Positive viewpoint on the scientific visa Nathalie Orban

Positive viewpoint on the scientific visa Nathalie Orban Personnel departement Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)

1. Implementation of the scientific visa within UCL 2. Current situation after 3 years of implementation: • statistics • advantages • difficulties and solutions 3. Cases which are not covered by the hosting agreement and proposed improvements 2

Implementation of the scientific visa within UCL 3

History: • 3 July 2007: publication of the « Arrêté royal du 8 juin 2007 contenant les conditions d’agrément des organismes de recherche qui souhaitent conclure, dans le cadre de projet de recherche, des conventions d’accueil avec des chercheurs hors de l’Union européenne et fixant les conditions auxquelles de telles conventions d’accueil peuvent être conclues » • July 2007: UCL requests to be recognized as a research institution • December 2007: UCL is recognized as a research institution • January 2008: first hosting agreement signed by UCL 4

Requirements: • Hosting agreements only apply to researchers who earn more than 2, 813. 85 euros gross/month (2010); • Hosting agreements can only be signed with researchers who have the same social security and entitlements as the Belgian researchers; • Hosting agreements can apply to researchers with a sientific project Consequences: • Hosting agreement only apply to researcher with a work contract: 5

Þ Hosting agreements do not apply to researchers with a grant which can create problems to obtain a visa (cfr. infra) Þ Hosting agreements do not apply to visiting researchers • Hosting agreements do not apply to young researchers; • Hosting agreements do not apply to all resaerchers. 6

Current situation after 3 years of implementation - Statistics - 7

Hosting agreement: statistics Nationalities 2008 2009 2010 Africa 7 9 21 Central America / / 1 North America 3 4 8 South America 5 4 9 Asia 5 14 29 Europe outside EEA / 8 11 Oceania / 1 / 20 40 79 Total 8

Current situation after 3 years of implementation - Advantages - 9

• Main advantage: Þ Simplification of the admission procedures foreign researchers entering the EU Indeed: - Shorter waiting time to obtain a visa => in comparison with the work permit, it is 4 to 6 weeks shorter; => However: UCL or the research institution cannot control the follow up of the diplomatics service once the hosting agreement is sent => it differs from one service to the other. 10

- No more need for a file: medical certificate (certified by the Belgian diplomatic service for people residing abroad), the « information sheet » (filled in and stamped by the city hall of the residence place for people residing in Belgium), …. . - No more need for the « Région Wallonne » to aprove the delivery of the work permit => The hosting agreement therefore represents a real advantage in comparison with the work permit for researchers mobility. 11

Current situation after 3 years implementation - Diffilulties and solutions - 12

• Lack of awareness of the scope of the hosting agreement application in the diplomatic services - e. g. : request of a hosting agreement for a student with a grant (doctoral or post-doctoral) => individual contact with diplomatic services – but it isn’t the role of the employer => a document is automatically enclosed with the grant offer specifying that the student with a (post-)doctoral does not need a work permit and therefore does not need a hosting agreement => this reduces difficulties in 90 % of the cases. 13

- e. g. : request of a hosting agreement for a visiting researcher => individual contact with the diplomatic services • Minimal term of the hosting agreement: 3 months: this creates problems for short term stays or for renewals for a short time (e. g. : a researcher who receives funds to finish his scientific research for less than 3 months => necessity to obtain a work permit with all the problems related to the waiting time; => Suggest to the professor hosting the researcher to sign a new work contract for more than 3 months even if it is more complicated with regards to funding. 14

Cases which are not covered by the hosting agreement and proposed improvements - cases which are not covered - 15

• +/- 15 % of the researchers hosted by UCL are still hosted with a work permit because of the duration of the work contract (less than 3 months) or because of their salary (not high enough) Indeed: - this is a problem above all for the renewal of the work contract for a short time - the minimum salary to host a researcher with a hosting agreement is a salary of 2, 813. 85 euros gross/month=> corresponds to a researcher holding a masters degree and with 2 years of experience=> it does not apply to young researchers 16

• The hosting agreement does not apply to the following categories of researchers : - temporary assistants who devote more than 50 % of time to scientific research; - academic staff in charge of both teaching and researching; - visiting researchers. 17

Cases which are not covered by the hosting agreement and proposed improvements - Proposed improvements - 18

• Extend the scope of the hosting agreement to cases of short time stays (less than 3 months) – at least for the renewals of the hosting agreement; • Adjust the minimal salary limit to the standards imposed to universities, in order for the hosting agreeements to apply to all researchers with a work contract (young researchers); • Extend the scope of this law to researchers with a work contract who devote at least 50% of their time to research (professors’ asssistants, academic staff, …); • Extend the scope of the scientific visa to people who does not have the same social security and entitlements as Belgian researchers but who can prove that he is covered by an other social security system (visiting resaerchers, visiting 19 professor, …)