Family member of a Romanian citizen — long-stay visa D/VF
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Membru de familie al unui cetăţean român — viza de lungă şedere cu scopul reîntregirea familiei (simbol D/VF) as of 2026-08-25[1][2] The Ordinance names no permit for this instrument, so the authority's own descriptor is recorded, taken from IGI's permit page, which heads the section 'Pentru obtinerea permisului de sedere ca membru de familie al unui cetatean roman'. RECORDED AS ITS OWN ROUTE AND NOT FOLDED INTO ro-reintregirea-familiei, deliberately: the sponsor is a Romanian citizen rather than a resident foreigner, the eligible relations are a different and wider list, the processing clock is different (up to 90 days for the first permit against 30), the long-term residence permit that follows runs 10 years rather than 5, there is no means test and no IGI aviz stage. Nothing but the visa symbol is shared. |
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| Official name (English) | Family member of a Romanian citizen — long-stay visa D/VF as of 2026-08-25[1][2] Translation of the authority's Romanian wording; no official English name was found. |
| Legal basis | Ordonanţa de urgenţă a Guvernului nr. 194/2002, republicată, cu modificările şi completările ulterioare, art. 46 alin. (16) pentru scutirea de taxa de viză, coroborat cu art. 2 lit. e^1) as of 2026-08-25[1][2][6] Article 2 lit. e^1) was read directly and covers family members of a Romanian citizen expressly. Article 46 alin. (16) is the Ministry's own citation on its fee page, for the categories of family members of Romanian citizens exempt from the long-stay visa fee; article 46 is behind the retrieval ceiling. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-25[2] A D/VF long-stay visa, then a residence permit; and after five years a long-term residence permit valid 10 years, against 5 years for every other purpose. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2026-08-25[1][6] |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. Age limits here are relation-specific and are in eligible_relations. |
| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. IGI's document lists for the four categories do not include a criminal record certificate and are not framed as closed lists. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | Not established from a qualifying source Not established as a single figure for the first grant. IGI states two rules and neither is a plain initial term: the spouse and family members of a Romanian citizen may have the temporary residence right extended FOR PERIODS OF UP TO 5 YEARS; and a family member of a Romanian citizen DOMICILED ABROAD has it extended for a period not exceeding the validity of that citizen's provisional identity card. |
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| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-25[2] The permit as a family member of a Romanian citizen is renewed at least 30 days before the previous one expires. |
| Renewal duration | up to 5 years as of 2026-08-25[2] Up to 5 years for the spouse and family members of a Romanian citizen; capped instead by the provisional identity card's validity where the Romanian citizen is domiciled abroad. |
| Work rights | Not established from a qualifying source |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-25[4] IGI: the long-term residence right may be obtained as a family member of a Romanian citizen as well as for the other purposes of stay, and THE LONG-TERM RESIDENCE PERMIT IS VALID 10 YEARS in that case against 5 for every other purpose – the only place in this record where the family relationship changes the document rather than the conditions. |
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Requirements
| Who can sponsor | citizen as of 2026-08-25[1][2] The sponsor is a Romanian citizen. The Ministry adds a sixth category that is not about the Romanian citizen's status but about the family member's: foreigners who are family members of Romanian citizens and prove they are REGISTERED WITH A RIGHT OF RESIDENCE IN ANOTHER MEMBER STATE in that capacity. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2026-08-25[1][2] A WIDER LIST THAN REUNIFICATION WITH A FOREIGN SPONSOR, and the two extra limbs are the point. The spouse of the Romanian citizen. UNMARRIED PARTNERS who cohabit with an unmarried Romanian citizen IF THEY HAVE AT LEAST ONE CHILD TOGETHER – a de facto partnership route that the third-country-sponsor instrument does not have at all, and IGI grants the permit only if neither has another marriage. The children of the Romanian citizen, of the spouse or of the partner, including adopted ones, who (i) have not reached 21 – not 18, which is the age used everywhere else in this record – or (ii) are continuing their studies and have not passed 26, or (iii) though adults, cannot support themselves for medical reasons. First-degree ascendants of the Romanian citizen or of the spouse. And the foreign PARENT OF A ROMANIAN MINOR, who must prove the minor is in their care or that a maintenance obligation exists which they discharge regularly. Adoption must have been ordered by a decision of a competent Romanian authority or of another state's authority producing legal effects in Romania. |
| Sponsor income requirement | Not applicable No means test. IGI's four document sets for family members of Romanian citizens ask for the marriage or birth certificate, the Romanian citizen's identity document, proof of lawful possession of the dwelling at the declared residence, proof of social health insurance and a medical certificate – and, for the spouse, a written declaration that the foreigner has no other marriage subsisting. Proof of means appears in none of the four, where the equivalent lists for a foreign sponsor's family members ask for it expressly. Recorded not_applicable rather than unknown because the contrast is drawn on the same page between the two instruments. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Yes as of 2026-08-25[2] Proof of lawful possession of the dwelling at the address the applicant declares as their residence in Romania, in original and copy, is in all four document sets. It is stated as an accommodation condition and not, as on the reunification route, as a dwelling 'considered normal for a similar family in Romania'. |
| Pre-entry language test | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. No language condition is stated. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-25[1][2] |
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| Statutory processing time | up to 90 days as of 2026-08-25[2] IGI states a clock for this instrument that exists nowhere else in the record: for obtaining the temporary residence permit as a family member of a Romanian citizen the deadline is UP TO 90 DAYS, and for subsequent ones 30 days; in cases needing further checks either may be extended by at most 15 days. The first permit is therefore slower here than for a family member of a foreign sponsor, which runs on 30 days. |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-08-25[2] No day-count or absence condition on the current permit is stated. The same three substantive refusal grounds apply as on ro-reintregirea-familiei: bigamy or polygamy, the spouses no longer having an effective conjugal or family relationship on Romanian territory, and filiation of a Romanian child recognised exclusively to obtain the residence right. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-08-25[2] An INDEPENDENT residence right is granted to family members who held a temporary permit but no longer meet the conditions on which it was granted – they come of age, or reach 21 where the sponsor is a Romanian citizen, or the Romanian citizen has died, or the marriage has been dissolved, or the partnership has ended. It is also granted on request to holders of a family-reunification permit, or to those who held one in the last 5 years. THE INDEPENDENT PERMIT IS VALID 6 MONTHS, during which the holder may orient themselves towards another purpose of stay – a soft landing rather than a right to remain. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2026-08-25[1][2] The same list as the route's own requirements block; see there. |
| Family members' work rights | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 6 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 6 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-08-25 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-25 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-26 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Tipuri de vize şi scopurile deplasării
Ministerul Afacerilor Externe – Centrul Naţional de Vize (eViza) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [2] Permis de sedere — membri de familie ai cetatenilor romani si ai sponsorilor cetateni terti, dreptul de sedere in mod independent
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [3] Permisul unic / Cartea albastra a UE — obtinerea si prelungirea dreptului de sedere in scop de munca si de detasare
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [4] Informare privind dreptul de şedere pe termen lung, condiţiile de acordare şi când încetează acesta
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2023-03-29 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [5] Taxele pe care trebuie sa le achitati pentru obtinerea permisului de sedere
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [6] Ordonanţa de urgenţă a Guvernului nr. 194/2002 privind regimul străinilor în România, republicată – formă consolidată valabilă la 30 aprilie 2026 (publicată de IGI)
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări / Guvernul României · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2008-06-05 · Accessed 2026-08-25