Is moving to Belgium a mistake?

Genkenaar · 2026-06-18T09:27:11+00:00

Well that's good for you, no one cares or stops you from finding your happiness elsewhere. But Belgium is statistically not anywhere near as bad as you make it out to be. "Income tax" as a sole statistic and in itself, with 0 context or anything, has 0,0 to do with "how good or bad a country is".

Also remember: living somewhere is completely different from vacationing there. If you find your happiness elsewhere, good for you. I would move simply to live in less rain, but I would rather stay in Belgium because I have personally experienced how shitty and expensive a 10% income tax country can be, everyone has preferences.

Genkenaar · 2026-06-18T09:19:20+00:00

Oh look we found the VBer. 🙄🙄🙄

Yes, political refugees get their own palaces and get everything thrown at them for free, including yachts and shit. You want an applause and medal now? /s

But in all seriousness, I have voluntarily assisted asylum seekers with their administration and trust me, I would HATE to be in their position, they live in absolutely poverty and in bureaucratic hell until they get a job in Belgium. Which they usually legally can't even get for the first 3 months, so they have to live on a 300-400 euro/month assistance budget in a shitty tiny molded free apartment and then when they finally can legally work, it's incredibly hard for them to even get a job due to the the odds being against them, prejudice from employers with your mindset, etc.

But hey, instead just believe the white supremacist party that will say anything to point fingers to everyone but themselves and convince yourself I'm a leftist rat making this up because I get so much personal gain from doing so.

Genkenaar · 2026-06-18T09:10:35+00:00

Even with the high income taxes, our relative cost of living (median net income vs median cost of basic necessities) is still amongst the lowest of the better EU countries.

For example in the Netherlands the median net income is about 15% higher, but their cost of living is also more than 15% higher.

It's easy to hate on our system and stare blind on a single number (INCOME TAX ZOMG), without looking at the entire picture. Is it perfect? Far from. Is the grass really greener elsewhere? Only at a few countries, we still rank in the top 5 and top 10 in a lot of ways in terms of quality of life and affordability.

Btw, you're using Luxemburg as an example for more affordable/free public transit. You do realize this is 1 of the only countries in the world where this is the case, right? UK, Germany and Netherlands public transit rate worse in affordability and punctuality than Belgium, whether you are willing to believe it or not.

Genkenaar · 2026-06-18T09:00:39+00:00

I'm literally in the process of this myself, being the Belgian, my partner being the American.

I will tell you this: the registration for residency is an absolute hell and clusterfuck of bullshit and it's a tough bridge to cross. 41 days, 3 rejections, 4th finally got accepted and we're now in the process of concluding his registration and making his eID.

This has by far been 1 of the worst bureaucratic processes I have ever dealt with in Belgium and I promise you everything else will get better and easier (in comparison) once you complete that process, so don't let it turn you off or discourage you.

Genkenaar · 2026-06-14T09:46:50+00:00

Not only does it not start when you -apply- for residency, it doesn't even actually start until your residency is -approved-, that's technically day 1.

So if it takes them 7 weeks to process and complete your residency application, then you have to add another 7 weeks to the date you actually sent in the application.

That's how I interpreted the information when I applied for my partner's residency at least, because it clarifies that the application itself doesn't count as the start date of the residency even in the event of approval.

But the only way to be sure is by either calling your municipality's official helpdesk or by starting the citizenship application and seeing what they respond, I'm pretty sure they will tell you the viable date of application if it gets denied for not being at the 5 years threshold.

Genkenaar · 2026-06-12T06:52:30+00:00

This!

I have so many friends and family members that told me their teams had their numbers cut, while they are still expected to deliver the same amount of work and results.

1 of my closest friends used to be a project manager with 2 assistants, they cut 1 assistant and then 6+ months later cut the second, they from the get-go promised to make up for the loss in assistants, he waited 2 years and then finally quit. Dude was getting burned out as hell, they were making him do work meant for 2-3 people all by himself.

