Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Well done with your ID cards ... have fun at the ''container park'' ;)

Conc. driving licence, wouldn't your wife get a paper which is a valid licence for the time it takes ? I know in France they do that.
It's just a proof that her licence is being processed and a valid licence.

Good luck with the building (again).
Did summer arrive by now ? Here it's nice and warm and sunny :cool:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

The best thing about the container park is that there's a superb friterie (on Ploegsebaan) on the way home! The owner even has the car registration plate "FRITERIE", I can only presume that "FRITUUR" had already been taken. :lol:

It would seem that way, it's just a bit odd that the Gemeente didn't mention it. We'll find out in a few days.

Bedankt!

Nope, not yet, and not even an email saying it would be "late"... :(

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

How very French :nod:

Having said that, this morning someone was supposed to come at 9.30 and was there at 9.00 ... Right in the middle of my breakfast :thumbdown:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Went to the scheduled meet at the Gemeente (town hall) this morning, our handler couldn't answer the "tricky" question, the driving licence specialist is on holiday. She took copies of both of my licences and said she'd explain the question to the specialist, and get back to us. We did however get our organ donor documents in order and that information transferred onto the ID cards. :thumb:

On leaving their office I suggested to OH that we go visit the police for the official view on licences vs bits of paper...

The police desk person said that she wasn't sure, but quickly called in a senior traffic policeperson, who said that if we were to be asked to provide a licence in a general check or (heaven forbid) following an accident, then a piece of paper would not be sufficient, we would be subject to whatever penalty ensued for 'driving without a licence'. He then said that in his view the Gemeente were not properly informing us, they should be doing all their side of stuff using copies/scans, we keep the originals, and the only time we would be without valid licences would be during the 10-15 seconds needed to physically swap the licences. With a grin and a wink he mentioned that we shouldn't be driving at that exact point in time anyway. :lol:

These people are so amazingly helpful.

It's coming on nicely, but we've just run into the 'builder shutdown for a month'. :(

Odd that these people all go away together, but I'm not going there just now... Sorted the absolute must do's this afternoon, which will be done tomorrow, Sunday morning at the latest. This all decided between us and the tiler here and the boss who is already on holiday at his second ranch in Curacao.

It seems that we have been invited out there for a couple of weeks next May if I've understood correctly... ;)

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Oh wow this is seeming like a massive pain in the preverbal, I went in March (I think) when the UK advised to swap drivers licenses if living in EU. I went in, they said they could not normally as I have had the card updated AFTER I moved to BE but not 'living' there (stupidly following good DVLA practise and changed to my folks place in uk for legal reasons), But they had an email from Brussels authorising it. The lady was really good, it seemed they kept getting emails every other day with different pieces of information from Brussels during that time of uncertainty. Then I got the call 2 days later saying my card was available to collect and I did.

I hope you can get it sorted soon. It really seems Switzerland is an island to itself in EU the more I hear.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

;)

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

"...seems Switzerland is an island to itself in EU the more I hear."
No, they are not an island in the EU. They are not part of this club of 28.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

SAinUK
You get pains in your preverbals ? What about the postnominals ?

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

It seems that the delay here is down to a backlog of similar requests for exchange of "third country" licences and nothing to do with the current spat going on between the EU and CH.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

The town hall got back to us on the driving licences; my paper UK3 licence can be exchanged no problem, as for OH's Swiss licence (received in exchange for her Belgian licence when she first moved there) they suggested 'declaring to the police here the loss of the Belgian licence, thus obtaining a replacement'. :blink:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

We have our Belgian driving licences :thumbup:, mine a straight swap for the old UK3 paper one, OH's 'replacement' following on from the recently declared police report that she 'lost' hers 30 something years ago. ;)

The terrasse is 99% done, the guys did a brilliant job before the enforced holiday kicked in, just the facade to go.

The replacement of the downstairs windows should start in about ten days or so, they've been received at the contractors, he's just having another week off somewhere sunning himself.

As part of the August celebrations :confused: the commune will be hosting a 'rock concert' in a couple of days time about 200 metres from the house, can hardly wait for that one. :blink:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

All falling into place finally :thumbup:

You might meet my brother at this concert. I see it's a ''Back to the 70's'' group but only untill 22.30 ...

May I introduce you to my village (285 m away from me and prevailing wind + noice blowing in my direction)
They have their annual fete from the 2nd till the 6th of August including a very noisy fair.
Every evening (5 x) there will be a band playing on the main square from 20.00 till 01.00 ... :eek:
And this whole event will finish with a big firework almost in my back yard. I started to give the dog calming tablets already :cry_smile:

Loads of locals go on holiday this week ...

