Publication date: 18 January 2026
This ad hoc query provides an overview of which EMN Member and Observer Countries require criminal record certificates in order to issue long-stay visas or residence permits. Details are provided on the categories of third-country nationals exempted from this requirement, the countries from which these certificates are required (country of origin and/or of previous residence), the other types of documents that may be accepted in lieu of a certificate (such as an affidavit), and more.
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Main theme: Economic migration, Family Migration, Student Migration, Borders & Visa
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: visa, residence permit, application, criminal record certificate, security
Publication date: 15 January 2026
The Country Factsheet provides a brief summary of the main developments in all areas related to migration and international protection in Belgium in 2024. A statistical annex complements this Factsheet, providing an overview of the latest available statistics for Belgium on these matters.
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Main theme: Cross-sectional, Asylum, Migration
Publication Type: Annual Policy Reports
Keywords: country facthseet, statistical annex, EMN Belgium
Publication date: 05 January 2026
This ad hoc query maps the status of recognition of Palestine as a sovereign State across EMN Member Countries and the resulting administrative practices regarding statelessness and citizenship for individuals originating from the Palestinian territories.
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Main theme: Statelessness, Citizenship & Nationality
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: Palestine, State, statehood, recognition, citizenship, stateless persons
Publication date: 21 December 2025
This ad hoc query maps EMN Member Countries’ intended waiting periods for access to the labour market following the implementation of the recast Reception Conditions Directive. It aims to provide a comparative overview of planned national approaches under the EU Asylum and Migration Pact.
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Main theme: Reception
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: applicant for international protection, labour market access, waiting period
Publication date: 20 December 2025
This ad hoc query maps existing policies across EMN Member and Observer Countries regarding the issuance of temporary residence permits for third-country nationals who must rely on their own financial means from abroad, with no right to any economic activity in the country of residence.
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Main theme: Migration
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: temporary residence permit, visitor
Publication date: 14 December 2025
This ad hoc query, which informed the preparation of an EMN Inform, collected information on how EMN Member and Observer Countries have adapted digital services in legal migration procedures to ensure accessibility and inclusion for applicants with disabilities and digitally disadvantaged applicants. It examined compliance with relevant EU and international frameworks, as well as national legislation. It also explored additional accessibility measures, support for users with special needs, GDPR safeguards, user involvement in service design, and approaches to digital disadvantage, alongside challenges and good practices identified by countries.
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Main theme: Economic migration, Family Migration, Student Migration, Citizenship & Nationality, Borders & Visa
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: legal migration, digitalisation, accessibility, inclusion
Publication date: 14 December 2025
This ad hoc query examines whether national procedures allow asylum applicants to respond to an intended negative first-instance decision before it is officially finalised, and whether there are administrative mechanisms to object to a first-instance decision before filing a judicial appeal.
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Main theme: International Protection
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: application for international protection, first-instance decision, preliminary decision, pre-notification
Publication date: 14 December 2025
Carriers transporting third-country nationals by air, sea, or land to the Schengen area are required to take all necessary measures to ensure that these individuals hold the travel documents needed for entry into the Schengen States. The European Commission has launched three ad hoc queries, each focusing on a specific aspect of carriers’ liability: the framework of sanctions and penalties; responsibility for costs; and cooperation with carriers and control/supervision.
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Main theme: Borders & Visa
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: Schengen Agreement, carriers' liability, sanction, penalty, responsibility, supervision, compliance
Publication date: 14 December 2025
This ad hoc query maps the use of both language tests and citizenship tests in the requirements to obtain citizenship across EMN Member and Observer Countries. Information is provided on the language levels, topics tested, and institutions responsible for examining applications, with a particular focus on the testing of adherence to the country’s fundamental values.
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Main theme: Citizenship & Nationality
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: access to citizenship, access to nationality, language test, citizenship test, fundamental values
Publication date: 08 December 2025
Myria, the Federal Migration Centre and independent national rapporteur on trafficking in human beings, published its independent and public annual report “Victims: Seeing Them and Listening to Them” on 8 December 2025. The report draws attention to the psychological vulnerabilities of victims of human trafficking and calls, inter alia, for strengthened training and specialisation of professionals on the specific psychological vulnerabilities and needs of these victims.
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Main theme: Smuggling & Trafficking
Publication Type: Report
Keywords: victim of trafficking, victim of smuggling, psychological vulnerability
Publication date: 02 December 2025
This joint EMN-OECD study provides a comprehensive overview of labour migration laws, policies, initiatives, and practices targeting third-country nationals in EMN Member Countries and Serbia between January 2021 and June 2024. It examines how labour migration is used to address current and future workforce shortages, covering key countries of origin and crucial labour sectors. The study highlights the challenges faced and the practices considered by countries with regard to labour migration.
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Main theme: Economic migration
Publication Type: Thematic Studies
Keywords: labour migration, labour shortages, foreign workers, talent attraction, talent partnership
Publication date: 28 November 2025
This EMN Inform provides an overview of how EMN Member and Observer Countries ensure access to vocational education and training (VET) for beneficiaries of international protection and applicants for international protection. It examines existing procedures, the incentive mechanisms used to encourage enrolment, and the main challenges and good practices identified across countries.
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Main theme: Integration, International Protection
Publication Type: Informs
Keywords: labour market integration, vocational education, vocational training, applicant for international protection, beneficiary of international protection
Publication date: 26 November 2025
This EMNews, the quarterly newsletter of the European Migration Network (EMN), offers an overview of EU and national developments in asylum and migration policy, as well as key statistics and related EMN publications for the period of July-September 2025.
