Private individual, PFA or II: can you hire foreign workers? What OUG 32/2026 allows

A pensioner who wants a live-in carer, a carpenter with a PFA who can no longer find people, an agricultural sole enterprise that needs hands for the harvest: they all ask the same thing. Can I bring a worker from outside the EU without having a company?

The short answer: yes, but with clear limits. OUG 32/2026 recognises the private individual, the PFA (persoană fizică autorizată, authorised self-employed person) and the II (întreprindere individuală, sole enterprise) as employers, but it sets a maximum number of workers for them, closes the path to authorisation and gives them exactly the same obligations as a company. The guide below shows what each form can do, on which visa route, and which mistakes cost the most.

In short

Who can be an employer of foreigners

With OUG 32/2026, the law on foreigners defines the employer as a legal entity, a private individual, an authorised self-employed person or an enterprise, with its registered office or domicile in Romania (art. 2 lit. aa OUG 194/2002). You do not need a trading company to hire a foreigner.

What you cannot do without a company is become an authorised employer (angajator autorizat), meaning the employer that brings D/AM2 workers without an agency. The law reserves this status for legal entities (art. 2 alin. 2 lit. d OUG 32/2026) and additionally requires at least 50 employees and 24 months of activity (art. 12 alin. 1).

How many foreigners you can hire

The limit differs by form and is worded differently in the law. The difference matters:

• A private individual can sign employment contracts with at most three foreigners (art. 6 alin. 4 OUG 32/2026). The limit concerns only foreigners: a Romanian employee does not count.
• A PFA and an II hire foreigners within the staff limits of OUG 44/2008 (art. 6 alin. 5 OUG 32/2026). These limits concern all employees: a PFA can have at most 3, an II at most 8.
• A family enterprise cannot hire third parties with an employment contract, so it cannot hire foreigners either.

Example. A carpentry PFA already has two Romanian employees. It can hire only one more foreigner. For three foreigners it has two options: switching to an II, which can have up to 8 employees, or setting up a company.

The cap applied to companies (the average number of employees in the previous year) does not apply to PF, PFA and II. For them, only the limits above count.

On which route you can bring the worker: D/AM1 or D/AM2

OUG 32/2026 divides workers into two visa categories. For PF, PFA and II, the difference between them decides whether hiring is possible.

D/AM1 workers: the route open to everyone

The D/AM1 visa concerns citizens of the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Serbia, as well as highly qualified workers (art. 27^1 OUG 194/2002). For them:

• the registered employer submits the single application (cerere unică) in WorkinRomania on its own, without an agency;
• the occupation does not have to be on the shortage occupations list (Lista ocupațiilor deficitare);
• PF, PFA and II can use this route, within the worker limits above.

For a family looking for a carer or a housekeeper, this is the working route.

D/AM2 workers: only through an agency, and not for private individuals

For other workers from outside the EU (for example from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka or the Philippines), the visa is D/AM2, and the rules are stricter:

• the occupation must be on the Lista ocupațiilor deficitare (art. 1 alin. 3 OUG 32/2026);
• an employer that is not authorised must sign a service contract with an authorised placement agency (art. 10), and the single application is submitted by the agency;
• employers working with the agency must actually carry out activity for at least one year in fields compatible with the shortage occupations and be entered in the Register of Employers of Foreigners (art. 23 alin. 3). The WorkinRomania platform lists this condition explicitly among the registration requirements for the D/AM2 route.

The last condition decides everything:

• A PFA and an II meet it if they have at least one year of activity under a CAEN code compatible with the occupation they are hiring for. A carpentry PFA with two years of activity can bring a carpenter from Nepal through an agency; a PFA set up three months ago cannot.
• A private individual does not carry out economic activity, so they do not meet the condition, and neither the law nor the platform provides any exception for them. A private individual cannot hire workers on the D/AM2 route. They are left with the D/AM1 route and foreigners who already have the right to work in Romania (next section).

When you do not need registration at all

Some foreigners already in Romania are hired on the basis of the permit they hold, without a single application and without the employer registering on the platform (art. 4 alin. 2 OUG 32/2026, which refers to art. 132^1 alin. 1 OUG 194/2002). The most common cases are:

• long-term residents (lit. a). Details in the guide on long-term residence;
• family members of Romanian citizens (lit. b). Details in the guide on hiring with a family reunification permit.

A common exception: the husband or wife of a foreign worker, who came through family reunification (lit. n), is hired on the basis of their permit, but the employer must be registered on the platform. The situation is explained in the guide on family reunification and the integration course.

In these cases too, the contract is registered in REGES-ONLINE, and the staff limits for PFA and II apply in the same way.

Conditions for registration in WorkinRomania

ANOFM (National Employment Agency) approves the registration if the employer cumulatively meets the conditions in art. 5 alin. 1 OUG 32/2026. For PF, PFA and II, these are:

• no debts to the general consolidated budget;
• no sanctions, in the last 6 months, for employing foreigners without the right to work, for undeclared work or for breaching the REGES-ONLINE rules;
• no final convictions for the offences in the Labour Code (art. 264 alin. 3 and art. 265) or for intentional offences, in Romania or abroad;
• no entry in the National automated register of persons who have committed sexual offences, offences of exploitation of persons or offences against minors;
• no reports of activities that threaten national security;
• no risk of money laundering or terrorist financing.

