Work permit B

1. Depends totally on the job contract between employer and employee. Some contracts say either party can terminate it by providing a certain notice period. If that is the case, that is it and if employer wants to fire you based on performance issues or so, they can, by all means

2. You can stay till the Validity of your residence permit. Wp being cancelled does not impact this.

Thanks a lot for such quick and accurate reply!
Greatly apreciated.

I hope that I won't bother you by asking some additional questions. It's my first work permit in Belgium and therefore I am considerably nervous, still cannot fully believe that it really happened and trying to find some pitfalls (even though everything should go smoothly).

So as I understood from your answer the employer should always have a reason to fire somebody and cannot do this without notice period? I have an "unlimited working agreement for white collar" to be precise.
It may sound silly but I am still afraid that at the last moment the employer would change his mind and somehow revoke my contract even before letting me to start working. Yeah, after reading this once again it seems almost impossible but first contract, first experience in Belgium - getting a bit paranoid

The second question is as follows: I should have already begun to work staring from the previous week (according to the contract), however, since the positive decision was made only on the 30th of September and the letter was sent only on 3d of October, my employer still got no official letter of conformation received (even though everybody knows that the decision was positive).
He told me that I will most probably start from the next week and we will just amend the date on the contract from 1st of October to the 15th of October and both sign this change to it.
Is it fine/usual practice in Belgium? As I understood it is really hard to forecast the exact date one may start working because of the delay in processing the files.

And I want to thank you once again. I saw your answers in the other topics and want to tell you that you are doing a great job by helping others with all these legal aspects

>>>So as I understood from your answer the employer should always have a reason to fire somebody and cannot do this without notice period?
-> Normally yes. They may (on agreement) substitute the notice period with equivalent pay. I am not a legal expert. What I say is based on experience working with companies. In terms of violations of business conduct, bad behavior, unethical conduct, etc the firing can be immediate.


>>>It may sound silly but I am still afraid that at the last moment the employer would change his mind and somehow revoke my contract even before letting me to start working.
-> What makes you think so ?


>>>Is it fine/usual practice in Belgium?
-> Yes very much. Joining date can be changed later based on the delay in getting WP approved, etc.


And thank you for the compliments. Just trying to help !

The point is that I have no reasons to think that they will somehow cancel my work permit.

However, it was a very long, nervous and exhausting process for me and now it's almost over.
Therefore, I want to know whether I may completely relax or do I still have something to be worried about.
And of course I want to be sure that I have some legal protection that they cannot just fire me at any moment

What you need to do is to grab a beer and another and another and so on

Ah wait, Belgium beers are waiting for you !

All will be good Man.. chill and welcome to Belgium !

We are exactly the same case, starting date was postponed from 1st to 15th, also the same contract type, first time in Belgium.

Hi! Do you mind sharing how long your process took ? I hear there have been several delays and my process was just filed this past week. It would be nice to know if I can officially expect to be anxious for the next 8 weeks :S

As per recent experiences shared in the forum it is taking 2 to 2.5 months.

Dear All,

I have a work Permit B until September 2019, I am planning to change my employer. I have 2 doubts:

1) I am wondering if the Expat Tax Benefits that I am availing currently can still be
    availed?? for eg; Housing allowance.
2) My current Work Permit is the 4th one, can I still be a non-resident tax payer by applying for other types of Work Permit or I will have to take the PR?

Guys thanks in advance for clearing my doubts, I am trying to search this online and talking to friends but still no concrete answers.

Thanks,
Shyam

Regarding your 2nd question: "if the work permit is cancelled, how will it affect your legal stay in Belgium?"

It is a real possibility you can lose your residence status as a result of a work permit cancellation. I have asked this question to the commune and also a company that helps employers with the work permit process and they both confirm that the rule is if your work permit B is cancelled, your 1-year stay resident permit is also cancelled even if it still hasn't expired. Once your resident permit is cancelled, you have 1 month to leave the country. However, there is a process that occurs for this to happen and since it's Belgium this can get complicated.

If you lose or quit your job, it is your employer's obligation to notify their local commune you no longer work for them, then the commune will cancel the work permit and also cancel your residence and you have 1 month to leave Belgium. It is also your duty to return your work permit to the commune if you are no longer working, which also cancels your residence (of course you can choose not do this and hope they take forever to cancel you.)

Now the complicated part is how long this will take. It all depends on how fast your employer reports the end of the work contract. Them the commune has to receive and process it, sometimes they are slow, especially during vacation period. If you live in a different commune then where you work, then the work commune will have to notify your local commune to cancel your residence permit, which can also take time.

Therefore it is possible that during this whole process, you find a new job and get a new work permit and a new residence card before getting kicked out. I've heard of people getting lucky with this as Belgian bureaucracy is not known for it's efficiency and speed, but there is no guarantee.