Issue · October 2026 · everything a nomad needs, city by city

Nomadzine

The visa · Romania

Romania

Romania has an express long-stay visa for digital nomads, written into the foreigners' law in January 2022, plus self-employment and company-founder visas for those who want local clients. It suits well-paid remote employees and owners of foreign companies who can show three times the Romanian average gross salary for six months. The one thing to know before applying: the long-stay visa fee tripled to 300 euros on 27 April 2026, and since 1 January 2025 every day in Romania counts against the Schengen 90-in-180 allowance.

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The routes

Researched 11 September 2026 · rules as of September 2026 · as published, not legal advice

  1. Nomad visa

    Digital Nomad Visa (long-stay visa for other purposes, D/AS)

    Viză de lungă ședere pentru alte scopuri – nomad digital / Long-stay visa for other purposes – digital nomad

    Non-EU remote employees of companies registered outside Romania, and owners of foreign-registered companies, who earn well above the Romanian average and want a Schengen-country base for six months or more.

    Income floor
    At least three times the Romanian average gross monthly salary, proven for each of the six months before applying and for the whole period of the visa (OUG 194/2002, art. 49, as published by the General Inspectorate for Immigration). Using the 9,192 lei average set by the 2026 social-insurance budget law in force from 30 March 2026, that is 27,576 lei a month, roughly 5,400 euros. Secondary guides quote anything from 18,500 lei to 27,816 lei a month because they use different reference years; the ministry has not published which figure consulates apply, so the exact bar is disputed.
    Duration
    The D visa is valid for entry and up to 90 days; the holder then applies to the General Inspectorate for Immigration for a temporary residence permit. Sources disagree on the permit period: KPMG's alert on the founding law says six months, renewable while conditions hold; 2025-2026 guides report 12 months, renewable annually. Neither figure was confirmed on an official page.
    Cost
    Long-stay visa fee 300 euros for applications validated through the e-Visa portal from 27 April 2026, up from 120 euros (Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular fee schedule). The residence permit carries a separate fee; guides report about 120 euros, not verified against the immigration inspectorate's tariff.
    Processing
    No statutory period was verified. Guides report anything from 10 to 14 working days to 30 to 45 days at the consulate, depending on post and completeness; the 180-day window to enter after approval is reported by one guide.
    Eligibility
    Non-EU/EEA nationals only. Work must be performed remotely by information and communication technology for an employer or own company registered outside Romania (KPMG cites a minimum three-year relationship). Private health insurance covering the whole stay, a clean criminal record and no prior entry ban are required.
    Work rights
    Remote work for a foreign employer or own foreign company only. Guides state the visa does not permit local employment or participation in the Romanian labour market. Income from abroad is exempt from Romanian income tax and social contributions while presence is under 183 days in any 12 consecutive months (Law 69/2023).
    Dependants
    Family reunification for a spouse and dependent children is reported as available once the residence permit is issued; no official page setting out nomad-specific family rules was found.
    Leads to
    Romanian long-term residence normally requires five years of continuous legal stay; Romanian legal commentators have questioned whether time on the nomad permit counts and no published guidance settles it. Citizenship is not a direct consequence of this route.
    Apply
    Online through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs e-Visa portal (evisa.mae.ro), validated by the Romanian embassy or consulate for the applicant's country of residence; the residence permit is then requested in person at the county office of the General Inspectorate for Immigration.

    Documents Passport valid beyond the intended stay · Employment contract with a foreign company, or proof of owning a foreign-registered company, showing at least three years' activity · Proof of income at three times the Romanian average gross salary for each of the last six months (bank statements, payslips) · Health insurance for the full period of stay · Proof of accommodation in Romania · Criminal record certificate from the home country, apostilled or legalised and translated · Letter of intent describing the purpose of stay and the remote activity · Documents proving the foreign employer or company is registered abroad

    Official page →

  2. Freelance / self-employed

    Self-employed / economic activities visa (D/AE)

    Viză de lungă ședere pentru activități economice / Long-stay visa for economic activities (D/AE); also the professional-activities visa D/AP

    Non-EU freelancers and sole traders who want to invoice Romanian clients or register a Romanian sole-trader business (PFA) rather than work only for foreign payers.

