Romania Digital Nomad Visa Full Guide: Requirements, How to Get & Everything Else

Since December 2021, Romania offers a digital nomad visa which allows you to stay from 9 months and up in the country. For many, getting the Digital Nomad visa is easier than the difficult process of getting a residence permit in the country.

Today, I will share everything you need to know about getting the Romanian Digital Nomad Visa.

This is an updated article with the new procedures and data. At the moment of writing, all info I could find online was outdated and WRONG. Things have changed as of January 2023.

So read on to learn how to get the digital nomad visa in Romania, how to renew it and how long it allows you to stay in the country.

IMPORTANT: If you are an EU / EEA citizen, you shouldn’t apply for the DN visa. Instead, get a registration certificate in Romania, which is much easier to obtain and allows you to stay for up to 5 years in the country.

Eligibility Requirements for the Romanian Digital Nomad Visa

romanian digital nomad visa

To be eligible to apply for the Romanian digital nomad visa, you must meet the next requirements:

  1. You must work for a company registered outside of Romania
  2. You can work remotely using technology (laptop/computer)
  3. Your average earnings must be 3x the gross average salary in Romania, for each of the previous 6 months before applying (and for the duration of the visa).

The gross average salary in Romania in 2022 (on which these numbers are calculated) is 6,095 lei or 1,230 Euros per month.

This means that your monthly income for the past 6 months should be around €3,700.

A bit on the upper side in terms of required monthly income (especially since the cost of living in Romania is so low), but at least easier and more straightforward to get than other types of residency permits.

How to get the Romania Digital Nomad Visa

Romania Digital Nomad visa requirements

If you meet the requirements above, you can apply to get the Digital Nomad Visa. This is a two-step process: first, get a long-stay permit which allows you to stay up to 90 days in the country.

Second, when you have at most 30 days (so no less) left, apply for a residence permit based on your Digital Nomad Visa, which will give you 6 more months in the country (and can be renewed).

IMPORTANT: You must apply for the visa before entering Romania. You can do this online here.

Now, let’s get a bit more in depth with each step that you must complete. It seems complicated, but actually most of the documents that you need will be used for both applications.

1. Apply for a long-stay permit (basically, the digital nomad visa)

First, you will need to get the long-stay permit, which is basically the digital nomad visa in this case. And despite its name, it only allows you spend up to 90 days in the country, just like a regular tourism visa.

The only difference is that if you arrive in Romania with a tourist visa, you can’t apply for the residence permit which allows you to spend more time in the country.

Here are the documents required to get your long-stay permit (you will submit them all online here and you will get an answer in around 2 weeks):

Proof of employment (original and translated in Romanian). Accepted: work contract with a company registered outside of Romania or proof that you are the administrator of a company (for self employed individuals) registered outside of Romania at least 3 years before your application.

Identifying details of the company (original and translated in Romanian). This paper needs to show all the details of the company (name, address, tax number etc), its field of activity and information about its legal representatives.

Letter of intent (original and translated in Romanian). Within in, you must present in detail your reasons for coming to the country, as well as the activities you plan to carry out here.

Proof that you are up to date with your taxes. You will need a document (original and translated) proving that your taxes are paid in your country of residence, as well as attest that you have no records of past or present tax fraud or tax evasion.

Proof of a valid ticket. Either show a valid ticket to Romania or, if you plan to drive here, your driving license, car’s documents and the proof of itinerary.

Proof of valid health insurance. Must be valid for the entire duration of your stay (90 days initially) and with at least €30,000 coverage.

Proof of earnings. As stated above, you need to have made 3x the average national gross salary for each of the past 6 months prior to your application. This is around €3,700 per month in 2023.

Proof of accommodation. Rental agreement or anything similar.

Proof of a clean criminal record. Original and translated into Romanian, as well as apostilled or over-legalized.

– Submit any other documents that the authorities might request (usually, they don’t need extras).

2. Get a residence permit with your DN visa

Living in Romania on a Digital Nomad Visa

After getting the long stay visa, you can finally come to Romania. You are allowed to stay 90 days, but must start your application for extending your stay 30 days before this visa expires. So… on to step two!