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

One year and a tiny bit in to our new lives in our ‘new’ country now, so thought I’d do a bit of an update. The bottom line is that we absolutely love it here.

The house is back at 98% finished, but this year’s missing 2% bit is completely different to last year’s missing 2% bit.

All is finally ship-shape on the admin front, both here in BE and back in CH. The CH side of things will need to be revisited however, as I turn 65 next year, and can claim my state pension. I had been looking as to how to do this in the most painless manner possible, when yesterday I received a letter from the Town Hall:

In 2020 you’re turning 65, if you’ve worked in Belgium..blah blah…pension will be automatic.

Have you only worked abroad? In that case, the investigation into your pension rights will not be started automatically. You must then apply for your pension yourself. This is possible from one year before the starting date. You can contact the 'pensions and allowances' department for this.

As in, make an appointment at the Town Hall, gather all your documentation, and we’ll put the wheels in motion. Yay!

I also recently received a letter from the Immigration office inviting me to make an appointment to see if I was in need of assistance with my integration. I shall do so, even if only for networking purposes.

OH has started doing some voluntary work a few times a week at the local community centre (helping out in the crèche and ferrying wrinklies around in a minibus), and I am due to make my debut at the same centre next month. So, on the off-chance that anyone encounters Flemish people speaking English with a broad Buckinghamshire accent in a few months’ time, this might go some way to explaining it.

We have woodpeckers in the garden! Along with jays, magpies, red squirrels, tilers, plumbers, two cats, one stubborn robin and, and…

La vie est belle. ;)

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

If you visit the gov.uk site you can establish what your UK State Pension entitlement is and print off some details.
The Belgian Social Security/Tax office has to organise this for you with the UK authorities and then it gets paid to you in Belgium.
Have you worked anywhere else in EU? If so that entitlement can be attached to your UK one, though I know nothing about how it works for Switzerland.
Also in this case, the Belgian authorities have to peg it all together for you and pay it out (unless for some reason other rules apply).

Good Luck.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

My only state pension entitlements are with UK and CH.

The bit that eludes me at the moment is that my UK retirement age will come of age 66, so another year later. That said, I'm not overly bothered as my UK state pension will be paltry compared to the Swiss one, which as luck would have it will kick in at age 65. And the Swiss are signed up for this kind of process with EU member states.

Cheers for the good wishes.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

That's really good to hear!

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Had a visit to the town hall midweek to kick off the state pension (other countries) process. All they do is check that I really am who I say I am, which countries I'm due a pension from, sign this officially stamped document and Brussels will be in touch... :thumbup:

I am still reeling from the level of efficiency here.

Earlier today I received a message on our Whatsapp family group:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...a4571ff0f3.png

I thought that Annetje might have a chuckle at that.
;)

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Normal language to me .... It's the way I think nowadays !
Could you read it ? Sometimes I see a text on FB with all the words back to front ... No problem :p

Counting I always start of in English and then somewhere switch to dutch ... Never in French ;)
My mother used to talk like that but then just French and Dutch (Seriously !).
And with my late husband I mixed English and Dutch.
You should try that at home, great fun ! And a good way to learn the language (If your partner translates the difficult bits for you).
:thumbsup:

No too sure I'm a nerd though, maybe just a bit weird ?
.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

We have done this at home for years, I used to try in the office in CH as well...

My response to that message was:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...b797078187.png

Agree that you're not a nerd ;)

We do get some funny looks when we go shopping though, last weekend in Carrefour in Schoten was really funny, the cashier very quickly understood what was happening and joined in, mixing Dutch and English perfectly. :lol:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

:lol::lol:

Once we were sitting at a terrace drinking whatever with my mother, brother, sister and her son (Gambian) mixing languages, as one does.
Suddenly from the table next door came the question : ''Welke nationaliteit hebben jullie'' ?
Was a Dutch couple who had been listening for a while.
They shook their heads when we told them all the different nationalities we have in our family !
(Counting ....counting .... 7 ! ;), that's called cosmopolitan).
.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

You lot think you've got problems - we get funny looks speaking Hungarian, in Budapest!

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Paging all those less than 170 cm tall!

Please report to your nearest Belgian Army base for enrollment as drivers / gunners for their newly refitted fleet of armoured cars!

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Some things are going down very well here, some others not so.

