Did you know that you can also work in Romania, while you are an international student? Or that working during your studies in Romania also has a few limitations? Find out more from our lawyer, below!

Here are the three requirements you need to fulfill in order to get a job while being an international student in Romania:

1. Be accepted to an university: in short, you need to be a Romanian student first. This requirement is fulfilled once you receive your letter of acceptance from your university.
2. Get a visa for study purposes: without a visa, you cannot travel to Romania as a non-EU citizen. And only after getting your visa can you also apply for Romanian residency, for one of more years.
3. Acquire a residency permit for study purposes from the immigration authority (IGI).

Be aware that your residency permit must include the “right to work” (in Romanian: “drept de muncă”), otherwise you cannot work during your studies. When can that happen? For example, if you hold a residency permit for high school studies. If you are a high school student who is over 18 years old, technically you are eligible for employment, according to Romanian law. However, the practice of the immigration office is to consider this as illegal employment. So we do not recommend you to get a job in these cases, because you can have a series of immigration issues – fines, restrictions, even deportation.

Another crucial aspect of working during your studies in Romania is that you are only allowed to work part-time. Specifically, you can work for a maximum of 4 hours per day, 5 days per week. Some employers might suggest you get a full-time job, but they only mention part time work, so less hours in your employment contract. We strongly recommend you to refuse such a proposition, because, again, you can have big problems with immigration.

If you are ever in doubt, a useful tip to ensure everything goes smoothly is to provide a detailed description of your situation in Romania and ask the immigration authority for their opinion about it. This is a way to limit liability, and while it doesn’t guarantee that you won’t face any fines, it can help prevent issues with obtaining your visa or residency permit.

It is important to know that the immigration office isn’t automatically notified when you start working. You and your employer must inform them within 10 days of entering into the work agreement and report any changes related to your work contract (e.g., salary increase, change of workplace, employment termination).

We hope you found these tips useful. Don’t forget that you can always book a consultation with us if you need any guidance on immigration law matters!