The conditions concerning the person (lit. f and g) expressly name the private individual employer, the PFA holder, the II holder and any member of the family enterprise. The one-year activity condition in lit. b concerns only legal entities; for PFA and II, the year of activity counts on the D/AM2 route, through art. 23 alin. 3.

If the holder does not have Romanian citizenship, they upload to the platform the criminal record certificate from their country, translated and legalised (art. 5 alin. 7).

ANOFM responds within at most 30 working days (art. 5 alin. 6). After approval, the employer automatically appears in the Register of Employers of Foreigners (Registrul angajatorilor străinilor, R.A.S.).

How to register on the platform

1. Authentication. You log in to workinromania.gov.ro through ROeID, CEI or ghiseul.ro.
2. Account type. A private individual registers as a private individual employer (angajator persoană fizică). A PFA and an II register as a legal entity (persoană juridică): the platform explicitly includes PFA and II in this category.
3. The registration application. You fill in the details and upload the required documents, including the declarations on the conditions above.
4. The vacancy at ANOFM. The firm offer (oferta fermă) must contain a job declared vacant at ANOFM (art. 6 alin. 3). The steps are in the tutorial for the PULS job advert and the firm offer.
5. The firm offer and the single application. You upload them after the registration is approved. See the tutorial on the firm offer and employer registration.

The account can also be used by a legal or appointed representative (art. 6 alin. 4–5). The steps for appointing someone are in the tutorial on appointing a person.

Platform status as of 13 October 2026. Since 15 September 2026, the flows for employer registration and authorisation and for submitting D/AM2 single applications have been disabled, after the Bucharest Court of Appeal suspended the order approving the Lista ocupațiilor deficitare (case 5633/2/2026). An employer that was not registered by then cannot submit D/AM1 applications either, because these start from an already registered account. Details in the guide on the suspension of the list. The registration documents can be prepared now, so that the file goes out on the first day after the platform is unblocked.

What obligations you have after hiring

The law makes no difference between a large company and a family hiring a carer: the obligations in art. 7 OUG 32/2026 are the same. The fines are those in art. 42.

Hiring foreigners without registering on the platform, where registration is mandatory, is sanctioned separately, with 15,000–20,000 lei (art. 42 alin. 3 lit. a).

Accommodation. If you provide accommodation, for example the carer lives with you, the conditions are included in the firm offer, and the rent deducted cannot exceed 25% of the net salary (art. 7 alin. 2).

On top of these come the obligations of any employer: the contract registered in REGES-ONLINE before work starts, at least the minimum wage, contributions and annual leave.

Three concrete situations

1. The family looking for a carer. A family from Cluj wants a carer to live with the grandfather. The employer will be a family member, as a private individual.

• They can hire a citizen of the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine or Serbia (D/AM1) or a foreign woman who already has the right to work, for example long-term residence.
• They cannot bring a carer from the Philippines or Nepal: that is the D/AM2 route, closed to private individuals.
• Steps: registration as a private individual employer, vacancy declared at ANOFM, firm offer with the accommodation conditions, the single application, then the bilingual contract in REGES-ONLINE, salary into a bank account and the Romanian course.

2. A carpentry PFA with one Romanian employee. It can hire at most two foreigners, because the limit of 3 concerns all employees.

• A carpenter from the Republic of Moldova: D/AM1 route, single application submitted directly by the PFA.
• A carpenter from Nepal: D/AM2 route, through an authorised agency, provided that the occupation is on the Lista ocupațiilor deficitare and the PFA has at least one year of activity under a compatible CAEN code.

3. An agricultural II that wants harvest workers. It has three Romanian employees, so it can hire at most five more foreigners.

• Seasonal workers from outside the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Serbia come on D/AM2, through an agency, for occupations on the Lista ocupațiilor deficitare.
• If it needs more than five people, it needs a company.

Common mistakes

• A private individual signs with an agency for a D/AM2 worker. The agency cannot submit the single application for an employer that does not have one year of economic activity. Money paid for a service that cannot be provided is hard to recover.
• A PFA or II counts only the foreigners. The limits of 3 and 8 respectively concern all employees.
• A PFA or II creates a private individual account. For them, the correct account type is legal entity.
• The salary is paid in cash "because it is simpler". The fine applies for each worker.
• The Romanian course is forgotten. The obligation exists even for a single carer.
• The worker's departure is not reported. An absence of more than 3 working days and the termination of the contract are notified to IGI within 5 working days.
• The worker starts work before the visa or permit. This is work without the right to work, with sanctions for both.

In short

What WantJOB can do

WantJOB specialists can prepare for you the registration in WorkinRomania, the vacancy advert, the firm offer and the single application file, so that the application goes out on the first day after the platform is unblocked. Contact: 0750 238 304 or office@wantjob.eu.

Sources

• OUG no. 32/2026 on foreigners' access to the labour market in Romania (igi.mai.gov.ro)
• OUG no. 194/2002 on the regime of foreigners in Romania, consolidated version (igi.mai.gov.ro)
• Staff limits for PFA, II and IF under Law 182/2016 (fiscalitatea.ro)
• The WorkinRomania.gov.ro platform: conditions for employers
• The WantJOB guide to OUG 32/2026 for employers
• Amendments proposed in the Chamber of Deputies to OUG 32/2026

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This resource is for information purposes and reflects OUG 32/2026 as in force on 13 October 2026. The law approving the ordinance is under debate in the Chamber of Deputies (PL-x 427/2026), and as of this date the employer registration flows in WorkinRomania were stopped. For a specific situation, we recommend consulting ANOFM, IGI or a specialist.