I am from the USA. My fiance and I have been together for 3 years. We met and are currently living in South Korea. I am an English teacher and he is a software developer. We plan to relocate to Belgium in April 2025 once my teaching contract ends. My Fiance currently works remotely and plans to keep his employment while in Belgium. He makes the equivalent of 50k euros per year so enough to support me for a bit while I wait for the spouse visa to process.
We are currently preparing ourselves for this process. First we must get married, We both need to get documents stating that we are not currently married from each of our embassies. We then take them to the Korean marriage office and complete the form for the marriage license. Once that is issued we must get them apostilled and translated into English and Dutch.
Then from there it gets confusing, I am not sure what visa I should be applying for so I can legally live and work there as a spouse. I read in some websites that he needs to go there ahead of time and apply for it there and I wait here in Korea until its approved. I also read that I can go there on my tourist visa and apply for it in person at the commune and I will have to stay in the country for 6 months while it is processed. I also read that I can apply for it at a Belgium Embassy in Korea prior to both of us departing to Belgium.
I am confused and would like more information on it since we live together and share finances, it isn't easy for each of us to reside in 2 different countries while this processes. I also work here on a work contract tied to my visa so once that contract is up I can no longer reside in Korea without a job. And I don't really have a place to stay in the USA. Plus I read that the cohabitating visa can be applied for at the commune upon entering Belgium so I am not sure why a spouse visa would be any different, no? We have already emailed the embassy but I figured I would ask on here as I wait on a response.
