In a bid to accelerate the processing of immigration and asylum appeals, Belgium’s Council of Ministers approved a draft Royal Decree on 18 September 2026 that will add four new clerks to the Council for Alien-Law Litigation (Conseil du contentieux des étrangers/ Raad voor Vreemdelingen-betwistingen). The decree, tabled by Minister for Asylum and Migration Anneleen Van Bossuyt, raises the clerk head-count from 14 to 18— the first increase since 2015, even though the number of judges has almost doubled in that period. According to the explanatory note, the current shortage forces legal advisers and administrative specialists to moonlight as clerks simply to keep hearings running. By restoring a sustainable ratio of one clerk for every three to four judges, the government hopes to cut waiting times for decisions and free up legal talent for substantive case preparation rather than administrative triage. Faster appeal handling is expected to benefit both employers and international assignees. In recent years, Belgian multinationals have complained that unpredictable timelines for residence decisions complicate workforce planning and hurt Belgium’s attractiveness in the tight European talent market. The Council currently handles roughly 11,000 asylum, family-reunification and work-migration appeals per year; officials estimate the extra clerks could shorten average case-processing times by two to three weeks once fully onboarded. The draft decree now goes to the Council of State for its advisory opinion. If cleared, the positions should be funded in the 2027 federal budget cycle, allowing recruitment to start early next year. Employers are advised to keep monitoring implementation dates so they can adjust their relocation timelines and internal expectations accordingly.
Source: news.belgium
