FAQ

You do not need a visa if you are a citizen of one of the 28 countries of the European Union, Island, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway or Switzerland.

If you need to apply for a visa, you will attach to the file that you will submit to the local Belgian embassy or consulate the registration authorisation letter that will be sent to you by the UCLouvain Registration Service or that you will have downloaded on your virtual office.

In either case, you will have to register in your municipality of residence in Belgium within eight days of your arrival.

The mobility coordinators of your host faculty are the first people who will welcome you and help you manage your study stay at UCLouvain as best as possible.

Welcome sessions specifically for exchange students are organised in each faculty. Other actors will help you to integrate, such as the General Coordination of International Students (CGEI) or the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). For more information, see the following page.

UCLouvain has the particularity of having a large number of furnished accommodations reserved for its students. Many live in shared apartments (with single bedroom, kitchen, living room and shared bathrooms).

If you wish to obtain UCLouvain accommodation, you can apply for it using the form to be completed on the Housing Service website. A list of private accommodation is also available on the various university campuses.

We estimate that the real cost of living can vary between €1,000 and €1,200 per month. For more information, please see the following page.

Intensive preparatory courses are offered to international students before each academic year. During your stay, you can take courses with the Language Institute of UCLouvain (ILV), or improve your French through student organisations that offer learning activities such as conversation groups, knowledge exchanges, text corrections, etc.

In Belgium, all students must be covered by health insurance.

If you are a national of the European Union (or Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland), remember to apply for your European Health Insurance Card. This card is free and will allow you to benefit from the same access to healthcare as Belgians.

If you are not a national of the European Union, join a mutual insurance company as soon as you arrive (from €100 to €120/year). It will reimburse (partially or totally depending on the type of service) your medical care and the purchase of certain medications.

In principle, the university you come from must continue to insure you against accidents as well as against the consequences related to your civil liability during academic activities. We therefore invite you to contact your university to find out the limits of its insurance contracts.

In the absence of insurance taken out by your home institution, you benefit, as a student registered at UCLouvain, from "accident" coverage during academic activities (including travel between your accommodation and the university, study trips, internships, etc.) and "civil liability" coverage during academic activities.

Please note! There is no “assistance” component linked to an accident that occurs in Belgium (repatriation in the event of an accident to your country of origin).

Thanks to the “sports affiliation” you have access to UCLouvain’s sports infrastructure and activities and you will be insured against accidents that occur during these activities.

The university has a Support Service that you can call on if you are facing a difficulty. This difficulty can be of various kinds: adaptation to university life, personal or relational difficulty, financial difficulty, health problem, physical disability requiring specific support... Around fifty professionals (social workers, psychologists, doctors, etc.) are at your disposal.