Studying in Belgium as a Portuguese citizen.

Does a Portuguese student need a visa for Belgium?

No. Free movement exempts citizens of the European Union from any study visa. The steps are taken at the commune: a declaration of presence within ten working days, then a request for a registration certificate (annexe 19) from the municipal administration of the place of residence, no later than the expiry of the three months following entry into Belgium, the administrative fine being EUR 200 in the event of delay.

The counter expects an enrolment in an organised, recognised or subsidised institution, health cover (the European Health Insurance Card is accepted, as are private insurance, an S1 form or membership of a Belgian health insurance fund), proof of sufficient resources and proof of citizenship. The Immigration Office rules within six months: annexe 8ter, then an EU citizen residence card. Since 1 September 2025, the file must be complete from the very first visit, failing which the application is not taken into consideration. In Brussels, the procedure takes about three weeks and costs EUR 25 and then EUR 30.

Portugal has no country sheet: which rules apply to the equivalence?

One clarification first, because it concerns a great many people: out of the 627 students of Portuguese nationality enrolled in the six universities of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, according to table 1.3.1 of the directory of the Conseil des rectrices et recteurs (CRef), the latest published breakdown (2021-2022), which does not cover the hautes écoles, only 274 did not hold a secondary qualification from a Belgian curriculum. In other words, more than half had followed a Belgian secondary curriculum, most often in Belgium. A Portuguese student holding a Belgian CESS has no foreign diploma to have recognised: the equivalence only covers qualifications obtained abroad.

For those who arrive with a Portuguese diploma, the country selector of the Equivalence Service does not lead to a "Portugal" sheet, but to the general page "EU countries (without translation)". The documents required are the secondary school leaving diploma and the transcript that goes with it, as a certified true copy, to which are added an identity document, a motivation letter or form written in French and the original proof of payment. The fees are EUR 400, non-refundable; filing opens around mid-November and closes on 15 July preceding the start of the academic year (from 15 November 2025 to 15 July 2026 for 2026-2027, the 2027-2028 dates to be confirmed on equivalences.cfwb.be), for an announced processing time of four to twelve weeks minimum.

In the absence of a country sheet, one point is settled case by case and deserves to be confirmed in writing with the Service before filing: the exact name of the Portuguese document that serves as the transcript, which the general page does not name. For a diploma obtained in 2026 whose issue is delayed, the general rule published by the Service provides that a certified true copy of the transcript or of the provisional certificate of success is enough, the provisional equivalence then being valid until 15 May 2027, extendable to 15 May 2028 on production of a certificate of non-issue dated 2027. The Service does not publish a standard decision by country: the decision states the access it opens, and an equivalence may carry restrictions, which can be lifted by the DAES, the secondary school examination board of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles; that situation concerns first and foremost files from outside the European Union. The Service recommends coming to present the file before lodging it when the studies were strongly oriented towards professional practice, when the diploma comes from a private school or from an authority other than the Ministry of Education: this is a general recommendation, which we apply by analogy to a curso profissional.

Do you need an apostille and a translation for a Portuguese file?

The translation, no: Portuguese is among the languages expressly exempted by the Equivalence Service, in the same way as French, German, Dutch, English, Italian and Spanish (Castilian). No sworn translator is therefore to be foreseen for the diploma or for the transcript.

The apostille, on the other hand, depends on where the copy is certified. The list of countries whose municipal copies are accepted as they stand by the Service is exhaustive (France, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Estonia), and Portugal is not on it. The "EU countries" page, which is the one that applies to Portugal, sets out the rule in black and white: elsewhere in the world, for a country signatory to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, the true copy is drawn up by a competent official of the municipal administration, then their signature is apostilled. A copy certified in Portugal, a party to that convention since 1969, therefore falls under that regime: a true copy drawn up by a competent official, then an apostille of their signature, issued by the Procuradoria-Geral da República in Lisbon, by the Procuradorias-Gerais Distritais of Porto, Coimbra and Évora, by the legal auditors attached to the Representatives of the Republic for Madeira and the Azores, or by the Tribunal da Relação de Guimarães.