On the not-so well front, I’m having a bit of a tussle with OCMW (CPAS en Francais) on the subject of volunteering, of all things. :blink:

I volunteer a couple of hours a week at my local community centre, co-hosting English (as what like she be spoke in Buckinghamshire, arr) conversational classes. Six months back I signed up, had my ID checked and submitted (for insurance purposes on their part), all good. I pitch up every Tuesday, pick up my list of attendees and (most importantly) my whiteboard markers, disappear upstairs and join this week’s gang for a couple of hours.

Last Tuesday I received my list of attendees, a somewhat depleted box of whiteboard markers :(, and another form to complete; they want (= insist on) paying me for my time spent. Which part of ‘volunteer’ do they not understand? That sets my topic for next week’s group meeting...

---

On the going well front, having signed up a couple of months ago at the Gemeente (town hall) for assistance in getting one’s pension(s) from foreign parts, I was rewarded by shedloads of paperwork from Brussels. I went as far as I could online, then hit the wall… OH couldn’t help see through it, nor could sis-in-law, who said probably best to go back to the town hall, which I did.

Bloody brilliant! My ‘handler’ was able to verify that all the stuff I’d done online so far was ok, then proceeded to fill in the paper bits that couldn’t be done online, and finished up with “oh no, don’t bother posting it, I’ll scan the lot and email it, it’s an efficient fast-path. If Brussels asks anything else, give us a call to fix another appointment to sort it.”

My handler’s email to Brussels was already in my inbox (with me in cc) before I got home…

Whoo-hoo!

:thumbsup:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Had a similar experience when I first arrived here. A friend & erstwhile colleague asked if I would give 2/3 hours a week helping out at a new school to teach aviation English to budding pilots & air traffickers. I said I would be delighted to help out but when I said unpaid a look of horror & disbelief crossed his face. I pointed out that for me it would be fun, help me with my Hungarian, would exercise my brain - & from a financial perspective, being unpaid, preserve my "inactif" status with the tax authorities.

Worked out well in the end - one of his teachers comes here a couple of times a month to teach us Hungarian & improve her aviation English & iron out her delightful but very strong accent!

Everybody wins!

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Hi Buckinghamshire Nice to see you have settled in to Belgian life so well... We used to call that speaking Nengels when we lived in the border country :lol: How I miss those Turnhout chocolates:( Altho they just wouldn't survive in these temps.. 34 deg today .Up until Senga Dog died in February we still used to mix languages ,as we spoke to her in Dutch. Now we have to add Portuguese to our lingo... OH is good..as usual... I am struggling

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaronic_language

I am sure this is one of the ways in which languages change and acquire new vocabulary items, borrowed from other tongues.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

It's going very well, thank you, apart from maybe... the language. :o

I hit the wall, by going too fast, too soon. It seems that I have trouble 'disconnecting' from French when it comes to grammar and general constructs resulting in a complete mess. Back to the drawing board, after having found a new plan.

I figured that there had to be a recognised term for this, thank you for posting that link. ;)

-----

I am at last in receipt of my Swiss state pension, bang on time (against all odds) and with no help whatsoever from UK GRO. After the initial 'handshake' between Swiss and Belgian social services, the Swiss then targeted me directly, demanding paper copies of tons of stuff, some of which I had, others that I had to order from GRO.

Ever efficient, the Swiss followed up a month later - "you have 30 days to supply the requested documents, or we'll archive your pension application". I chased GRO and was basically told to sod off - they blamed Covid for the delay. I forwarded that reply to the Swiss, asking if it was worth sending what documents I had, and was told to scan and email everything. At which point my Swiss 'gene' woke up, so I did just that, organised the 16 documents logically into 4 separate emails, each email with detailed explanatory notes. This exercise took most of a weekend.

By Monday lunchtime I had received an email saying ok, that's good, you can stop now. One month later a letter arrived detailing their calculations, and a month after that - last week - the first payment landed in the bank account. :thumbup:

My request to GRO for the documents was made April 6th; today it is still "in progress", estimated completion date April 29th...

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

GRO are a disgrace. I had to obtain several certificates back in 2018 and eah one was late (against their quoted timescale) and each one had to be chased. Quick enough to take the money though. RAF however, very good. More interesting - my Wife had to apply for her Father's birth certificate from the Dutch, arrived practically by return of post, before payment was sent!

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

I guess they did not specify which year?

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Umm, no they did.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...93d43c1576.png

Hides of rhinoceros this lot and now with an added hint of 'metrics' thrown in.

I checked yesterday on the current status, lo and behold it was dispatched 31/07/2020, thus not breaching the three month 'being a bit late' metric.

But I am still not in receipt of said document. Not that I need it anymore, another 25 quid down the pan.

