One more moving to Brussels :)

[ShutterNutter]

Hi everyone! Found this site a few days ago and I see that some of you live in Belgium :-)

My husband has been transferred to Brussels for 3 years, which is great and we are looking to move early next year. We have 2 little girls 5 & 6 .
We have been in Brussels for 8 days now school & house hunting. I tell you it has not been easy. We just can't decide were to live. After looking at quite a few houses we have come down to two.

The first house we are deciding on is in Ixelles near all the shops, it has no garden (not even a little patch) and no parking which is a bit of a pain driving round and round trying to find one after a long day of work. On the plus side the house is near Tenbosch Park and another big play ground that I can easily walk the girls to, also all the restaurants and shops.

House number 2 is in Watermal-Boitsfort, it is bigger and newly renovated, plenty of parking but the nearest shop (which is 2 supermarkets) is 1.5km away. Not crazy far, but far enough not to make the area very exciting or have anything fun to walk to.
One of the things that appeal to me coming to Europe is the fact that you don't have to get into your car just to get milk. I really enjoy walking and was looking forward to be able to walk to the corner store to get milk or whatever. Also living in a quaint, pretty european style street is very appealing.
DH understandably wants it to be an easy commute to work (Auderghem) and back and to the girl's school (we are deciding between BEPS and ISB) and the Watermal house would certainly provide that. It also has a garden for the girls. The downside is that this house is just surrounded by big offices and buildings and some embassies.

So, after all that rambling ... having lived in Brussels for a while, would you go for the more lively location and walkable locations, but smaller house and no garden, or the bigger house with a garden but not very exciting surroundings but closer to work and schools?

I probably won't have car for the first 6 moths or so but will probably get one later. DH will have car and will be traveling quite a bit with his job. I'll be a stay-at-home mom.

Thanks for any input!!

Signed, indecisive Crazy Rambler ;-)

It's SalM you're looking for.

Despite my misgivings about the Belgian system, I actually agree with natation that it would be easier for the younger ones to adapt to the French-speaking system than the older ones.

Good morning ladies,
Longtime I would be really interested to enroll. Please let me know what I should do
For us this first month is difficult. Halle is a very nice town but with very few non Belgian residents. People talk English but in the market or a restaurant. So far when visiting the town hall or other services the language is a very big problem. We will start with my husband Dutch lessons on September at GLTT
We enrolled our son to the same kleuter school with my nephew at Sint Pieters Leeuw. It is a Don Bosco school. We thought it would be nice for him to have a familiar face around
We checked with two schools nearby if they had any place left for September and although they had, we did not like either one of them since the principals were not supportive at all with the idea of having a kid not speaking the language at a Flemish school. One of them actually told us that they would put him at the second kleuter class because there is no way that our son learns the language sufficiently in one year to continue at lagere school. Anyway we did not like this idea so we talked to the school at Sint Pieters is Leeuw where they told us that every child is different so we cannot know if one year will be enough or not that is why he will go at the proper class for his age and if by the end of the school year he is not ready for the lagere he will repeat the last class of kleuter.
Now we are trying to decide with which mutuelle to sign, we are thinking either Euromut or Social. Any experience with one of them?
I would like to ask you something that I have not understood. Concerning the compulsory insurance, it is paid by my husband's employer and we just have to decide with which mutuelle we want to register? Is the employer obliged by Belgian authorities to pay for this?
My husband's employer does not offer him hospitalization insurance, so we will have to pay an extra amount each month. Employers here our not obliged to offer you hospitalization cover as well. Have I understood correctly?
Since I am unemployed my husband will pay for this hospitalization cover and he can insure both me and our son or we will have to pay an extra amount for myself?
Concerning child's benefit we have to claim it ourselves from Partena? Do you know if we will get any extra amount since I am unemployed? Our relatives here told us that my husband will get an extra amount each month apart from child's benefit because I am not working but they don't from where we should ask it.
P.S. Natation we visited Huizingen which was beautiful indeed.

hi there

first of all, welcome to Belgium.

Sorry to hear of the attitude of one of the head teachers towards learning another language and towards your son, I hope his views are minority ones. Children who arrive late into the Flemish system or go into Flemish primary from a French one have to take a special language test in 3rd kleuter, I asked around about this recently, the test does not in fact sound too hard at all, it is mainly based on comprehension and full fluency is not expected. Am I right that your son has started 3rd kleuter now? There is a chance he'll pass the test, well if not, then he stays back for another year to perfect his Flemish, but to put him immediately into 2nd kleuter seems a rather defeatist attitude.

