L Card – Time Calculation for student/ search year

Example 1: Master's + PhD (Switched to Single Permit)

Timeline:

01/09/2022 – Arrived in Belgium to start Master’s

20/09/2022 – Received Annex 15 (official start of counting)

31/10/2024 – Completed Master

02/11/2024 – Received Annex 15 for your Paid PhD (but still on student status, no single permit)

11/12/2024 - Received A-card for your PhD

You decided to change to signal permit for you PhD and you prof agreed.

April 2025 – Applied for single permit

24/05/2025 – Work permit part of the Single permit  approved → Switch to full-count residence

(= only from this date onward, your time counts 100%)

Counted Time:

Student Period (20/09/2022 to 23/05/2025) = 977 days

→ Student status → counts 50% → 488.5 days

Worker Status (24/05/2025 → future):

→ Since you already have 488.5 days

→ Need 1,336.5 more days

You reach 5 years (1825 days) on 19 January 2029.

Example 2: Master + Search year (Zoekjaar) + Single Permit

Timeline:

18/07/2022 – Arrived in Belgium for Master

08/08/2022 – received Annex 15 (official start of counting)

08/09/2023 – Finished Master

02/11/2023 – Received Annex 15 for your search year

16/12/2023 – Search year approved (= from this date onward, your time counts 100%)

12/01/2024 – A-card received (zoekjaar)

06/06/2024 – Employer applied for single permit

01/08/2024 – Work permit granted

Counted Time:

Student Period (08/08/2022 → 15/12/2023) = 495 days

→ Student time → counts 50% = 247.5 days

Search Year (16/12/2023 → 31/07/2024) = 228 days

→ Fully counted (it is a worker status) = 228 days

Single Permit (from 01/08/2024 → future):

→ Fully counted

→ still need 1,349.5 days

You reach 5 years on 12 March 2028.

@ashiseverywhere

Thank you for this informative post. I’d like to highlight the ongoing confusion around how the zoekjaar (search year) is counted toward the five-year legal residence requirement for the L card.

In my experience, Most gemeente staff assume it counts as 50%, and DVZ declined to clarify, referring applicants back to local authorities who often lack detailed guidance.

I have recently submitted the L CARD application, I based my calculation on the date I applied for the zoekjaar, not knowing that the 100% counting only begins from the official approval__ this the information that I have just acquired from your post. If the issue date of the A-card is considered the start of the 100% counting period, I would fall short of the five-year requirement by just 4 days, which could result in a denial of the L card application. I can only hope that the actual approval date — which likely came before the card was issued — will be taken into account, and that those 4 days won’t be decisive.

I strongly advise to carefully verify that the full five years of legal residence are completed before submitting the L card application. It may save you from an unfair rejection.

@Mu Jaycee

May i ask your L Card processing timeline included from where application has made please?

@maharaji1984

Thanks for your question!

I submitted my L Card application in early MAY 2025, based on the following legal residence durations in Belgium:

920 days of employment

299 days during the orientation period

1,200 days as a student, counted as half = 600 days

This brings the total to approximately 1,821 days ( around 4 to 5 days short)  of legal residence, calculated according to the guidelines from this post.

Please note:

My calculation considered the issue date of my search year A card as the start of the orientation period, and the last day counted was the day before I submitted my application.

I currently live in Flanders, in a small town with a population of around 30k people. Here there is not waiting time to get an appointment as it is the case in Bigger cities.

@Mu Jaycee

Hi, thanks.

Did they really counted the days one by one?

Did you recieved any feedback after application?

Good luck

@maharaji1984

No one helped me count the days, so I bet on myself and pushed for my application to be accepted.

@Mu Jaycee

Lucky you.

Wish you good luck with IBZ. Hopefully your calculation is correct and get your L card soon.

@Mu Jaycee

I noticed that the you might not count the time you held Annex 15 as part of the search year. It is count as student status so it counts as half. As long as you held the Annex 15 while applying search year for more than 10 days, you are fine

If you want, you can send me your exact dates, and I can help you recalculate everything to be sure.

