NON-EEA nationals who require a Single Permit to work and live in Belgium, must pay a retribution fee to the Belgian authorities. The payments to the Belgian government needs to be transferred by you to the account of the Ministry of Interior in Brussels.

• The amount paid must cover both the administrative fee and any bank charges.
• If the payment of the administrative costs is done in different stages, please add an additional overview or information sheet mentioning the data and amounts that were paid.
• If you also request a family reunion visa the payments have to be done separately.
• The university cannot intervene in the payment of retribution or act as third party to pay the retribution. It is however possible to ask another third party (living in Belgium or the EU zone) to pay the retribution.
• Additional consular fees might be requested to obtain the visa by the Belgian embassy in the home country.

The amounts for the administrative costs.

How to pay the retribution payment?

Before paying the fee, please ask the banking institution how much the bank charges will amount. The payment can only be done through bank transfer. Bank details

Make sure that your reference is correct: Family name & First name of applicant (as mentioned in the passport), nationality, data of birth: day (DD)-month (MM)- year (YYYY).

Provide proof of the payment to Ghent University

With the Single permit application, a proof of payment of the retribution costs must be added. Following documents must be provided as proof of the payment of retribution costs:

• a proof of the payment = copy of the bank transfer.
• proof of reducing the money from your bank account.

Please note that only a copy of the bank transfer will not be accepted. It must be clear that the amount has been debited from your account to the right account number of the Home Affairs FPS. A photograph of the bank transfer or account is not accepted by the Belgian authorities. The Belgian immigration office will check whether the amount received fully covers the administrative fee. If not, you will get 30 days to pay the additional amount before the application is rejected.

The payment that is used for the Single permit application cannot be older than 6 months at the time the Single Permit application is submitted by Ghent University with the Belgian authorities. If your procedural preparation was delayed for unforeseen conditions, you might therefore be requested to provide a new proof of payment if the validation date outrival the 6 months.

Reimbursement of the retribution

If you have a paid the fee twice by mistake or the single permit procedure is canceled; you can request a reimbursement of the administrative fee. If the procedure for obtaining a Single Permit is stopped before the authorities has processed your file, a refund of the paid amounts can be requested. Once the application is started and the file is processed, a refund is not possible anymore.

More information on the reimbursement procedure.