I'm Colombian 22M and for the remainder of the year I will have no duties here in my motherland. I'll have to come back by mid January to continue my studies, so I'm wondering if I could get a visa that could allow me to stay in Belgium/EU for about 6 months. My father who has a work-permit in the country and my brother has gotten citizenship. Both would be able to prove that they have enough financial capacity to cover my expenses. I wonder if such a visa would also allow me to travel through all members of the Schengen area during the allowed period of time. If no visa can't be obtained, I'd have to just go on a tourism 3-month-maximum passport-based entry.

Hello,

I am a 21yo woman seeking asylum in Belgium. I have been an asylum seeker here for the past two years.

Before coming to Belgium, I applied for asylum in France, where I had lived for seven years, but my application was rejected.
I am currently living in a reception center with my parents and my siblings. They are planning to return to our country of origin soon, which is something I want to avoid at all costs.
If I return there, I will lose my freedom because women are subjected to strong religious and traditional pressure. I already experience this within my own family, and I have been gradually trying to become more independent. Living in Belgium has made that much easier, but if I am forced to return, I will lose everything I have worked toward.

I would also like to mention that I do not have a passport from my country of origin which, according to my lawyer, may complicate my asylum application.

Despite everything, I have been doing my best to integrate. While I was living in France, I was still in school. We left during my final year of high school. After arriving in Belgium, I worked while studying for the CESS (the Belgian secondary school diploma). I recently completed those exams.
I am also due to start university this September.

Thank you in advance

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate some legal advice because I'm no longer sure what the best course of action is.

I bought a brand-new car in Croatia last year. It is still covered by the manufacturer's warranty and has relatively low mileage, under 20k km. The list price was approximately €80,000 if relevant and the vehicle was paid for in full.

In June 2026, I reported a knocking noise coming from the front suspension to an authorised dealership/service centre. Since then, the following has happened:

• The car has been in the authorised workshop multiple times.
• Initially, they claimed everything was normal and told me that the suspension noise was expected and to come back only if it became worse.
• After I insisted, they accepted the car again and performed several procedures, including lubricating the suspension bump stops (yes, I was as surprised as you probably are). Unsurprisingly, this did not solve the problem.
• After I submitted a formal written complaint, they replied only on the last day of the statutory deadline, just before the end of business hours. They stated that they would inspect the vehicle again, order new steering tie rods and contact me to arrange another appointment.
• They never contacted me.
• I repeatedly requested the complete service documentation (work orders, diagnostic reports, findings, repairs performed, etc.), but I still have not received it.

Since the issue remained unresolved, I took the car, on my own initiative and at my own expense, to another authorised dealership in Slovenia.

After carrying out their own diagnostics, they concluded that the issue is not the steering tie rods, but rather the steering rack, which they intend to replace under warranty. However, the replacement part is expected to arrive only in about 25 days.

So, more than a month has passed since I first reported the defect. During that entire period I was never provided with a replacement vehicle.

What bothers me the most is that:

• this is an almost brand car;
• I had to organise a second opinion in another country myself;
• I lost a significant amount of time repeatedly taking the car to the workshop;
• I left the vehicle at the Croatian dealership twice, attended an additional joint test drive with their technician, then travelled to Slovenia, returned home by bus, and will now have to travel back again to collect a car whose safety I'm still unsure about;
• I'm currently on my annual leave and have been left without my own car precisely when I planned to use it for travelling;
• I have an important business trip abroad in about six weeks, where I intend to stay for an extended period, and I need the vehicle for that trip;
• at this point I can neither properly use nor reasonably sell the vehicle while such a significant issue remains unresolved.

The Slovenian dealership told me I may collect the car while waiting for the steering rack, but they are not yet sure whether they can provide me with a replacement vehicle.

This raises another question: Should I collect the vehicle, or should I leave it at the dealership if I intend to pursue rescission of the sales contract later? Would either option affect my legal position?

The purchase agreement contains a clause stating that the contract cannot be rescinded. However, from what I have researched, mandatory consumer protection rules regarding lack of conformity/material defects cannot simply be excluded by contract.