    Income floor
    Maintenance funds of at least the Romanian average gross monthly salary, per the EU Immigration Portal entry maintained by the European Commission; no work authorisation is needed.
    Duration
    Long-stay visa valid up to 90 days; temporary residence permit for up to one year, renewable, with renewal to be lodged at least 30 days before expiry.
    Cost
    Long-stay visa fee 300 euros from 27 April 2026; residence permit fee charged separately by the immigration inspectorate.
    Processing
    No statutory or typical period verified.
    Eligibility
    Non-EU nationals; proof of professional training or that the legal conditions for the profession are met; health insurance for the whole stay; criminal record certificate; proof of accommodation once in Romania.
    Work rights
    Independent economic or professional activity in Romania, including local clients, within the registered activity. Not a route to salaried local employment, which needs the employment visa.
    Dependants
    Family reunification follows the general rules of OUG 194/2002 for temporary residents; no route-specific rule was verified.
    Leads to
    Counts toward long-term residence after five years of continuous legal stay, subject to income, insurance, housing, language test and security checks.
    Apply
    Romanian embassy or consulate abroad via the e-Visa portal; residence permit at the General Inspectorate for Immigration.

    Documents Professional training certificate or proof of meeting the legal conditions for the profession · Evidence of similar professional experience in the home country · Criminal record certificate · Medical insurance covering the entire stay · Proof of accommodation (ownership or lease) for the residence permit · Proof of maintenance funds at the average gross salary level

    Official page →

  3. Other route

    Company-founder visa (commercial activities, D/AC)

    Viză de lungă ședere pentru activități comerciale / Long-stay visa for commercial activities (D/AC)

    Non-EU nomads who set up a Romanian limited company (SRL) and act as shareholder or administrator, typically to bill EU clients through a local entity.

    Income floor
    Personal maintenance funds of at least 700 euros a month for a shareholder or 500 euros a month for an associate, per the EU Immigration Portal; the business plan must be approved by the Romanian investment agency.
    Duration
    Visa valid up to 90 days; residence permit up to one year, renewable; up to three years where the investment exceeds 500,000 euros or creates 50 or more jobs.
    Cost
    Long-stay visa fee 300 euros from 27 April 2026; residence permit fee separate.
    Processing
    No statutory or typical period verified; the business-plan approval step precedes the visa.
    Eligibility
    Shareholder or administrator of a Romanian company with an approved business plan; health insurance; clean criminal record.
    Work rights
    Managing the Romanian company and its commercial activity; local clients allowed through the company.
    Dependants
    Family reunification under the general temporary-residence rules.
    Leads to
    Counts toward long-term residence after five years of continuous legal stay.
    Apply
    Romanian embassy or consulate via the e-Visa portal; residence permit at the General Inspectorate for Immigration.

    Documents Approved business plan from the Romanian trade and investment agency · Trade Registry certificate of the Romanian company · Proof of company headquarters (ownership or lease) · Labour Inspectorate certificate on employees · Health insurance for the whole stay · Criminal record certificate

    Official page →

Without a visa, by passport

The stay you get on arrival, and whether working remotely on it is tolerated

  • EU / EEA / SwitzerlandFree movement; registration with the General Inspectorate for Immigration for stays over three monthsRemote work is lawful; tax residency follows the 183-day and centre-of-interests tests like everyone else.
  • United Kingdom90 days in any 180, counted across the whole Schengen area since 1 January 2025Immigration rules do not expressly address remote work on a short stay; Law 69/2023 exempts foreign salary earned remotely under 183 days, and guides report it as tolerated.
  • United States90 days in any 180, Schengen-wideSame position: not expressly regulated on a short stay, tax-exempt under 183 days, reported as tolerated.
  • Canada90 days in any 180, Schengen-wideSame position as other visa-exempt nationals.
  • Australia90 days in any 180, Schengen-wideSame position as other visa-exempt nationals.
  • Japan90 days in any 180, Schengen-wideSame position as other visa-exempt nationals.
  • Brazil90 days in any 180, Schengen-wideSame position as other visa-exempt nationals.
  • IndiaVisa required (Schengen short-stay visa issued by Romania)Remote work on a tourist visa is not provided for; the nomad visa is the published route.
  • South AfricaVisa requiredAs for India: no published tolerance on a short-stay visa.
  • TurkeyVisa requiredAs for India: no published tolerance on a short-stay visa.

