GlobeQuest

Romania visas and residency

Who can visit Romania without a visa, and the 6 long-stay routes that let you actually live there.

Short stay

Visiting Romania, by passport

How the 198 passports we track get in. A visitor entry is never permission to work, study or settle — that is what the routes further down are for.

United StatesVisa-free · 90 daysUnited KingdomVisa-free · 90 daysIndiaVisa requiredCanadaVisa-free · 90 daysAustraliaVisa-free · 90 daysGermanyFree movementFranceFree movementNetherlandsFree movementIrelandFree movementSpainFree movementItalyFree movementPortugalFree movementPolandFree movementSwedenFree movementSwitzerlandFree movementSouth AfricaVisa required
No visa at all

Who can simply move to Romania

EU/EEA and Swiss free movement

Citizens covered by EU/EEA and Swiss free movement need none of the routes below

Citizens of EU and EEA countries and Switzerland can live, work and study in each other's countries without a visa or a work permit.

For the first three months a valid passport or national ID card is all you need. Beyond that you may have to register as a resident, and if you are not working or studying you need enough money to live on and health cover. Switzerland issues an EU/EFTA residence permit on the same terms.

Verified November 2026:Your Europe — residence rights when living abroad in the EUState Secretariat for Migration — free movement of persons Switzerland–EU/EFTA
Long stay

How you actually move to Romania

Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified August 2026

Long-stay visa for employment (D/AM) and the single permit

The mainstream route: a non-EU national with a Romanian job offer. The employer does the first half — Romania's transposition of the EU Single Permit Directive means the residence permit you end up holding is also your authorisation to work.

What you need
  • A Romanian employer willing to obtain an employment approval (aviz de angajare) from IGI before you apply for anything
  • A place inside the annual work-permit quota — 90,000 for 2026, set by Government Decision 1169/2025, down from 100,000 in 2025
  • Qualifications for the role, with recognition of foreign diplomas for regulated professions
  • A long-stay visa marked D/AM, applied for at a Romanian mission within 60 days of the aviz being issued
  • Application to IGI for the residence permit after arrival, before the 90-day visa validity runs out
  • Clean criminal record and medical insurance
How long it lasts
The D/AM visa admits you for 90 days; the residence permit that follows is normally issued for one year and renewed annually while the employment continues.
Path to permanent residence
EU long-term resident status after five years of continuous legal residence, subject to income, accommodation, health insurance and a Romanian language test. Citizenship is a separate and considerably longer track — generally eight years of residence, or five where married to a Romanian national.
Cost
The employer pays the aviz de angajare fee. You pay the visa fee at the consulate and the residence permit fee to IGI. The total is modest by Western European standards; the expensive part is document legalisation and sworn translation, which is charged per page.
Processing time
The aviz takes roughly 30 days at IGI. The visa is a further two to four weeks at the consulate, and appointment availability is usually the binding constraint rather than the decision itself.
Worth knowing
  • The quota is not a formality in a tight year. It is exhausted category by category, and being told the quota for your worker type is spent is a real outcome rather than a theoretical one — 2026's number is 10,000 lower than 2025's.
  • The chain is strictly ordered: aviz, then visa, then residence permit. You cannot start it from inside Romania on a tourist entry, and arriving first is the most common way people lose several months.
  • GEO 32/2026 is digitalising this whole process onto a new state platform. During a transition of that kind, the published procedure and the procedure actually being run at a given counter can differ — confirm with IGI rather than with a guide written last year.
  • The permit is tied to the employer and the role. Changing job is not automatic and generally means a fresh aviz.
Sources:General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI)Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Romanian e-visa portalMinistry of Internal Affairs
Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

EU Blue Card

Graduates taking a highly qualified job in Romania. Better rights than the ordinary employment permit — easier family reunification, easier movement to another member state, and it sits outside the annual quota politics.

