Flanders’ centre-right Government has taken another step to curb what it sees as over-reliance on foreign labour. In a decree published on 30 June 2026, Flemish Employment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) confirmed that, from 1 January 2027, every application for a so-called “Single Permit” will attract an additional regional handling charge of €180. The Single Permit – a combined work-and-residence authorisation issued jointly by the federal Immigration Office and the regions – has been the backbone of Belgium’s business-immigration system since 2019. Federal authorities already levy a €152 administrative fee; employers recruiting a highly-skilled worker from, say, India or the US will therefore face total up-front costs of €332 before legal fees.
In practice, companies and assignees seeking clarity on the new Flemish levy can lean on visa-processing specialists. VisaHQ, for example, maintains a dedicated Belgium portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) that consolidates current fees, regional surcharges and document checklists, helping HR teams budget accurately and avoid last-minute surprises when launching Single Permit files.
Demir argues that Flemish companies must “look local first” and says the new fee will deter what she calls “budget shopping” for medium- and low-skilled staff outside the EU. Her department points to a 61 % drop in medium-skilled permit requests since stricter eligibility rules came into force on 1 January 2026, while filings for highly-skilled roles rose 12 %. Business groups are alarmed. Employers’ federation Voka warns the measure adds cost and complexity to a system that already takes up to 15 weeks per file. It stresses that Flanders is facing acute shortages in engineering, ICT and healthcare and says the extra levy “sends the wrong signal” to multinational investors weighing Belgian expansions against more agile permit systems in the Netherlands or Ireland. For global-mobility managers the practical impact is immediate: budgets for 2027 assignments must be updated; offer letters issued from July 2026 should already warn candidates that sponsors will pass on the €180 fee; and internal stakeholders need to prepare for possible knock-on delays as regional authorities re-engineer their IT systems to collect the surcharge. Companies operating across Belgium’s three regions should also monitor whether Wallonia or Brussels follow Flanders’ lead, which would effectively create a patchwork of permit costs within one country.
In practice, companies and assignees seeking clarity on the new Flemish levy can lean on visa-processing specialists. VisaHQ, for example, maintains a dedicated Belgium portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) that consolidates current fees, regional surcharges and document checklists, helping HR teams budget accurately and avoid last-minute surprises when launching Single Permit files.
Demir argues that Flemish companies must “look local first” and says the new fee will deter what she calls “budget shopping” for medium- and low-skilled staff outside the EU. Her department points to a 61 % drop in medium-skilled permit requests since stricter eligibility rules came into force on 1 January 2026, while filings for highly-skilled roles rose 12 %. Business groups are alarmed. Employers’ federation Voka warns the measure adds cost and complexity to a system that already takes up to 15 weeks per file. It stresses that Flanders is facing acute shortages in engineering, ICT and healthcare and says the extra levy “sends the wrong signal” to multinational investors weighing Belgian expansions against more agile permit systems in the Netherlands or Ireland. For global-mobility managers the practical impact is immediate: budgets for 2027 assignments must be updated; offer letters issued from July 2026 should already warn candidates that sponsors will pass on the €180 fee; and internal stakeholders need to prepare for possible knock-on delays as regional authorities re-engineer their IT systems to collect the surcharge. Companies operating across Belgium’s three regions should also monitor whether Wallonia or Brussels follow Flanders’ lead, which would effectively create a patchwork of permit costs within one country.
