Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Data collection on the residence permits (RESPER) statistics contains statistical information based on the principles stated in the Union legislation on migration Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851 and the Commission Regulation (EU) No 216/2010 implementing the categories of reasons for residence permits.
The main RESPER data collection based on Article 6 of the Migration Statistics Regulation
First residence permits,
Residence permits issued on the occasion of changing the immigration status or reason to stay,
Residence permits valid at the end of the year,
Long-term residence permits valid at the end of the year,
Long-term permits issued during the year.
Statistics collected on voluntary basis
Residence permits issued for family reunification with beneficiaries of protection status.
3.2. Classification system
Similar breakdowns as Eurostat.
See table 3.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Residence permits statistics.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Same definitions as Eurostat.
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
3.5. Statistical unit
As indicated in the specific guidelines, "residence permits statistics refers in general to the number of “persons” receiving the “residence permit”". Following this approach, the double-counting of the same person in the same table and for the same reference period should be avoided. In specific and rare situation, double counting is allowed (e.g. if a first permit is issued in the beginning of the year and then, there is a 6 months gap between the expiration of this permit and another first permit is issued during the same reference period (same year), the double counting is allowed in the same table).
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
3.7. Reference area
Belgium
3.8. Coverage - Time
See table 3.8. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Number of persons.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The FPS (Federal Public Service) Home Affairs and its Statistics Unit (located in the DG Immigration Office) was officially designated as Other national statistical authorities (see 1/ “ List of National statistical institutes (NSI) and other national authorities” in the list of links to public documents and 2/ “Letter sent by Statbel to Eurostat to designate the FPS Home Affairs as ONA” in the list of internal documents available on request) in charge of AMM (Asylum and Managed Migration) data collection in line with the mission of FPS Home Affairs.
The Immigration Office is the main actor in charge of the implementation of the legislation related to migration at national level, i.e. “Law of 15th December 1980 on access to the territory, residence, establishment and removal of aliens”. Concerning residence permits, the Immigration Office is responsible for the examination of applications for authorisation to stay (introduced abroad or in Belgium), changes of status, acquisition of long-term residence status and ending/withdrawal of stays. In the specific case of seasonal workers, the Immigration Office is responsible for the examination of visas.
In the context of its missions and in cooperation with different actors at national and regional level, the Immigration Office also ensures compliance with various European Directives related to residence permits statistics, in particular Directive 2003/109/EC (EU long-term residence status), Directive 2009/50/EC and Directive (EU 2021/1883 (both concerning EU Blue Cards and highly qualified employment), Directive 2011/98/EU (Single Permit), Directive 2014/36/EU (Seasonal Workers), Directive 2014/66/EU (Intra-Corporate Transfers), Directive (EU) 2016/801 (Students, Researchers, Trainees, Volunteers, Pupils and au pairs), Directive 2003/86/EC (Family Reunification).
The Federal Public Service Home Affairs was officially designated as Other national statistical authoritiy (Other-national-statistical-authorities) and was nominated as responsible for the transmission of residence permits' statistics.
Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, formalized this by communicating the name of the Statistical Service of the Immigration Office as another producer of European statistics, in particular concerning statistics relating to Asylum and Migration. By this statute of producer of European statistical data, the statistical service of the Immigration Office must therefore be considered as one of the “other Belgian statistical authorities” as defined in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics.
Information on the existence of a national policy for (not) releasing data before a certain time after the end of reference period has passed:
All statistical data are published within the regulatory deadlines. No national policy prevents us from publishing statistics before this deadline. Statistics are published when their quality is considered sufficient.
Required confidentiality by law and signed legal confidentiality commitments by survey staff:
All the officials of the Immigration Office have signed a declaration aimed at protecting the confidentiality of data.
Potential micro-data access for research purposes by external users and confidentiality provisions applied:
Access to micro-data is possible while respecting the general data protection regulation (regulation 2016/679). More information on the procedure implemented in this context can be requested from the Data Protection Officer of the Immigration Office. The contact details are available on the website of the Immigration Office:
These statistics are also available on Eurostat website/database.
Statistics on residence permits in line with EU definitions are published once a year within 6 months after the end of the reference year.
Statistics on residence permits following national definitions are published once a year within 8 months after the end of the reference year.
Statistics on specfic residence permits, visas or procedures are published monthly (e.g. visas, humanitarian status, single permits).
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
No press releases on the topic of statistics on residence permits.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Annual publications on residence permits are accessible from 2010 reference year on the website of the Immigration Office (2008 on the website of Eurostat).
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
No Belgian online database directly accessible to the public. The statistics are available on the Eurostat website.
Some elements are available on the Website of the immigration Office:
This document gives some explanations on the methodology used to produce statistics on residence permits. There is also a methodology part at the end of each publication at national level, available on the Website of the immigration Office (Statistiques nationales | IBZ)
and dedicated methodology section available on the website of the Immigration Office.
