You applied for a Belgian visa during this period? Belgium may reimburse you
Moroccans who applied for a D visa for Belgium several years ago may still recover all or part of a former administrative fee. The Immigration Office is still maintaining the reimbursement procedure and making the necessary forms available.
The first period concerns people who paid a fee for an application submitted from 2 March 2015 onward. The current Immigration Office page sets the end of this period as 26 June 2016.
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This may notably involve a D visa requested from a Belgian embassy or consulate, but also certain applications for authorization or admission to residence submitted to a municipality in Belgium.
The Immigration Office still confirms that the people concerned may request reimbursement of the fee paid.
An official reimbursement form is available directly on the administration’s website. It explicitly concerns D visa or residence applications from this first period. However, the form mentions 25 June 2016 as the final day, whereas the current Immigration Office page indicates 26 June.
A second category of applicants may also recover money. It concerns applications submitted between 1 March 2017 and 2 January 2019.
In this case, the entire fee is not reimbursed, but only the increase that had been applied. Some fees rose from 160 to 200 euros, a difference of 40 euros. Others increased from 215 to 350 euros, meaning 135 euros to recover.
For this period, the people concerned may use the official form for reimbursement of the difference.
Proof of payment essential
This reimbursement possibility dates back to two rulings issued on 11 September 2019 by the Belgian Council of State. The court had challenged the amounts set by two royal decrees, due to insufficient justification in relation to the actual cost of processing the applications. The first period entitles applicants to a full reimbursement, while only the increase is refundable for the second.
The procedure remains relatively simple. The applicant must complete the form corresponding to their situation in full, date it and sign it. Above all, they must attach proof of payment of the fee for which they are requesting reimbursement.
The Immigration Office accepts, in particular, a bank transfer, a bank statement showing the payment or any other document that clearly identifies the amount, the payment date and the applicant concerned as proof.
The signed form and proof of payment must be sent, preferably in PDF format, to remboursement@ibz.fgov.be. A separate application must be submitted for each fee being claimed. The administration specifies that an incomplete or unsigned file, or one sent without proof of payment, will not be processed.
When the reimbursement is deemed justified, the Immigration Office informs the applicant. The payment then generally takes place within six to eight weeks of this notification.
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Moroccans who submitted their application from Morocco may therefore still be concerned, even if the payment dates back several years. The determining factor is not the date on which the visa was granted or refused, but the date on which the application resulting in payment of the fee was submitted.
