Spouse in US vs Fiance in Belgium Visa?

Hi I am a US citizen and my fiance and I are trying g to go the quickest and smoothest way for me to unite with him in Belgium.  Should we marry in the US and do the family reunification or is it better for me to go to belgium on fiance visa and get married? I'm on disability. Will this be a problem? He has a job and housing. I will be able to work part time once there. And does Medicare count as the insurance requirement? I'm getting ZERO response from the honorary belgium Co sulfate in New Orleans, Louisiana. Thanks!!!!

Well... If I was in your case, I would say: no, don't get married "yet"...

Come in Belgium as a tourist for 90 days (visa-free), do a legal cohabitation at the hometown, then after getting your family member id card (F) (after 6 months), start the wedding process.

You'll need your passport, full certificate of birth, affidavit of celibacy, certificate of nationality, certificate of custom (proof you can marry/single/got children/blablabla)


You'll need a 90 days Schengen insurance like usually when you travel in Europe, then you'll switch Belgian insurances + mutuality once you get your national ID number.

30 day I understand but what do I do in the interim? I can't login to the Belgian embassy site for immigration and all documents aren't in English.  I don't even know costs.

Affidavit of celibacy!?!?  If we are living together and engaged how is this possible? Illogical.

if you're not married, then you're single/divorced/widow. Living together or not, doesn't mean anything as it's not a legal status.

Legal cohabitation is a legal status in Belgian that allow you to live together with your fiance here in Belgium, and that status is assimilated to married.
So, you'll have rights and obligations to the Belgian laws and your partner (debt, participate in the expense of daily life, ...)
But it would mean you can live together in the same home => you can stay in Belgium.
You can consider the legal cohabitation as a "light" marriage, with less obligations than a real one.


Afterward, you would start the wedding process, once you're currently living in Belgium.
It's faster to live together than the wedding step.