After you graduate
Rules read 19 Aug 2026. Check the current rules, this may be out of date
What Romania's own immigration authority currently publishes. Not a ranking, not a guarantee, and not the same as what any agent or forum will tell you. Whether someone actually obtains residence depends on occupation, points, funds and policy that can change between application and graduation.
Work during study
Romania's General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs) states that a foreign student wanting to supplement their income during their studies can take up work without needing a separate employment authorisation (aviz de angajare), but only under a part-time individual employment contract, with working hours capped at a maximum of 6 hours a day.
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✓ Word for wordRead 19 Aug 2026
“Dacă vrei să-ți suplinești veniturile pe perioada cât studiezi, te poți angaja fără aviz de angajare numai cu contract individual de muncă cu timp parţial, cu durata muncii de maximum 6 ore pe zi.”
Open the official page ↗Post-study work visa
Prelungirea dreptului de ședere temporară pentru studii, în vederea căutării unui loc de muncă (post-study extension of the temporary study residence right for job-seeking) . Up to 9 months
IGI states that the temporary right of residence for study purposes may be extended by 9 months after graduation, for the purpose of looking for a job and completing employment formalities, or to start a business, on presentation of documents proving completion of studies. This is separate from a shorter, distinct extension of up to 6 months that IGI also publishes for finalising outstanding school/university paperwork or authenticating study documents, which is not for job-seeking.
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✓ Word for wordRead 19 Aug 2026
“Dreptul de şedere temporară pentru studii se poate prelungi cu 9 luni după absolvirea studiilor, pentru căutarea unui loc de muncă şi efectuarea formalităţilor de angajare în muncă sau în vederea deschiderii unei afaceri, cu prezentarea documentelor care atestă finalizarea studiilor.”
Open the official page ↗Route to permanent residence
IGI states that under Government Emergency Ordinance no. 194/2002 on the legal regime of foreign nationals, the residence period held for study purposes counts at half its length toward establishing eligibility for long-term residence — a rule notably similar to Spain's 50% rule elsewhere on StudyPath. To have a long-term residence application approved, the applicant must cumulatively: hold a valid right of residence other than the one originally held for study purposes (i.e. have already transitioned to another status, typically work-based, by the time of applying); have held temporary residence in Romania continuously for the 5 years before applying (with study years counted at half, per the rule above); not have been absent from Romania for more than a 10-month total or 6 consecutive months within that period; have no removal order pending against them; prove health insurance, sufficient means of support, and housing; and know Romanian to at least a satisfactory level.
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✓ Word for wordRead 19 Aug 2026
“Conform Ordonanței de Urgență a Guvernului nr. 194/2002 privind regimul juridic al străinilor, perioada de ședere deținută în scop de studii se calculează la jumătate în stabilirea dreptului de ședere pe termen lung.
Pentru ca cererea să fie aprobată, solicitanții trebuie să îndeplinească cumulativ următoarele condiții :
Să fie posesorii unui drept de ședere valabil, altul decât cel deținut inițial în scop de studii;
La data depunerii cererii să aibe drept de ședere temporară în România în mod continuu în ultimii 5 ani;”
Open the official page ↗Route to citizenship
Romanian citizenship by grant (acordare la cerere) is governed by Article 8 of Law no. 21/1991 on Romanian citizenship (republished), the country's underlying legislative text. It may be granted, on request, to a stateless person or foreign citizen who: was born on, or has lived lawfully on, Romanian territory for at least 8 years, or at least 5 years from the date of marriage if married to and living with a Romanian citizen; proves loyalty to the Romanian state through their conduct and declares they have not acted against public order or national security; is at least 18; has secured lawful means for a decent living in Romania; is known for good conduct and has no conviction that would make them unworthy of being a Romanian citizen; knows the Romanian language and has basic knowledge of Romanian culture and civilisation sufficient to integrate socially; and knows the provisions of the Romanian Constitution and the national anthem. Article 8(2) halves that residence period for an internationally-recognised personality, a citizen of an EU member state, a recognised refugee, or someone who has invested more than €1,000,000 in Romania. This numbered list of conditions does not include a requirement to renounce the applicant's original nationality — StudyPath found no clause in Article 8 addressing dual nationality either way.
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✓ Word for wordRead 19 Aug 2026
“(1) Cetăţenia română se poate acorda, la cerere, persoanei fără cetăţenie sau
cetăţeanului străin, dacă îndeplineşte următoarele condiţii:
a) s-a născut şi domiciliază, la data cererii, pe teritoriul României sau, deşi nu s-a
născut pe acest teritoriu, domiciliază în condiţiile legii pe teritoriul statului român de
cel puţin 8 ani sau, în cazul în care este căsătorit şi convieţuieşte cu un cetăţean
român, de cel puţin 5 ani de la data căsătoriei;”
Open the official page ↗New entry added 19 August 2026. Two Romanian government domains accepted as a government source here: igi.mai.gov.ro (Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs — Romania's immigration/residence authority) and sri.ro (Serviciul Român de Informații, the Romanian Intelligence Service, whose site hosts a reference copy of the Citizenship Law's full text — used only because the actual citizenship authority's own domains were unreachable, see below). On the source: Romania's actual citizenship authority, the Autoritatea Națională pentru Cetățenie (ANC), publishes at cetatenie.just.ro, and the country's official legislative portal is legislatie.just.ro — both domains were confirmed genuinely unreachable from this environment via curl ('Could not resolve host' for cetatenie.just.ro, TLS handshake failure for legislatie.just.ro) and via the a real browser browser fallback (both loaded to a browser error page), similar to the gov.za unreachability documented elsewhere on StudyPath for South Africa. A reachable government-portal alternative was used instead: serviciipublice.gov.ro (Romania's national public-services catalogue, run by the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania) confirmed that citizenship-by-request is granted under Article 8 of Law no. 21/1991 by the ANC, with an average processing time of 180 days (240 maximum) and no fee, but its own page explicitly stated required-documents information was 'currently unavailable,' so it was not used as the substantive citation — the actual numbered Article 8 text was instead sourced from a copy of the law hosted on sri.ro. Collection note on the PDF itself: sri.ro's copy of Law 21/1991 has a font-encoding defect where the Romanian letter ă (a-breve) is inconsistently rendered as ã (a-tilde, a letter that does not exist in Romanian) in the extracted text — confirmed as a genuine PDF font/glyph-mapping defect (not a charset/downloading issue) since correctly-rendered ă also appears elsewhere in the same extraction; every ã was corrected to ă before archiving, following the established pattern elsewhere on StudyPath for fixing confirmed character-encoding defects rather than preserving corrupted text. inDemandOccupations is left null: no shortage-occupation list was found tied to these routes on igi.mai.gov.ro. naturalisationStatus set to 'published-route': Law 21/1991 publishes a real, lettered set of residence-length, conduct, language and civics conditions — per the doc comment on ResidencyPathway.naturalisationStatus this field records only whether criteria are published, not how demanding Romania's 8-year ordinary route is in practice. citizenshipTerms records the Article 8 period of 8 years’ lawful domicile. Article 8(2) halves it for an internationally recognised personality, an EU citizen, a recognised refugee, or someone who has invested more than €1,000,000 in Romania. dualCitizenshipAllowed is null: Article 8’s numbered conditions do not address renunciation either way.
Open the immigration authority's own page ↗