The mumsnet group is going out on Friday, you should join them - it's centre of Brussels, send longtime or portofino a private message.

As for health insurance, your husband will be paying social security and this covers the "compulsory" insurance you will get from a mutuelle. Then if you are working, you also have to join a "complementary" package at a mutuelle, I find the name confusing as it is also compulsory if you are working!!!! We pay 6.50 per month per adult with Euromut, same package with Partenamut is 7 euro so expect similar pricing with all the mutuelles.

Which mutuelle to join? Well for me I found it important to have an office nearby, so I ruled out Partenamut and Symbio straightaway as they don't have offices near my. I have indeed found it useful having the office nearby. But it is not the only consideration. The complementary packages are pretty similar between mutuelles. A bonus to a mutuelle membership when you have children is the reimbursements you can claim for sports camps and club memberships. In retrospect, if I had chosen a mutuelle for this aspect, I would have gone I think for Symbio or Partenamut, off the top of my head these mutuelles give more money back for sports camps! Some mutuelles run their own sports camps too, Mutuelle Chretienne is especially appealing in this respect. But it is a small point, it might not matter too much.

Many mutuelles now have some of their information in English - certainly Symbio, Euromut, Partenamut do.

It seems pretty much all mutuelles are quite efficient at refunding quickly.

All mutuelles offer top-up insurances such as hospitalisation and dental. I'm the only person in our house with hospitalisation insurance (through work for free) and it is a risk I take that the rest of the family are not covered. It's up to you to decide the risk and also I would compare costs. You can also buy hospitalisation insurance from other insurance companies, not just from a mutuelle, eg DKV and Ethias.

The child benefit is applied for through your husband's work and he should get that sorted ASAP. It will be paid by whoever the mutuelle is of the employer - for me it is Partenamut, but I am not a member, only my employer is. Yes that is confusing, nothing to do with personal mutuelle membership, you cannot choose who pays the child benefit. For one child, it is not much, about 100 euro a month, but still worth claiming. You can claim from the day your husband started work in Belgium, not from the time your son arrived - if you have claimed already in Greece, then that is deducted from the Belgian claim and Belgium pays Greece back - that is dealt with by the child benefit provider, don't worry about that aspect if relevant.

I have no idea if you get more child benefit if a parent is unemployed, I suspect not. However, your husband will claim tax relief on his salary as you are unemployed, maybe that is what your relatives mean, it means your husband will pay less tax, he also gets an allowance for his son. The entitlement to these allowances should be shown on his salary payslip every month - one mine it mentions "4 children at charge" and I receive the tax relief for them.

You know you can officially register as unemployed? It will give you access to free training courses, including 60 hours of free language tuition. In Brussels the organisation is ACTIRIS, can't remember the name of the organisation in Flanders. For the free language courses, you get a booklet of language course providers. You might find GLTT is one of these providers, so you might find that you can do 60 hours of Dutch tuition with GLTT for free, but you need to apply for this entitlement.

Here are the rates for child benefit - 88.51 basic per month for first child.

I am guessing that the addition for unemployment is only applicable when both parents are unemployed.

www.kids.partena.be/content/default.asp?PageID=39

Hi natation thank you for the welcome
Well actually I have been to VDAB which is the orginisation for Flanders and I registered. However they told to my cousin, who was with me to speak in Flemish, that since I have not worked at all in Belgium I am not entitled to any free language courses. I found it strange myself so I will double check it.
Concerning school my son will stard at 3rd kleuter on September currently he just stays with me at home.
I will tell my husband to arrange the child benefit and join a mutuelle to get a SIS number. Will I also have a SIS number since I don't work?

Absolute lie. My friend has just registered as unemployed specifically to have access to these courses, his wife works and therefore he gets no benefits, only access to the courses. As certain parts of Flemish politics is constantly banging on about integration of foreigners, I find this an appalling and racist attitude. I think it is worth even getting a local sympathetic politician and writing to him/her explaining what happened. It is unfortunate that you are not living in our commune in Brussels where communication is more important than language, where staff speak in any language to talk to the residents, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, despite any official rules saying they should speak only French or Dutch.

Yes your husband just walks into whatever mutuelle he chooses or does it online even, you will be his dependent. You might have a form to fill in confirming your income is zero. Your son will get a SIS number too. You get temporary cards quickly and then permanent cards several weeks later.