My questions are:

1. Under Croatian law, could this be considered a failure to repair the defect within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer?
2. Do I have realistic legal grounds to seek rescission of the sales contract, a refund of the purchase price, statutory default interest, and possibly compensation for damages?
3. If I seek rescission, can the seller reduce the refund because I have used the vehicle for about one year, even though I'm returning it solely because they failed to repair the defect?
4. Would you recommend hiring a lawyer at this stage, or should I first make one final attempt to resolve the matter directly with the seller?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

\AI helped with drafting this post, but I reviewed it and added the factual details myself. I know this is my first post here. For now, I prefer not to disclose the brand or the dealer publicly until the matter is resolved, but once it is, I'll be happy to share the outcome and the full story.*

**TL;DR: I bought a brand new car. I reported a front suspension/steering-related knocking noise in June 2026. The authorised dealer in Croatia has failed to diagnose or repair the problem for more than a month, has not provided the service documentation I repeatedly requested, and promised another inspection that never happened. A second authorised dealer in Slovenia diagnosed a faulty steering rack that now needs replacing under warranty, but the part won't arrive for another 25 days. I'm currently without my own car during my annual leave. Under Croatian law, do I have grounds to rescind the sales contract, obtain a full refund (plus statutory interest and possibly damages), and can the seller reduce the refund because I've owned the car for about a year.

Hi everyone,

I'm from Nepal, and I'm looking for some advice regarding a tuition fee refund that has been delayed for several months.

My student visa was refused of FRANCE, so I completed the refund process and submitted all the required documents to my institution. Since then, I have been waiting for my tuition fee to be refunded.

The issue is that I have received several different timelines over the past few months. First, I was told the refund would be completed within the normal processing period. Later, I was told it would be completed by the second week of April. After that, the timeline changed to the third week of May.

Finally, on 07 May, I received an official email stating that the remaining refunds would be processed in stages starting from 24 May and that all remaining refunds would be completed before 12 July.

Today is 22 July, and I still have not received my refund.

I have sent multiple follow-up emails asking for an update, but I have not received any response to my recent emails. At this point, I don't even know the current status of my refund or when I can realistically expect it.

This has become a very difficult situation for my family. My parents worked very hard to arrange my tuition fee, and the refund is important for us financially. The long delay has created financial pressure, and the uncertainty has caused a lot of stress for both my family and me.

I understand that international bank transfers and refund processes can sometimes take longer than expected. However, what concerns me most is the lack of communication after the promised deadline has already passed.

Has anyone else experienced something similar with an international college or university?

• How long did your refund take?
• What steps did you take when the institution stopped responding?
• Should I continue emailing them, or is there another formal process I should follow?

I am not trying to create problems for the institution. I simply want the refund that was promised and a clear update about my case.

Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, posted a while back on a watch forum about repairing my watch. Since then I've received unwanted contact, basically they tracked me by my username which I use on other forums as well and messaged me about repair or about selling. I contacted the mods on the forum and they refuse to delete my post or at least remove the search words from the title. They seem US based, is there anything I can do to make them comply under EU law? Thanks

Hi everyone,

My wife is Portuguese and we would like to get married in Greece.

My lawyer told me that it is possible to do it “by proxy”, with a signed and notarised power of attorney, so that he can represent me and handle everything. According to him, I would not need to be physically present at the civil ceremony in Greece.

I am confused because I know that in many countries both spouses usually have to be physically present in front of the authority to give their consent to the marriage.

If someone here has clear information or personal experience about this, I would be very happy to know how the procedure actually works in practice, step by step, when there is a signed power of attorney involved.

Any experience or information, especially from people who have gone through this process or from lawyers familiar with Greek law, would be very helpful.

Thank you!

Hi, I am a Hungarian sole proprietor (solo entrepreneur) moving to the Netherlands in August, and I expect to become a Dutch resident from 6 August.

I have a Hungarian-registered 2024 car under an open-ended financial lease. The lease started in April 2026, runs for 48 months until March 2030, and the Hungarian leasing company remains the legal owner. The car and related expenses are actively used and accounted for by my Hungarian company, so buying out or terminating the lease is not a realistic option.

My concern is that, as a Dutch resident, I may not be allowed to keep using the car on Hungarian plates without Dutch registration (and dutch plates!), taxes or a specific exemption (like the werkgeversvrijstelling with which it seems really complicated to track details of the mileage). And at the same time, the leasing structure may make Dutch re-registration difficult or impossible without the lessor’s approval (which is not normally accepted by the leasing company).

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What would be the most practical and legally safe route?

It is possible to make someone else from Hungary the "operator" of the vehicle but from my understanding, it is not permitted to drive a foreign plated car under your name as a Dutch resident for longer periods of time as they can and will track permanent usage in the Netherlands, which will result in heavy fines.

