Romania: a student visa, where it is applied for and what to check

What you need to do

First find out whether you need a visa at all. If you hold the citizenship of a union country there is no visa question — there is a different procedure, with a right of residence and registration at your place of stay. This is the most common confusion among applicants from Moldova, and it is worth settling before any appointments or fees.

If a visa is needed, it is the long-stay one for study. The application goes through the state visa portal, while documents and the interview go to the Romanian mission responsible for your place of residence. The portal and the mission are linked: the appointment through the portal, the appearance at the consulate.

After arrival the residence permit is applied for inside the country, at the immigration authority, and within a deadline. A visa gives the right to enter; living and studying on is allowed by the permit, and being late here costs more than it seems.

Where the official answers live

• The Foreign Ministry's state visa portal — types of visa, how to apply, the list of documents.
• The General Inspectorate for Immigration — what happens after arrival: residence permit, extension, obligations.

How to check that the requirement has not changed

Read the list of documents on the portal and at your own mission at the same time: where they differ, the one who accepts the documents decides.

If you hold dual citizenship or an application for it is pending, do not build a plan on "we should make it in time": until the status exists you apply as a foreign national, and the route follows the documents you have, not the ones you expect.

Timings, fees and document lists for Romania are in the facts on the country page, each with a link to its primary source and the date it was checked.