What you need
  • Higher education qualification, or in the roles the recast directive opened up, equivalent professional experience
  • An employment contract for a highly qualified role, minimum six months under the recast directive as transposed in March 2024
  • A gross salary at or above the Romanian Blue Card threshold, which is defined as a multiple of the national average gross earnings rather than as a fixed sum
  • Recognition of the qualification where the profession is regulated
How long it lasts
Issued for the length of the contract plus three months, capped at two years, and renewable.
Path to permanent residence
Counts toward EU long-term resident status at five years, and Blue Card time accumulated in other member states can be combined — the main structural advantage over the ordinary employment permit.
Cost
Comparable to the ordinary employment route; the initial issuance fee is in the low hundreds of euro equivalent.
Processing time
IGI works to a 30-day decision on the Blue Card, which is faster than most of the region.
Worth knowing
  • Romania sets the threshold as a multiple of the average gross salary and revises the base figure annually, and the March 2024 transposition of the recast directive lowered the multiple and relaxed the contract length. Any euro figure you find online is almost certainly the pre-2024 number. Ask IGI or the employer's immigration adviser for the figure applying on your filing date.
  • Romania issues very few Blue Cards — a few hundred a year — so consular and local officials handle them rarely and the process can be slower in practice than the statutory clock suggests.
  • Romania applies no labour market test to the Blue Card, which is worth knowing when an employer claims one is needed.
Sources:General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI)European Commission — EU Blue Card in Romania
Digital nomadMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Long-stay visa for digital nomads (D/AD)

Remote workers and owners of foreign companies who want to live in Romania while their income stays offshore. Introduced by Law 22/2022 amending GEO 194/2002, and one of the few genuinely legislated nomad routes in the region.

What you need
  • Employment by, or ownership of, a company registered outside Romania and trading for at least three years
  • Work performed remotely using information and communications technology
  • Average monthly income of at least three times the Romanian average gross monthly salary, evidenced for the six months before the application and maintained throughout
  • Health insurance covering the stay, proof of accommodation, and a clean criminal record from your country of residence
  • Proof that tax obligations are met where you are currently resident
How long it lasts
The visa admits you for up to 12 months; a residence permit for digital nomad purposes is then issued and renewed by IGI while the conditions hold.
Path to permanent residence
Weak. It is a temporary residence category and published guidance differs on the maximum cumulative period spent on it — figures of two and three years both circulate. Anyone intending to settle should plan on converting to employment or a Romanian company at some point rather than assuming the nomad permit runs to the five-year long-term residence mark. Confirm the current maximum with IGI.
Cost
Visa fee plus the residence permit fee. Insurance and apostilled document preparation are the larger line items.
Processing time
Several weeks at the consulate, then the IGI appointment after arrival.
Worth knowing
  • The income bar is the whole story and it has moved a long way. It is pegged at three times the Romanian average gross salary, which has risen sharply. Published 2026 figures run from about RON 27,600 to RON 29,600 a month — roughly €5,400 to €5,800 — depending on which INS release the reference salary is taken from. The €3,700 figure repeated across nomad blogs reflects the launch years and is simply out of date. Confirm the applicable figure with IGI before assembling six months of evidence against the wrong one.
  • The three-year trading history of the foreign company is a hard requirement and rules out newly incorporated one-person vehicles set up for the application.
  • Because Romania is now fully in Schengen, this permit carries normal Schengen mobility — a change from the position before January 2025 that older guides still describe wrongly.
  • Romanian tax treatment of nomad-permit holders is not the Croatian model. There is no statutory exemption of foreign income for permit holders; ordinary residence tests apply. Take advice before assuming your foreign salary stays outside Romanian tax.
Sources:General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI)Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Romanian e-visa portal
InvestmentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Long-stay visa for commercial activities (D/AC)

Founders and shareholders who will run a Romanian company. Romania has no passive golden-visa product; this is a real operating-business route with an investment commitment attached.

