Changing employer in North Macedonia, why a work permit does not transfer

A work permit for a foreign national is tied to one employer and one position. Under the Law on Employment and Work of Foreigners, consolidated text in Official Gazette 217/2015 and 163/2021, the foreign national may be employed only by the employer that filed the application. Moving to another company therefore requires a new work permit and an amendment of the residence permit, through the full procedure at the Employment Agency of North Macedonia and the Ministry of the Interior.

What the tie to an employer actually means

When the Interior Ministry issues its decision, two entries in it are routinely read as formalities: the name of the employer and the job position. They are not descriptive details, they are the substance of the authorisation. A worker holding a valid permit who starts at another company tomorrow, in the same role at the same wage, has no legal basis for that work even though the card in his pocket runs for another ten months.

A move inside the same employer is a different case, and it is often read wrongly. Article 7 paragraph 4 point 2 withdraws and annuls the permit where the foreign national does work other than the work the permit was issued for, but paragraph 5 of the same article disapplies that where, during the validity of the residence permit, the worker is engaged with the same employer at another workplace at the same or a higher position than before. A move from warehouse operative to driver inside one company is therefore not automatically a breach; a move to another company is.

Amendments to the Aliens Act introduced a single residence and work permit, merging the paperwork into one document. The review of those amendments published by lblaw.com.mk is clear about the limit of that change: merging the documents does not remove the tie to the employer. One document instead of two does not create free movement between employers.

The second point commonly missed is that the new engagement may not begin before the decision is issued. Working in the interim, while the application is pending, is illegal employment for both sides, and it is the easiest finding for a labour inspector to write up.

The cycle the new employer repeats

The new employer inherits nothing from the previous one. The whole sequence runs again from the start, per the Employment Agency's 2026 documentation.

The previous employer has a duty of its own running alongside. It must register the deregistration and the end of the employment relationship. If that is skipped, the Employment Agency's records show the worker employed at two companies at once and the two files collide. That is not a clerical nuisance, it is a reason for the new application to stall while the record is cleared, and the 30 day clock keeps running in the meantime.

The previous employer's duty carries its own deadline and its own figure. Where the employment ended before the work permit's validity expired, the permit goes back to the issuing authority within 30 days (article 7 paragraph 7), and for a failure to return it the law sets a fine of 2,000 euro in denar equivalent for an employer that is a legal entity and 30 percent of that amount for the responsible person at the employer (article 25). The Employment Agency decides the withdrawal within three days of learning of the ground and notifies the Ministry of the Interior. The old withdrawal and the new application therefore move through the same two authorities in the same week, which is why the order tolerates no improvisation.

The volume of this caseload is known. Employment Agency figures reported by slobodnaevropa.mk show 8,912 applications processed in 2024 relating to work permits and the regulation of temporary stay for foreign nationals, with 784 foreign nationals granted a work permit. Every change of employer joins the same queue as every first hire.

How to plan the move

Planning runs backwards from the date the worker may legally start, not from the date the parties agreed. First secure the deregistration at the old employer, then file a fresh mediation request with the Employment Agency, then wait for the opinion and for the Interior Ministry decision. The employment contract with the new employer is signed with a start date that falls after the decision, not before it.

The Agency's opinion and the labour market test are covered in the Employment Agency opinion, the full sequence in the residence and work permit procedure, and the start of work notification in registering the start of work.

In short, the permit does not travel with the worker. It stays with the employer that applied for it. An employer treating the move as an administrative footnote loses weeks, and in the worst case collects an inspection finding. Taking on a worker from another company means running two calendars at once: the return of the old permit within 30 days, and a fresh mediation request that may not be older than 30 days when it is filed.