Romania work residence permit extension: the 15 day deadline at IGI

The application to extend temporary residence for work purposes is filed with the General Inspectorate for Immigration at least 15 calendar days before the granted right expires. Missing that deadline carries an administrative penalty, according to the IGI notice. The fees are 259 lei for the document and a 120 euro consular fee.

The 15 day deadline and the penalty

The 15 calendar days count backwards from the expiry date printed on the residence permit, not from the end of the month and not from the date the employment contract ends. They are calendar days, so weekends and public holidays are included, and an application filed 12 days before expiry is late even though the worker stood at the counter.

IGI treats late filing as an administrative offence and penalises it as such, and the penalty comes in addition to the decision, not instead of it. An employer who discovers the problem on the expiry date already has two things to fix: the offence and the absence of a valid residence right for someone on the payroll. That is why the permit calendar is kept at expiry date minus 30 days, so file preparation starts before the legal window rather than inside it.

The extension is applied for under article 56 of OUG 194/2002, and the form is the application to extend temporary residence for work or posting purposes, published by IGI as a PDF on igi.mai.gov.ro. Use the current form from the site, not a copy saved from an earlier file, because the fields change with the procedure.

The file: the contract and wage continuity

The central document is the full time individual employment contract, registered in the general register of employees. IGI checks the registration, not only the signed copy, so a salary change made in the contract but not transmitted to the register shows up as a discrepancy at the counter.

The second check is continuity. IGI requires proof that the wage has been maintained at the declared level for the whole preceding residence period, not just for the month of filing. A temporary reduction in hours, or a month paid below the level stated in the original employment authorisation, is visible in the payroll records and has to be explained with documents. Employers who move a worker to part time for a few months discover at extension that they have undermined the condition the whole file rests on.

The fees are fixed and paid before filing: 259 lei for the document and a 120 euro consular fee, per IGI for 2026. They are not refunded if the application is refused on grounds that sit with the employer.

The new maximum durations under OUG 32/2026

OUG 32/2026 changed the duration ceilings, and contract planning now follows those intervals. For permanent workers the extension is granted for a maximum of 2 years, matched to the length of the employment contract. A contract signed for 12 months does not produce a 2 year extension, however high the ceiling, because the duration follows the contract.

Highly qualified workers may receive up to 3 years, plus a further 3 months. Seasonal workers stay at 180 days in any 365 day period, which means a second season inside the same 365 day window is calculated by subtracting the days already used. The full rules for that category are in seasonal worker employment rules.

For the employer, the extension is the point at which the previous year is audited in retrospect: the wage paid, the working hours, the register entries and the accommodation. The duties that generate that evidence are set out in employer obligations for foreign workers, and the initial procedure, from authorisation to first permit, is in the employer's employment authorisation steps.

A properly kept calendar solves most of this. The expiry date of each permit, the date the 15 day window opens, and the end date of the employment contract are tracked together, because IGI reads them together. To have a portfolio of permits coming up for extension checked, contact details are on the employers page.