Ok, 2nd class mail (UK) notwithstanding it could have been hand-couriered, even respecting 14 day quarantine regulations...

As Expatrick says, GRO are a disgrace.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

This is the text of an email I had to send to GRO back in November 2017 - no Covid then!

​​​​​​

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Hell fire and buckets of teeth. :blink:

I started receiving my state pension from CH four months ago. Ever mindful of obligations, I informed my local health insurer that as I now had an income, could they please adjust - upwards, obviously - the contributions?

They responded by blocking our health insurance cover, saying that I need to provide an S1 from CH. I kicked back sending them copies of forms sent when exiting the Swiss system showing that I had categorically declined any further insurance obligations in CH. Which becomes null and void when one is in receipt of a Swiss pension, but nobody bothered to mention that bit.

This has gone up and back down the food chain fairly rapidly, but the result is that we have (under EU law) not a sodding leg to stand on, we must re-enter the ridiculously overpriced Swiss health insurance system.

And there’s the sting, the Swiss premiums are at best approximately six fold of those that we’ve been paying for the past couple of years. Or to put it another way, roughly 60% of my pension will now have to go towards our health insurance rather than the 10% originally calculated.

Even assuming (ha!) that my UK pension kicks in next year, CH will remain the ‘competent country’ for health insurance - UK 21 years, CH 26 years.

Bugger.

Just when it was all going so nicely. :(

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Wait - you live in Belgium? How are you supposed to get your health care in CH? Or do you get the care in Belgium and the CH system pays?

Also - is that you in the first para?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...43c91e3fea.jpg

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

Your input is much appreciated. ;)

'tis utterly ridiculous. I blame Cameron.

Yes, any care would be provided in Belgium, charged back to the Swiss insurers.

I believe the screenshot you posted is from the Swiss Federal website?

But hang on... in response to your question "is that you in the first para?" I would normally have said yes, but are you possibly suggesting that I'm not, in fact I'm a Third Country National - which I believe that I have been as of Feb 1st 2020?

It's a nice idea... however, elsewhere on the FedWeb site:
Also on FedWeb it delves into persons in receipt of a Swiss pension and where they are subsequently domiciled, exemptions are possible for pensioners domiciled in neighbouring countries - Austria, Germany, France and Italy...

I have my Swiss lawyer (eldest stepdaughter) on the case, she currently believes that we have to go with it.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

I sympathise, but many of these rules have been set in concrete for a while during the time that UK was member of the EU. Belgium is unusual in the fact that the health system has relatively low premiums. Next door in the Netherlands, like CH, it’s also pretty expensive if you are on the national system. Do you pay taxes on your CH pension to CH? If so you should most likely get a reduction on your BE taxes due to a dual taxation agreement at least. Is there a rule dictating where your health insurance has to come from? As in CH rather than UK? Oh yes..just saw the other bit...

All these things take time to sort out and sift through...but that’s life. At least you can get health insurance!

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

I got that from this pdf, which I'm sure is far surpassed in usefulness by your stepdaughter.

https://www.ahv-iv.ch/p/890.e

I sympathize on costs - I'm about to start paying a giant premium for our plan for OH and self. I kicked my son off it since he's in the UK now, or it would have been a lot more :blink:

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

No, there's no tax liability for us in CH, that's covered on the bilateral agreements, so all handled in BE. I haven't yet worked out if the insurance premiums will be tax deductible, logically yes, but I had already planned on using an accountant for the next tax return.

I just had a look at the health insurance costs payable to CH should we have ended up in NL rather than BE (as per the original moving thread) and that would have been even worse. :eek:

Yup, that's one of the several pdfs that I spent a chunk of time reading yesterday.

Stepdaughter confirmed late last night that we have to go with it.

Ok, the cost is going to cause a bit of pain, but that's not really what has gotten my goat, it's the principle, it seems altogether wrong (on so many levels, before anyone else gets in with that particular joke).

Good luck with your stuff...

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

60% out of your pension instead of 10% is a huge blow :( Bugger indeed, and blast, and the f word as well.

Re: An imaginatively titled Belgian thread...
 

This insurance system is a real bitch. Austria (where we live by choice) insists that I cannot buy voluntary insurance income based. Reason: German pension. However my German pension contribution does not meet the number of years required to get S1 medical cover. Austria still refuses. I took the matter to SOLVIT. They took 6 months to respond and 3 weeks to tell me I have no claim. I'm 15 months short because I no longer have a piece of paper from 30 yrs ago to prove the 15 mts. The medical aid denying my claim was the one I was insured with 30 yrs ago.