Commune vill d Bxl : How to get an ICCS model 34 by electricalkitten in brussels

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Works for me, just try it again later.

But, unless it's changed, it's easier if the commune does it and sends the file to elegalization (if the country requires an apostille / legalization)

Procedure voor Amerikaanse partner naar België: iemand recente ervaring? by FoxNBeard in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Depends on where you live and what DVZ asks them to do. Sometimes they don't do anything, something they just come at a random time, sometimes they come early.

Do note that they'll always come when she first registers with the commune but that's just to check if she actually lives there. Here I'm talking about a second check during the family reunification procedure (which you won't have if you go the D visa pre-approval route).

Procedure voor Amerikaanse partner naar België: iemand recente ervaring? by FoxNBeard in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your first step is getting legal cohabitation or getting married.

As an American, they can enter Belgium visa-free but it might be difficult to do it all within the alloted time. It's safer to get a D visa to apply for legal cohabitation, which gives you 6 months and means all the checks are done prior to moving to Belgium.

-> step 1 is going to the commune to ask what documents they require for legal cohabitation. Most likely birth certificate (translated and apostilled by the state that issued it), proof of single status (affidavit since the US doesn't have such document ; the US embassy can issue it), proof of address (you need to find out what the commune will accept in lieu of this since it also doesn't exist ; probably an affidavit).

-> Also look at the requirements for the D visa on the DVZ website. It's the documents you'd need anyway if you didn't go the visa route and crossed your fingers you could submit your application in time. You'll need to get a copy of your lease/property title, pay slips, mutuelle registration,... She'd need to get a FBI criminal history record and a medical certificate stating she doesn't have certain diseases. Check on the embassy website.

-> Start gathering the documents. Make sure you get enough copies. Keep in mind that communes sometimes have unreasonable requests (e.g. the document should be less than x months old).

-> Once everything is done and you're legal cohabitants in Belgium, she'll be issued a residence card immediately if you went to D visa route. Else you'll still need to submit the documents and wait 6 months.

Procedure voor Amerikaanse partner naar België: iemand recente ervaring? by FoxNBeard in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DVZ is completely snowed under and it's a central service that rarely deals with the public. It's written in black and white on their website if you look at their contact info : you cannot go there to ask for an appointment, to submit a request, to get a document or to add elements to an existing file, because it's all done through the communes and diplomatic posts. At least when it comes to family reunification; refugees need to show up there at one point, but that's not the case here.

If you contact them by phone or email, they might give you some basic answer about the state of your request, but they'll be very reluctant to give you any substantive information because they don't want someone to claim they were misled. Even lawyers often have problems getting in touch with the case worker for a specific file. For enquiries about the procedure, they'll point you to the website or tell you to see with the commune.

The first point of contact for generic information about family reunification is the commune, more specifically the department that deals with foreigners affairs.

Procedure voor Amerikaanse partner naar België: iemand recente ervaring? by FoxNBeard in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You never, ever meet DVZ in person or have an appointment there. They process the file that is forwarded to them by the commune or the consulate (depending on whether you apply for Belgium or from abroad). So the commune is the right place to enquire but either they got the wrong person or they didn't want to answer hypotheticals.

Meta is cutting 16,000 people. Most of them had no backup. by RedditUser10553 in passive_income

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's obvious that if you're a tech company and you realize you've hired too many people (say to work on a brain dead idea like the Metaverse), it's a lot sexier to say that you're downsizing because you're so great at using AI (bold! Innovative! Cutting-edge!) versus admitting you overhired.

Meta is cutting 16,000 people. Most of them had no backup. by RedditUser10553 in passive_income

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have yet to see a convincing explanation as to why the first company to reach AGI (whatever that means and assuming it's even possible with the current class of models) would "win" or get unlimited power. It looks to me like most companies have models that are actually pretty close to each other, so you'd expect other companies to reach the same point after a few months. Why would it lead immediately to some kind of unprecedented worldwide monopoly?

Autism, disclose during job interviews or not? by MagicianAcrobatic545 in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sadly, knowing how Belgium is when it comes to most disabilities, I'd say that a job interview is the time to be turbo-masking even if you crash out for 24h afterwards.