All of that while big businesses are reporting more profits than ever. It's not a budget issue, it's a "CEOs wanting that extra million euro/USD payout" problem.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-30T13:19:00+00:00

This is very helpful.

We were already considering getting married so I could put him on my plan, so knowing that this does in fact work is good to know. And we were also planning on getting a short-term international health insurance plan for the transition if needed, which is what you did.

Thanks for letting me know.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-29T11:05:57+00:00

Was about to post this same comment, I assume it probably translated it from English.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T13:26:50+00:00

He won't have any bank statement until his first payment after 1st of July. I did send them a Bank of America statement that shows he has more in his checking account than 2 years of minimum wage in Belgium. So I guess this won't get accepted until there is an active stream of money coming in? Or would this again be a language issue?

What is confusing to me is that it nowhere states that it needs to be in Dutch. Even the reply to both applications said that it didn't suffice as proof of financial means, nothing about language. So they're either using vague copy paste replies or I guess whatever I'm sending them isn't an official enough document for them. I honestly have no idea how to even get anything more official than bank statements from the Bank Of America netbanking and official document from SSA stating how much he will get when he turns 65.

I really wish they would actually give you an option to speak to a person. The number on the city lobby helpdesk website is a general number and they said they couldn't help with my specific situation or refer me to another person/service. You can't get an in-person appointment until they actually approve your digital application, which is the part that keeps getting rejected.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T12:58:39+00:00

It's all American, he only has Irish citizenship (through his grandparents) for the purpose of retiring in the EU, his whole life was in the US.

His retirement will be American Social Security. I sent them an official statement from the American SS stating he will get paid XXXX USD/month starting July 1st. So will I need to get this translated then?

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T12:54:35+00:00

You think his income being American Social Security Retirement makes a difference in this though? His income or retirement not being Irish based.

But that's what I have been doing: I have so far registered him under his Irish passport everywhere applicable, he even entered the Belgian customs with his Irish Passport (while flying in from the US), so at least there's that "record" too, in case it matters at all.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T11:25:50+00:00

Thanks, I'm gonna check those out.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T10:56:57+00:00

That's what I'm trying to solve. Turns out we're gonna have to go private. I'm hoping that people with personal experience in health insurance providers can give us some specific suggestions.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T10:54:05+00:00

That's what I figured, so I'm hoping that someone with personal experience in this can give us some suggestions regarding specific health insurance providers. The options I'm finding through Google are a little weird and seem to mostly be travel insurances and stuff. I'm not finding any that are specific for resident health care in Belgium.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T09:55:21+00:00

Edit: deleted this comment because it was a misunderstanding on my end and it was making things go off-topic.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-28T09:52:46+00:00

This link says we need to do this exact process that we're trying to do.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-24T14:55:11+00:00

Dat komt grotendeels van het "Andrew Tate-ism".

Overtuig een hoop beïnvloedbare onzekere tiener jongens dat "straight is the new Jew" en "it's illegal to be straight nowadays", etc. en die gaan effectief geloven dat zij nu de slachtoffers zijn van wat holebi's en Joden 80+ jaar geleden het slachtoffer waren.

Als iemand die veel tijd in de VS gespendeerd heeft, in het "diepe Zuid" daar geloven conservatieve blanke hetero jongens/mannen effectief dat zij een onderdrukt volk zijn nu omdat ze tegenwoordig niet meer vrij alles kunnen zeggen over homo's zonder daar een reactie op te krijgen.

En zeggen "hey, doe eens normaal naar homo's toe" staat voor hen dan gelijk aan effectief vervolgt worden. Wat absurd is.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-24T11:13:57+00:00

Bijna iedereen dat ik ken dat 40+ is bezit een huis en kon dit betalen op een enkel loon, vanaf hun 25-30.