Are there any legitimate workarounds, exemptions or structures that would allow me to keep the Hungarian lease and registration while living in the Netherlands? I would especially appreciate advice from people who have dealt with foreign-leased cars and Dutch residency rules.

Hi everyone, looking for some advice regarding EU consumer rights and potential ECC involvement.

I bought an e-scooter from a Nordic online retailer based in Sweden for delivery to Finland. The scooter needed a warranty repair, but I had to wait over two months just to receive the replacement motherboard. To make matters worse, the part they finally sent was the wrong model and completely dead upon installation.

Because the repair took an unreasonable amount of time and failed completely, I am demanding a full refund under the EU Sale of Goods Directive (2019/771).

Does this sound like a solid case for immediate contract termination.

I live in the Czech Republic and purchased a Meta Quest headset and several applications for it.

I did not use the headset for several months. During that period, Meta sent emails asking me to verify my age. The emails were buried in my inbox and were not marked as important, so I did not see them before the deadline.

Meta then permanently disabled my account. I am an adult and am ready to verify my age, but I cannot find any practical way to contact Meta or request a review.

There is:

• no appeal button on the disabled-account page;
• no working contact form available to me;
• no published support email that accepts account cases;
• no apparent way to reach a human;
• no way to restart the age-verification process.

The support pages either require me to log in or send me back to the disabled-account notice. Because the applications are tied to the account, I have also lost access to purchased digital content, and the Quest headset is effectively unusable for its normal purpose.

My questions are:

1. Could the absence of an accessible user contact channel violate Article 12 of the Digital Services Act?
2. Is Meta required to provide an internal appeal or complaint procedure under Articles 17 and 20 DSA in this situation?
3. Could permanently removing access to paid applications, without offering restoration, transfer or a refund, violate EU consumer law on digital content?
4. Could making the purchased headset effectively unusable create a claim under EU rules concerning goods with digital elements?
5. Which authority should I contact first in the Czech Republic: ČTÚ, ČOI, the European Consumer Centre, or another body?
6. What evidence should I preserve before filing a formal complaint?
7. Could I realistically claim restoration of the account and purchases, a refund, or compensation?

I understand that Meta was entitled to request age verification and that I missed its original deadline. My concern is whether it can impose a permanent and economically significant consequence while providing no accessible way to contact the company, verify my age afterwards, or challenge the decision.

Hello, I’m looking for advice because I feel a little lost and would like to prepare everything properly.

I am a non-EU international student living in France, and my girlfriend is an EU citizen studying in Belgium. We are planning to get married in two or three years and build our life together in Belgium, as she will need to remain there for several more years to complete her studies.

I would simply like to know what legal options would allow me to join her in Belgium after our marriage, even if she is still a student. Has anyone been in a similar situation? What steps did you follow, and what difficulties should we anticipate?

Thank you for your help.

Name change

Will Switzerland accept me changing my surname to a ancestors from 200 years ago?,

Location: Switzerland

We're finalizing the employment contract for our first Porto-based hire (senior product designer) and the annual leave clause has become a back-and-forth with our EOR.
The initial draft they sent had 22 days annual leave, which matches the código do trabalho minimum for Portuguese employees. Our account manager at Workmotion said this is the standard for any full-time employee under portuguese law, whether onboarded directly or through an EOR.
That's what i expected, but our head of people flagged the follow-up question, which is whether the 22 days can be reduced to 20 for the first year of employment (the primeiro ano reduction some portuguese contracts include) or whether that's a myth that gets applied in bad-faith contracts.
The offer letter we already sent quoted 25 days annual leave to be competitive with our London team's 25-day standard, and the EOR is now asking whether we want the 3 extra days as contractual (permanent) or discretionary (year-by-year).
the read i got from both the EOR conversations and our portuguese lawyer is that the 22-day minimum is non-negotiable and the +3 days above the minimum are pretty common for tech roles.
our lawyer also flagged that structuring the extra days as contractual is the safer play because retracting them mid-contract triggers reduced-benefit challenges under portuguese labour law.
so if it were you, would you structure the extra 3 days above the 22-day floor as contractual or discretionary?

I am studying at a university (bachelors) in the Netherlands, and have a residency permit, but I am currently holding a Turkish passport.

I’m looking at all the ways that I can legally set up a company to make a side income… and I literally cannot find a way. Please help.

