Cohabitation F-card and Nationality

I have a question hopefully that I can get the answer for. I have searched around but there are differences of opinion in city halls and online forums. The question is for a friend.

My non-eu friend applied for an F card on the basis of a legal cohabitation, that is now more than a year. (at the time of the application, it was 6 months.) The Belgian partner holds a temporary job contract but earns more than the threshold. The city hall advised my friend that they may still be able to get the F card because cases are handled on an individual basis. (my non-eu friend was on a PhD contract at the time of the application)

The first question is, is that really true? Is it possible to get the F card when the Belgian partner is on a temp contract and the Belgian partner has no other stable income?

The second question is, if my friend gets the F card, is it possible to apply for Belgian citizenship right away because my friend was a student in Belgium since 2013 and never left Belgium for more than 6 months in the last almost 7 years?

I have also read another topic around this, apologies I just saw it. At the time when my friend had his orange card, he did not apply for a student residence. Normally he would have been able to attain a student residence until the end of august 2020 but the commune just said he should apply for the F card.

So my friend has a 6,5 years of legal stay on the count of student residence until feb 2020. then march 2020 got his orange card, and now waiting for the F card (no other residence other than the orange card). If he gets the F card, does he have to wait 5 more years before he can apply for the citizenship?

Yes concerning citizenship. Because years as student don't count.

thank you phipiemar, I see, I had thought when you get the F card, and applying for the citizenship, "legal stays" within the last 5 years would be counted in, even if he was a student on visa type d

Nope because student visa is considered at temporary presence each year. And a student is not considered as worker...

thank you again phipiemar, that confirms my doubts :)