Hiring Subsidiary Protection Holders in Romania: An Employer's Guide

An HR manager in Bucharest recently held a signed offer letter for eight weeks because she assumed her candidate, a Syrian national with subsidiary protection status, needed a D/AM2 work permit like any other non-EU hire. He didn't. What she actually needed to do, verify his residence permit and register the contract in Revisal before his start date, took under a week once she understood the difference. The delay cost her candidate two months of salary and nearly cost the company the hire.

This mistake runs in both directions. Some employers over-comply, routing subsidiary protection holders through the full non-EU work authorisation process and losing weeks they didn't need to lose. Others under-comply, assuming that because no work permit is required, no paperwork at all is needed, then miss the standard registration steps that still apply to every employee in Romania, protected status or not.

This guide sets out exactly what Romanian law requires, and does not require, when hiring someone who holds subsidiary protection status, and how the process compares to hiring a standard non-EU worker under Government Emergency Ordinance No. 32/2026.

No Work Permit Required, By Law

Subsidiary protection status is a form of international protection granted under Legea nr. 122/2006 privind azilul in Romania to people who do not qualify as refugees but face a real risk of serious harm if returned to their country of origin. Article 20 of that law gives beneficiaries the right to be employed, to be self-employed, to practise liberal professions, and to carry out commercial activities under the same conditions as Romanian citizens.

That equal-treatment principle has a direct consequence for employers. Ordonanta Guvernului nr. 25/2014, which governs the employment of foreigners in Romania, lists the categories exempt from the work permit requirement at Article 3, paragraph 2. Letter j of that paragraph exempts anyone who has obtained a form of protection in Romania, covering both refugee status and subsidiary protection. In practice, this means:

• A subsidiary protection holder can be hired directly on an individual employment contract, the same as any Romanian employee
• No application to the National Agency for Employment (ANOFM) is required
• No WorkinRomania.gov.ro registration is required, because that platform exists to process work authorisation for foreigners who do need a permit
• The employer does not need to demonstrate a labour shortage, meet a quota allocation, or wait for ANOFM authorisation before making the offer

What Document Actually Proves the Status

The practical challenge for HR teams is not the law itself but verification. Subsidiary protection holders do not carry a work permit, because none is issued. What they carry instead is a residence permit (permis de sedere) issued by the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI), a distinct document type from the residence permits issued to standard non-EU workers under a D/AM1 or D/AM2 authorisation. An HR manager checking a candidate's documents before onboarding should confirm:

• The residence permit explicitly identifies the holder as a beneficiary of subsidiary protection, not a standard long-stay visa holder
• The permit is currently valid, subsidiary protection permits carry shorter validity periods than standard long-term residence documents and must be renewed through IGI before expiry
• The personal numeric code (CNP) inscribed on the permit and travel document matches the one the candidate provides for payroll purposes

If any detail looks inconsistent, or the permit has lapsed, the employer should ask the candidate to confirm current status directly with IGI before finalising the contract.

What Employers Still Have to Do

The absence of a work permit requirement does not mean the absence of process. Every employee in Romania, regardless of nationality or protection status, triggers the same baseline compliance obligations once hired.

• The individual employment contract must be registered in Revisal, the national employee register, before the employee's actual start date
• The employer must submit the standard notifications tied to any new hire, including social security and health insurance contributions from day one
• Where a role or sector requires a separate territorial labour inspectorate (ITM) notification, that obligation applies exactly as it would for a Romanian citizen
• Payroll must be set up correctly from the start, since subsidiary protection holders receive the same tax and social contribution treatment as Romanian employees, not a special foreign-worker regime

These are ordinary Romanian labour law obligations that apply to the entire workforce. Subsidiary protection status changes none of them.

How This Differs From Hiring Under GEO 32/2026

Government Emergency Ordinance No. 32/2026, Official Gazette No. 335, 27 April 2026, sets out the current framework for hiring standard non-EU nationals through the D/AM1 and D/AM2 routes managed via WorkinRomania.gov.ro. Comparing the two processes makes the practical gap clear.

• A D/AM1 hire, reserved for highly skilled workers, still requires registration through WorkinRomania.gov.ro, even though it is not subject to the national quota
• A D/AM2 hire is quota-constrained under the 90,000 national allocation and requires full ANOFM authorisation, a process that includes employer eligibility checks and can take weeks
• A subsidiary protection holder requires neither WorkinRomania.gov.ro registration nor ANOFM authorisation, because Article 3(2)(j) of OG 25/2014 removes the work permit requirement entirely
• Standard non-EU hires require the employer to hold underlying authorisation to employ foreign nationals; subsidiary protection holders are onboarded through the same process already used for Romanian staff

For HR teams managing a mixed pipeline, intake has to branch early. The moment a residence document is identified as a subsidiary protection permit rather than a D/AM1 or D/AM2-linked permit, the case should be routed directly into standard onboarding.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Assuming subsidiary protection status is the same as a pending asylum application, asylum seekers only gain labour market access after remaining in the determination procedure for a set period without a decision, a different rule than the one governing recognised beneficiaries
• Registering the candidate on WorkinRomania.gov.ro out of habit, when no registration is required or possible for this category
• Skipping Revisal registration or payroll setup because "no work permit was needed," conflating the absence of a work authorisation step with the absence of standard employment compliance
• Failing to track the residence permit's renewal date, leaving an otherwise correctly hired employee without a valid document

How Nestlers Group Supports Employers Hiring Protected Persons

Nestlers Group's Immigration Advisory team works directly with employers to verify a candidate's protection status documentation before an offer is finalised, confirming the residence permit is current, correctly categorised, and consistent with the identification details used elsewhere in the hiring file. Where status is ambiguous or a permit is nearing renewal, the team liaises with the relevant IGI structures on the employer's behalf so onboarding is not delayed by a documentation question that has a straightforward answer.

Once the hiring decision is confirmed, Nestlers Group's Payroll and HR Compliance team handles the Revisal contract registration, the associated social security and health insurance notifications, and the payroll setup required for any new employee in Romania, the same infrastructure the team uses for Romanian hires, applied correctly to a subsidiary protection case rather than routed through the non-EU work permit process by mistake.

For employers simultaneously building a broader non-EU hiring pipeline, Nestlers Group's Work Permit and Visa Support team continues to manage D/AM1 and D/AM2 applications through WorkinRomania.gov.ro for candidates who do require formal work authorisation, giving HR teams one point of coordination regardless of which legal pathway a candidate falls under.

Sources: Legea nr. 122/2006 privind azilul in Romania, Articolul 20 (2026 update); Ordonanta Guvernului nr. 25/2014 privind incadrarea in munca si detasarea strainilor pe teritoriul Romaniei, Articolul 3 alin. (2) lit. j; Government Emergency Ordinance No. 32/2026, Official Gazette No. 335, 27 April 2026; General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI), Access to the Labour Market guidance; Ministerul Muncii, Familiei, Tineretului si Solidaritatii Sociale, employer guidance on hiring foreign nationals