The quality assessment is made in this document itself as well as at the end of the monthly reports that is published at national level and available on the Website of the Immigration Office.
and dedicated Quality management section available on the website of the Immigration Office.
Compilation of data is performed following the guidelines and instructions provided by Eurostat at EU level and Statbel at national level.
The principles of the Code of Practice, together with the general principles of quality management, form a common quality framework for the European Statistical System. These principles were followed when developing these specific statistics.
The Consultation Committee, where the federal government (including the Federal Public Service Home Affairs) and the governments of the Regions and Communities are represented, approved on Wednesday 31 May 2017 the Belgian Commitment on Confidence in Statistics as required by Regulation n°223/2009 on European Statistics.
The last peer review in the framework of the European Statistical System took place in 2021. Results are accessible on the following website.
Quality guidelines are currently developed by Statbel and Belgian ONAs to complement EU guidelines.
Consistency validation checks are performed at all stages of the process.
Quality management is currently considered as high for most of datasets.
In the case of 2 datasets, quality is sufficient.
RP5. Residence permits granted to third-country nationals on the occasion of a person changing immigration status or reason to stay
RP5AS. Residence permits granted to third-country nationals on the occasion of a person changing the immigration status or reason to stay, disaggregated by age and sex
In the case of the dataset "RP3. Grants of permission to stay issued to third-country nationals for reasons related to remunerated activities", quality considered as good in general, but the quality of the variable "detailed reason related to remunerated activities" is only considered as sufficient.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The statistics collected are used in official publications and by a wide range of users at national, European and International level.
These statistics are used by national administrations, academic researchers and civil society groups working on a wide range of topics including the integration of immigrants, the development and monitoring of national immigration procedures, and the projection of the future population and labour force.
At European level, the main users of these statistics are Eurostat and DG Home. These statistics are used in several publications of the Commission, as well as in the preparation of regular reports, policy proposals and analysis. The statistics also provide an input to the European Migration Network (EMN) studies and reports that address specific issues of current policy importance.
At national level, the following national institutions and administration entities can be mentioned in this context: Immigration Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cabinet Ministers, Federal Migration Centre, regional administrations, academic researchers...
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No survey was conducted on satisfaction related to this specific topic.
12.3. Completeness
The required disaggregation for all datasets is complete, except for the two voluntary data collections on family reunification with a beneficiary of protection status (one variable is missing: legal framework).
See table 12.3. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.s
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
Not applicable.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
The accuracy of these statistics is generally considered to be good.
In the case of 2 datasets, quality is sufficient.
RP5. Residence permits granted to third-country nationals on the occasion of a person changing immigration status or reason to stay
RP5AS. Residence permits granted to third-country nationals on the occasion of a person changing the immigration status or reason to stay, disaggregated by age and sex
In the case of the dataset "RP3. Grants of permission to stay issued to third-country nationals for reasons related to remunerated activities", quality considered as good in general, but the quality of the variable "detailed reason related to remunerated activities" is only considered as sufficient.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3.1. Coverage error
There are no discrepancies between the Eurostat and national target population.
The average delay in registering administrative events in the register is zero days from the day these events occurred.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Data collected in the Population Register, the database on visas, the database of the Immigration Office, the database on Single Permits are confronted each year to measure error.
Any errors detected are sent to the responsible institution for correction.
Additionnal controls are proposed on this basis to limit such errors.
Queries are established to control the implementation of the rules.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.4. Processing error
Not applicable.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest : 1 month.
Reasons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation : late registration at local level, long delay for correction of specific data, necessary correction of statistical procedures resulting from new registered categories, limited number of persons/experts who can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest : Approximately 90.
Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation : limited number of persons/experts who can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
Statistics on residence permits are delivered on time.
See table 14.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Not applicable.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The statistics are comparable between all regions of Belgium.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data are comparable over time.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Not applicable.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Differences are to be noticed with statistics on decisions in the framework of asylum due to different definitions :
1st residence permits issued for "refugees" and persons "benefiting from subsidiary" are not equal to the number of decisions taken, because positive decisions related to international protection often result in a change of status.
Grants of humanitarian status are reported in residence permit statistics, but not in international protection statistics because humanitarian status is not granted after an asylum application in Belgium, but after a specific / distinct application.
Persons who are subject of pending applications for international protection are not covered by Residence permits statistics (specific statistics are accessible for this group on Eurostat's website.
Differences are to be noticed with statistics on students and researchers, blue cards and seasonal workers in the framework of this general data collection and specific statistics collected in the framework of the several specific data collections based on the directive on Blue cards, the directive on seasonal workers and the directive on students and researchers. This fully results from the specification of the different guidelines.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable (no sub annual statistics).
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Flow and stock statistics are coming from the same source and are coherent.
The same applies to statistics by reason and by age and sex.
