Student visa for Belgium, for students from China

You need a national type D visa for study, then you register with your commune on arrival and receive an A card (the temporary residence permit).

The money: €1,062 a month. This is the headline change. For new applications for the 2026-2027 academic year onwards, the minimum rose from €835 to €1,062 net a month. It was set by Royal Decree of 12 January 2026, published in the Moniteur belge on 26 January 2026, and it is indexed every 15 February, so expect it to rise again for 2027-2028. The Belgian Embassy in Seoul's student visa page already quotes the €1,062 figure. At the time of writing the Immigration Office's own English page on sufficient means still shows the old €835 for 2025-2026: go by the new figure.

You can prove the money in four ways:

• a blocked account opened through your institution, holding twelve times the monthly amount, which at €1,062 is €12,744
• a bank guarantee through a specialised company, for the same amount
• a certificate of a scholarship or loan from an international organisation or a national government
• a sponsor's formal commitment (annex 32), where a solvent guarantor undertakes to cover you. The government has announced a guarantor database and a blacklist of unreliable guarantors, so weak sponsors will be refused more often.

Fees: a visa handling fee equivalent to €180 in local currency, plus the Immigration Office contribution fee of €251, indexed from 1 January 2026. Students with a Belgian grant and applicants under 18 are exempt from the €251.

Processing time. Study in Flanders warns the normal procedure "can easily take up to six to eight weeks". Some embassies also require a questionnaire or interview, and consulates in high-volume countries book up in July and August. Apply as soon as you have your admission letter and money in place.