Hello,

how is it possible to know the exact issue date of the first A-card if i do not have it anymore?

What document do I need to have to prove my 5 year legal residence (4 years 4 months student + almost 3 years of work).

Thank you.

@Husi123

Log in to mon dossier. Then you can see your registered certificates included A card there.

@ashiseverywhere

I’ve carefully reviewed the timeline, and the period spent with the annex is indeed included within the overall duration as a student. I also came across a helpful post in this forum by @gbsc0609, who shared their successful L card application experience.

They applied 14 days before reaching the 5-year mark based on their official commune registration date, and their application was still approved. Here’s a brief summary of their timeline:

Arrival in Belgium: 04 December 2019

Commune Registration (used for PR eligibility): 30 January 2020

Application Date: 17 January 2025

Eligibility Date: 30 January 2025

PR Approval: 18 June 2025

This clearly shows that applying a few days early does not negatively affect eligibility:

https://www.expat.com/en/forum/europe/b … ml#6059151

@Husi123

You can also go to "Mijn Burgerprofiel" -> "Attesten en toelatingen" then ask for " attest gezinssamenstelling" or "Attest van hoofdverblijfplaats met historiek". It shows the date that you were registered in Belgium.

And you do NOT need to prove your legal residence stay or to prove it is a five years of uninterrupted legal residence when applying for an L card.

@ashiseverywhere

Thank you, but on these attests the status ""student"" or employee do not show up

@Husi123

1- Login to : https://mondossier.rrn.fgov.be/fr/identity.do

2- Choose from top Mijn Gegevens

3- Scrool down to bottom : Identiteitsbewijs

There you can see all your documents included Annex 49

@maharaji1984

Thank you. I found them.

Date of first A-card as student: 09/04/2018

Date of first A-card as single permit: 12/08/2022

so, these are 1586 days as a student counted for half: 793 days

On single permit until today, it amounts to 1047 days.

So in total I have 1840 days. So, I already have the right to apply for an L-card I think.

@Husi123

Yes 1826 days covering the 5 years.

Does the time as a PhD student count for 0.5 years in all regions? Like I live in Brussels and I have heard that this counts only 0.5 in Flanders, but not in Brussels or Wallonia. Does anyone have a reliable source to read more about this? 

@vavashapov email the commune and IBZ, they respond back with the relevant information

@vavashapov

You can find it in Official Journal of the European Union - the COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents.

Article 4/2:

Regarding the cases covered in Article 3(2)(a), where the third-country national concerned has acquired a title of residence which will enable him/her to be granted long-term resident status, only half of the periods of residence for study purposes or vocational training may be taken into account in the calculation of the period referred to in paragraph 1.

or you can find the same in Belgian Law : The Law of 15 December 1980 - Loi sur l'accès au territoire, le séjour, l'établissement et l'éloignement des étrangers. (NOTE : Consultation des versions antérieures à partir du 26-07-1991 et mise à jour au 22-08-2024)

Art. 15bis. § 2:

La ou les périodes visées au § 1er, alinéa 2, 1°, sont prises en compte pour moitié.

Hi, is any update on this? Did you get your L card?

I applied for mine and I lost my job during the 5 months process and I do not know what to do now...

Hi everyone,

My L card application has been approved, 5 month after the application!

I manually calculated 1819 days based on the issuance timestamps of the A-cards I held to the application day:

1. Student status: ~1200 days → counts 50% = 600 days
2. Zoekjaar: 299 days → counts 100%

This confirms that Search Year time fully counts

1. Employment: 920 days → counts 100%

Based on this, one would have thought I should have waited 6 more days (i.e. less than a week) to meet the required 1825 days. But this manual count isn’t exact ; especially for those who waited a long time before receiving their zoekjaar or other A cards. In my case, I applied for the zoekjaar in October and received the card in January, other cards held did not take long to be issued.

My implication: The authorities use the internal approval dates which come before the card’s issuance dates and are not visible to applicants.

Thank you @ashiseverywhere For making this clear

Hope this helps others in similar situations.

Thanks to everyone who shared their insights!