Romania EU Blue Card for qualified employment

Eligibility & suitability

Start with a genuine highly qualified role

The Blue Card is an employment route for a qualifying third-country national, not a residence product obtained by investing in a company. The current Romanian framework requires the actual employer, role, professional evidence and remuneration to meet the highly qualified conditions. EU/EEA/Swiss nationals normally use free-movement registration instead.

The 2026 foreign-worker reform changed the administrative framework. The current IGI guidance distinguishes employer-led D/AM1 applications, including highly qualified employment, from D/AM2 applications involving authorised employers or placement agencies for other specified worker categories. Use the current WorkinRomania procedure and transition rules rather than a pre-reform generic work-permit checklist.

Contract, qualifications and salary all need evidence

Article 27¹ requires a full-time employment contract of indefinite duration or at least six months for the highly qualified route. The salary must be at least the applicable average gross earnings benchmark. This is a different figure from Romania’s minimum wage; a contract meeting the minimum wage alone does not meet the Blue Card salary test.

This page deliberately retains the legal salary formula rather than publishing an immigration amount whose current administrative reference has not been independently reconciled. The employer should confirm the applicable benchmark at filing and on renewal. Exchange-rate estimates are unsuitable for a contract condition expressed through a Romanian statutory reference.

Professional qualifications and any required recognition or authorisation must match the occupation. A professional-experience alternative exists only in the cases and form allowed by law; it is not a universal replacement for education. The current text also calls for the employer’s recruitment and workforce-availability evidence, including the prescribed availability certificate issued no more than 90 days before filing. Regulated professions require their separate authorisation.

The employer file comes before the arrival plan

The employer should settle the role and immigration file before the employee books a move. Current IGI materials include the unified application, employment registration through REGES-ONLINE and supporting identity, qualification and character evidence. The long-stay visa and subsequent residence-card steps are distinct; an employment agreement alone does not authorise entry or work.

Visa documents include passport, qualifying employment/professional evidence, criminal record with the required translation/legalisation and medical insurance satisfying the current €30,000 coverage conditions. The current guide distinguishes maintenance-document rules for highly qualified workers from other categories. Have the employer or its authorised adviser confirm the precise uploaded annexes, rather than making the employee guess from a mixed-category checklist.

Validity is tied to employment

The residence extension for highly qualified employment is linked to the contract term plus three months, subject to a maximum of three years under the current framework. A six-month contract therefore does not imply a three-year card. Renewal requires the continuing conditions and a timely, complete file.

Changes of employer, role, salary or employment status need a fresh immigration check. Do not infer a right to work for any new employer merely because the card has not expired. EU Blue Card mobility has its own rules in the receiving country; it is not an unrestricted right to take employment anywhere in Europe. This page does not model every unemployment, short-term mobility or long-term-mobility case.

Blue Card family eligibility differs from the ordinary sponsor rule

IGI expressly includes Blue Card holders among the exceptions to the ordinary requirement that a temporary sponsor permit be valid for one year. This can matter to a household whose initial employment contract is shorter. It does not remove the need to establish the relationship, suitable housing, insurance and financial support.

The national family categories include a spouse and unmarried minor children, with adoption/custody evidence where relevant. Specified dependent parents and medically dependent unmarried adult children require additional conditions. For an unmarried or same-sex partner, obtain a route-specific recognition assessment; the Coman EU free-movement judgment is not a blanket statement that every third-country Blue Card household receives identical treatment.

Assess take-home pay and employer cost separately

The immigration salary requirement is a gross-pay test, not a net-income promise. Under ordinary Romanian insurance, employee CAS is 25%, employee CASS 10%, and PIT generally 10% of the taxable salary after permitted reductions; standard employer CAM is 2.25%. Exemptions, minimum-base adjustments, international insurance coverage and special work conditions can change the result.

A relocation budget should include rent, family insurance or coverage, school arrangements and any foreign tax obligations alongside payroll. We can coordinate the immigration and cross-border tax work with the employer and local specialists, with a written allocation of responsibilities and quoted professional scope. The authority remains responsible for the permit decision.