Travel to Belgium

Lists of required documents and payment modalities can be found below.

In order to apply for a C or a D visa at the Embassy of Belgium in Sofia, applicants must follow the following steps:

1. Identification of the type of visa to be applied for: please check the website of the Immigration Office of the FPS Home Affairs; it is your responsibility to determine which visa precisely to apply for. In case this is not correct, it will not be changed by the Embassy when you submit your visa application. Special attention must be paid to the following points/distinctions:

• Distinction is to be made between the different grounds for family reunification (the parent/spouse in Belgium has Belgian nationality, is an UE national, is a third-state national with a limited/unlimited right to stay in Belgium);
• Children who are 18 years old or more and who wish to join their non Belgian parent(s) living in Belgium must apply for a humanitarian visa and not for family reunification;
• Distinction between work visa based on a single permit decision (work contract) and work visa based on a professional card (self-employed);
• For students, it is important to make the distinction between studies in public institutions and studies in private institutions. It is also important to check if it is about regular studies, or studies in an European mobility framework or in the framework of an exchange.
• Aged parents who wish to join their adult child in Belgium must apply for a humanitarian visa.

2. Your visa application must first be submitted online, via Visa On Web; once you fill it in, please print it out. The printed version will have to be submitted during the appointment at the Embassy of Belgium in Sofia along with the other documents listed in the procedures.

3. Date of appointment : after filling in your online application form, you have the possibility to choose online a date for appointment at the Embassy of Belgium in Sofia, so you can come and submit your application in person. Coming in person at the Embassy of Belgium in Sofia is mandatory. A separate appointment per each and every applicant is to be booked, regardless of the applicant’s age.

For applicants from Kosovo who do not have a valid Schengen visa, the Embassy of Belgium in Sofia issues an attest which facilitates the visa application for the Bulgarian visa. To do so, please, send an email to sofia.visa@diplobel.fed.be with a scanned copy, in pdf, of the applicant’s passport in this matter.

4. The payment of the handling fee must be done well in advance before the date of the appointment. The Embassy of Belgium in Sofia recommends this payment to be made at least 5 working days before the appointment. Visa applications will not be registered if the payment is not visible in the bank account of the Embassy. In such a case, you will have to reschedule and come back another day.

5. On the day of appointment:

• You will have to be on time.
• You are requested to submit your application, together with all the requested documents (see lists of documents per type of visas in the next section). Respecting the order of presentation of the documents, as well as their nature (original/copy) and the number of copies is important. Copies must immediately follow the originals.
• If you do not submit the right number of requested copies, a new appointment might have to be made in order for you to submit your application.
• We thank you in advance for submitting an application which is complete, with all the requested documents.
• Additional documents may always be requested at a later stage by.
• The filing of your application at the Embassy has to be done in French, Dutch, English or Bulgarian. The applicant who wishes to speak in Albanian will have to request the assistance of an interpreter who is accredited by the Embassy (see list of accredited interpreters in the next section). Interpreters who are not mentioned on the attached list will not be accepted. The applicant will have to agree with him/her about the details and modalities of his/her intervention (costs, date and time, payment modalities, including overtime). The Embassy of Belgium in Sofia cannot be held accountable for these arrangements.

6. After the registration of your application on the day of the appointment, it will be processed by the visa section at the Embassy. Some applications will be referred to the Immigration Office in Brussels, in accordance with the applicable rules. Information on the follow-up of a visa application is available on the website of the Immigration Office: Follow up a visa application | IBZ. Please do not contact the Embassy to enquire about the status of your application. You will be notified as soon as a decision is made on your application.

The Embassy of Belgium in Sofia does not issue visa the same day of the appointment, except for work visa based on a single permit, as long as technical conditions, merits of the case and availability of the Embassy personnel allow for issuance on the same day. The Embassy cannot be held liable in case issuance on the same day is not possible.