Accommodation for foreign workers in Albania and the employer's duties
Housing a foreign national without notifying the migration authority carries 300,000 to 400,000 lekë under article 141 of Albanian law no. 79/2021.
Accommodation is not a voluntary benefit in a foreign hiring file. It is declared on the standardised job offer form, checked by the labour inspector, and when housing is provided without notifying the border and migration authorities it carries a fine of 300,000 to 400,000 lekë per person.
The basis for that sanction is article 141, point 1, letter d, of law no. 79/2021 on foreigners. It says nothing about the quality of the dwelling; it is about the notification. An employer who rents a flat for six workers and does not report the housing to the local border and migration authority is in breach even when the flat is sound and the employment contract is lawful.
Four duties that arise together
The duties come from different instruments and are checked by different bodies. None of them substitutes for another.
| Duty | Legal basis | Who checks it | Consequence of failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Declaring whether the employer covers accommodation and meals | Standardised job offer form, joint instruction of August 2026 | AKPA at the approval stage | Refusal or return of the file |
| Hygiene and condition of housing provided to workers | Article 73 of the Labour Code, law no. 7961 of 12 July 1995 | State Labour and Social Services Inspectorate | Fine of 10 to 50 times the minimum wage, law no. 9634/2006, article 33 |
| Notifying the housing of a foreign national | Article 141, point 1, letter d, law no. 79/2021 | Local border and migration authority | 300,000 to 400,000 lekë per person |
| Keeping the register of data on foreigners | Article 141, point 1, letter dh | Border and migration authority | 50,000 to 100,000 lekë per person |
Article 73 of the Labour Code is short and precise: housing given to workers by the employer must have acceptable hygiene and cleanliness, and separate sanitary facilities for men and for women. In a seasonal dormitory with forty beds, the separate facilities condition is the one that most often produces the inspector's finding, because improvised rooms on the hotel ground floor do not meet it.
The inspector's fine is calculated on the minimum wage. Since that has been 50,000 lekë gross per month from 1 January 2026, the range of 10 to 50 times in article 33, point 1, letter b, of law no. 9634 of 30 October 2006 today means 500,000 to 2,500,000 lekë, subject to proportionality.
What is declared and what is compared later
The joint instruction of the minister responsible for the economy and innovation and the minister responsible for internal affairs, adopted in August 2026, introduced a standardised job offer form. It records the gross monthly salary, working hours, overtime and how it is paid, night work, rest days, and whether the employer covers accommodation and meals. The employer also declares that the foreign worker will not receive conditions less favourable than an Albanian worker in the same position, and that the worker will pay no fees or costs for the recruitment process.
Those declarations do not stay in the file. Article 76 of the law on foreigners allows the employment approval to be revoked when the foreign worker has been employed on conditions less favourable than those of Albanian citizens, and the point of comparison is exactly what was declared. If the offer says accommodation is covered by the employer and the payroll shows a monthly housing deduction, the mismatch is visible and documented by the employer itself.
The bilateral memorandum signed with Vietnam on 29 July 2026 extends the same principle to travel, providing that recruitment and travel costs are borne by the employer before the worker departs. The same principle is the standard of the Nepali corridors, set out in the free visa and free ticket policy.
When the housing has to be ready
The order of operations is fixed by the deadlines of the file. Article 56, point 4, of law no. 79/2021 gives the authority four weeks from the filing date to examine the request and issue the single permit. The housing address enters the file before that decision, not after the worker lands, because proof of accommodation is part of the residence documentation.
After the biometric card is issued, Council of Ministers decision no. 240 of 1 April 2026 requires the worker to register in the AKPA employment services system within ten calendar days. Ten days is a short window for someone who has just arrived and does not know the procedure, which is why this step is usually handled by the employer or the service provider.
The full arrival chain, from the ticket to the address and the registration, is described in the relocation logistics chain for a non EU hire, while the other sanctions of article 141 are in fines for illegal employment. How these duties are divided between Werklist and the employer is set out on the employers page.
Housing secured before arrival costs less than a fine of 400,000 lekë per person, and it is the only element of the file an employer can fix without waiting for any institution.
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