Dears, 

I have a question concerning expat allowances when changing contracts. 

If you are a contract agent and working for the Commission during 3 years already and you de-registered in your home country and registered in Belgium, what happens if you changed contracts to a TA or possibly, if you pass a concours, a permanent position. 

1. If you change jobs without a break? -> in this case I assume you keep the expat allowance as you do not leave the institutions. 

2. If you have a break of a few months between one job and the other?

I assume here it depends. I saw a court case where a Belgian national was entitled to expat allowance as he lived outside of Belgium for more than 10 years before entering the Commission. Then he worked in Belgium for 6 years before changing contracts. He lived in BE in between contracts for several months. The Court decided that he is not entitled to expat allowance as he stayed in Belgium for these months and did not relocate to France (where he lived before), making the habitual residency Beligum. 

So, to avoid such situation, would it be recommendable that you de-register from BE and go back to your country in case there is a break in between contracts? Then they cannot count any months as habitual residing in BE. I understand that they can also not count the years you lived in BE in order to work for the Commission, right?

Greets