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Main theme: Cross-sectional, Asylum, Migration
Publication Type: EMNews
Keywords: EMN, Newsletter, EMNews
Publication date: 21 November 2025
This ad hoc query maps the legislation and current practices in EU Member States regarding the use of the European travel document for the return of irregularly staying third-country nationals (TCNs). It provides an overview of whether the document is used in practice, which third countries accept it, whether established operational procedures exist, and to what extent the document is recognised for transit purposes.
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Main theme: Return & Readmission
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: European travel document, use, acceptance
Publication date: 15 November 2025
This ad hoc query examines whether countries have implemented alternatives to provide housing in kind (for instance, financial support) for applicants for international protection between 2020 and 2025, and if so, under which circumstances and for which target group. The query further explores the implementation of such alternatives, such as the systems put in place to ensure the mandatory provision of services (e.g., legal support, healthcare), and the specific measures to support vulnerable groups. Finally, the query examines whether these alternatives were evaluated through an established evaluation system, and if so, what the key results of these evaluations were.
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Main theme: Reception
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: applicant for international protection, reception condition, financial allowance, voucher, reception directive
Publication date: 14 November 2025
This ad hoc query maps the legislation and current practices in EMN Member and Observer Countries regarding the issuance of authorisations to stay for study purposes granted to minors. This mapping includes eligibility criteria, procedural requirements, and information on who assumes responsibility for the minor during their stay in the receiving country.
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Main theme: Student Migration
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: residence permit, authorisation to stay, minor, education
Publication date: 10 November 2025
This ad hoc query examines whether national procedures allow or require immigration officers to request missing or additional information from applicants for legal migration after an initially incomplete application, and, if so, under what circumstances, to what extent, and within which deadlines.
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Main theme: Economic migration, Family Migration, Student Migration
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: legal migration, application for a residence permit, missing information
Publication date: 07 November 2025
This ad hoc query examines the approaches taken by EMN Member Countries regarding potential changes to support measures for beneficiaries of temporary protection (BoTPs) with respect to accommodation and social welfare. It examines whether changes were applied retroactively and whether different levels of support persist across groups. The query investigates the existence of differentiated support for vulnerable BoTPs and how vulnerability is defined and assessed.
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Main theme: Reception, Temporary protection
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: beneficiary of temporary protection, vulnerability, accommodation, social benefits
Publication date: 06 November 2025
This Inform provides an overview of national policy and legal changes from July 2023 to early 2025 concerning the responsibilities and access to rights of beneficiaries of temporary protection (BoTP) under Directive 2001/55/EC. It maps these changes, provides evidence for decisions on possible financial contributions from BoTP, and offers insights into national strategies after the expiration of temporary protection.
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Main theme: Temporary protection
Publication Type: Informs
Keywords: beneficiary of temporary protection, access to rights, employment, housing, education, health care, social assistance, accommodation
Publication date: 04 November 2025
This Inform offers a comprehensive overview of language and literacy support measures for adult beneficiaries of international protection (BIP) across Europe. It analyses how these measures are designed, implemented and quality-assured, how they address diverse literacy and learning needs, and maps good practices that facilitate integration into education, employment and society.
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Main theme: Integration
Publication Type: Informs
Keywords: beneficiary of international protection, language learning, language course, literacy support
Publication date: 28 October 2025
This ad hoc query examines the extension of alerts in the Schengen Information System (SIS) under Article 3 of Regulation 2018/1860 for persons who don’t leave the territory and whose alert is approaching its expiration date.
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Main theme: Irregular Migration
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: Schengen Information System, alert on return, extension, individual review
Publication date: 24 October 2025
This ad hoc query seeks to gather information on how EU Member States implement the procedures for making, registering and lodging applications for international protection under the Asylum Procedures Directive (2013/32/EU). It addresses how the process is organised in law and practice, the accessibility of registration centres, and the assessment of applicants’ vulnerabilities. The query also covers the use of extended registration deadlines, difficulties in meeting registration timelines, and measures taken when applicants cannot be registered on time.
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Main theme: International Protection
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: international protection procedure, application for international protection, access to the procedure, registration centre
Publication date: 23 October 2025
This ad hoc query maps the issuance of travel documents for individuals recognised as stateless across EMN Member and Observer Countries. Information is provided on the type and validity of such documents, as well as on whether recognition as stateless automatically leads to the issuance of a residence permit.
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Main theme: Statelessness
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: stateless persons, travel document, document validity
Publication date: 20 October 2025
This ad hoc query explores the tailored measures implemented to enhance the involvement of newly arrived third-country nationals (TCNs) in the host society, in particular, the fields these measures cover, the level at which they take place, whether TCNs who are already more permanently settled can participate, and whether nationals can volunteer to support their implementation. It also examines whether these measures are compulsory for TCNs to validate their integration path, and what the consequences are in the event of non-compliance, notably regarding the right of residence.
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Main theme: Integration
Publication Type: Ad Hoc Queries
Keywords: newly arrived third country national, host society, integration policy, volunteer
Publication date: 15 October 2025
This ad hoc query maps the specific provisions concerning separated migrant children in the legislation of the Member States, including the possibility for the accompanying adult to be recognised as responsible for, or as the representative of, the accompanied separated child. It also covers the arrangements in place to preserve the relationship between the separated child and the accompanying adult, as well as the monitoring of separated children.