Fortunately, you will need fewer documents – and most of them will be reused from your prior application. Here is what you need:

  • Application form (download here)
  • Proof of employment
  • Identifying details of the company
  • Proof of earnings
  • Proof of accommodation
  • The border crossing document
  • Proof of health insurance
  • Doctor’s note (any private clinic gives you this, stating that you don’t have any diseases that are a threat to public health)
  • Proof that you have paid the required taxes (120 Euros for the application + 259 lei or ~53 Euros for the residence permit itself)

You can submit all the documents online here. They will just confirm that you have all the documents and you have submitted them correctly.

You will still need to go in person to the territorial units of the immigration offices (details on the site where you submit your documents).

How long is the Romania Digital Nomad Visa valid?

With a Romanian digital nomad visa, you can spend up to 9 months in the country (3 with your long-stay visa, then 6 more with the DN visa itself).

You can then renew the residence permit (basically, your digital nomad visa) for 6 to 12 months multiple times.

It’s not clear now how many times you are allowed to renew it, but the original legislation stated that you can stay up to 36 months, so you should be covered for at least a couple of years, but remember to renew it every 6 months!

Can you travel in the EU / Schengen Area if you have a Romanian Digital Nomad visa?

No, this visa only gives you a right to live in Romania. If you normally need a visa to visit another country (be it in the EU or Schengen Area), the Romanian Digital Nomad visa won’t be enough – you will still need to get the required visa to travel.

Since Romania is not in the Schengen Area, there are border controls when passing to its neighboring countries, so it will be impossible to wing it.

However, the country has agreements with other EU countries that are not in Schengen, like Bulgaria and Cyprus, which might allow you to visit (double check this with the authorities).

Is the Romanian Digital Nomad Visa worth it? (My personal opinion)

downtown Timisoara Romania
Aerial view of Timisoara, Romania

For those who want to live in Romania (or just prefer a lower cost of living country as their home base while they work remotely), this visa is really useful.

It allows you to live long terms in the country (as opposed to a maximum of 3 otherwise) and it is easier to get that other types of residence permits.

However, it’s still a lot of headaches: you have to apply for the visa three times during your first year, which is a lot, even though you will use the same documents after the first application.

I also consider the monetary requirements very high. Having in mind that Romanians manage to make ends meet for as low as 500 Euros per month and foreigners can live a decent life on 1,000 Euros per month, 3,700 Euros is a bit much.

However, for those who are already earning this amount of money each month, they will see that it’s a lot easier to increase their savings rate if they choose to move here.

A person can live a really good life on 1,500 Euros per month (some local travel included here!) so you’d save a lot of money for the future.

Or spend it all and live like a King or Queen. Either way, the low cost of living is really making this type of visa a really good deal.

Romania is beautiful, safe and locals are extremely friendly towards foreigners, so you will feel great here.

Don’t forget to check out the best cities to live in before deciding where to go. There’s a lot more to this country than the largest city you always hear about!

On the other hand, I have to be honest and recommend you an alternative: Croatia offers a digital nomad visa as well, and their monetary requirements are much lower, at around 2,500 Euros per month. It’s good to have options!

Conclusion

I am really happy to see that Romania is moving in the right direction and offers a digital nomad visa that makes it easier for people who earn a living online to spend more months in the country.

Next, I really look forward to the country introducing a Retiree Visa of sorts – this would also be very successful in my opinion.

But until then, despite the relatively high requirements for getting the visa, having this option is definitely amazing.

Let me know what you think about the Romanian Digital Nomad Visa and don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have about it!

Calin
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14 thoughts on “Romania Digital Nomad Visa Full Guide: Requirements, How to Get & Everything Else”

  1. Like others have said, way too high of a monthly salary especially given the cost of living in Romania. I think it is similar to what you need for a Croatian digital nomad visa which is also too much.

    Assuming there will be Americans applying for this, the criminal record can be tricky, especially if Romania wants your FBI background check to be apostille. Speaking as an American with Slovenian residency (and going through all the hoops once every two years), nothing is ever that straight forward. I wonder what documentation they want for proof of earnings for the past six months? If you have your own company, sometimes you don’t pay yourself a normal monthly wage. It can get tricky.