Another question of language, that of the studies themselves: no decree imposes a level of French for entry into a bachelor's degree. Article 108 of the décret paysage only covered three teacher training bachelor's degrees (agrégé de l'enseignement secondaire inférieur, primary school teacher, pre-school teacher) and its effects were limited to the academic years 2019-2020 to 2022-2023; for those programmes, level B2 was expected, with proof such as the DALF, DELF B2, TEF level 4 or TCF B2. Each university may nevertheless ask for proof, often B2, when the diploma was not obtained in French: the ULB does not require it at bachelor's level, other institutions include it in their admission file.

Is a Portuguese student subject to the non-resident quota?

It depends entirely on their life path, and this is where the Portuguese particularity weighs. A student who arrives from Portugal for their studies is a non-resident within the meaning of the decree of 16 June 2006, and falls under the quota for quota-limited programmes. A student who grew up in Belgium, or who has resided there without interruption for at least five years, with an E+ or EU+ permanent residence card and a residence certificate with history, is a resident: they escape the quota and enrol like any Belgian student.

Two procedures not to be confused, and falling almost on the same day: the filing for the programmes selected by draw takes place on 25, 26 and 27 August 2026, with the chosen institution, without prior registration; the entrance exam for medicine and dentistry is held on 27 August 2026, but you must have registered between 18 May and 5 July 2026 on concoursmd.be. You may lodge only one application, in a single quota-limited programme and in a single institution: two applications in parallel count as a duplicate and eliminate the candidate. ARES publishes no statistics by nationality on non-residents: the share of Portuguese students in these programmes is not known.

How much does a year of study cost for a Portuguese student?

The registration fee is that of European students: EUR 1,194 for 2026-2027, an amount set by the programme decree of 5 June 2026 published in the Moniteur belge of 24 June 2026, indexable from 2027-2028 within a limit of 3% per year. No supplementary fee is due: the EUR 4,175 added to the minerval concerns non-European students who are not treated as residents. The scale does provide for reduced rates (EUR 835 in the intermediate bracket, EUR 374 in the modest bracket, EUR 0 for a grant holder), but they depend on the household's resources, assessed under the rules of the study grants, to which a European national has access only if they hold permanent residence, work in Belgium or have a family member in Belgium who meets one of these conditions. A Portuguese student settled in Belgium with their parents may therefore claim them, whereas a newcomer from Portugal on a full programme pays the full rate. The application is lodged with the Direction des allocations d'études, from 1 July to 31 October.

The study grant of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles follows the same dividing line. A European national alone on their household composition must have obtained the right of permanent residence (E+ or EU+ card) or work in Belgium, student jobs not counting, or have a family member in Belgium who meets one of these conditions; they must also prove that they receive no financial aid from another country. One last thing to plan for: the EUR 400 of equivalence fees, non-refundable. On the health side, the European Health Insurance Card is accepted at the commune.

Why get support

The absence of a dedicated country sheet obliges a Portuguese candidate to work from a general page: the documents and the apostille regime are indeed written there, but nothing is named in Portuguese, whereas an Italian or a Spaniard finds the labels of their own school system. The risk is therefore not misreading the rule, it is choosing the wrong document. As with the many international students we support, we remove these uncertainties before filing, by questioning the Service when necessary. You lodge your own admission application and your own municipal file, with your own contact details; we prepare, check and set the pace.

• Determination of the regime applicable to your Portuguese diploma, in the absence of a dedicated country sheet
• Identification of the Portuguese document that serves as the transcript, confirmed with the Service
• Choice between an apostille in Portugal and certification in Belgium, according to your departure calendar
• Analysis of your resident or non-resident status and its effect on the quota-limited programmes and the minerval
• Follow-up of the provisional equivalence through to the definitive decision, before the 15 May deadline