Romania's employment authorisation and the employer path to the single permit
Romania's General Inspectorate for Immigration decides the employment authorisation in 30 days, the fee is 100 euro and the authorisation stays valid 60 days.
The employment authorisation, the aviz de angajare, is the first document a Romanian employer obtains from the General Inspectorate for Immigration before a worker from outside the European Union can enter the country. The application is decided within 30 days of registration, extendable by 15 days, and the fee is the equivalent of 100 euro.
The authorisation is not a general work permit. It covers one employer, one post and one workplace, and any change to those elements sends the file back to the start. Since 8 August 2026, when the new procedures under Emergency Ordinance 32/2026 took effect, the application is preceded by employer registration on the WorkinRomania.gov.ro platform. The ordinance was published in Official Gazette 335 of 27 April 2026.
The four stages and their deadlines
Employers planning a start date usually count forward from the interview. The correct order is the reverse: begin at the date the worker has to be on site and subtract each authority's deadline.
| Stage | Deciding authority | Legal deadline | Employer cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment authorisation | General Inspectorate for Immigration | 30 days from registration, extendable by 15 days | 100 euro, paid in lei at the National Bank of Romania rate |
| Long stay visa D/AM | Romanian diplomatic mission in the state of residence | roughly 30 days from filing | 120 euro consular fee |
| Entry and contract registration | the employer, in the national register of employees | before the first day of activity | no fee |
| Single residence permit | General Inspectorate for Immigration | 30 to 45 days from filing | 259 lei |
One deadline between the first two stages catches employers most often. Once the authorisation is issued, the worker has 60 days to file the visa application at the Romanian diplomatic mission in the state of residence. If no consular appointment is available inside that window, the authorisation lapses and the file restarts, with a fresh 100 euro fee and another 30 day decision period.
The long stay visa for employment is granted for 90 days. The single permit application goes to the General Inspectorate for Immigration at least 30 days before the residence right granted by the visa expires, not in the final week.
What the General Inspectorate for Immigration checks
The file has two halves, the employer's and the worker's, and the employer's half is the one that stalls the application.
From the company, the Inspectorate asks for the trade register certificate from the National Trade Register Office, the fiscal clearance certificate from the National Agency for Fiscal Administration confirming no arrears to the consolidated general budget, proof that the vacancy was advertised, the selection minutes, the job description carrying its code from the Romanian Classification of Occupations, and the firm job offer. The county employment agency confirmation that no suitable domestic candidate is available carries its own 60 day validity, and a file assembled around a confirmation already two months old arrives at the counter expired.
From the worker, the file needs the passport, the criminal record certificate from the state of domicile in translated and legalised form, a curriculum vitae, and the declaration on health and working language.
The salary in the offer is verified separately. For permanent workers the floor is the national gross minimum wage, raised to 4,325 lei from 1 July 2026 by Government Decision 146/2026. For highly qualified workers the reference is the average gross earning, set at 9,192 lei for 2026 by Law 44/2026 on the state social insurance budget.
Where the time is actually lost
The most expensive failure mode is not refusal, it is expiry. An employer receives the authorisation on day 42, sends it to the recruiter in Kathmandu on day 45, and the first free consular appointment is ten weeks out. The authorisation dies on day 60, and the company restarts with a new fee and a county employment agency confirmation that also has to be renewed. The real cost is not the 100 euro, it is the three months of planned output resting on a worker who never arrived.
The second failure mode sits in the job description. A file asking for an unskilled construction worker is measured against domestic supply for unskilled construction workers, where candidates exist. A file asking for a certified welder qualified in 3G and 6G positions describes a profile where domestic supply is thin, and the check passes without further argument.
The mechanics of the common European document behind Romania's single permit are set out in the single permit explained, and the comparison of processing times across member states sits in the corridor by corridor timeline. The obligations that follow the permit, from the financial guarantee to the Romanian language course, are covered in employer obligations in Romania.
The deadlines quoted here are the ones written in law, not the durations observed at the counter, and the gap between the two is the buffer a mobilisation plan has to reserve. The working framework for employers is set out on the employers page.
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