Getting Permission to Live in Romania beyond 90 days

Hello,  I am an American who desires to come to Romania to live.  I have friends there and I want to come and learn the language and about your culture.  I know I can come there solely on my passport for a period of up to 90 days, but I really want to stay beyond the 90 period.  I would like to reside there for at least one year.  I might attend classes for language. I am also a nurse here and although retired I could possibly do volunteer work helping elderly people or sick people in their homes.  This is something I would be very happy to do.  I just need to know what I would need to do to get permission to stay beyond the initial 90 period.  I know I have to apply for visa, but I am not sure if that alone will help me to stay.  Please advise me.  Thank you!

Sincerely,

James Roberts

Mr james, you are welcome in Romania!  I am Touati Mohamed Ali rezident in Romania and living from over 20years here.
There are a entry of tricks and methods to have a permission to stay in Romania over 90 touristic days permission.
To employed by a Romania  company with contract full time or part time
Or to open an association with 2others dealing with babysitters and social assistance for other americans and anglophone here
The other solutiin is to get married here with a sweet Romanian lady...
So take your choice and feel free to ask when you decide about it.
I am on the consulting area for start up companies and social help cor expat and imigrants.

tovati wrote:

The other solutiin is to get married here with a sweet Romanian lady...
So take your choice and feel free to ask when you decide about it.
I am on the consulting area for start up companies and social help cor expat and imigrants.


Suggesting a marriage of convenience just to live in Romania a year? Sorry, but that is not at all sound advice to an expat, as it will create more problems than solutions. 

Romaniac
Expat.com Experts Team

I am not suggesting my dear i am detailing legal possibilities.  And by the way do you know a mariage that is not convenient? Words loses meani g when we put them on wrong places.  People are free to marry for 2days or forever if the law permit that. And you can eject me from your forum if you feel that expat are more intelectuals then imigrants.

Indeed. I guess James wants to live in Romania for discovering new things. Probably it will lead to some happiness. Marrying a lady to stay in Romania for just one year sounds a bit... extreme.

Maybe the better way is to get employed by a big Romanian city. You maybe can try eJobs and suchs sites for that. Or try to find more info at your counsel.

tovati wrote:

I am not suggesting my dear i am detailing legal possibilities.  And by the way do you know a mariage that is not convenient? Words loses meani g when we put them on wrong places.  People are free to marry for 2days or forever if the law permit that. And you can eject me from your forum if you feel that expat are more intelectuals then imigrants.


Marriage for the purpose of immigration (aka marriage of convenience) is not legal, and IGI in Romania check via interviews/home visits before issuing residence permits.

For american citizens and european citizens , no such procedure are used.  Specially for expat. Those procedure are used for extra eu members and citizens because they are considered imigrants and coming in europe just to take our women and our wealthy. 
Keep cool. No interviews for Americans.  Feel free to stay in Romania and you are all very welcome.

Try Dean Edgar at facebook.com/MoorcroftRomania/ (Moorcroft Services)  on facebook.
A Brit who was a huge help with any and all the necessaries to live legally in RO.
Tell him Shelly sent you. :)

Thank you Shelly, I will definitely check this out.  I will give him your greetings!  I appreciate your response very much.  I am excited to come to Romania and live there for a while, maybe forever!  :)

Once you arrive in Romania, you should obtain an immigration lawyer who will help you to open a business. Americans who open businesses in Romania are automatically granted residence permits. You should budget for the lawyer and the accountant who will help you pay the appropriate taxes. Do you know what city you want to live in?

Thank you kindly for your response.  I plan to come to Iasi to live.  I have friends there that I would like to live near.  I understand that by opening a business there I need to see an immigration attorney there in Iasi.  So I would need money to pay the attorney and taxes and also have money to open a business.  Is this correct?  Do you know or can you find out for me how much money I will need to accomplish this?  I would appreciate any help you can offer.  Thank you so much for responding, I really do appreciate you!  Be blessed! 

Warm regards,

Jim Roberts

About $500 for the lawyer and $500 for the accountant. You'll need to have a contract for your rental agreement (and obviously, an address). Your business will also need its own address. If your friends own a property outright, then you might consider asking them if you can use its address for the paperwork. The lawyer will explain about the process a little more in detail.

Since you mentioned an interest in learning Romanian, another option would be to look at universities in Iasi to see if they offer a preparatory year of Romanian. You're not obliged to seek a degree by taking these classes, but it would make you eligible for the residence permit as a student. I'm enrolled in similar classes and the price is about $2,000.

Get your essential documents  (birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc.) apostilled in the states before you come.

Any way you go, just be prepared to do some paperwork and waiting at government offices. It's the way of life here :)

Would running my online business open me to the same opportunities in Romania? I will be in Targu-mures for at least Sept-end of Nov. I want to work with a ministry to orphans, but would also like to run the business. I speak some Romanian (I can make my way around).

You will need to open a Romanian business for the residence permit. You can authorize the Romanian business to perform certain activities similar to what you do for your online business. If you're just coming for three months though, I wouldn't bother going through this process. It's too expensive and time consuming.

Americans get 90 days visa free, so I would do that instead. Maybe the volunteer organization you want to help out can sponsor you if you want to stay longer?

+1 Agree with Magnolia
Applying for either a long-stay Religious visa or Other Scopes Visa would probably be more appropriate if 90 days stay is not enough.

Thank you very much for your kind response.  Please feel free to add me as a contact.  I would like very much to remain in contact with you until my arrival in Romania.  Any help you can give to me I will certainly appreciate very much.  Thank you so much!

Iubesc_România wrote:

Thank you very much for your kind response.  Please feel free to add me as a contact.  I would like very much to remain in contact with you until my arrival in Romania.  Any help you can give to me I will certainly appreciate very much.  Thank you so much!


Could you please use the "quote" button, or the @username notation so others know whom you are responding to?  :)  Thanks.

Romaniac
Expat.com Experts Team

???

I replied to the person who wrote to me.  Doesn't my reply go directly to him?  The conversation was not intended to be publicized.  As I am typing this message in reply to yours, I do not see any place to add quotation marks, unless you mean for me to type them.

Iubesc_România wrote:

???

I replied to the person who wrote to me.  Doesn't my reply go directly to him?  The conversation was not intended to be publicized.  As I am typing this message in reply to yours, I do not see any place to add quotation marks, unless you mean for me to type them.


This IS a public forum James, the world can see this topic :)  Below each post from a user there is a "reply" and "quote" button ;) I just used the "quote" button to answer you here, and as you can see....your post is quoted and shaded.

Use the PM system if you want your conversations private, although you presented a good question that I'm sure others can benefit from following the discussion here ;)

Americans do not have any free pass in like the EU citizens. We jump through the same hoops as any other immigrant.
For someone with such a great background in medicine the volunteer opportunities would be spectacular and I would never get into the legal and financial morass of opening a business when getting a one-year permit (that's all they offer) would be so easy for a medical volunteer.
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You need to find a Romanian-based NGO to offer you a one year contract. If you are a credentialed nurse that shouldn't be difficult. An NGO may request a criminal record check so have one available.
You need to buy private health insurance here.
And you need a signed lease for your apartment, along with proof of enough income to allow you to live without working.
I needed all these things and I should get my card next week.