Romania Requires a 60-Day IGI-Approved Invitation for Business Visa Applicants From Visa-Required Countries

Non-EU business travellers to Romania face two very different processes depending on nationality: visa-exempt nationals can enter for up to 90 days in any 180-day period with no visa at all, while visa-required nationals generally need a short-stay Type C business visa — and for many of those, the process starts with a Letter of Invitation that Romania's General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI) can take up to 60 days to approve.

What the Business Visa Process Involves

Romania's short-stay visa (Type C) covers business trips, client meetings and commercial activities for up to 90 days within any 180-day period, issued with single or multiple entries. The visa fee is €60, paid directly to the Romanian diplomatic mission where the application is lodged.

For nationals of countries on Romania's visa-required list, a business visit typically requires a written invitation from a Romanian company or individual, submitted in two original copies to the local IGI territorial office along with supporting business documentation. The IGI is required to process and approve these invitations within 60 days of submission. Once approved, the inviting company forwards the original invitation to the traveller, who must then submit the full visa application — invitation, passport, proof of employment or business activity, bank statements and a cover letter — to a Romanian consulate within 30 days of the invitation's approval, or it expires.

Some nationalities are exempt from the invitation-approval step and can apply using a simple, non-IGI-endorsed invitation letter directly at the consulate — a materially faster route.

What This Means for Employers and Employees

For a global mobility team scheduling a business trip to Romania, nationality is the first filter to check, not the traveller's itinerary. A visa-exempt employee can typically be booked on short notice using only standard proof-of-purpose documents. A visa-required employee may need the Romanian host entity to file an invitation with IGI months in advance, since the 60-day approval window plus the subsequent consular visa processing and the 30-day window to actually apply after approval can stretch a straightforward business trip into a multi-month lead time.

For the individual traveller, this means confirming early whether an IGI-approved invitation is required for their specific passport, since the exceptions list is nationality-specific and easy to get wrong.

Action Steps

1. Check the traveller's nationality against Romania's visa-required and invitation-exception lists before locking in a trip date — nationality, not itinerary, is the first filter.
2. Where an IGI invitation is needed, submit it as early as commercially possible — ideally three months ahead of the trip date.
3. Keep employment verification, bank statements and a clear cover letter explaining the business purpose ready to submit immediately once the invitation is approved.
4. File the full visa application at a Romanian consulate within 30 days of the invitation's approval, or it expires.
5. For visa-exempt nationalities, prepare standard proof-of-purpose documents and book on shorter notice — no IGI step applies.

Sources: General Inspectorate for Immigration, Romania (official), "How to obtain a short stay visa for business?"; Embassy of Romania in Sri Lanka (official), "Business visa (C/A)"; Immigration Romania Lawyer, "Business Visa Romania - 2026 Application Requirements."