Arrival/travel to Romania
-
SHORT TERM RESIDENCE VISA
The short term residence visa allows you to request the entry on the Romanian territory, for reasons others than immigration, in the purpose of an uninterrupted stay or of several stay period whose aggregate duration does not exceed 90 days, within 6 months since the date of your first entry. This type of visa can be released for one or several entries.
In order to be allowed to enter Romania, there are some whose citizens need to obtain an invitation endorsed by the General Inspectorate for Immigration. The invitation can be made by a natural or legal person, either a Romanian or a foreign citizen residing in Romania.
The short term residence visa entitles you to visit Romania for a brief period of time and cannot be extended. If you wish to stay for a longer period of time on the Romanian territory, you must obtain a long term residence visa and afterwards, a residence permit on the Romanian territory.
You can obtain a short term residence visa from the Romanian diplomatic missions and consular offices.
The residence right on the Romanian territory, granted to you through the short term residence visa, cannot be extended. However, if, for objective reasons, you cannot leave the Romanian territory within the term granted by the visa, you can obtain a return decision from the territorial formations of the General Inspectorate for Immigration, such document allowing you to remain in Romania for at most 15 days.
The visa duty amounts to Euro 60 and will be paid in the State where you submit your application.
-
Types of visa
See the list of documents necessary for obtaining the short term residence visa, depending on the purpose of your arrival in Romania:
- Tourism
- Visitation
- Business
- Transportation
- Sports activities
- Cultural, scientific, humanitarian activities, short term medical treatment or other activities which do not violate the Romanian laws
If the short term residence visa is conditioned by the procurement of the invitation
If you are the holder of a simple Passport, you can obtain the short term residence visa for one or several trips if you submit a written invitation (click here for the pattern) to the diplomatic missions and consular offices, endorsed by the General Inspectorate for Immigration, from a Romanian natural or legal person.
The invitation, accompanied by a series of documents, function on its purpose, will be collected, filled in in two counterparts and submitted at the headquarters of the territorial formations of the Romanian Office for Immigration, for endorsement purposes. See the list of documents necessary for the endorsement of the invitation in the purpose of coming to Romania: Visitation, Tourism, Business.
In case the invitation is approved, a counterpart thereof will be handed over to the inviting person, which will transmit it to you. You will submit the invitation, in original, to the diplomatic mission or to the consular office, accompanied by the other documents, in order to obtain the Romanian visa. You must apply for the visa within 30 days since the approval of your invitation, otherwise it loses validity.
The inviting person, either a natural or a legal person, will bear the expenses incurred for the removal of the invited foreign citizens off the Romanian territory. The invitation represents an enforcing title in case the invited foreign citizen does not leave Romania by the date of expiry of his/her residence right, established in the visa.
Exceptions concerning the short term residence visa
There are certain situations when you no longer need the invitation endorsed by the General Inspectorate for Immigration in order to obtain a short term residence visa, in which case you will request the visa from the diplomatic missions or consular offices based on an invitation authenticated by a Notary Public. (See the exceptions of the invitation procedure).
In the purpose of obtaining a short term residence visa, the Ministry of External Affairs usually requests the endorsement of the General Inspectorate for Immigration (this is an internal procedure), thus the term for granting the visa being extended. The General Inspectorate for Immigration issues the endorsement for the short term residence visa within 7 working days since the reception of the request, and in very well grounded cases, the term can be extended by additional 7 working days. However, there are cases when such endorsement is no longer necessary. (See the list of exceptions of the endorsement granted by the General Inspectorate for Immigration)
You can enter in Romania without a visa in case you belong to one of the following situations:
- you are a family member of a EU/EEA citizen and you hold a residence permit for this purpose in a EU/EEA State;
- you hold a valid permanent residence permit in a EU/EEA State;
- you hold a valid visa for a State belonging to the Schengen Area, in which case you can cross the Romanian territory (maximum 5 days stay).
- you hold a permit for small border traffic, issued in accordance with the E.G.O. no. 194/2002 concerning the regime of foreign citizens in Romania and the Regulation of the European Parliament and Council (EC) no. 1931/2006 of 20th of December 2006 laying down the rules on local border traffic at the external land borders of the Member States and amending the provisions of the Schengen Convention, if you exert your circulation right, in line with the small border traffic regime.
