Collecting a Romanian Residence Permit by Power of Attorney: A Practical Guide for Employers

Once a non-EU employee's single permit or residence permit application has been approved, there is one more step before the person is legally authorised to work and reside in Romania: the physical permit card has to be collected from the General Inspectorate for Immigration. For employees who are still abroad finalising other matters, mid-relocation, or simply unable to attend an appointment during IGI's office hours, employers often ask whether someone else can collect the card on the employee's behalf. In most cases the answer is yes, provided the power of attorney authorising that collection is drafted and executed correctly.

Why collection timing matters

A residence permit card is typically only valid, and only legally effective, from the point it is collected and the holder's details are confirmed against the issued document. Until that happens, an employee cannot rely on the approved permit as evidence of authorised status, even though the underlying application has been approved. For employers managing a start date, this creates a practical dependency: payroll onboarding, registration with tax and social security authorities, and the employee's own ability to open a bank account or sign a lease often wait on that card being in hand. A delay in collection, even after approval, can therefore delay the entire onboarding sequence that follows.

When representation by power of attorney is appropriate

Romanian administrative practice generally allows a third party, acting under a validly executed power of attorney, to carry out procedural steps on an applicant's behalf, including document collection, where the underlying decision has already been made by the authority. This is different from representation during the application and interview stage, where the applicant's personal presence is typically required for biometric data capture and identity verification. Once those steps are complete and the permit has been approved, collection of the physical card is more commonly the kind of administrative step that a representative can complete, though practice can vary by local IGI office and case type, so employers should confirm the specific office's requirements before relying on this route.

What the power of attorney needs to contain

A power of attorney used for this purpose should be specific rather than generic. Romanian notarial practice expects the document to clearly identify:

• The full identity details of the employee granting the power, matching exactly what appears on their application and passport
• The full identity details of the representative receiving the power, typically a lawyer, immigration consultant, or authorised company representative
• The specific act being authorised, namely collection of the residence permit card from the named IGI office, rather than a broad, unlimited authorisation
• The date and, where relevant, an expiry or validity period for the authorisation

Notarisation and, where needed, apostille

A power of attorney executed inside Romania must be authenticated before a Romanian public notary. Under Romanian notarial practice, the person granting the power of attorney, the mandator, needs to provide identification and the relevant documentation to the notary, but is not required to be physically present if the arrangement has been properly set up in advance. Where the employee is abroad and executes the power of attorney in another country for use in Romania, the document generally needs to be apostilled, for countries party to the Hague Apostille Convention, or legalised through consular channels for countries that are not. It also typically needs a certified Romanian translation before IGI will accept it. Employers should build in extra time for this sequence when the employee signs the document outside Romania, since apostille and translation both add processing days on top of the notarisation itself.

Common pitfalls that delay collection

The most frequent issue is a mismatch between the identity details on the power of attorney and the details on file with IGI, for example a name spelled differently due to transliteration from a non-Latin script, or a passport number that has changed due to renewal between the time of application and the time of collection. A second common issue is a power of attorney drafted too broadly or too narrowly: one that doesn't specifically authorise collection of the residence card, or one that has already expired by the time collection is attempted, because the approval took longer than expected. A third is assuming that any power of attorney format is acceptable; IGI offices expect the specific notarial form Romanian administrative procedure requires, not a general commercial power of attorney template borrowed from an unrelated transaction.

Building this into the onboarding plan

Employers coordinating relocation for several non-EU hires at once benefit from treating permit collection as its own tracked task rather than an afterthought once approval comes through. Confirming in advance whether the receiving IGI office accepts representative collection, preparing the power of attorney alongside the original application rather than waiting for approval, and keeping the document's validity period aligned with the expected approval timeline all reduce the risk that a ready-to-work employee is held up by a logistics gap rather than a substantive immigration issue.

How Nestlers Group supports this process

Nestlers Group's Immigration Services team manages permit collection by power of attorney as a standard part of its single permit and residence permit casework, coordinating directly with the relevant IGI office to confirm representative-collection practice before the application is filed. Our Additional Services team handles the notarial drafting of the power of attorney itself, including arranging apostille and certified translation where the employee signs from abroad, so that the document is ready and valid by the time a decision is issued. Where a client is relocating several employees on a similar timeline, our Consultancy advisors help sequence collection alongside payroll onboarding and tax registration, so the administrative step of collecting the card does not become the bottleneck in an otherwise completed case.

Sources: General Inspectorate for Immigration (igi.mai.gov.ro), residence permit procedures; rolegal.com, Romanian power of attorney notarisation and apostille requirements; romanianlawoffice.com, power of attorney practice in Romania; PwC Romania, Changes regarding foreign access to the Romanian labour market: GEO No. 32/2026 (2026).