International travel while residence card is in process

Member since 17 December 2018

zeenieMember17 December 2018 08:51:41

Hello everyone,

I am a new member in this forum and a recent expat to Belgium. I am an Indian citizen married to a EU citizen. We moved to Belgium from France in October. I hold a French residency card valid till 2027 which allows me to stay in Belgium for three months without visa. After moving to Belgium, I gave all my documents to the commune and started the process for the residency documents. I need to travel urgently to India due to a family emergency. The commune tells me that I cannot travel outside Belgium for six months (till April 2019) while my residency papers are in process and I might be denied entry. However, I have a valid French residency and will be traveling through Paris, so immigration at Charles De Gaulle airport is not a problem for me. After that, there is no immigration check between France and Belgium. Can someone please point me to the exact rule regarding this? I am trying to understand if this rule is about people who don't have documents to allow re-entry into Belgium, or if the rule is that I have to live continuously in Belgium for six months to get my residency and any travel abroad counts against it.

Thanks a lot!

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