Professional Card

Procedure and required documents

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If you wish to work in Belgium as a self-employed person, you must first obtain a professional card (“carte professionnelle/beroepskaart”) at the competent region in Belgium. Once you have obtained this professional card, you can apply for a visa at the Embassy.
If you officially reside in Italy and you wish to apply for a professional card at a Belgian region you can introduce your request via this embassy. To start the procedure, you must send an email with all required documents to rome.visa@diplobel.fed.be(Please make sure your email stays under 5MB or we won't receive it. If you write from a YAHOO email-address, please add rome.visa@diplobel.fed.be to your contacts or check your SPAM because often yahoo treats the emails from the embassy as unwanted).
If your application is complete, we will contact you for an appointment so you can personally introduce your request at our offices in Rome.
For more information about the professional card, please contact the regional authority  • Brussels Capital Region • Flemish Region • Wallonia

List of supporting documents

Please prepare the professional card application in the order mentioned below. 

  DOCUMENT TYPE DESCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT
1) Application form for a professional card 1 original

°to be downloaded from the website of the competent region. Filled in and signed

°for Brussels Capital Region, click here (under 'FORMS, 'if you live abroad')

°for Flemish Region, click here (under 'APPLICATION FORMS')

°for Wallonia, click here (on the right side under 'FORMS 'Demande de carte professionnelle pour étrangers résidant à l'étranger')

2) Recent passport photo 1 original

°ICAO compliant: format 45x35mm, good quality, color gloss prints, less than 6 months old, plain white or light grey background, face looking directly at the camera and not tilted in any direction, mouth closed, no smiling

3) Passport 1 original 

+

1 copy

°copy the page with your name and the expiry date and all the pages containing visa and entry-exit stamps.

°a valid passport/travel document must be issued less than 10 years ago,contains at least two facing empty visa pages and is valid for at least 12 more months at the moment your visa can be issued.

4) Italian or Maltese residence permit 

1 original

+

1 copy 

°front and back side. Your Italian/Maltese resident permit needs to be valid.

°the renewal of Italian permit of stay (‘bollettino di rinnovo’)/Maltese permit of stay is not valid to introduce your professional card request! If you have a renewal you need to contact the Belgian embassy competent for your home country to introduce your request.

5) Proof of full payment of the administration costs of 140€ 1 original

°to be transferred to the account of the Belgian Embassy in Rome at least 5 business days prior to the appointment

°payment information:

Bank: UNICREDIT S.p.A.

Beneficiary: Ambasciata del Belgio (recettes consulaires)

IBAN: IT72L0200805170000030066859

BIC : UNCRITM1113

Communication :  Name and surname of the applicant (exactly as mentioned on the passport)  Date of birth: DD-MM-YYY

6) A recent certificate of residence 1 original + 1 copy  delivered by the Italian/Maltese municipality maximum 6 months ago – attention: a statutory declaration “autocertificazione” will not be accepted
7) A criminal record certificate 1 original + 1 copy

°for Italy: ‘Certificato Generale del Casellario Giudiziale’, delivered less than 6 months old; you can obtain this document from all courts “tribunale” in Italy. No legalization required.

°for Malta: Legalized 'Good Conduct Certificate’, delivered by the Criminal Records Office of your local police district or at the Secretariat, Police Headquarters, issued less than 6 months ago. This certificate needs to be legalized by the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affaires

8) A letter of motivation 1 original  
9) Curriculum vitae 1 original  
10) Various documents regarding the planned professional activity in Belgium originals + copies

° eg status, financial plan, balance sheet, impact on local employment, marketing studies,…

°for a detailed list with required documents requested by the regions, check their website: Brussels Capital Region - Flemish region - Wallonie

11) Opening balance 1 original proof of sufficient opening balance to start a professional activity in Belgium
12) Proof of opening a Belgian current account 1 original if it’s not possible, please provide a statement from the bank explaining the reason

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

- The Belgian embassy has no competence in the decision of the professional card. The application is send to the competent region for decision. Please contact the competent Belgian region for information about the processing time and any information about the progress of your application once it has been transferred.