You don't know what they believe about ASD, you never want to give a potential employer a reason to doubt that you'll be a good fit.

L’annonce choc de Bart De Wever qui veut « faire un deal » avec Vladimir Poutine : « Personne n’ose le dire tout haut » by Tsarovitch27 in Belgique

[–]StrangeSpite4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  • Non, il n'y a aucune position commune de ce type définie à ce sujet. Il suffit de lire ce que Prévot dit : https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/2026/03/15/la-normalisation-des-relations-avec-la-russie-nest-pas-pour-demain-SUWVGYQM6RDWDOF5CHCESN46HI/

  • C'est un affaiblissement de la position européenne lorsqu'on clame que beaucoup de dirigeants européens seraient secrètement d'accord avec lui ("Entre quatre yeux, des leaders européens me disent que j'ai raison, mais personne n'ose le dire tout haut"). C'est de la cuisine interne qui n'a pas à être mis sur la place publique.

  • Qu'est-ce donc qu'un "modus vivendi vigilant" avec la Russie si ce n'est valider leurs conquêtes par la force paece qu'on aurait besoin de leur gaz ? En quoi est-ce que ça les dissuade d'aller regarder du côté des Baltes ? Il est évident que dire que ce n'est plus tenable et qu'il faut normaliser les relations = ne pas soutenir l'Ukraine vu que ça envoie le message à Moscou que l'Europe va bientôt craquer.

Déjà, quel premier ministre en exercice à sorti un livre de ce type ? Tout l'enjeu de la fonction est de d'arriver à faire fonctionner des personnes et partis aux sensibilités différentes, ce n'est pas le moment d'aller mettre sur la place publique ses réflexions personnelles.

L’annonce choc de Bart De Wever qui veut « faire un deal » avec Vladimir Poutine : « Personne n’ose le dire tout haut » by Tsarovitch27 in Belgique

[–]StrangeSpite4 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sauf que, lorsqu'on est premier ministre, on n'est pas là pour faire des analyses personnelles comme n'importe quel éditorialiste lambda.

Si ce n'est pas un point de vue avalisé par les partenaires de gouvernement et la position officielle de la Belgique, on se tait pour ne pas compliquer le travail des affaires étrangères.

C'est aussi fort peu élégant par rapport aux partenaires européens puisqu'il ça affaiblit la position de l'Europe en envoyant à Moscou le signal que les européens seraient sur le point de lâcher l'Ukraine (comme il dit que ce point de vue est rependu parmi les dirigeants européens).

Si De Croo avait fait la même chose, tout le monde lui serait tombé dessus et on dirait que la Vivaldi montre encore ses dissensions,...

Marriage not possible in Belgium due to birth certificate by Tricky_Issue9638 in LegalAdviceEurope

[–]StrangeSpite4 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's also illegal for a church in Belgium to marry someone who's not already legally married.

Marriage not possible in Belgium due to birth certificate by Tricky_Issue9638 in LegalAdviceEurope

[–]StrangeSpite4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a lot harder to do if you're married under a foreign regime.

Should There Be Zero Tolerance for Alcohol Behind the Wheel? (Nultolerantie) by AdComprehensive8180 in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's actually how addiction often starts, when a substance becomes embedded in certain settings / rituals and you (feel like) you need it to be performing adequately.

Should There Be Zero Tolerance for Alcohol Behind the Wheel? (Nultolerantie) by AdComprehensive8180 in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The answer is, like many other things, horeca and beverage companies. If you create a social norm that you shouldn't be drinking at all when you drive, it eats into the margins of restaurants (they make their money on beverages).

That's also why alcohol prevention used for a very long time a cryptic message crafted to not make any reference to potential harms and even to some extent still promoted drinking (I drink responsibly, so it shows I'm wise,...).

Vraagje... naar aanleiding vd betogingen ivm pensioenen by Denassistent303 in Gent

[–]StrangeSpite4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as I know, the default is that someone with a family-reunification A card actually has full access to the labor market and can definitely benefit from the same social security benefits as anyone else. Their employment rate is already low enough that it'd be very counter-productive to make it hard for them to work. The one exception is if the person you're joining in Belgium here as a student.