PS my friend has never worked in Belgium. He got his language courses with ACTIRIS. I am making an assumption that VDAB has the same structure for language training. I shall see if I can find a link with my poor Dutch...

Check with GLTT if they accept Opleidingscheques as payment for classes - it halves the cost for working people.
vdab.be/opleidingscheques/werknemers.shtml#recht

Here is a VDAB link to learning Dutch.
vdab.be/werkinzicht/nederlands.shtml

I wasn't working when we first arrived. Dh sorted SIS cards, mutuelle (Euromut) and child benefit through work. I have been happy with Euromut (if you want a recommendation). He initially had hospitalisation insurance for all of us, but when I started work, I took that on for dd and I. I would be surprised if you cannot access free, or at least very cheap, Dutch lessons. Most communes are very keen for you to learn.

We are indeed going out on Friday and have a mailing list and private FB group - there are about 50 of us now! Send me a PM if you would like to be added.

In Halle there is :
Euromut, Partenamut, Christelijke Mutualiteit (St Michielsbond), Liberale Mutualiteit, Socialistische Mutualiteit.

Hello!
I just wanted to say hello! We're moving to Brussels from the UK in August. We've sorted out local schools. We're now looking for a place to live, hopefully in Uccle... The joys of immoweb?!!?!
Anyway, I just wanted to say 'Hi'.

Hi! There are LOTS of us here. PM me or Longtime if you want to be added to the private FB group or the mailing list. Yes - Immoweb is a good starting point. Do you have a relocation bod? Natation is the world expert in seeking local property/schools.....

Hi there
a few tips for immoweb (sorry if I'm preaching and you already know) :

• get to know post codes by heart eg Uccle 1180, Forest 1190, Drogenbos 1620, Linkebeek 1630
• see if there are any "code words" in the descriptions which can narrow down location of properties eg "Calvoet" or "pres du lycee francais" for where you are looking
• if looking for say 1500 max, set the max to 1700, as you can often negotiate down a rent, especially in this economic climate
• if looking for 4 beds, set minimum 3 beds, as many 3 beds have a "bureau" which can be used as a bedroom
• if looking for a house, but you'd be happy with a ground floor apartment or ground floor/first floor duplex, look at appartements too as you'll find a few that fit that criteria, just be careful of the extra common charges and what is included with appartements.
• check for multiple agents for a same property, you might find some agents are useless and some very helpful, then contact the helpful agent first and also keep an eye on the other agents adverts, especially if the price differs according to agent
• a fold out map which is laminated can be immensely helpful - plot where school is, or other things which are important to you like shopping centre, sports centre, public transport link, draw a circle around the school / public transport / shopping centre etc to however many kms away you would ideally like to be, try and keep within the circle and plot each property you see/like on that map.
• if you're using public transport to get to work or school, bear in mind the actual public transport routes, if dropping off at school on the way to work, try and find properties which don't require going in the opposite direction to get to school
• google mapping and mapmyrun.com can be very helpful at locating properties, measuring distances etc, often use google street mapping when I have an address but not actual number, to locate properties

Thank you nation. You aren't preaching, we don't have a clue, so all help gratefully received. However, I've now found out that we are going to have the services of a relocation agent, so hopefully that will make things easier.

I'll send you a DM about the mailing list and FB group.

moveornottomove, honestly be very very careful and less than trusting of relocation agents. Heard many stories of these agents carefully selecting properties for clients based on what is in it for them ie backhanders and if you don't know areas well, you end up signing house contracts for completely inappropriate areas and houses too. I would do as much personal research as possible as regards housing, double check any properties a relocation agent proposes. Just to give you an example, ex colleague asked specifically for housing with a simple public transport link to gare du Midi in Brussels (not allowed to bring car to work and nowhere to park nearby either), saw a house, thought it was lovely, signed the contract, then found to his horror the agent had actually shown him a house with a direct public transport link to gare du nord instead! Too late, contract signed, had to live with a very long journey to work when he thought he would be able to get there in 30 minutes, all because he trusted the agent and not checked himself.

I would second what natation said. Come on here and ask for advice before signing!

Our relocation agent was shit too. At the time we wanted location near to public transport with short transit times into/around Brussels and near creches/schools. She showed us a succession of houses in the middle of bloody nowhere eg out Steenknokkerzeel/Hacht way - with no schools or buses in evidence. When asked about these things, she was very vague. The only reasonable properties she showed us, were the ones on the list I sent her - and when I asked why we could see some of the others I'd found, she just said they were "unsuitable". Given that we had ONE day to find somewhere to live, it was very frustrating.

