Hiring Filipino workers in Albania: DMW accreditation and contract verification
The Philippines took about 18 percent of AKPA approvals in 2025. The employer is accredited by the DMW and the contract is verified by the Rome office.
An Albanian employer hiring Filipino workers runs two systems at once. The Albanian side needs the AKPA employment approval and the single permit under law no. 79/2021 on foreigners. The Philippine side needs employer accreditation by the Department of Migrant Workers, contract verification by the Migrant Workers Office in Rome, and an Overseas Employment Certificate before departure.
Which office covers Albania
The Philippines has no labour office in Tirana. The Migrant Workers Office in Rome, formerly POLO Rome, covers Italy, Malta and Albania for overseas employment matters. The Albanian employer's file, its registration documents and each individual employment contract are examined in Rome, not in Tirana and not directly in Manila.
The Department of Migrant Workers, created as a full ministry and the successor to the POEA, holds the register of accredited employers and licensed recruitment agencies. As a rule the foreign employer does not recruit on its own account: it works with a licensed Philippine recruitment agency, which files the papers and carries joint liability for the terms of employment. Direct hiring is accepted only in narrow cases that the DMW reviews one by one.
Accreditation is not a quick formality. The Rome office checks that the company exists in law, that the commercial register extract and the NIPT tax number are valid, that the company can actually pay the wages and the airfare, and that the person signing the contracts is authorised to bind the company. Albanian documents must be translated, notarised and, where the office asks for it, apostilled.
Contract verification and the exit from the Philippines
The individual employment contract of a Filipino worker must be verified by the Migrant Workers Office before the worker is deployed. Verification checks that wage, working hours, accommodation, health insurance, the return ticket and the dispute clause meet Philippine minimum standards and Albanian labour law. If the wage in the contract does not match the wage declared in the AKPA employment approval request, the office returns the file and the cycle starts again.
Once the contract is verified, the worker receives an Overseas Employment Certificate. That certificate is what lets the worker clear immigration at the Philippine airport and exempts them from the travel tax. Without an OEC the immigration officer stops the departure even when the worker holds a valid Albanian permit and a paid ticket. This is the most common failure mode on the corridor: the employer books the flight against the single permit date and finds out on the day of travel that the Philippine file was never closed.
| Step | Authority | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| Employment approval | AKPA, Albania | Confirmation the vacancy was advertised and not filled |
| Single permit | Local border and migration authority | One document for residence and work |
| Employer accreditation | DMW through the Rome office | The right to recruit Filipino workers |
| Contract verification | Migrant Workers Office, Rome | A stamped contract accepted for departure |
| Exit clearance | Philippine immigration | Overseas Employment Certificate |
For the fees and timings on the Albanian side of that chain, see the cost and timeline of hiring a foreign worker in Albania, and the full procedure for the central document is set out in the Albanian single permit and the employer procedure.
Why the corridor grew in 2025
According to AKPA figures for 2025, online approved requests to employ foreign nationals reached 18,156, up 43.4 percent on the previous year. The Philippines accounted for roughly 18 percent of that total, level with India. The growth comes mostly from tourism, restaurants, call centres and home care, where posts stay unfilled from the domestic market.
That volume has one practical consequence for planning. The vacancy filed with AKPA has to stay open for the period the procedure prescribes before the employer may move to a foreign candidate; the rule and the deadlines are set out in the AKPA employment approval and the vacancy rule. The Philippine chain runs in parallel with that period, not after it. Employers who open DMW accreditation only once the single permit is in hand add several months for nothing.
The Albanian cost is modest: 4,500 lek for the first single permit and 2,250 lek for a renewal, under Ministry of Interior practice for 2026. The Philippine cost is organisational rather than tariff based: translations, notarisation, apostille and review time in Rome. The Philippine rule that the employer bears recruitment costs also means the ticket, the visas and the agency fees cannot be charged to the worker.
An employer who treats the Philippine file as a parallel procedure, with accreditation opened in week one and the contract drafted to DMW standards from the start, reaches the departure date without repeat cycles.
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