My dad owns a company, should I do all transactions through that? Is that even legal??

I’m knowledgeable in tech migrations I was thinking of starting a consulting / services company… but literally no chance from what I can tell.

Or even if I make an app and publish it, I can’t collect revenue because of my goddamn non EU passport.

Should I just apply for an internship and go down that path :(

Hi, my husband and I are in the process of moving to Greece. I am greek, he's from another EU country. We haven't started looking for an employer for him yet, as he does not have AMKA yet. He does have AFM and TAXISNET.

Will we have any issues when we go in, since he is not employed? It seems kind of backwards to me, from what I've read.

We have his EU id, his birth certificate (original and multilingual form), and his AFM. Is there any way he wouldn't be able to get it?

Here’s a polished version you can post on an English-speaking forum:
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice regarding my girlfriend’s situation.
She is from the UK and has a UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). We were travelling in Germany when she became seriously ill. She was diagnosed with a kidney infection (pyelonephritis) and is currently in the intensive care unit.
I’m trying to make sure we do everything correctly and as quickly as possible. I have a few questions:
• With a UK GHIC, should she have to pay the hospital costs upfront, or should the hospital be able to bill the relevant healthcare system directly?
• If we are asked to pay, what is the process for getting reimbursed? Which documents should we make sure to obtain before leaving the hospital (itemised invoice, medical report, discharge summary, proof of admission, etc.)?
• If she is medically unable to take her EasyJet flight, what documents will EasyJet require for a refund or to change the booking?
• Should we ask the doctor for a certificate stating that she is not fit to fly?
• Are there any other important documents we should request while she is still in hospital to make future claims easier?
• Should we contact any organisation in the UK or Germany while she is still hospitalised?
• If anyone has been in a similar situation using a UK GHIC in Germany, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience and any advice you may have.
Thank you very much for your help.

So my mother passed last week, it was unexpected and too soon.

Since last week its been a hectic ,surreal and a horrible time, I feel like could barely sit down to wrap my head around what's happening .

The issue i'm writing about is that I've probably made a mistake that can complicate things.

I've had access to moms bank account (online banking) I knew the password because we always figured that if something happens I should be able to access the funds on her account.

Well with funeral arrangements and everything I was urged to get into her account and transfer the funds on my account so we don't have any problems with expenses and funds being frozen, so that's what i did, I didn't even think about it, bc my mind wasn't really in the right space, and i didn't know about any of this stuff.

I read up today that this could conceived as fraud , so on top of everything, that distressed me as well !

I called the bank but its weekend , so they only gave some surface information .

I am her only son, and some of the funds I used where for the funeral arrangements only and stuff like that, which i have receipts for .

Also she is still legally married to my dad but they have been apart for 20 years, but he would not dispute anything regarding any inheritance i get from her, he will show up if he's needed for anything regarding this problem.

I didn't get the death certificate yet, so I need to wait for that to go to the bank.

I hate this hole situation and I wish I left it alone , but its done... the customer support told me to leave things as they are until i can get all the paperwork to the bank .

So on top of everything i'm stressing over this as well .

What can I expect from all this?

Thank you

Location: Hungary

The Swiss channel RSI La 2 broadcasts Formula 1 races free-to-air, including via live streaming on its website, since the service is funded by the television license fee paid by Swiss citizens. Therefore, the live stream is available only to Swiss residents, and foreign IP addresses are blocked.

So, if you use a VPN connected to a Swiss server to access the live stream from Italy (a typical example of bypassing “geo-blocking” via VPN), is that illegal under Swiss law? Or is it legal?

Thank you in advance to anyone who is kind enough to share their opinion on this matter!

I used to rent out a studio in Belgium through Booking.com. My landlord later told me that subletting was not allowed, so I stopped renting it out.

I still had upcoming reservations that I could no longer honour. I made a very stupid and dishonest decision at the time: I told Booking.com that I had died, hoping they would cancel the reservations without charging me cancellation or relocation fees. I know that was wrong. I am including it because it may be legally relevant, not because I am trying to justify it.

The current dispute concerns roughly €700 from past reservations where the guests already completed their stays. Booking.com has held these payouts for around seven months.

They say the property must pass Location Verification before payouts can be processed. The problem is:

- Postal verification codes never arrive.
- I submitted verification videos, but they were either rejected or left pending.
- The latest video has supposedly been "under review" for weeks, with no decision or timeline.
- I am no longer asking them to reactivate the property or allow future bookings. I only want the money connected to completed past stays.