Tax

When the country starts counting you as its taxpayer

Residency trigger
An individual becomes Romanian tax resident by having a domicile in Romania, having the centre of vital interests in Romania, or being present for more than 183 days in any 12 consecutive months ending in the calendar year concerned. Anyone crossing 183 days must file the arrival tax-residency questionnaire with the tax authority within 30 days; those declaring a centre of vital interests are resident from the day they declare it.
Special regime
Law 69/2023, published in Official Gazette no. 265 of 30 March 2023, exempts digital nomads' salary income from abroad from Romanian income tax and social insurance contributions provided presence does not exceed 183 days in any 12 consecutive months. In force and unchanged as of September 2026. Beyond 183 days the standard regime applies: flat 10 percent income tax on worldwide income.
Social security
Under 183 days, Law 69/2023 also waives social contributions on the foreign salary. Once resident, Romanian rates reported for salary income are 25 percent pension (CAS) and 10 percent health (CASS); an A1 or equivalent certificate of coverage from a country with a social-security agreement can keep contributions at home, but the treatment of foreign-employer remote workers who become resident is not spelt out in any official page opened for this dossier.
Treaties
Romania has an extensive double-taxation treaty network (guides cite more than 80 treaties). Treaty tie-breaker rules decide residence where both states claim it; a remote employee who stays under 183 days and is paid abroad is normally taxed only at home, while a resident contractor is taxed in Romania with credit for foreign tax under the applicable treaty.

Practicalities

Tax number
Foreigners without a Romanian personal numeric code obtain a NIF (tax identification number) from the tax authority; it is needed to hold shares in or run a Romanian company and is used for tax filings.
SIM cards
No mandatory identity registration for prepaid SIMs; a 2019 emergency ordinance imposing it was struck down by the Constitutional Court on 18 February 2020 and no replacement has passed.
Health insurance
Private cover for the full period of stay is a condition of every long-stay visa and of the residence permit; residents who pay CASS join the public system.
Address registration
The residence permit is issued by the county office of the General Inspectorate for Immigration on proof of accommodation (ownership or lease); it must be renewed at least 30 days before expiry.
Overstay penalties
OUG 194/2002 art. 135(e): fines of 400 to 700 lei for overstays up to 30 days, 600 to 1,000 lei up to 60 days, and 800 to 1,200 lei beyond 60 days, with a possible entry ban whose length is recalculated on the illegal stay and increased by a year if a voluntary departure deadline is ignored.
Border biometrics
Since the Entry/Exit System became fully operational on 10 April 2026, non-EU short-stay travellers' fingerprints and facial images are recorded instead of passport stamps; ETIAS pre-authorisation is expected in the last quarter of 2026.
Bank account
Not verified from an official source for this dossier; opening an account is reported to be easier once a residence permit or NIF is held.

Romania: a Schengen base with a real nomad visa, a high income bar and a tax break under 183 days

Where remote workers base and why

Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara and Brașov are the usual bases, drawing on fast fixed broadband, a large English-speaking tech workforce and costs still below western Europe. Full Schengen membership since January 2025 removed border checks to Hungary and Bulgaria, which made Romania easier to combine with the rest of the zone but ended its old role as a place to sit out the 90-in-180 clock.

The published nomad visa is the only route written expressly for remote workers. Its income bar is set as a multiple of the national average gross salary, which the state resets each year, so the figure rises without any change to the immigration law itself.

What applicants report about the process

Applications go through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs e-Visa portal and are validated by the consulate for the applicant's country of residence. Guides that track applicants report decision times from about two weeks to six weeks depending on the post, and repeated requests for apostilled, translated criminal-record and company documents.

The largest reported friction is the income figure. Secondary guides publish thresholds ranging from roughly 18,500 lei to almost 28,000 lei a month because they anchor to different years' average salary; the authority's own page states only the formula. Applicants who plan against the lower figures risk falling short of what the consulate applies in 2026.

The length of the first residence permit is also reported inconsistently, six months in the law-firm alert on the founding law and twelve months in recent guides. Romanian legal commentators have separately questioned whether years on the nomad permit count towards the five-year long-term residence rule.

Banking, money and tax in practice

The tax position is unusually clear for stays under 183 days: Law 69/2023 exempts the nomad's foreign salary from Romanian income tax and social contributions. Crossing 183 days in any 12 consecutive months triggers a residency questionnaire due within 30 days and the standard flat 10 percent tax on worldwide income, with pension and health contributions on salary.

Those without a Romanian personal numeric code need a NIF from the tax authority for any local company role or filing. Prepaid SIMs remain unregistered, a rarity in the EU after the Constitutional Court struck down mandatory registration in 2020.

What is changing

Two 2026 changes raise the cost of entry: the long-stay visa fee tripled to 300 euros from 27 April 2026, and the average-salary reference climbed to 9,192 lei from 30 March 2026, lifting the three-times threshold with it. Biometric entry and exit recording has applied at every border since 10 April 2026, so overstays are now logged automatically, and ETIAS pre-authorisation for visa-exempt travellers is expected to start in the last quarter of 2026.

Researched from igi.mai.gov.ro · igi.mai.gov.ro · mae.ro · home-affairs.ec.europa.eu · home-affairs.ec.europa.eu · noerr.com · kpmg.com · taxsummaries.pwc.com · static.anaf.ro · lege5.ro · the authority