The coherence between the data and their source(s) is verified; if an incoherence is found, the error is corrected.
Statistics on residence permits are based on administrative data. Their production does not require any special costs or burden.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Data is revised only if an error occurred.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Data are corrected or revised exceptionally:
due to error of transmission (wrong reference period, errors in data compilation…)
due to methodological improvements or introduction of new data sources.
See table 17.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
The main data sources for producing these statistics are the National Register ("Registre national" in French and “Rijksregister” in Dutch, a Central Population Register), the database of the Immigration Office ("Evibel") and the application used by the Immigration Office and Regional authorities to examine applications for single permits (“Guichet Unique” in French and “Uniek Loket” in Dutch).
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data is collected continuously and is consolidated annually.
18.3. Data collection
Data are extracted on a daily basis from the difference sources and integrated by the IT department of the Federal Public Services Home Affairs into a Data Warehouse.
18.4. Data validation
The following controls are performed:
checking of totals consistency
checking of magnitude of changes over time
visual validation
checking the data integrity over each processing step
checking if the double counting cases are excluded
checking the consistency between flow and stock data (RP1-RP4 vs RP6),
checking the consistency between stock data (RP6 vs RP7),
checking the consistency between data collection based on the Migration Statistics Regulation and data collections based on Directive (BC, SP, SR...),
checking the consistency between statistics by "reason" and statistics by "age" and "sex" categoriesanalyse the statistics reported by other countries
checking the consistency between statistics transmitted to Eurostat and statistics published at national level
validating statistics against expectations and domain intelligence,
back check of data in the data sources.
18.5. Data compilation
Data is processed by the Immigration Office of Belgium, according to the rules for validation and control of the technical guidelines by Eurostat.
Data collection on the residence permits (RESPER) statistics contains statistical information based on the principles stated in the Union legislation on migration Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation (EU) 2020/851 and the Commission Regulation (EU) No 216/2010 implementing the categories of reasons for residence permits.
The main RESPER data collection based on Article 6 of the Migration Statistics Regulation
First residence permits,
Residence permits issued on the occasion of changing the immigration status or reason to stay,
Residence permits valid at the end of the year,
Long-term residence permits valid at the end of the year,
Long-term permits issued during the year.
Statistics collected on voluntary basis
Residence permits issued for family reunification with beneficiaries of protection status.
25 June 2025
Same definitions as Eurostat.
See table 3.4. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
As indicated in the specific guidelines, "residence permits statistics refers in general to the number of “persons” receiving the “residence permit”". Following this approach, the double-counting of the same person in the same table and for the same reference period should be avoided. In specific and rare situation, double counting is allowed (e.g. if a first permit is issued in the beginning of the year and then, there is a 6 months gap between the expiration of this permit and another first permit is issued during the same reference period (same year), the double counting is allowed in the same table).
See table 3.6. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
Belgium
Calendar year.
The accuracy of these statistics is generally considered to be good.
In the case of 2 datasets, quality is sufficient.
RP5. Residence permits granted to third-country nationals on the occasion of a person changing immigration status or reason to stay
RP5AS. Residence permits granted to third-country nationals on the occasion of a person changing the immigration status or reason to stay, disaggregated by age and sex
In the case of the dataset "RP3. Grants of permission to stay issued to third-country nationals for reasons related to remunerated activities", quality considered as good in general, but the quality of the variable "detailed reason related to remunerated activities" is only considered as sufficient.
Number of persons.
Data is processed by the Immigration Office of Belgium, according to the rules for validation and control of the technical guidelines by Eurostat.
The main data sources for producing these statistics are the National Register ("Registre national" in French and “Rijksregister” in Dutch, a Central Population Register), the database of the Immigration Office ("Evibel") and the application used by the Immigration Office and Regional authorities to examine applications for single permits (“Guichet Unique” in French and “Uniek Loket” in Dutch).
See table 18.1. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
Statistics on residence permits in line with EU definitions are published once a year within 6 months after the end of the reference year.
Statistics on residence permits following national definitions are published once a year within 8 months after the end of the reference year.
Statistics on specfic residence permits, visas or procedures are published monthly (e.g. visas, humanitarian status, single permits).
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the first/preliminary data, at the earliest : 1 month.
Reasons for possible long production of the first/preliminary data and plans to improve the situation : late registration at local level, long delay for correction of specific data, necessary correction of statistical procedures resulting from new registered categories, limited number of persons/experts who can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.
Number of days (on average) after the end of the reference period at which the country is able to report the final data, at the earliest : Approximately 90.
Reasons for possible long production of the final data and plans to improve the situation : limited number of persons/experts who can produce / validate the results and discrepancies between registrations in the different systems.
The statistics are comparable between all regions of Belgium.
Data are comparable over time.
See table 15.2. in annex ‘Quality report tables RESPER’.
