UK hunter in Belgium

[Ks68]

Hi all
I want to invite a UK friend to join me for a driven hunt in my area in Belgium.
I know the process to invite guests by requesting a “hunting license” for the days.
However that process requires a copy of the “hunting permit” from the country of the visitor.
I toke a head start by checking with the authorities what might work as I believe there is not such clear thing as a “hunting permit” in the UK.
So I send them DCS1 and 2 certificates and FAC ……. But no go.
Before entering a long journey with them….. anyone here has experience in what documents you might have provided in Belgium to obtain a temporary hunting license?

Many thanks
Koen

 

[gaza916]

I have been to Belgium many times and my hunting licence was granted with me sending my FAC and proof of insurance to my Belgian friend and he has never had to provide anything other than those 2 things.

 

[Pine Marten]

Same in France: FAC and BASC insurance certificates do the job.

 

[Dunwaters]

The difficulty is that the UK has no formal hunting qualification for large game.
DSC1 and 2 should be acceptable as they are registered qualifications.

 

[8x57]

Same in France: FAC and BASC insurance certificates do the job.

I don't know about Belgium but as Pine Marten says in France they accept your FAC plus evidence of a suitable insurance policy.

 

[Ks68]

Thank you all, will work with fac and insurance (and throw in DSC to increase chances)

 

[jthyttin]

Just for general info, in Finland there is exam to get hunting license and shooting test for certain species / weapons. In order to get those for visitors, you have to:

- present the equivalent hunting license or other explanation that visitor can hunt in their home country (from legal perspective, not actual possibility) -> hunting license 43 Euro
- present shooting test from some other country or explanation that visitor can shoot similar size animals in their home country -> shooting test certificate 20 Euro

Hunting license is valid from 1st August to 31st July. Shooting test is valid for 3 years (starting the day it's written) or shorter if the foreign test expires sooner. Pay attention, that formally a hunting license from some other than your home country does not count, but shooting test can be from any country. I don't know how it goes in practice.

The license and certificate are provided on lowest level of administration i.e. "riistanhoitoyhdistys" that covers one or more town or city (in UK better equivalent might be county, since the geographic area might be from thousands to hundreds of thousands hectares). They're defined in legislation as are their duties, and translation to English might be something like "association for preserving and maintaining game stocks". Usually the officials know, at least in southern Finland, that e.g. UK doesn't have hunting license or shooting test so they will just write the documents. You also need to provide some kind of ID or at least date of birth (and nationality if you want to leverage the "in your home country" clause).