Consular services
A. What services are offered by Belgian consular officers?
- Issuing a temporary passport in case of loss or theft of your travel documents.
- Advising you concerning a transfer of money from Belgium in case of financial straits.
- Contacting (via SPF Foreign Affairs in Brussels) your family or friends in Belgium so that they can provide you with flight tickets or money.
- Ensuring (via SPF Foreign Affairs in Brussels) that your relatives and friends are informed in case of accident, hospitalization or death abroad and advising them on the procedure to be followed.
- Contacting and visiting arrested or detained Belgians, and if necessary, delivering messages to their family/friends in Belgium.
To Belgians travelling temporarily abroad, consult the section travelling abroad.
To Belgians living permanently in the Philippines and officially registered with the Embassy of Belgium in Manila, you are also entitled to apply for all consular services detailed on the left section of this website.
To Belgians living permanently in the Philippines but still registered in Belgium, the administrative assistance from this Embassy is limited.
B. What services are NOT offered by Belgian consular officers?
- Intervening in private matters (for example, the payment of hotel bills, medical expenses, customs' transactions, fines or legal fees, legal matters, bail payments, the enforcement of a Belgian custody order overseas, or obliging another country to settle a custody dispute, inquiries into crimes or deaths, etc.).
- Organizing hotel bookings, finding accommodation or storing your luggage, providing you with a work permit or employment.
- Paying for a flight ticket in order to return to Belgium.
- Ensuring that you benefit from preferential treatment in hospitals, from a doctor, in the case of imprisonment, for excursions or visits, or even ensuring your release from prison or intervening in legal proceedings.
- Obtaining an extension of your visa, your resident's permit or your work permit.
- Requesting the Bureau of Immigration that they exempt you of paying your fines for being illegal, or requesting them to expel you or deport you so you can avoid your obligations.
- Act as facilitator in case of civil conflict.
- Intervening for dual nationality holders when they are in the country of their other nationality.