Annetje

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

BuckinghamshireBoy

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.

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"...

Annetje

How very French

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

BuckinghamshireBoy

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.

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.

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...

SA UK now BE

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.

Red Eric

Thairetired2016

"...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.

scot47

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

BuckinghamshireBoy

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.

BuckinghamshireBoy

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'.

BuckinghamshireBoy

We have our Belgian driving licences , 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 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.

Annetje

All falling into place finally

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 ...
And this whole event will finish with a big firework almost in my back yard. I started to give the dog calming tablets already

Loads of locals go on holiday this week ...

BuckinghamshireBoy

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.

calman014

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.

BuckinghamshireBoy

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.