Romania work permit in 2026: how hiring a non-EU worker works now

Most English pages about a “work permit” for Romania still describe a system that no longer takes new applications. For years an employer asked the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI) for a work authorisation, the aviz de muncă, and the worker used it to get a visa. That changed in 2026, and since September the new route has been partly frozen by a court ruling. This guide sets out what is in force, what is suspended and which costs are public.

What changed in 2026

Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 32/2026 on foreigners’ access to the Romanian labour market was adopted on 23 April 2026. It was published in Monitorul Oficial no. 335 and took effect on 27 April 2026, according to the text of the ordinance. It drops the separate work authorisation step. Instead, the employer or a licensed placement agency files a single application on the government platform WorkinRomania.gov.ro. That application prepares the file for both the work visa and the later residence permit.

The ordinance also creates two long-stay employment visas:

• D/AM1 is for highly qualified workers and a few other groups. These include staff requested by ministries, university teaching and research staff, artists, professional athletes, and full-time employees who are citizens of Moldova, Ukraine or Serbia, according to Article 27^1 as amended by OUG 32/2026. The employer files the application directly.
• D/AM2 is for permanent, seasonal and cross-border workers who do not qualify for D/AM1. The occupation must be on the official “List of shortage occupations”. A D/AM2 visa is issued only while the annual quota has not run out, according to the ordinance. WorkinRomania says an authorised placement agency is mandatory for D/AM2. The exception is a large employer that holds “authorised employer” status itself.

The old procedure did not stop overnight. Article 49 of the ordinance says work authorisation requests filed before 27 April 2026 are decided under the old rules. A worker holding such an authorisation can apply for the visa within 180 days of its issue. IGI reported issuing 27,723 work authorisations between 27 April and 7 July 2026 as that backlog was processed.

The September 2026 suspension

The new route is not fully open. On 11 September 2026 the Bucharest Court of Appeal suspended Labour Ministry Order 1073/2026, the order that approved the shortage-occupation list, Economica.net reported. The case had been brought by an association of labour-import companies. As of 14 October 2026, a notice on WorkinRomania says employer registration, employer authorisation and new D/AM2 single applications are disabled. The Labour Ministry said on 15 September that it would appeal, Economica.net reported.

Step by step

1. The employer registers. The employer creates an account (through the Interior Ministry’s HUB login) and asks to be registered on the platform. It then uploads a firm job offer with the occupation, gross and net pay, schedule, duration and location. The National Employment Agency (ANOFM) approves or rejects the registration within a maximum of 30 working days, according to Article 5 of the ordinance.

2. The single application is filed. For D/AM1, the employer files it. For D/AM2, the placement agency files it, based on a placement contract and a work contract registered in REGES-ONLINE, the national employee register. The ordinance lists the documents about the worker that must be uploaded:

• a criminal record certificate from the home country, translated into Romanian, English or French and legalised
• travel medical insurance with at least EUR 30,000 of cover
• proof of means of support equal to the minimum gross wage for 90 days (highly qualified workers are exempt)
• a copy of the passport
• for qualified roles, a CV plus recognised diplomas or proof of experience

Highly qualified D/AM1 workers must be paid at least the average gross wage. D/AM2 workers must be paid at least the guaranteed minimum gross wage, according to the ordinance.

3. The worker applies for the visa. Once the application is approved, the worker applies in person at the Romanian embassy or consulate for their country. The worker brings the original passport and the supporting documents. A 3×4 cm photo is taken or scanned at the desk and ten fingerprints are recorded. The visa is first valid for 90 days, according to WorkinRomania.

4. The worker gets a residence permit in Romania. After arriving, the worker applies to IGI for a temporary residence permit for work while the visa is still valid. The worker brings the passport, visa, employment contract, proof of accommodation, health insurance and proof of fee payment. The ordinance gives IGI 30 days to decide on an extension of the right of stay. That can stretch by 15 days, or by up to 30 days for complex work cases. The permit runs for as long as the employment contract.

Costs, quota and the shortage list

• Visa fee: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs fee table lists EUR 300 for a long-stay (D) visa requested through the e-Visa portal from 27 April 2026. Requests filed before that date paid EUR 120. The new amount is written into Law 198/2008 by OUG 32/2026.
• Residence permit: IGI’s fee sheet lists RON 265 for the residence permit card. It also lists a EUR 120 consular fee, paid in lei, for the right of stay.
• Quota: The government set a quota of 90,000 newly admitted foreign workers for 2026, the Labour Ministry announced on 30 December 2025. OUG 32/2026 refers to that decision as Government Decision 1.169/2025.
• Shortage list: The ordinance says the list is approved by ministerial order and updated every six months or when needed. The current list is the one suspended by the court. News reports put it at 289 occupations, including couriers, cleaners, cooks, bricklayers and agricultural workers.