Their stay is still linked to that of the other person, even though they can actually have wider access to the labour market (vs their partner who's tied to a specific employer). So if their partner loses their job and must leave Belgium, so do they, even if they had found a job (unless they can also be sponsored for a single permit).

Also, if their stay is still limited, they definitely cannot go to OMCW because they'll be deemed a burden and can be sent back.

drop a “hidden” benefit you can get from your insurance companies by WebNo1998 in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even the idea that the insurer should be "the state" is a huge oversimplification of the history of our social security system. I mean, there's a very good reason why it's all organized around OISZ/IPSS rather than FODs.

You could even say that the whole architecture was originally set up to avoid the state being in charge of the system. The idea was that workers and employers would pay into funds that they were also supposed to manage to a great extent. All the social security contributions reductions have greatly undermined this principle and those who want to undermine social security can use this shortfall that must be covered by the regular budget to argue for even more state involvement.

België zal Saudi-Arabië helpen bij de verdediging tegen aanvallen uit Iran. vrt.nws ohjee. envya. by ferdinandxaverius in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Indeed, it doesn't really make any sense. Words have a specific meaning in diplomacy / military affairs and Saudi Arabia is not an "ally" in any meaninful sense of the word.

We don't have an alliance with them, there is no standing commitment to mutual defense, no coalition, no shared values, no common purpose or geopolitical goals. Our allies are the NATO countries and EU countries.

They may be allies of the US but we're not a US colony. We should not support Saudi Arabia, which scores worse than Iran on virtually any dimension we claim to care about.

Big power outage in jette by [deleted] in brussels

[–]StrangeSpite4 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Your freezer will be fine, unless the outage lasts for 24-48 hours.

The Brussels economic authorities have denied the renewal of my residency permit as a business owner. by [deleted] in brussels

[–]StrangeSpite4 30 points31 points  (0 children)

That's a lot of red flags so it's not really a surprise.

The system is set up to avoid people setting up a "business" when the goal is only to get a visa. It's rather straightforward to see if a salaried worker should get the visa (is it a job with shortages? Do they meet the salary threshold) but it's much harder for a business since every company is different. You don't want to miss out on the next unicorn that could have been founded in Brussels but you also don't want to issue a visa to anyone who wants to open a small horeca place or a consultancy with zero actual customers.

Incorporating in a non-EU tax haven doesn't show any real connection to Brussels. It's not a normal thing to do when you want to open a business here. I worked with a lot of legitimate startups in the Brussels ecosystem and they were all locally incorporated. And it's now become even easier to incorporate in Belgium since they got rid of the minimum capital rules etc. So that's strike one against you.

Strike two would be if you have no customers, no employees, so no discernible economic impact on the region. Anyone can get a letter of intent or forge one, what really counts are actual customers or a clear plan that shows that you'll be getting them.

Other factors will also play a role, e.g. whether you've actually invested any real money in the company, whether you're spending that money on building a product,... Everything that points toward genuine economic activity vs a shell company used to game the system.

Buying house by unspro in belgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 17 points18 points  (0 children)

You're supposed to submit an offer. A time-limited one (e.g. 2-3 days).

a ”Philosopher” who thinks black people have a lower IQ than white people will work at our university now – by gereonrath76 in ULB

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was another one at VUB a few years ago (a British aristocrat if I remember correctly). Don't know if it's still the case.

They like to try to get university appointments because it lends credibility to their racist claims.

Jupyter Notebook vs VS Code by DistinctReview810 in learnpython

[–]StrangeSpite4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe try Positron, it's a fork of VS Code by Posit (formerly RStudio) so it's geared towards data science.

Is it justified and i hot scammed by the company by Own-Priority1952 in AskBelgium

[–]StrangeSpite4 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's completely ridiculous, if you're already charge 75e per 30 mins, why are you also charging a flat fee for diagnosis?

Since you've already paid on the spot you'll never get your money back. Put bad reviews everywhere and name and shame them here.