Work and residence permit for a foreigner in North Macedonia

An employer hiring a foreign national in North Macedonia runs one procedure before the Ministry of the Interior. Under Article 75 of the Law on Foreigners, the ministry decides within 30 working days when the application is filed with it. The permit issued for work is, under Article 76 paragraph 4, a single work and residence permit.

The procedure looks like one counter, and two authorities decide inside it. The Interior Ministry runs the file and issues the decision, while the Employment Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia assesses whether a foreign national may take the post. The two clocks run one after the other, not in parallel. Plan the start date backwards from the Agency opinion rather than from the ministry decision.

The two authorities and their deadlines

The Interior Ministry obtains the Agency opinion ex officio, as Article 83 paragraph 3 of the Law on Foreigners sets out. The Agency must deliver the opinion within 15 working days from the day it receives the documentation, under Article 83 paragraph 4. If the Agency does not act inside that deadline, Article 83 paragraph 6 states that the opinion counts as negative. Silence here is a refusal rather than an approval, and that is the provision that most often surprises an employer who is quietly waiting for confirmation.

The ministry deadline depends on where the application was filed. Article 75 paragraph 2 sets 30 working days when the application is filed with the ministry and 60 working days when it is filed at a diplomatic or consular mission of the Republic of North Macedonia or through an external service provider. Paragraph 4 of the same article allows the deadline to be extended by at most a further 30 working days when the file needs additional examination.

Added up, an employer filing inside the country plans roughly three months from a complete file to the card in hand, and an employer running the procedure through an embassy plans longer. That sits close to the neighbouring corridors described in how long an EU work permit really takes.

What the file contains and what it costs

The evidence attached to the request for an opinion is listed in Article 87 of the Law on Foreigners: proof of the employer's entry in the Central Registry, a document proving the identity of the foreign national, a written justification of the need for the hire, proof of a submitted request for employment mediation to the Agency no older than 30 days, a signed employment contract under the labour rules, and proof of appropriate education or specific professional competence issued by an authorised body.

On top of that come the general conditions for temporary residence in Article 72: means of subsistence, secured accommodation or funds for accommodation, health insurance, and no unconditional prison sentence longer than six months. Under Article 73 paragraph 7 the travel document must be valid at least 90 days longer than the intended stay. When the application is filed abroad, Article 77 has the worker collect the decision first, then the D visa, and only then enter the country.

The Interior Ministry set the price of the temporary residence form at 4,000 denars in March 2025, up from 190 denars, and the permanent residence form at 6,150 denars. An administrative fee of 50 denars is added, along with apostille, sworn translation and certification costs, which in practice run between 300 and 800 euros per worker depending on the origin country and the number of documents.

Where the procedure stops

The most common interruption is not a refusal on the merits but an incomplete file. Article 83 paragraph 5 requires the Agency to issue an opinion that the conditions are not met, stating which item of evidence is missing. That opinion is negative, the file returns to the start, and the 15 working day clock begins again once the documentation is completed. Proof of mediation that ages past 30 days while a translation is being prepared is the classic case: the document exists, but it no longer counts.

The second interruption comes after a positive opinion. Article 84 paragraph 2 requires the responsible person at the employer to register the start of work within 90 days of the date the opinion was issued. If that registration is missed, no employment relationship is deemed to have been established, and the Agency notifies the Interior Ministry of such cases every quarter. The whole procedure then ends without a worker on site even though every decision was positive. The mechanics of the registration itself are set out in registering the start of work.

Before a file is opened it is also worth checking whether the quota for that purpose still has room, because the opinion is issued within it; this year's allocation is in the 2026 quota. Werklist runs these files for employers recruiting from Nepal, India and the Philippines, and the scope of that work is described on the employers page.

The procedure is predictable when the count is kept in working days and the documents are gathered in the order the authorities need them. An employer who files the mediation request first, and only then orders translations, rarely loses time to an expired proof.