Studying in Belgium from Iran.

What are the steps to study in Belgium from Iran?

1. 1Secure an admission in a recognised institution of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (university, haute école or higher arts school): for universities, the form opens in mid-February and must be lodged by 31 March at the latest.
2. 2Have your school documents certified as true copies, have them translated by a sworn translator, then go through the legalisation chain: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgian embassy in Tehran.
3. 3Apply for the equivalence with the Equivalence Service of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, between mid-November and 15 July, for EUR 150, enclosing the pre-university year diploma if the diploma dates from the June 2019 session or earlier.
4. 4Lodge the long-stay visa application (type D, study purpose) on VisaOnWeb, transfer the EUR 251 fee to the Immigration Office, then file the application in person at the VFS Global centre in Tehran, with biometrics.
5. 5Plan the first-year budget: a registration fee of EUR 1,194 and a supplementary fee of EUR 4,175 at university, Iran not being exempt.

How do you enrol at university and get your Iranian diploma recognised?

For a first university enrolment, the Iranian applicant (non-resident, non-EU) lodges their admission application online themselves, with their own contact details: the form opens in mid-February and closes by 31 March at the latest for the September start of the year (31 March 2026 for the 2026-2027 year). Non-refundable application fees of EUR 200 apply: some universities deduct them from the registration fee when the admission is accepted, others do not. No decree imposes proof of French for a bachelor's programme, apart from teacher training courses; each university may nevertheless ask for one, often at B2 level, when the diploma was not obtained in French, which is the case of an Iranian diploma. Master's programmes taught entirely in English do exist in French-speaking Belgium: the language of instruction is checked programme by programme before targeting an institution.

The Iranian secondary school leaving diploma must be recognised through an equivalence issued by the Equivalence Service of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Iran comes under the sheet for countries with reduced fees and with translation: the fees are EUR 150 instead of EUR 400, non-refundable, and documents in Persian must be translated into French. The file includes the diploma and the transcript as a certified true copy, proof of access to higher education, an identity document, a motivation letter in French and the original proof of payment. Filing opens around mid-November and closes on 15 July (from 15 November 2025 to 15 July 2026 for the 2026 start of the year; the 2027-2028 dates are to be confirmed on equivalences.cfwb.be), for processing announced as 4 to 12 weeks at the very least. For a non-EU file, an equivalence carrying restrictions remains frequent; those restrictions are lifted by passing the DAES examination.

Where and how do you lodge your student visa application from Iran?

The Belgian embassy in Tehran is the competent post, but since 2 September 2018 the booking of appointments and the receipt of applications have been entrusted to VFS Global. The centre is on the fourth floor of the Heravi Shopping Center, Mosavi Street, Heravi Square, in Tehran, and the appointment is booked online on the official VFS Global website. The application is first lodged on VisaOnWeb; the applicant then attends the centre in person for the filing and the biometrics, which are compulsory for the type D visa. The service fees are EUR 31 per application, payable in cash in euros with the exact change. VFS Global does not sell appointments, charges nothing other than its service fees and has no influence on the decision: the only sums paid to the authorities are the visa fees, the service fees and the administrative fee.

Two rules weigh particularly heavily on Iranian files. First, documents written in Persian only are not taken into consideration: they must be translated into a Belgian national language or into English before filing. Second, the centre requires a complete file at the time of filing: the embassy asks applicants to check that every item has been gathered before booking the appointment. The EUR 251 administrative fee is paid exclusively by transfer in euros to the account of the Immigration Office, by the applicant or by a third party; without proof of payment, the application is inadmissible.

Do you need to apostille or legalise your Iranian documents?

Iran is not party to the Hague Apostille Convention: the apostille does not exist for Iranian documents, which follow the classic three-stage legalisation. An Iranian instrument intended for Belgium is first translated by a sworn translator and its copy stamped as a true copy of the original, then it goes through the Iranian Ministry of Justice, then through the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and finally through the Belgian embassy in Tehran, at the federal rate of EUR 25 per legalisation since 1 August 2026, in cash. As the embassy legalises only documents written in a Belgian national language or in English, its stamp is affixed on the certified true translation and never on the original Iranian document. The request is made by email to the embassy's legalisation service, which hands over at filing a reference number giving access to the legalisation online on LegalWeb.

Translation follows its own rules. It must be carried out by a sworn translator into French, Dutch or German (English is accepted only for unofficial use), be less than six months old and be presented with the original in Persian. The translator's stamp and signature must straddle the original and the translation; the translator's signature is then legalised by the competent authority, then by the Belgian embassy, and it is the original translation that is handed to the Equivalence Service. For certified true copies, the names of the officers must be legible in Latin script next to the stamps.

How much do studies in Belgium cost for an Iranian student?

Iran appears in none of the three annexes of ARES circular no. 2026-001 of 12 February 2026, which list the nationalities exempt from the supplementary fee. An Iranian student who is not assimilated is therefore liable, at university, for the registration fee of EUR 1,194 for 2026-2027 (programme decree of 5 June 2026, published in the Moniteur belge on 24 June 2026) and for the supplementary fee of EUR 4,175, that is around EUR 5,369 for a first year. The university may grant, on an individual basis and at the expense of its social allowances, a reduction of the registration fees (article 5 of the circular): the exact amount is confirmed with the institution concerned.

The supplementary fee does not target students assimilated within the meaning of the decree of 11 April 2014: a long-term resident, a beneficiary of international protection or a holder of a Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles grant pays the ordinary registration fee. The reduced rates in the registration fee scale (EUR 835, EUR 374 or free of charge for grant holders) depend on the household's economic situation and remain reserved for students who meet the residence conditions for study allowances, that is residing in Belgium or having a family working there: a newly arrived student pays the full rate. As a benchmark, according to the most recent breakdown published by the Council of Rectors (CRef, 2021-2022), 139 students of Iranian nationality were enrolled in the six universities of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

Why get support from Iran?

As for the many international students we support, our role is to secure the sequence from end to end. The applicant lodges their own admission application and their own visa file, with their own contact details and their personal attendance at the Tehran centre: we prepare, we check and we orchestrate, we do not lodge in their place. On an Iranian file, the value lies in the sequence of translations and legalisations, where an error of order costs several weeks.

• Institution choice and building of the admission file within the window from mid-February to 31 March
• Equivalence of the Iranian diploma steered through to the decision, including the pre-university year diploma when it is required
• Exact sequence of the certified true copies, of the sworn translations and of the three levels of legalisation
• Preparation of the appointment at the VFS Global centre in Tehran and check of the documents before attending, the file having to be complete at the time of filing
• A costed first-year budget, registration fee and supplementary fee included, and a single point of contact until your arrival