We only found our eventual apartment when, being shown round a totally unsuitable one, I asked the estate agent bod if they had any others in that development, otherwise I am not sure where we would have ended up...

This seems to be a really good source for schools info so I'm dipping my feet in..... Would really appreciate any advice/suggestions!

I am trying to help an poor immigrant family with 3 children in the French system (St Josse). They have been here 2 years. The mother (single parent) is really committed to school, but cannot help her children with schoolwork as she never went to school herself! (She is starting now)

Problem: all 3 kids are failing in the Belgian system. The primary issue appears to me to be language - they just don't speak French well enough yet to understand what is wanted of them.

Behaviour is not really an issue, they're rather obedient and well-behaved, attend regularly, don't disrupt class, etc.

The teacher's behavior is another matter, especially for the middle child. Very negative. Total lack of understanding of the family's milieu (for example demanding they do lessons on the internet, when they have no access to internet - could not possibly afford. Telling them to read every night, but locking up all the books & not allowing them to take one home. Not explaining the use of a library? the list goes on.)

I read about these classes for primo-arrivants, but I don't think they would get in, because they've already been here two years.

I'm now trying to research schools in that area, but failing miserably. My own child is in private education, which this family could not possibly afford.

Any suggestions, anybody? How can I possibly figure out the difference in the local schools? Would you change the school, or hire a private tutor?

SomethingBetter
-move schools to a nice middle class school such as La Vierge Fidele, will only be allowed if not mid cycle for any children in primaire
-yes too late for primo-arrivant, been here too long
-no French at home makes it more difficult but shouldn't be a reason for failing, as there must be perhaps 30-40% of children in Brussels who don't speak French at home.
-there are lots of after-school activities completely free, such as music or arts academy, take advantage of arts, music, dance, theatre classes
-internet is usually free at the local library, so the children could go there after school

• PMS service can help the family find free homework clubs, in the near area, or just self refer to a homework club
• holiday clubs which are virtually free are held in WSP for children from very poor backgrounds, children are bussed in. A different environment might do them quite some good, especially if their spare time is spent in another language entirely, another language at home is fine, but the children I am guessing need exposure in the wider community and this could be what they lack the most

Send me a PM with their address and school, years of birth, I'll see where they could possibly move school to or where they can access free after-school activities.

Thanks for the input - I tried to send a private message but don't know if it went through.

Looked up and Contacted La Vierge Fidele - it looks really good! But of course, no place is available in either primary or secondary. I guess you'd have to know someone to get in there :(.

The kids (15 repeating 2eme, 12 repeating 5eme, 9 going into 3eme) are now enrolled in a couple of holiday clubs this summer. And I have found the many "ecole de devoirs" on the web - wow, there are a lot! But I still hope to find them a better school. I just hate the idea that they'd have to sit in school all day, discouraged and miserable and being told despite exemplary conduct that they are a "catastrophe", only to start school again starting at 3:30.

Better they should use that part of the day when they're at their brightest and best to learn and catch up (and still do some extra afterwards)- if only can get them into a school where the teachers have a more positive attitude!

So still interested in any input as to better schools...

Good afternoon ladies,

I have a very important thing to ask you..
My son has his birthday on Friday...he asked me for a 3D mcqueen car birthday cake.....do you have in mind any pastry shop that I can order it from?Initially I thought of doing it myself but I searched the internet and it will be impossible for me to prepare such a cake
I know he will be happy even if I bake a cake for him and put some mcqueen cars on top but I know he will be even happier if he sees a 3D cake in front of him

Zimaroulis
try this lady to see if she'll make what you want. Birthday cakes that are not full of lots of cream are not so easy to find here. You could try the big supermarkets like Cora and Carrefour, they stock a limited amount of children's character birthday cakes.

www.truelovecupcakesbrussels.com/2012/03/i-dont-want-to-grow-upmaking-cakes-for.html

Thanks a lot natation
Can you suggest me of any other pastry shop with good quality cakes?

Good afternoon,
Question for UK ladies
Do you know if I can find these butters and creams?
www.coombecastle.com/category/product-range/butter/
Or any good enlish butter and cream from grass fed cows?
Natation for the cake we decided to go for one from Le pain quotidien, a lovely carrot cake since we plan to visit a park on his birthday. Hope the weather will be nice