Last updated: 6 December 2018
In the context of the current labor force crisis, on 10 November 2018, Law no. 247/2018 amending and supplementing various regulations regarding the regime of foreign citizens in Romania. The law was published in the Official Journal of 7 November 2018.
The main purpose of this law is to amend and supplement Government Emergency Ordinance no. 194/2002 on the regime of foreign citizens in Romania and Government Ordinance no. 25/2014 regarding the employment and posting of foreign citizens in Romania.
This transposes into Romanian law EU Directive 2016/801 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, training, voluntary service, pupil exchange schemes or educational projects and au pairing, which must be implemented by Romania by 2018.
NEW CATEGORIES OF FOREIGN CITIZENS
Thus, new categories of foreign citizens who can carry out activities in Romania are defined:
a) The trainee - a foreign citizen who holds a higher education diploma or who is pursuing a course leading to a higher education diploma and who is admitted for a training program for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, practice and experience in a professional environment;
b) Au-pair - the foreign citizen employed temporarily by a host family to improve his/her knowledge and language skills in exchange for easy domestic work and child care.
MINIMUM INCOME
The law also makes changes in the minimum income of employed foreign citizens. Thus, the reference salary changes from the gross average salary in the economy to the minimum gross salary guaranteed at national level.
For highly skilled workers, the minimum salary drops from four gross average salaries to just two gross average salaries in the economy.
OTHER CHANGES
The law stipulates notification obligations for host entities engaged in legal relations with foreign citizens. Thus, host entities must notify the territorial unit of the General Inspectorate for Immigration (among others) of the termination or suspension of the legal relationship with the foreign citizen, within 30 days of the occurrence of the event.
The procedure for obtaining work approvals for permanent workers is simplified. The procedure for obtaining the recognition of studies certificate from the Ministry of National Education is abolished.
The law also regulates the entry and residence of foreign citizens in Romania for carrying out scientific research activities.
As for short-stay invitation-based visas, the deadline for resolving the applications for the approval of invitations was reduced from 60 days to 45 days; however, in duly justified cases, when a more in-depth review of the application is needed, the deadline may be extended by 15 days.
The fees for issuing work approvals were halved. Thus, the employer/beneficiary of the service pays the equivalent in lei of 100 euros for the issuing of employment/posting approvals. For employment approvals for seasonal workers, the employer must pay the equivalent in lei of 25 euros.
The law regulates the notion of au-pair worker and the special conditions to be fulfilled in order to obtain an employment approval.
The law also stipulates new offences: preventing the employees of the General Inspectorate for Immigration from performing an inspection at the employer’s headquarters or failure to submit the documents necessary for the inspection within the deadline set by the Inspectorate.