In the Official Gazette of Romania no. 176 of March 5, 2024, Part I, a law was published through which a series of amendments were made to several normative acts in the field of foreigners.
More specifically, the following normative acts were targeted:
(i) GEO no. 194/2002 regarding the regime of foreigners in Romania;
(ii) GO no. 25/2014 regarding the employment and secondment of foreigners on the territory of Romania and for the modification and completion of some normative acts regarding the regime of foreigners in Romania;
(iii) GEO no. 102/2005 on the free movement on the territory of Romania of the citizens of the member states of the European Union, the European Economic Area and the citizens of the Swiss Confederation;
(iv) GEO no. 204/2020 regarding the establishment of measures to implement the Agreement regarding the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and from the European Atomic Energy Community, regarding the regulation of the right of entry and residence on the territory of Romania;
(v) Law no. 122/2006 regarding asylum in Romania.
Regarding OG no. 25/2014, a number of changes can be noted:
(i) for the issuance of the employment permit, it is necessary, among other things, that the employer, a legal person, an authorized natural person or an individual enterprise, actually carries out on the territory of Romania activities compatible with the function for which the foreigner is requested to be employed - the adverb "effectively" was introduced to clarify the intention of the legislator;
(ii) a new general requirement was introduced for the issuance of employment permits, as it is necessary that the employer's activity was not established or carried out for the main purpose of facilitating the entry of foreigners into the territory of Romania;
(iii) the employer requesting the issuance of employment permits must have paid the obligations to the state budget - until now, the text stipulated that the employer had paid the obligations to the state budget for the last quarter, prior to submitting the request;
(iv) the possibility of the General Inspectorate for Immigration to carry out inspections at the company headquarters or workplaces of the employers is foreseen in order to verify both the actual performance by the employer on the territory of Romania of activities compatible with the position for which the foreigner is applying for employment, as well as the fact that the employer's activity was not established or is not carried out for the main purpose of facilitating the entry of foreigners into the territory of Romania.
The new general condition introduced on this occasion, stated in art. 4 para. (2) lit. a1) from OG no. 25/2014 ("the employer's activity was not established or does not take place with the main purpose of facilitating the entry of foreigners into the territory of Romania"), constitutes an additional reason available to the immigration authorities to reject the requests of certain employers. However, it must be specified that the authority must have concrete evidence to base itself on the non-fulfillment of this condition in a possible rejection decision, otherwise the employer can request and successfully obtain the annulment of the decision, in the preliminary procedure or, subsequently, before the court
We remind you that Fabian Cretu Law team is specialized in this field, obtaining multiple favorable solutions against the Romanian immigration authorities throughout our activity.
For more information, you can write us to the e-mail address fabian.cretu@fcretu-law.com or contact us by phone at no. 0740.363.815.