Police Clearance Certificates for Non-EU Employees in Romania: What Employers Must Arrange

Among the documents a non-EU hire must produce before a Romanian work authorisation is granted, the criminal record certificate is one of the easiest to underestimate and one of the most common causes of delay. Romanian authorities, including the General Inspectorate for Immigration, require evidence that an applicant has no relevant criminal history, both from Romania itself and, in most cases, from the applicant's country of residence over the preceding period. Because this document usually has to travel from abroad, be translated, and in many cases be apostilled, it frequently becomes the longest lead-time item in an otherwise straightforward single permit application under GEO 32/2026.

What the certificate confirms and who needs one

A police clearance certificate, known in Romania as a cazier judiciar, is an official record confirming whether a person has a criminal record in the issuing jurisdiction. For a non-EU employee applying for a Romanian work and residence authorisation, the expectation is twofold: a certificate from the country or countries where the applicant has resided in recent years, and, once the applicant has spent time in Romania, a Romanian-issued certificate as well for any renewal or long-term residence step. Employers should treat this as a personal document belonging to the employee, but one the employer has a direct interest in tracking, since an incomplete file is one of the most frequent reasons a WorkinRomania submission is returned for corrections.

Obtaining the certificate from abroad

For the foreign-issued certificate, the process depends entirely on the applicant's home country, since Romania has no authority to request records directly from another state's police or justice ministry on an applicant's behalf. In practice this means the employee, or someone holding a properly executed power of attorney on their behalf, must apply directly to the relevant national authority. Processing times vary widely by country, from a few days in some jurisdictions to several weeks in others, and this variability is precisely why the document should be requested as early as possible in the hiring timeline rather than left until other paperwork is assembled.

Once issued, a foreign certificate generally needs to go through two further steps before Romanian authorities will accept it:

• Apostille or consular legalisation, depending on whether the issuing country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention
• A certified translation into Romanian, carried out by an authorised translator, since the original-language document alone will not be accepted

Both steps add time, and both are easy to overlook if an employer assumes the certificate is "done" as soon as it arrives from the issuing authority.

Obtaining the certificate inside Romania

For non-EU nationals already resident in Romania, for example at the renewal stage of a residence permit, a Romanian criminal record certificate can be requested directly from Romanian police authorities. Applicants typically need valid identification, and the processing window for a domestically issued certificate tends to run from roughly ten to twenty working days, though this depends on the specific issuing office and whether the request is submitted online or in person. Several accredited providers now offer online submission for the Romanian certificate, which can shorten the practical turnaround for applicants who are not able to attend in person.

Where power of attorney fits in

Because the applicant is not always physically present in Romania, or is tied up with other relocation logistics, employers commonly rely on power of attorney arrangements to move the certificate process along. A power of attorney executed in Romania must be authenticated before a public notary, and the person granting it does not need to attend in person themselves if the documentation is otherwise in order. A power of attorney executed abroad for use in Romania needs to be apostilled, or legalised through consular channels for non-Hague countries, and then translated, before it will be accepted by Romanian authorities or by a representative acting on the applicant's behalf. This is a separate document from the criminal record certificate itself, but the two are frequently prepared together, since both commonly sit on the critical path of a work authorisation file.

Building the certificate into the hiring timeline

The practical risk with police clearance documentation is not that it is difficult to obtain, but that it is easy to sequence incorrectly. Employers who wait until a WorkinRomania submission is otherwise complete before requesting the certificate routinely find that it becomes the single item holding up filing, since apostille and translation add time on top of the issuing authority's own processing window. A more reliable approach treats the certificate as a day-one task, requested in parallel with other pre-employment documentation such as the employment contract and qualification recognition, rather than as a final checklist item.

Employers should also confirm, before relying on any single certificate, whether the receiving Romanian authority expects documentation from every country where the applicant has resided for a meaningful period in recent years, not only the applicant's current country of residence. Requirements of this kind are assessed case by case, and a certificate that covers only the most recent country of residence can be insufficient where an applicant's recent history spans more than one jurisdiction.

How Nestlers Group supports this process

Nestlers Group's Immigration Services team manages police clearance requirements as a standard part of single permit and residence permit case preparation, including coordinating with employees on which jurisdictions require a certificate, tracking apostille and translation timelines, and preparing the Romanian-issued certificate for employees already resident in the country. Our Additional Services team handles the notarial drafting of powers of attorney, with or without the client's physical attendance, so that document collection can proceed even when an applicant cannot be present in person. Where document authentication spans multiple countries, our Consultancy advisors coordinate the sequencing so that the criminal record certificate does not become the item that delays an otherwise ready WorkinRomania filing.

Sources: General Inspectorate for Immigration (igi.mai.gov.ro), residence and work permit documentation guidance; PwC Romania, Changes regarding foreign access to the Romanian labour market: GEO No. 32/2026 (2026); cazier-judiciar.ro, guidance on obtaining a Romanian criminal record certificate for foreign citizens (2026); rolegal.com, Romanian power of attorney notarisation and apostille requirements.