Romania's seasonal worker rules and the 180 day ceiling for employers
Ordinance 25/2014 caps a foreign seasonal worker's contract in Romania at six months in twelve and the stay at 180 days in any rolling 365 day window.
The seasonal employment authorisation is granted by Romania's General Inspectorate for Immigration for a full time fixed term contract not exceeding six months within any twelve month period. The contract cannot be extended. The fee is 100 euro and the application is decided within 30 days.
The regime comes from Ordinance 25/2014 on the employment and posting of foreign nationals in Romania, which transposes Directive 2014/36/EU on the conditions of entry and stay of third country nationals for the purpose of employment as seasonal workers. The sectors whose activity depends on the succession of seasons are fixed by government decision, using codes from the national classification of economic activities.
The two clocks that measure the stay
An employer planning a season has two limits to track, and they do not coincide.
The first is contract duration: at most six months within any twelve month period, with no extension possible. The second is stay duration: the temporary right of residence for work is granted for the validity of the contract plus five days, without exceeding a total of 180 days in any 365 day period preceding each day of stay as a seasonal worker.
The second limit is the one that produces refusals. It is not counted per calendar year but on a rolling 365 day window measured backwards from the day being checked. A worker who stayed five months last summer does not have 180 days available next summer, only the balance up to 180 on the rolling window. An employer rebuilding the same crew every season has to know, for each person, how many days are left.
| Element | Seasonal worker | Permanent worker |
|---|---|---|
| Contract duration | at most 6 months in 12, no extension | open ended or fixed term, renewable |
| Stay duration | contract plus 5 days, maximum 180 days in 365 | validity of the single permit, with renewal |
| Change of employer | not through the single permit mechanism | possible under the conditions set by law |
| Accommodation | checked when the authorisation is filed | checked when the authorisation is filed |
| Authorisation fee | 100 euro | 100 euro |
The seasonal worker is excluded from the mechanism by which a single permit holder may take up a new post with the same or another employer during the permit's validity. The season is tied to the contract the authorisation was issued for, and a change of employer mid season requires a fresh file.
Accommodation, checked before the authorisation is issued
For seasonal workers, housing conditions are not an obligation audited later by inspectors, they are part of the authorisation file. Ordinance 25/2014 separates two situations.
Where the employer intends to provide accommodation free of charge, the application is accompanied by an authenticated declaration that the accommodation offers an adequate standard of living for the whole intended stay, together with documents proving ownership or a right of use over the dwelling in Romania.
Where the accommodation is paid for, the application is accompanied by a tenancy agreement showing that the worker acquires a right of use for the whole stay, against a rent that is not excessive relative to the net salary in the firm offer and to the quality of the dwelling, and that is not automatically deducted from wages. The ban on automatic deduction is the most commonly overlooked clause, because standard practice in seasonal sectors is the opposite. General housing rules are covered in accommodation obligations.
Building a season that closes on time
Season arithmetic runs backwards. If the harvest or the tourism peak ends on 30 September and the contract can run at most six months, the first working day cannot fall before 1 April without losing days at the end. Adding 30 days for the authorisation, 60 days of authorisation validity to obtain the visa and roughly 30 days for the long stay visa, the file is lodged in December or January rather than in March. The full sequence is set out in the employment authorisation procedure.
Romania is not the only member state pairing a day ceiling with a list of seasonal sectors. Greece runs bilateral quotas on comparable durations, described in the Greek bilateral quota, and the differences in how each state counts matter for workers moving from one season to the next.
Tracking the days already consumed on the rolling 365 day window stays with the employer filing the application rather than with the worker, and a miscalculation surfaces at the counter rather than in the field. The working framework for employers is set out on the employers page.
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