Belgian Parliament is very likely to approve substantial changes to the current citizenship law in early October. After years of wrangling, the ruling coalition parties have finally agreed on a major overhaul of the law. The bill was approved by a Parliamentary committee in July and is scheduled to be accepted when Parliament comes back from summer recess in October. Changes are unlikely given that all coalition parties have undertaken to approve the bill as it stands.

The bill brings substantial changes to several grounds of acquisition of citizenship, mainly with regard to acquisition based on long term residence in Belgium, transfer of citizenship to spouses of citizens, and naturalisation on grounds of special achievements. If approved in October, the bill will substantially lengthen the period of residence required for acquisition of Belgian nationality in these cases (e.g. from 3 to 5 years in case of marriage with a Belgian citizen). It will also require applicants to demonstrate knowledge of one of the local language (A2 level under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and to bring evidence of ‘social’ and ‘economic’ integration – the latter requiring evidence that the applicant has worked for a minimum number of days over the course of the 5 years preceding the application. While any immigrant could until now apply for naturalisation after three years of residence in Belgium, in the future such short residence will not be sufficient. The applicant will need to demonstrate ‘special achievements’, e.g. obtaining a PhD, qualifying for an international sports competition or being recognized internationally for cultural achievements The bill also requires the payment of a fee for all applications. Finally, the bill will also fine tune some grounds of loss of citizenship, mainly in case of certain criminal offences or fraud in the naturalisation process.