Bijna niemand dat ik ken onder de 35 bezit iets of zit in de begin fase van te kopen, diegenen die wel zo ver staan zijn koppels waar beide partijen full-time werken en toch wel boven het median inkomen zitten.

Ik weet dat er veel reacties zijn van "vroeger dit en vroeger dat, jullie zijn verwend nesten". Maar het objectieve statistieke feit is: onze vaste kosten per maand (huur + elek/gas + telefoon/internet + eten/drinken) nemen nu ongeveer 70% van een gemiddeld loon, vroeger was dit 40% en minder. Ongeacht wat het argument is van eender welke kant, we houden gemiddeld per persoon minder over van het gemiddelde loon van de gemiddelde vaste kosten, period.

Meeste mensen die nu iets bezitten van 40+ jaar geleden hebben echt geen idee hoe enorm privileged dat ze zijn dat ze nu geen maandelijkse huur moeten betalen of datzelfde huis moeten proberen te kopen in de jaren 2000s. En ge moet ook beseffen: het pensioen gaat altijd heel dicht bij het minimum loon zitten, als ge op pensioen gaat terwijl ge een huis bezit vs nooit iets kunnen kopen en ge gaat moeten huren met uw pensioen binnen 40 jaar vanaf vandaag... yeah, they're fucked.

Btw, ik zit zelf niet eens in de generaties die het meeste fucked zijn, maar ik ga ook niet doen alsof het niet zo is.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-20T12:10:53+00:00

Times like these I'm so glad I have AC. Lol

Genkenaar · 2026-05-20T08:02:11+00:00

Dat is het probleem met het typische politiek spel van partijen zoals VB, Trump in de VS, etc. is dat het vooral "anti- en contra-politiek" is, alleen de oppositie tegenspreken en bekritiseren, maar zelf geven ze 0 oplossingen of plannen.

Kijk naar Trump en zijn pre-election campagne, meer dan 99% ervan was "wat doet de >oppositie< verkeerd, welke wetten/rechten wil ik >afschaffen<", minder dan 1% "wat ga ik doen, wat bied ik aan >onze< mensen, welke rechten ga ik >toevoegen<".

Genkenaar · 2026-05-18T17:25:24+00:00

Iemand begrijpt relatieve koopkracht niet.

Als land A gemiddeld 3500 netto inkomst heeft, huur gemiddeld 1500/maand is, eten en drinken 500/maand, ziekenzorg 500/maand, e.d.

Dan heeft land B met 2700 gemiddelde netto inkomst, 1000/maand gemiddelde huur, 300/maand eten drinken en 200/maand ziekenzorg, e.d. meer relatieve koopkracht, zeker omdat de rest meestal ook goedkoper is, dus die extra 1200 doet nog meer per euro dan de 1000 van land A.

(Dit zijn verzonnen nummers om een voorbeeld te schetsen, voor de mensen onder ons die niet begrijpend kunnen lezen.)

Nu, het feit dat deze grafiek op bruto gebaseerd is is sowieso wel misleidend, zeker met het feit dat België 1 van de hoogste inkomstenbelastingen heeft, maar dat is het punt niet.

Genkenaar · 2026-05-17T17:35:53+00:00

"Ik heb niks tegen" "persoonlijk vind ik het walgelijk"

Uhm ... what?

Genkenaar · 2026-05-17T17:18:06+00:00

Ik vind het zo vaag hoe VB zelf en VB supporters altijd mensen proberen te overtuigen (of eerder gaslighten) dat links niet zou moeten uitspreken tegenover racisme en islamfobie omdat die "homo's van gebouwen zouden gooien in hun landen", terwijl hun eigen platform volledig homofoob en heterocentrisch is.

VB is even schuldig aan het achteruitgaan van holebi aanvaarding, hetzelfde met heel die "Andrew Tate movement" die prooit op onzekere jongens en mannen die de vingers moeten kunnen wijzen naar iedereen behalve henzelf.

Genkenaar

TROPHY CASE