    Glad they at least offer this type of visa now and I do like that is renewable (if you like Romania then for sure many folks would prefer to stay longer than a year). Just wish that these European countries realize that when their peeps came to the U.S. (and not on just a 1 year visa) they had next to nothing, not 3x the average monthly wage. If governments are so worried about visa holders not having enough money, then just put them into the system as exempt from any type of money or welfare from the gov’t. Other than that, why worry about them not having enough $$ to take care of their own situation.

    Reply
    • Valid points! I think the original draft of the law required 2x the national gross salary, which would’ve been at around 2,200 Euros. Hopefully they will adjust, based on feedback and applications. Right now, the law is still very fresh and not all details are clear (for example, the very important part regarding how you are taxed on your income)

      Reply
  2. I have been following the developments of the Romania Digital Nomad visa. I think the income requirements are high, especially when you compare it to Croatia. Croatia has been trying hard for 1 year with a digital nomad visa and this country only asks for a monthly income of 2200 euros.

    Reply
  3. Very useful and clear article, thank you! I have been trying to get clear information and the pieces of information presented by Romanian officials are extremely poor.

    I am not clear about the tax regime for DNs. If someone is employed by an US company and meets all the other criteria of the visa, does this mean they can continue to pay taxes outside Romania and not have to amend their employment conditions? I would be very grateful if someone had this information.
    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Yes, this bit of extremely important information is not clear at the moment. I am assuming that double taxation is out of questions (especially since Romania has treaties with the US to avoid this), but at the moment this detail is not explicitly mentioned.

      Reply
  4. Hello,

    I am an Indian citizen, working with EU Blue card in Germany, and want to move to Romania with NoMad Visa. I work for company but this company has branch in Romania but with their local company registration.
    Is it possible to get Nomad Visa?

    Reply
  5. Hi C Romanian:
    Wondering if there has been any update on this, almost a year later. My husband has a very high pension and we both have substantial savings in our various accounts. Is there room for that kind of equivocation on income with the year long digital nomad visa? My husband has always dreamed of staying in Romania, this would make a wonderful gift for him and our children. Yes, you read that correctly, we are near pension age but have minority children in our household.

    Reply
  6. I hope this is good news…this website notates the very words from your article and currently, December 2, 2022, the charge is $120 EUR/person to apply for the digital nomad visa. YAY! The official website location (scroll down to bottom of page) is: https://eviza.mae.ro/TypeOfVisa

    I hope this will help other readers find this information and please post here if you read this, go through the process and it is either a fail and a win with the visa process.

    Reply
  7. Hi – I was recently successful in getting DN visa from the consulate in London. (I’d note that the cost was actually very high when you factor all the costs of getting official translations authenticated/notarised etc, and the travel back to your home country to get the stamp if you’re not living there). Anyway, I note you mentioned its a 12 month renewable visa, however I have been given only 3 months. I have been advised this is normal and the next step is for me to apply for the residents permit. I’m somewhat confused (and frustrated, I’m only applying for DN visa because my wife has work here in Bucharest and the family reunification process was too slow, and would have meant me living in another country for months…). Any advice!?

    Reply
    • It’s really strange to hear that they only gave you a 3-month permit. It should be 12 months, with the option to renew for 12 more months. I’m not really sure what to say about the next steps you should take – did they tell you what kind of residence permit they’re talking about (as it could be something that’s easier to get, similar to what EU citizens are getting. This is just a wild guess though).

      Reply
  8. Hello,
    Thank you for the useful article.
    Does anyone know please if it is possible for a British Citizen married to a Romanian to obtain a DN visa? Has anyone in same circumstances got this? All other criteria are met.
    Extremely difficult to get any info from consulate or the Ministerul de Externe, all they do is send back badly written paragraphs from their websites which are not helpful.
    I am asking because for Spain for example the DN visa does not apply to EU citizens or their immediate family.
    Thank you!

    Reply
    • I think the easiest way here would be to go for a family reunification visa instead.

      The DN visa is indeed very new, with very few people applying for it and you will get random responses from random people (in charge). I remember that one of our readers was only given a 3-month DN visa, although it clearly says it’s a 12-month one.

      So the best thing here, if you don’t want to go the family reunification route, would be to chat with the inspector in the city you’re planning to apply – or apply directly.

      Reply

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