Can a Spouse Work in Romania Without a Separate Work Permit Under GEO 32/2026?

When an HR team relocates an employee to Romania on a D/AM1 or D/AM2 permit, the question that almost always surfaces late in the process is what happens to the spouse. Can they work, or are they confined to a residence permit that lets them live in Romania but not earn an income there? Get the answer wrong and the family either loses months of planning time or the employer ends up hiring someone without the registrations the law requires.

The short version is that a spouse or dependent who holds a valid family reunification residence permit generally already has the right to work in Romania, without going through a separate D/AM1 or D/AM2 application of their own. That surprises a lot of mobility teams, because the instinct is to assume every non-EU hire needs the same quota-and-authorization route as the primary employee. The reality is more nuanced, and the employer still has specific obligations to meet before that spouse can legally start a job.

How a Family Member Gets Residence Status in the First Place

Before anyone can discuss work rights, the spouse or dependent needs their own residence basis in Romania. This comes through the family reunification procedure administered by the General Inspectorate for Immigration, and it depends on the status of the sponsoring employee.

A worker can sponsor family reunification once they hold one of the following:

• A temporary residence permit valid for at least one year
• An EU Blue Card
• An ICT or Mobile ICT permit
• Long-term residence status
• Refugee or subsidiary protection status

Blue Card holders, ICT permit holders, and scientific researchers are exempt from the one-year validity threshold, so their families can apply sooner. Eligible family members include the spouse, unmarried minor children (including adopted children the worker supports), first-degree ascendant relatives who cannot support themselves in their home country, and adult unmarried children who cannot support themselves for medical reasons.

The Approval Conditions IGI Checks

IGI does not approve family reunification automatically. The sponsoring employee has to demonstrate several things at once, and any gap in the file is what causes delays.

• No bigamy or polygamy involved in the relationship
• Housing in Romania considered adequate for a family of that size
• Income at or above the net minimum wage per additional family member, on top of the sponsor's own needs
• Valid, recognized travel documents for every family member
• No entry bans or security concerns on record

IGI has up to three months to issue a decision. Once approved, the family member has 60 days to present that approval at a Romanian diplomatic mission abroad and apply for the long-stay family reunification visa, marked D/VF, before travelling.

What the Residence Permit Actually Allows Once Issued

This is where the common assumption breaks down. GEO 32/2026, which overhauled employer access to foreign labour through D/AM1 and D/AM2, explicitly carves out certain categories of foreign nationals from its authorization and quota regime. Family reunification residence permit holders are one of those carved-out categories. In practice, this means the spouse does not need to be sponsored through the D/AM1 highly-skilled route or compete for a place in the D/AM2 quota. The right to take up employment is already attached to the residence permit they hold.

That does not mean hiring a family member is paperwork-free for the employer. Romanian practice distinguishes between a few scenarios: a family member of a Romanian citizen, a former family member of a Romanian citizen following divorce or widowhood, and a family member of a foreign citizen, which is the scenario that applies to a spouse accompanying a D/AM1 or D/AM2 worker. For that third category, the employer still has registration duties to complete even though no separate work permit application is needed.

Employer Obligations When Hiring the Spouse of a Non-EU Worker

Hiring a spouse who holds a family reunification permit is simpler than sponsoring a new D/AM1 or D/AM2 worker, but it is not identical to hiring a Romanian employee. Employers should expect to:

• Register the employer and the role on the WorkinRomania.gov.ro platform before the contract starts
• Confirm the role matches an occupation on the current List of Deficit Occupations, since this category remains linked to that list
• Issue a bilingual employment contract, in Romanian and the employee's own language
• Register the contract in REGES-ONLINE before the employee's first working day
• Enrol the employee in the mandatory Romanian language course, a minimum of six months at six hours per week, counted from the registration date
• Notify IGI within 10 days of the employment start date, attaching a copy of the contract and the employee's residence permit

Each of these steps carries its own penalty if skipped, ranging from several thousand lei for a missing bilingual contract to tens of thousands of lei per worker for failing to register on the platform or placing someone in an occupation outside the deficit list. The obligations sit with the employer, not the family member, so HR and payroll teams need to treat this hire with the same documentation discipline as any other non-EU employment, even though no quota slot or ANOFM authorization is involved.

Where Timelines Usually Go Wrong

The part that catches HR teams out is sequencing. The spouse cannot be registered as an employee, and the employer cannot complete WorkinRomania registration for them, until the spouse physically holds their Romanian residence permit. That permit, in turn, depends on the D/VF visa, which depends on the IGI approval, which can take up to three months on its own. Add visa appointment availability and travel logistics, and a family's combined relocation and employment timeline frequently runs well beyond what the primary employee's own D/AM1 or D/AM2 process takes. Teams that plan the spouse's job start on the same date as the employee's own start date are usually off by weeks, sometimes months.

How Nestlers Group Supports Family Relocation and Work Authorization

Nestlers Group's Immigration Services team manages the full non-EU first residence permit process for the sponsoring employee, including the document checklist that IGI requires, while coordinating the parallel family reunification file for spouses and dependents so neither track stalls waiting on the other. For the employer side of a family member hire, the same team handles WorkinRomania.gov.ro registration, deficit-occupation verification, and the IGI notification that falls due within 10 days of employment start, so none of the smaller filing deadlines get missed.

Our Relocation Services supports the practical side once the family arrives, including settling-in assistance, home search, and school search for children, which often run on a different timeline than the work authorization itself. For assignments involving multiple family members or recurring moves, Global Mobility and Consultancy Services help HR teams map the realistic combined timeline up front, so the spouse's ability to start work is planned around the actual sequence of Romanian approvals rather than an assumed parallel start date.

Sources: General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI), family reunification guidance, 2026; Government Emergency Ordinance No. 32/2026, Official Gazette No. 335, 27 April 2026; PwC Romania, legal alert on GEO 32/2026 changes to foreign labour market access, 2026; Government Emergency Ordinance No. 194/2002 on the regime of foreigners in Romania, as referenced and amended by GEO 32/2026; WantJob.eu, practitioner guide on employing foreigners holding family reunification permits under GEO 32/2026, 2026.