1 February 2019 – Beginning 1 February 2019, the number of acts and the time for granting work and residence permits for foreigners has reduced. According to the amendments, the competent authority has 2 weeks to issue the decision to extend or grant the right to work or stay for foreign nationals, and another 7 days to process the documents and issue the permit itself. The number of acts to be submitted by migrant workers has been reduced from 10 to 6. Moldovan visa cost was reduced to 40 euro.  Previously, the short-stay electronic visa (type C) cost 60 euro, and the long-stay visa (type D) 80 euro.

The change of the residence state of the foreign national can be also made on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, the foreign national being able to obtain a type D visa without exiting the territory of our country. The employer’s responsibility for the foreigner invited to work in the Republic of Moldova was also upscaled, thus preventing the future creation of illegal migration channels for foreigners from countries with high migration risk. This reform, according to World Bank data, brought savings to the country’s business environment amounting to 21 million lei annually.  Another important impact of this reform is higher pensions and wages for Moldovan residents, since all migrants who will work in Moldova are taxpayers.

The reform of facilitating the issuance of work and residence permits for foreign investors was initiated at the request of the Prime Minister. Its purpose was to eliminate the barriers to legalization of stay and employment of foreign nationals, which was a constraint on investment in our country. This Government reform was pushed forward with the support of the Economic Council and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is  supported  by  the  European  Bank  for  Reconstruction  and  Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund, and the World Bank Group project “Investment Climate Reform”, funded by the Sweden.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.