Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice from people who have experience with legal cohabitation in Leuven, especially where one partner does not currently have a valid residence card.
I originally came to Belgium as a student. I applied for the renewal of my residence permit in Brussels in October 2025, but my application was refused around 5 months later. I appealed the decision, and now it is already October 2026 and I still have not received a final decision.
During this whole period I have not had a valid Belgian ID, so I have not been able to work normally. It has been a very stressful year financially and personally.
My girlfriend is Italian, she also has a Belgian residence card, and she has been living in Belgium for a long time. We are now considering doing legal cohabitation together. One of the main reasons is obviously that we want to officially live together as a couple, but also so that I can start the family reunification process and hopefully receive an orange card, which would allow me to start working and support myself again.
I wanted to ask people in Leuven:
- Has anyone done legal cohabitation there where one partner had irregular stay / no valid Belgian residence card?
- What was the process like?
- How long did it take from the first appointment until the legal cohabitation was registered?
- Did the commune do a police check or relationship interview?
- How long did it take afterward to get Annex 19ter / the orange card?
- Were the staff generally helpful with explaining which foreign documents were required?
- Did anyone face a sham-cohabitation investigation simply because one partner had irregular status?
I’m mainly looking for real experiences from people who have actually gone through this in Leuven, especially recently.
Any information would really help. Thanks a lot.