IGI said it issued 49,676 work authorisations between January and April 2026, 42,705 of them under the 2026 quota (press release of 6 May 2026).

How to check the status (“work permit Romania check”)

We found no public page on WorkinRomania where a worker can look up an application by name or passport number. The application belongs to the employer or the agency, which can follow its progress in its platform account, according to the WorkinRomania homepage. The worker can, however, check on the same platform whether a placement agency is authorised. On the visa side, the e-Visa portal says the applicant is told the decision by email. Once in Romania, residence permit requests and appointments can be followed in IGI’s online portal (portaligi.mai.gov.ro).

Applying from Nepal, India, Pakistan or Bangladesh

Romania’s Foreign Ministry says visa applications “can only be submitted to Romanian diplomatic missions and consular posts” (MAE). For these four countries, two embassies handle them.

• India, Nepal and Bangladesh (and Bhutan): the Embassy of Romania in New Delhi says on its visa page that it processes applications from residents of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Every application must be submitted in person at the embassy, after booking through the e-Visa portal (evisa.mae.ro). The embassy lists honorary consulates in Kathmandu and Dhaka, but gives only their contact details and does not say they take visa applications. It also states that it “does not work with any agents/intermediaries.”
• Pakistan: the Embassy of Romania in Islamabad says on its visa page that applications are made in person, by e-Visa appointment, and are not accepted by post or courier.

Checklists. On 14 October 2026, neither embassy’s consular pages had a document list of its own for the new D/AM1 or D/AM2 visas. New Delhi links to the Foreign Ministry’s long-stay visa page, which describes D/AM1, D/AM2 and the WorkinRomania.gov.ro single application. Islamabad’s older “Employment visa (D/AM)” page still appears in search results but is no longer published.

What the worker pays the Romanian state:

• Visa fee: the Foreign Ministry lists EUR 300 for a long-stay visa requested through e-Visa from 27 April 2026.
• New Delhi: the embassy’s consular fees page lists INR 34,000 for long-stay applications from 27 April 2026, paid by bank transfer, and says the amount can change monthly with the exchange rate. An older page on the same site still shows INR 12,000.
• Islamabad: the embassy lists USD 350 for a long-stay visa.
• No visa-centre charge: neither embassy names an outsourced visa centre, and New Delhi states that “the only fee to be paid is the visa fee.”
• Other costs: OUG 32/2026 puts the visa, the trip to Romania, travel within Romania and accommodation on the worker, unless the employer’s firm job offer says otherwise (Article 40). The same ordinance bars placement agencies from charging workers any fee (Article 23).

Common pitfalls

• Documents not translated or legalised. The ordinance requires the criminal record certificate to be translated and legalised. It requires the same for diplomas and proof of experience used for qualified roles.
• Paying an intermediary. WorkinRomania states that an authorised placement agency “may not charge the worker commissions, fees, charges, guarantees or deposits.” Articles 11 and 23 of the ordinance set the same ban. Workers can report abuse through the platform’s form, to the Labour Inspectorate or to IGI.
• Out-of-date embassy pages. Some consular pages still list the old document checklist. They ask for an IGI work authorisation and a EUR 120 fee. Older pages, some still visible in search results, also list an anti-polio vaccination certificate. Applicants should check with the specific mission which list it applies now.
• Changing employer. A D/AM2 worker cannot initiate a change of employer for 6 months from the start date recorded in REGES-ONLINE. The exception is a serious breach of contract by the employer. After that, and until 2 years have passed, the change can only go through the placement agency that is party to the placement contract (Article 40 of the ordinance).

Documents that need certified translation

Foreign documents used in this process generally have to be translated by an authorised translator and legalised, or carry an apostille where the issuing country is party to the Hague Convention. The ones that come up most often are listed below. The ordinance accepts the criminal record certificate in English or French as well as Romanian.

• the criminal record certificate
• diplomas, qualification certificates and transcripts
• employer letters proving work experience
• for family members joining later, birth and marriage certificates

In Cluj-Napoca, TransMondo provides certified translations with apostille and legalisation handled in-house.

Header photo: Brazil, Iceland, UK, US passport stamps by Jon Evans, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.

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