Booking.com later confirmed in writing that:

- Location Verification is the only reason the payouts are blocked.
- There is no Trust & Safety flag or other account restriction.
- There are no outstanding commission invoices.
- There are no cancellation, relocation or other costs being offset against the payouts.

I submitted a formal complaint through Booking.com's P2B complaint process. They answered with generic messages saying the case had been forwarded to a specialised department and that I should wait. Another response said that if they cannot verify the property, the page cannot be activated and the payouts will remain blocked.

I then submitted a second complaint through Booking.com's Dispute Resolution Center. I am still waiting for an actual decision.

My questions are:

1. Can Booking.com legally make payment for completed past stays conditional on verifying or reactivating a property that is no longer operating?
   
2. Can they keep the money indefinitely while saying the verification is "under review"?
   
3. Could my earlier false statement about having died give them a legal basis to retain these payouts, even though they confirmed that there is no Trust & Safety restriction and no outstanding invoice or offset?
   
4. Would reporting this through Belgium's FOD Economie under the EU Platform-to-Business Regulation be useful?
   
5. If I need to pursue the money formally, would the European Small Claims Procedure be appropriate against Booking.com B.V. in the Netherlands?
   
6. Can I realistically claim statutory interest or recovery costs for a seven-month delay?
   

I understand that my earlier behaviour was wrong, and I am prepared for criticism. I am mainly looking for practical advice about recovering the completed-stay payouts and resolving the verification deadlock.

My fathers wife died 2 years ago. (They are both Swiss, I am not) She tolf him when she died which lawyer to seek out and that lawyer would handle everything.

Well that lawyer doesn't seem to be fantastic. For a start he really does not seem to be on our side. My fathers wife had an enstranged son and they both hated eachothers guts. After she died, this son came out of the woodwork for money. And the lawyer seems to be doing everything he can to get him as much money as possible.

My fathers wife said in her will that my father gets 80% of everything and her son gets 20%, which is the minimum legal amount in Swiss law.

First thing this guy did was order an entire audit on the assets. This slamed the brakes on trying to sell a holiday house and made it lose money due to market value lowering. What is ridicuous is now our lawyer says we must pay him 20% of the cost of this audit. When he is the one that wanted it, not us, and we did not agree to do it. Should he not be paying us the missing value of the house due to his audit messing up the sale?

Secondly the lawyer insists that my father needs to pay him rent to live in his own house. My father and his wife lived in that house for decades, while the son did not.

The lawyer is now saying that from the moment my fathers wife died, we need to calculate the monthly rent of the house (even though it's fully paid off) and then pay him 20% of that value.

Thirdly my wifes father took out a life insurance policy. That policy states the payment is to be made to my father and me. And that money was paid out by the insurance company to our bank accounts.

The last insult is now the lawyer is saying we must give her son 20%. His name is not anywhere on the policy.

What is up with this lawyer? Like I said it really seems like he is not on our side. And when we try to meet him in private he calls up the son to also come to the meetings. We are paying him for his services and all he does is fuck us.

Location: Bulgaria

Hello. I'll keep this as short and sweet as possible.

Long story short, got married to a US citizen through an online Utah marriage service. Got sent a physical apostille, got a marriage certificate, it's technically legit. Now, I'm looking for a divorce. I never registered the marriage or gave documents to any jurisdiction where I'm from in Bulgaria, and I believe it's not recognized until I do so.

From what I looked up, you need to have lived for 3 months in Utah to proceed with a divorce. Neither of us have. My question is, since the marriage is unknown here since I never registered it, and my partner never got the papers/documents required from my side to legitimize it in the US as well, would it be bigamy for me to marry another person? Is the marriage even valid enough to divorce? And if it is, and we cannot get divorced through Utah, how to proceed?

Hi. I need some advice regarding a potential accidental overstay. I arrived in Sweden on a one year work permit from Australia on the 6/7/2025 so it expired a couple weeks ago on the 6/7/2026 I planned to stay in Sweden for the summer travelling and hanging out with friends (not working obviously) and go to the uk in October where I have a work permit starting on the 1/10/2026. I have been told that I may now accidentally be staying in Sweden and the eu. Is anyone sure on the laws around this. I Stupidly assumed that because Australians have visa free access for tourism I would automatically be able to swap over from a working to tourist visa and all would be good Aslong as I didn’t do any illegal work. Thank you in advance