Changing your life is always an extraordinary event that involves a real ability to adapt, especially if the country you come from does not share the language of the place where you settle.



In Brussels, this adaptation period is certainly much shorter than in other cities since 1 out of 3 Brusselers is a citizen who comes from another country! The vast majority of Brussels residents speak English more or less well, the region is multilingual, so you will have no difficulty in exchanging and quickly making a first circle of friends and contacts.
Changing your life is also a legal issue, setting up a family always requires administrative procedures. School registration if children are part of the trip, visit to the town hall of your municipality (Brussels is made up of 19 municipalities), taking out health insurance, Social Security registration, work permits, a certain number of things must be settled in order to enjoy your new life with peace of mind.
No worries, there are many associations, public organizations or specialized companies in Brussels to assist you and which can help you undertake this process of regularizing your situation in a clear and effective way.
What is certain is that Brussels and the people of Brussels are welcoming, open and the city itself is sized for expatriation since the notion of "living together" is one of the pillars of our city.



For example, for more than 25 years, Brussels has offered an Expat Welcome Desk (EWD), an organization dedicated to assisting those who come to Brussels to work around and in European and international institutions, but that's not all of course, here are some other ways to help you prepare for your arrival with us, or to facilitate your installation if you are already with us! Welcome to Brussels!

To illustrate and complete this article, we had the chance to interview a real expert, Mr. Jo Vanbelle, CEO of Jo Vanbelle Law Firm.

LB : Over the past years, Vanbelle Law became the Belgian leading law firm in international (tax) law. Granted in 2017 Global Law Experts (UK) and the prestigious Lawyer International Legal 100 award for several years in a row are only some of the firm achievements. Could you please tell us what your key to success is?

JV : To be honest, it is not really the awards that motivate me. Yes, it is always great to see that the quality of the work we do as a team is recognized by an international body. However, I consider those awards more as the crowning touch to our hard work and effort. If you actually look at some of the most successful people in the world, you will realize that success is founded on a passion and dedication to the job. The same applies to me and the lawyers who work with me. We are particularly demanding of ourselves and try to be very attentive to the needs of our clients.

LB : Your firm presents itself as a "boutique". Is that not a quite unusual denomination for a law firm?

JV : Yes, It is. Imagine you want to buy a watch. If you go to a department store, you may still walk away with a fine model, but only if you go to a specialized boutique, you will find something special, tailored to your needs. The same applies to our law firm - it is all about the experience and the quality of service we provide to our clients.
The firm's personalised approach is even reflected by the office set-up that is much different from the often sterile environment typically found in offices. We tried to make ours a warm, welcoming place, which feels more like home. That is why our clients often end up staying longer than they planned (laugh).

LB : Could you please tell us a little more about the services offered by your law firm?

JV : Thanks to a perfect combination of the boutique concept with a vast network of in-country and international partners, we pride ourselves on offering a one-stop personalised legal concierge service. Unlike many other law firms that tend to narrow down the scope of an issue, we prefer to propose a more holistic approach to our clients.
It essentially means that our services are not limited to just legal and tax advisory but we can also help with accounting, banking (private, corporate and retail), real estate (rental, purchase, maintenance, housekeeping), insurances, school subscriptions, social and cultural memberships; we even give recommendations on shops, hotels and restaurants. It works great! In the end, our clients are not just Belgian nationals but they come from all parts of the world: the EU, UK, UAE, Switzerland, Canada and the USA...They need someone intrusted to guide them, to manage all different aspects that their move or a new project might involve.

Many of our clients are national and international businesses that seek expansion or legal restructuration. They consult us for tax and company advice, corporate planning operations; request an audit or an assistance during court proceedings. We also help high-net-worth individuals and their families in their quest for responsible asset and wealth management, whether private or professional. Finally, we assist expats with all their legal, fiscal, financial, administrative and immigration concerns.
When a client comes to us with a complex problem, we always try to assess it from various angles in order to see all the potential correlations. This is what, in my opinion, many law firms keep on missing: by splitting up their services, they forget the big picture.

CM : Many of your clients are expats and foreign executives. Was there any particular reason that made you develop your
interest in this niche market?

JV : The interest I had for expat cases developed quite naturally. Shortly after I had launched Vanbelle Law, I started receiving
many calls for help from foreigners living in Belgium. I found that international dimension very appealing because I could always learn and discover new things just by listening to those people – it sometimes felt as if they took me along on their journey.

However, also something else reinforced my interest in the expat market. Foreigners, who often do not speak the local languages, do not know the local laws and regulations and are an easy target for scammers. I have seen many cases of expats who were unfairly treated especially when it comes to rental issues or property management, or whose files were handled with a certain negligence by a phone company or even some local authorities.

LB : Can you please give an example of such a case?

JV : I advised in the case of an expat who kept being taken advantage of by his property owner. Among others, the landlord would refuse to give our client back his rental deposit, claiming that the Belgian law provides that it is automatically due to the landlord at the end of the lease. That’s clearly not true… . When we exposed this and other illegal practices of the owner, the client was truly shocked by all the lies he had been told.

Another time, a foreign executive wanted to consult us about some buildings he had purchased in Brussels. However, once we looked into the agreement he signed, we realized that he had been fooled. There was no point in the agreement that would mention the actual transfer of property rights, what made it probably the worst investment in his entire life!

LB : Is this type of clients more difficult to deal?

JV : I do not particularly think that this type of clients is more challenging or demanding. However, I would always advise expats to be very careful – there are many “traps” in Belgian law, they can easily fall into if they don’t know local regulations and processes. For example, some real estate investment opportunities in Brussels might appear to be great deals at first, but they can involve a lot of troubles and some major hidden costs; the tax administration, urban planners, co-ownership problems, pollution regulations, to name a few, can make real estate investments a very demanding and complicated task to complete. It is, therefore, essential that we provide our clients with end-to-end support on all the legal, administrative and financial processes in order to give them a full picture of their situation and future obligations.

There is also another important aspect that should be mentioned while talking about these cases: international tax law. Where and how should expats report their income? What does the applicable double tax treaty stipulate? Where will a foreigner who resides temporary in Belgium be taxed and at what rate? What are the deductions and exemptions applicable to each type of situation? These questions are not always easy to answer and surely adds up some complexity to some expat cases.

More info about Jo Vanbelle Law Firm:Here