What you need
  • An approval from the Romanian Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade endorsing the business plan
  • A commitment to invest in the Romanian company and to create jobs, with the minimum levels set by the endorsing authority rather than by the immigration file
  • Proof of funds for your own support and of accommodation
  • Clean criminal record and health insurance
How long it lasts
Residence permit issued for up to one year initially, renewed against evidence that the investment and job commitments are being met.
Path to permanent residence
Counts toward EU long-term resident status at five years. Meeting the investment and employment undertakings can shorten some steps, but the ordinary five-year clock is the realistic plan.
Cost
Agency endorsement and company formation costs, plus visa and permit fees. The capital commitment itself is the substantial number.
Processing time
Months rather than weeks, dominated by the endorsement stage rather than by immigration.
Worth knowing
  • The minimum investment and job-creation figures are set administratively and are revised, so do not plan against a number found in a blog. Get them from the endorsing agency in writing before incorporating.
  • Many people who consider this route are better served by employment through their own Romanian company under the ordinary employment permit, which has a far lighter evidential load. Compare the two before committing capital.
  • Setting up a Romanian microenterprise is often marketed alongside this route as a tax play. That regime was narrowed again from January 2026 — the revenue ceiling fell to €100,000 and the special 3% rate for custom software development was removed — so the tax case is weaker than the marketing suggests.
Sources:General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI)Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Romanian e-visa portal
StudentMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Long-stay visa for studies (D/SD)

Students at Romanian universities. Romania's medical and technical faculties teach substantial English- and French-language programmes and draw large international cohorts, particularly to Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Timișoara.

What you need
  • A letter of acceptance to study issued by the Ministry of Education
  • Proof of tuition payment and of means of support
  • Accommodation, health insurance and a clean criminal record
How long it lasts
Issued for the academic year and renewed annually for the length of the programme.
Path to permanent residence
Study time counts at a reduced rate toward EU long-term resident status. Graduates of Romanian institutions have an easier path into the employment permit, which is the usual way people convert.
Cost
Visa and permit fees are small. Tuition for English-taught programmes, particularly medicine, is the real cost.
Processing time
The Ministry of Education acceptance letter is the slow step and should be started months before the academic year.
Worth knowing
  • Students may work, but within limited hours and without it substituting for a work permit. Do not plan a budget around it.
  • The acceptance letter is a separate ministry procedure from the university's own admission. Holding an offer from the faculty is not the same as holding the document the consulate needs.
Sources:General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI)Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Romanian e-visa portal
FamilyMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Long-stay visa for family reunification (D/VF)

Spouses, minor children and dependent relatives of Romanian citizens, EU nationals exercising free movement in Romania, or third-country nationals already holding Romanian residence.

What you need
  • Proof of the family relationship, legalised and translated
  • For a sponsor who is a third-country national, generally a year of prior legal residence in Romania plus evidence of income and adequate accommodation
  • Health insurance and a clean criminal record
How long it lasts
Aligned with the sponsor's permit and renewed with it.
Path to permanent residence
Counts toward EU long-term resident status at five years. Family members of Romanian citizens are treated more favourably than family of third-country sponsors at almost every step.
Cost
Visa and permit fees, plus the document legalisation chain, which for foreign marriage and birth certificates is where the time and money actually go.
Processing time
Several months end to end, driven by document authentication rather than by the decision.
Worth knowing
  • Family of a Romanian or EU citizen and family of a third-country resident are two different regimes with different waiting periods and evidence. Establish which one you are in before assembling anything.
  • Romanian civil registry practice on foreign documents is strict: apostille or consular legalisation plus a sworn Romanian translation, and originals are frequently retained.
Sources:General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI)Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Romanian e-visa portal
On the ground

Where you'd land in Romania

Bucharest

Six sectors pretending to be one city, with the EU's fastest internet and its most earthquake-exposed centre.

Full Bucharest guide
Cluj-Napoca

Romania's tech capital and its most expensive housing, built in a valley that ran out of room to grow.

Full Cluj-Napoca guide

Romania at a glance

Capital
Bucharest
Population
19.0M
Languages
Romanian
Currency
RON