Legal Cohabitation between family members

Can you maybe specify what you mean with "legal protection for permanent residency"?.

Legal cohabitation is only a necessary requirement (among many other criteria like prove of stable and durable relationship) between a not married EU-member and non-EU partner to succeed is family reunification procedure and obtain permit to stay for the non-eu partner.

In your case it concerns not a partner (i suppose) but a family member, i don't think cohabitation is a relevant criteria to offer any ground or benefit to obtain permanent residency for the non-eu family member.

Family reunification is possible for children born to you and your spouse/partner, as well as the children you or your spouse/partner may have had separately, may join you in Belgium on certain conditions. Other members of your family (children aged 18 or over, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, de facto partners, de facto adopted children, etc.) cannot join you in Belgium by means of family reunification (with exception in case of humanitarian grounds).

This is as far my understanding goes, I might be mistaken, if so, I hope somebody on the forum will correct me and enlighten us!

@photographycecile I am not talking about cohabiting, I am talking about LEGAL COHABITATION - Wettelijk samenwonenThe same process two partners go through to legally co-habitat, is the same process a bother and a sister goes through to register their cohabitation. They have to officially separate also to end their cohabitation.These links are the legislation for family cohabitationhttps://www.vlaanderen.be/wettelijk-samenwonenhttps://www.agii.be/thema/gezinshereniging/je-wil-wettelijk-samenwonen-in-belgie/hoe-leg-je-een-verklaring-van-wettelijke-samenwoning-af-in-belgie/aan-welke-voorwaarden-moet-je-voldoen-om-wettelijk-samen-te-wonenMy question is, if Legal cohabitation = Family reunification which leads to right to stay in Belgium, has anyone used it to before for siblings/Family?The other person has a temporal legal stay in Belgium, and the other person is an EU Citizen who has been living in Belgium for 7years.

I know you are talking about legal cohabitation, I did go through that procedure myself and know the legislation. According to my knowledge and understanding legal cohabitation and family reunification are two different concepts. For family reunifications you have to fulfil the requirements as I mentioned above. If you are not in a relationship or not a direct family member of EU citizen, I don't know how you will apply for family reunification. Whether you are legally cohabiting or not is not relevant. But I would be happy to be wrong for you. Anyone?

Legal cohabitation between family members can't be used for a legal stay in order to get a visa.

The family reunion is limited to your partner and children (going down to the hierarchy of the family), meaning that cousins, father, grand-mother, etc are denied by the family reunion laws.

There's an exception for EU citizen (non-Belgian) that can do a family reunion with parents.

Now, if they arrive in Belgium, they can do a legal cohabitation at the commune, but there's no real benefit from it in their case as students.