From 28 September, people awaiting a Belgian residence permit will no longer receive the familiar orange paper ‘attestation d’immatriculation.’ Instead, the Interior Ministry has begun issuing a plastic registration certificate with the same security features found on Belgian passports and eID cards. Each new certificate carries a unique serial number and an embedded chip that stores the holder’s biometric photo, signature and key personal details. When police scan the document, the system accesses a central database to verify whether it has expired, been renewed, reported lost or annulled. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin (MR) says the reform aims to stamp out a lucrative black-market trade in forged paper certificates that criminals have used to obtain jobs, open bank accounts or rent accommodation illegally. In 2025 alone, police seized more than 3,000 counterfeit “orange cards.” The rollout is part of a broader digitisation drive: communes will stop keeping parallel paper files and instead upload changes directly to the National Register. Asylum & Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt notes that faster, real-time data will help immigration officers spot identity fraud and speed up status decisions. For employers and HR teams, the change means they must visually and electronically check the new card rather than the old paper form when onboarding staff who are still in the residence-application process. The government has published specimen images and an FAQ so companies can adapt their compliance procedures before the older documents are phased out on 31 December 2026.
Source: The Brussels Times
