they’ll sort out everything else for you in no time!
Verified Trustpilot review - August 2026
Mahesh Patil
Excellent and prompt service! Very efficient team with quick responses, smooth booking, and all documents handled professionally. Really pleased with the overall service.
Verified Trustpilot review - July 2026
Nayya Hassan
It was my first time applying for a Schengen visa and Fly Pass Holidays made the process so easy and seamless. I got a multiple entry Italy visa for 4 months within just two weeks of application. Highly recommend their services!
Verified Trustpilot review
Straight answers
Belgium visa questions, answered plainly
Official references: EU Home Affairs, Schengen visa policy · Companies House, Flypass Holidays Limited
No. Flypass Holidays Limited is a private consultancy registered in England and Wales, company number 16891200. We are not affiliated with any government, embassy or consulate, nor with VFS Global, TLScontact, BLS International or Global Visa Center World. We cannot issue a visa and we cannot influence a decision.
If you hold a British passport, no, not for stays up to 90 days in any 180-day period. From October 2026 you will need an ETIAS authorisation, which is not a visa. If you are a non-UK national living in Britain, it depends on your nationality, not on your UK status.
Yes, if your passport requires one. A UK biometric residence permit proves your right to live in Britain. It is not a Schengen visa and it does not permit entry to Belgium. BRPs have also been replaced by the online eVisa, so you will usually prove your UK status with a share code rather than a card.
The official Schengen visa fee is EUR 90 for an adult and EUR 45 for a child aged six to eleven, free under six. TLScontact charges its own service fee on the day. If you use a consultancy that is a third and separate cost. Ours starts from £95.
Yes. A Schengen visa issued by any member state allows travel to Belgium, and a visa issued for Belgium allows travel across the whole Schengen area, subject to the main destination rule about where you apply.
The application itself is completed on Visa On Web, Belgium's own government portal. The appointment and submission happen at the TLScontact visa application centre for Belgium in London.
Yes. A business or conference application needs an invitation from the host organisation, your event registration, and a letter from your employer, and all three have to agree with each other and with your stated dates. Ask your host early, because invitation letters are the document most often delayed.
Wherever you will spend the most nights. Brussels and Amsterdam are under two hours apart, so mixed trips are common and the answer is frequently not Belgium. Where nights are equal, it goes to the country you enter first.
Yes, and your rail booking serves as your travel evidence in the same way a flight reservation would. Your biometric appointment still happens in London before you travel, and your passport stays with your application until a decision is made, so a short-notice trip is not possible while it is being processed.
There is a requirement for short-stay visitors to declare their presence to the local authority within three days of arrival. If you are staying in a hotel, this is normally handled by the accommodation. If you are staying with friends, family or in private accommodation, check before you travel, because the responsibility may fall to you.
The decision follows the standard Schengen timeframe, and the appointment you attend beforehand is usually the longer wait. We set out the full timeline on our Schengen visa processing time page.
Yes. You need cover valid across the Schengen area for the whole of your stay, with a minimum of EUR 30,000. It is checked when you submit.
No, and no honest agency can. Decisions are made solely by the Belgian authorities. What we control is the quality of what reaches them.
Ready when you are.
Tell us where you are going and when, including anywhere else in Europe you plan to be on the same trip. You will get a straight answer the same working day about whether Belgium is the right country to apply to, whether your timeline works, and whether your case needs us at all.
Flypass Holidays Limited · 50 Princes Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 1RJ · [email protected]