The Employment Agency opinion and the labour market test in North Macedonia

Before the Interior Ministry rules on residence, the Employment Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia must assess whether a foreign national may take the post. Article 87 of the Law on Foreigners requires the file to contain proof of a submitted request for employment mediation, no older than 30 days. The opinion is delivered within 15 working days.

That is the Macedonian version of a labour market test. There is no separate form called a test: the check is tied to mediation, a service the Agency provides free of charge and through which it refers jobseekers from the unemployment register to the employer. Proof that such a request was filed is what goes into the file, and the outcome of the mediation is what the Agency assesses.

What the Agency actually checks

Article 86 paragraph 1 of the Law on Foreigners sets three conditions for a positive employment opinion: the employer meets the statutory requirements, the quota for that form of employment is not full, and hiring the foreign national has no negative effect on the labour market, in particular on domestic unemployment, the structure of employment, or regional needs. Paragraph 2 of the same article adds that a positive opinion is issued provided domestic jobseekers are not seeking the job in question.

Article 4 paragraph 3 of the Law on Employment and Work of Foreigners, Official Gazette 217/2015 and 163/2021, says the same from the other side: the Agency issues its opinion on the basis of quota take up and the current needs of the labour market. Read together, the two provisions mean the opinion is a decision about the post, not about the person. The same candidate can receive a positive opinion for one vacancy and a negative one for another at the same employer.

When the test does not apply at all

Article 86 paragraph 3 lists cases in which employing a foreign national is not linked to labour market conditions because of the nature of the work. These cover managers and founders, athletes, cultural workers, scientists, editors, staff at diplomatic missions without privileged status, and foreign nationals who have worked for more than one year with the same employer in the same post. For these categories a positive opinion is issued regardless of current labour shortages.

The last category matters most in manufacturing and construction. A worker who has completed the first year with the same employer in the same post does not go back through a check of domestic supply on renewal. The second year is therefore administratively cheaper than the first, and the sequence of renewal deadlines is set out in renewing the permit.

A separate group sits in Article 13 paragraph 1 point 6 of the Law on Employment and Work of Foreigners, covering short term services. There the law requires the local legal entity to have notified the Agency of its labour need in advance and to hold a written answer, no older than six months, that the labour cannot be sourced on the domestic market. Those services may run for at most 60 days in a calendar year.

Where the opinion is lost

Three reasons produce most negative opinions, and none of them is an assessment of the candidate.

The first is expired evidence. The mediation request is valid for 30 days. A file that waits three weeks for a translation or an apostille and is then submitted on day thirty two draws a negative opinion on a formal defect, and Article 83 paragraph 5 requires the Agency to state which item of evidence is missing.

The second is a loosely described post. A request for a general construction labourer invites referrals from the register, because that profile exists on the domestic market. A request for a welder certified for stainless steel on tank assembly invites a far narrower check, and that check passes regularly. The job description is the part the employer controls completely.

The third is the employer. Article 89 paragraph 2 of the Law on Foreigners bars the Agency from issuing a positive opinion if the employer has been penalised for illegal employment or for failing to register a foreign national as a worker, if insolvency proceedings have been opened, or if it has been penalised for unpaid contributions and taxes. One old misdemeanour judgment closes the corridor for the whole company, not for a single file.

Where the opinion is positive, the file moves to the Interior Ministry on the deadlines described in the permit procedure, and the opinion itself is issued within the annual allocation covered in the 2026 quota. Werklist prepares these files for employers recruiting from Nepal, India and the Philippines, and the scope is described on the employers page.

The opinion is a short document with long consequences. An employer who writes the justification precisely and files the mediation request before ordering translations rarely repeats the cycle.