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Your adventure in Romania

If you think that Romania is the country where you can pursue your dream, then you need to pay attention to a few rules that you would find in any other corner of the world; especially if you have not arrived in Romania yet, here is what you need to know BEFORE you set off:

– your access to the Romanian territory is not a free ride, but is subject to certain rules and conditions, depending on the state which you are a citizen of, or the state where you have a right of residence.

here is a list of countries whose citizens must obtain a Romanian visa even for travel purposes

– in particular, if the state which you are a citizen of is on this list, but you have a right of residence (uniform visa or residence permit) granted by a Schengen state (a complete list is available here), then you can visit Romania, without a visa prerequisite, your trip can last as long as your right of residence is valid in that state, but not exceeding 90 days over a 6-month period, and the permit is for travelling purposes, without the possibility of carrying out any other activities, for which a long-stay visa is required (work, volunteering, etc.)

– in particular, if the state which you are a citizen of is on this list, but you have a long-term right of residence granted by an EU state (you have their full list here), then you can visit Romania, without a visa prerequisite, your trip can last as long as your right of residence is valid in that state, but nor exceeding 90 days over a 6-month period, and the purpose of the permit is for travelling, without the possibility of carrying out any other activities for which a long-stay visa is required (work, volunteering, etc.)

here is a list of countries whose citizens can obtain a Romanian short-stay visa, only on the basis of a formal invitation approved in advance by the Romanian authorities

– a list of countries whose citizens can enter Romania freely, without a visa is available here; in this case, the trip can last up to 90 days over a 6-month period, and the purpose of the permit is travelling, without the possibility of carrying out any other activities for which a long-stay visa is required (work, volunteering, etc.)

Once you have decided to emigrate to Romania, here are the first recommendations:

If you are not a citizen of the USA / Canada / Japan, then you will need a long-stay visa, adapted to the purpose of your stay, before entering Romania; even if your entry into Romania is allowed without a visa, any activity other than travelling/tourism is conditional on this long-stay visa.

Details on this type of visa are available here.

Before leaving for Romania you should also consider whether you will want to bring your family to Romania after obtaining your residence permit, or whether you will want to sign-up for various personal development courses. In this respect, you may need to prove your family relationship or your level of education, and the necessary documents must be recognised by the Romanian state. Therefore, depending on the state that issued the relevant official document (marriage certificate, diploma, etc.), the document may have to go through the supra-legalisation procedure.

The supra-legalisation of official documents is carried out according to international rules and is a three-tier approach:

– the document is submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing state, then to the Romanian consular office accredited in that state, and finally it is sent to Romania and submitted to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; after all the steps above are completed the document is to be officially translated into Romanian and the certified translation needs to be notarised by a notary public in Romania;

– as an additional clarification, if the original document is already in Romania, then it can be submitted directly to the consular office of the issuing state accredited in Romania, after which it is submitted directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Romania, and then translated and notarised;

– the first exception to this rule is the Hague Apostille, which is affixed to the original document by the authorities of the Member States that ratified the Hague Convention; if the issuing State is a member of this Convention, then this procedure is to be followed, since Romania is also a Member State; here is the list of Member States to this Convention

– another exception to the rule of supra-legalisation of official documents is provided for by agreements concluded between Romania and the issuing state; if the document is issued by one of these states, it will be recognised automatically, and only needs to be translated into Romanian and notarised by a Romanian notary; here is the list of states with which Romania has concluded such agreements

– an exception concerning civil registration documents only (such as birth, marriage and death documents) is provided for by a convention concluded for this purpose, civil registration certificates having a special format and being recognised directly; here is the list of signatory states and here is the format in which the certificate must be issued

– another exception, in cases where the official document is issued by a diplomatic or consular agent, is provided for by an international convention to which Romania is a party; if your official document is issued under these conditions, then it will be directly recognised, requiring only translation into Romanian and notarisation by a Romanian notary; here is the list of Member States to this convention

There are two kinds of right of residence of a foreigner in Romania:

temporary right of residence – such right is limited in time and ends at a specific moment established when it is granted and may be extended for additional periods of similar or different lengths, depending on the purpose of the stay;

long-stay right of residence (in common parlance also called permanent residence), which, once granted, is unlimited in time and provides you access to an additional category of rights throughout your lifetime.

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