Nationality

The following applications for Belgian nationality can be submitted to the Embassies and Consulates(-General) of Belgium abroad:

a. Declarations of attribution of Belgian nationality by a Belgian parent to his child before the age of 5, in cases where both were born abroad.

b. Declarations of retaining Belgian nationality by Belgian young people born and residing abroad between the ages of 18 and 28.

c. Regaining Belgian nationality on the basis of art. 17 and art. 24;

For persons not legally residing in Belgium, it is no longer possible to acquire Belgian nationality on a voluntary basis.

Residence in Belgium must be understood to mean registration in the population register (register of foreign nationals) of a Belgian municipality.

Consequently, since 1 January 2013, the following applications for Belgian nationality are no longer possible by persons not legally residing in Belgium:

a. naturalisation;

b. nationality by option based on:

• civil marriage to a Belgian;
• young people aged between 18 and 22, born abroad to an Belgian parent;
• applications based on art. 12 of the Code of Belgian Nationality

All information is available here .

To register a child with us, please find all the relevant information here .

Please note that if you are Belgian and you as well as your child were born outside of Belgium, your child did not obtain Belgian citizenship from birth.

You can, if you so wish, give your child Belgian citizenship before his/her fifth birthday by means of a declaration of attribution of citizenship.

In order to start the procedure of ‘attribution of citizenship’, please send by post a letter to the Nationality Department in which you request further information regarding the procedure to be sent to you. Clearly indicate your contact details in the letter and include the following documents:

• Photocopy of your passport or ID card
• Photocopy of the passport of the other parent (including a copy of the UK residence permit in case you are not an EU national)
• Photocopy of the birth certificate of the child (long version which includes the names of both parents)
• Verification code from the Home Office to prove your (pre)settled status. On 01.07.21 submission of proof of legal residence in the UK becomes mandatory. You should be able to generate it here.
  Alternatively, if you have rather acquired British citizenship, please send a clear scanned copy of your British certificate of naturalisation/registration and British passport.

TO: 

Embassy of Belgium - Nationality Department
17 Grosvenor Crescent
London SW1X 7EE

Note that no ‘attribution of citizenship’ files will be accepted by email. At this stage only copies are required. 

If your child is over the age of 5, our services can only note that the legal deadline for signing the declaration of attribution of Belgian nationality has passed.

Some Belgians born and residing abroad lose their Belgian nationality if they do not make a declaration of conservation at the Embassy/Consulate-General of Belgium in their country of residence.

The declaration of conservation of Belgian nationality must be made by Belgians who:

• were born abroad, AND
• were born after 1 January 1967, AND
• had uninterrupted residence abroad from the age of eighteen to twenty-eight, AND
• have one (or more) other nationality(ies) besides Belgian nationality, AND
• cannot claim that their long-term residence abroad was related to an assignment of the Belgian government or of a Belgian company/association under Belgian law.

Those citizens who meet all the above conditions are requested to consult the Embassy of Belgium in London by email (london.nat@diplobel.fed.be) as soon as possible.

They can make the declaration of conservation at any time between their 18th and 28th birthday, upon prior submission of the required documents.

The declaration only needs to be made once. For this reason, it is recommended to make it at the age of 18, upon applying for a Belgian identity card or passport.

If these Belgians do not make a declaration of conservation before their 28th birthday, the persons concerned and, in certain cases, their children who are still minors, will automatically lose their Belgian nationality.

For more information, those concerned may consult the website of the FPS Foreign Affairs.