Studying in Belgium from Türkiye.

The steps to study in Belgium from Türkiye

1. 1Obtain an admission in a recognised institution (university, haute école or higher arts school) in French-speaking Belgium, lodging the application yourself with your own contact details.
2. 2Have the certified true copy of the lise diploması drawn up by an official of a municipal administration, have that official's signature apostilled with the valilik or the kaymakamlık, then have the documents translated into French by a sworn translator.
3. 3Have the diploma recognised through an equivalence with the Equivalence Service of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, attaching the ÖSYM results document.
4. 4Fill in the visa form on VisaOnWeb, be redirected to the VFS Global appointment system and lodge the long-stay visa file in person (type D, study purpose) in one of the country's six centres.

Admission and equivalence: what makes a Turkish file special

For a first university enrolment, the Turkish student is a non-resident candidate from outside the European Union: the admission form opens in mid-February and must be lodged by 31 March at the latest for an academic year starting in September of the same calendar year. The application fee is EUR 200, non-refundable, deducted from the enrolment fee by some universities but not by all. Quota-limited programmes for non-resident students (medical sciences, dental sciences, physiotherapy, veterinary sciences, speech therapy) follow a separate procedure, with their own dates.

The equivalence, for its part, falls for Türkiye under the "countries with reduced fees, translation required" fact sheet. Two consequences. First the rate: Türkiye appears by name on the official list of countries whose administrative fees amount to EUR 150, and not EUR 400, a point many candidates are unaware of. Then the translation: Turkish is not among the exempted languages, so a translation into French by a sworn translator is required, as a paper original, the translator's stamp and signature having to straddle both the translation and the translated document, the two items being inseparable. The lodging window opens on 15 November and closes on the following 15 July, the dates for the following year being confirmed on equivalences.cfwb.be; processing takes a minimum of 4 to 12 weeks and decisions are only sent out from 1 March.

One country-specific mention applies to Türkiye: the fact sheet states that it is strongly advised to provide the results document of the ÖSYM placement test, on which the field of orientation must be clearly indicated. This is the proof of access to higher education expected from a Turkish candidate, and the lever that opens access to the targeted programme, as the equivalence issued for a diploma obtained outside the European Union is most often granted with restrictions, which are lifted by passing the maturity examination of the board (DAES).

The student visa from Türkiye: Istanbul decides, VFS Global receives

All visa applications introduced in Türkiye, short stay as well as long stay, are processed by the Belgian Consulate General in Istanbul. The Belgian Embassy in Ankara does exist, but it has no visa competence, no more than the honorary consulates in Antalya, Bodrum, Bursa, Eskişehir, Gaziantep and Izmir. No other Schengen State represents Belgium in Türkiye.

Lodging, however, necessarily goes through the external partner VFS Global, which the consulate general says runs several visa application centres throughout Türkiye. The competence table of the FPS Foreign Affairs, updated on 2 September 2026, names six of them: Istanbul-Altunizade, Istanbul-Beyoglu, Ankara, Antalya, Gaziantep and Izmir. No trip abroad is therefore necessary. The official sequence is as follows: complete the form on VisaOnWeb, be automatically redirected to the VFS appointment system, attend to lodge the file, give your biometric data and pay the fees, the file then being transferred to Istanbul for a decision. The service provider intervenes neither in the content nor in the outcome of the procedure: processing and the decision fall exclusively to the Belgian authorities. Lodging by post is open only to applicants residing in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan: a candidate residing in Türkiye attends in person.

The list of documents published by the consulate general for studies in a public higher education institution includes, besides the printed and signed VisaOnWeb form and the passport, a full extract from the Turkish civil status register (tam tekmil vukuatlı nüfus kayıt örneği), a medical certificate, a criminal record extract, health insurance, proof of means of subsistence and proof of payment of the fee. The medical certificate must be less than six months old and drawn up in Dutch, French or English, either by a doctor approved by the consulate, whose signature does not have to be legalised, or by any other doctor, in which case their signature must be legalised by the local authority and then by the Belgian post, where legalisation has been electronic since November 2020 and requires the originals to be lodged.

Apostille or legalisation: what to do with your Turkish documents?

Türkiye has been a contracting party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 29 September 1985, with no Belgian objection. Turkish documents intended for Belgium are therefore not legalised in a chain: they are apostilled locally. One exception to know: for a sworn translation made in Türkiye, the Equivalence Service asks for the translator's signature to be legalised by the competent local authority, then that signature by the Belgian Consulate General. For a lise diploması, an administrative document, the competent authority notified by Türkiye is the provincial governor (vali) or the district sub-prefect (kaymakam). The official tool of the FPS Foreign Affairs confirms the rule, with only two exemptions: multilingual extracts of civil status certificates and documents issued by an embassy or a consulate.

Another difference to anticipate: the accepted languages. For the visa, a document drawn up in a language other than Dutch, French, German or English must be accompanied by a sworn translation into one of those four languages, the original and its translation both having to be legalised. For the equivalence, the translation must be into French. Two sets of translations may therefore be necessary: we order them in one go rather than twice, when the calendar allows.

How much do studies cost for a Turkish student?

This is the major economic difference of a Turkish file. The 2026-2027 enrolment fees in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles amount to EUR 1,194, the full rate set by the decree of 5 June 2026 published in the Moniteur belge on 24 June 2026. The reduced rates of EUR 835, EUR 374 or EUR 0 depend on the household's economic situation and are reserved for students who meet the residence conditions for study grants, that is to say who live in Belgium or whose family works there: a newcomer pays the full rate. To this is added, for non-assimilated students from outside the European Union, an additional contribution set by article 105 § 3bis of the décret Paysage and charged at EUR 4,175 per year for 2026-2027.

Türkiye appears in none of the three annexes of ARES circular no. 2026-001 of 12 February 2026: neither among the least developed countries, nor among the countries at the bottom of the human development index, nor on the additional list. No exemption is therefore open on that basis, and the non-assimilated Turkish student must budget for the enrolment fee and the contribution. Nor does Türkiye appear among the partner countries of the 2022-2027 programme of the ARES academic development cooperation: the scholarships granted on that basis are not open to it. The assimilation criteria, on the other hand, deserve to be examined case by case, in particular for a candidate whose family already lives in Belgium.

On language, a useful clarification: no decree imposes a level of French to enter a bachelor's degree, outside teacher training programmes, but each university may ask for proof, often at B2 level, when the diploma was not obtained in French. That is the classic case of a lise diploması, and this proof is frequently required from Turkish candidates: we check the exact requirement of the targeted institution before choosing the test session. According to the latest breakdown published by the Council of Rectors (CRef, 2021-2022), 210 Turkish students were enrolled in the six universities of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

Why get support from Türkiye

As for the many international students we support, our role is to secure the sequence from end to end: an admission lodged on time, an equivalence accepted the first time with the apostille, the right certified copy and the sworn translation, an ÖSYM document attached in the right place, and a VFS appointment prepared with a complete file. The candidate remains the author of their own steps: we prepare, check and orchestrate.

• Institution choice and building of the admission file before 31 March
• Equivalence of the lise diploması steered through to the decision, ÖSYM document included
• Apostille, municipal certified true copy and sworn translation ordered in the right order
• Preparation of the visa file and of the appointment in the nearest VFS Global centre
• A single point of contact, in French and English, until your arrival in Belgium