Family reunification — long-stay visa D/VF
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Reîntregirea familiei — viza de lungă şedere cu scopul reîntregirea familiei (simbol D/VF) as of 2026-08-25[5][8] Article 2 lit. e^1), read directly, names and defines 'reintregirea familiei' as the entry and stay in Romania of the family members of a foreigner lawfully resident in Romania or of a Romanian citizen, in order to preserve family unity, REGARDLESS OF THE DATE THE FAMILY RELATIONSHIP WAS ESTABLISHED – which forecloses the post-arrival-marriage bar some regimes impose. Lit. e) defines the sponsor. |
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| Official name (English) | Family reunification — long-stay visa D/VF as of 2026-08-25[5][8] Translation of the statutory term; no official English name was found. |
| Legal basis | Ordonanţa de urgenţă a Guvernului nr. 194/2002, republicată, cu modificările şi completările ulterioare, art. 2 lit. e) şi e^1), astfel cum au fost modificate ori introduse prin Ordonanţa nr. 25 din 26 august 2014 şi prin Legea nr. 157 din 11 iulie 2011 as of 2026-08-25[5][8] Both letters were read directly with their amendment notes. Article 2 lit. e) defines the sponsor as a foreigner holding a residence permit OTHER THAN ONE FOR FAMILY REUNIFICATION, or an EU Blue Card issued by IGI, who seeks reunification or whose family members seek it. The articles carrying the conditions are behind the retrieval ceiling and rest on IGI's own statement of them. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-25[3][5] IGI's aviz first, then a D/VF long-stay visa issued by the mission in the state where the family members reside, then a residence permit. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2026-08-25[2][8] |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source Not established as a criminal-record document. What IGI does state as a condition on the person for whom reunification is sought is adjacent but different: they must hold a valid border-crossing document accepted by the Romanian state, must not be within a ban on entering Romania or have been declared undesirable, and must not present a danger to national defence and security, to public order or to public health. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | Not established from a qualifying source No single number, and the rule is relational. IGI: the temporary residence right is extended INDIVIDUALLY, FOR EACH FAMILY MEMBER, FOR THE SAME PERIOD AS THAT GRANTED TO THE SPONSOR. One exception is stated: family members of a sponsor holding a LONG-TERM residence right may have the temporary residence right extended for periods of up to 5 years. The relation is carried by initial_duration_basis. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the sponsor's permit |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-25[3] The permit is renewed at least 30 days before the previous one expires. |
| Renewal duration | up to 5 years as of 2026-08-25[3] The ceiling that applies where the sponsor holds a long-term residence right; otherwise the sponsor's own period. |
| Work rights | Not established from a qualifying source |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-25[6] IGI publishes the categories to which the long-term residence right is NOT granted as a closed list: holders of temporary residence for studies; applicants for and beneficiaries of temporary protection; applicants for and beneficiaries of protection other than international protection; applicants for international protection; holders of a residence right conferred by a short-stay, diplomatic or service visa; and holders of a right obtained to work as a seasonal worker or an au-pair worker. This route is not in that list. IGI's long-term residence page also names 'munca' among the purposes of stay from which the right may be obtained. IGI names 'reintregirea familiei' expressly among the purposes of stay from which the long-term residence right may be obtained. |
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Requirements
| Who can sponsor | temporary permit holder, permanent resident, specific permits as of 2026-08-25[2][5][8] IGI states the list closed: the sponsor must hold a temporary residence permit VALID ONE YEAR, an EU Blue Card, an ICT permit, a 'mobile ICT' permit, a long-term residence permit, or be a beneficiary of refugee status or subsidiary protection. Article 2 lit. e) adds the qualification that the sponsor's permit must be one OTHER THAN a permit for family reunification, which forecloses chain reunification. 'citizen' is deliberately absent: family members of Romanian citizens are a separate instrument and are recorded at ro-membru-familie-cetatean-roman. FOUR CATEGORIES ESCAPE THE ONE-YEAR RULE and both publishers state it twice: holders of a residence right for scientific research and holders of the EU Blue Card, the ICT permit or the 'mobile ICT' permit may apply even where the permit's validity is less than one year. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2026-08-25[2][5] TWO TIERS, AND THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS TO A READER. As of right: the spouse; the sponsor's and the spouse's unmarried minor children, including adopted ones; the sponsor's unmarried minor children, including adopted, in the sponsor's care and over whom the sponsor exercises parental rights, the other holder's consent being needed where those rights are exercised jointly; and the same for the spouse's children. ONLY IF IGI APPROVES, 'daca sunt intrunite conditiile prevazute de lege': first-degree ascendants of the sponsor or of the spouse, where they cannot support themselves and do not enjoy adequate family support in the country of origin; and unmarried ADULT children of the sponsor or the spouse, where they cannot support themselves for medical reasons. A third case stands apart: unaccompanied minors who are beneficiaries of refugee status or subsidiary protection may seek reunification with first-degree ascendants or a legal guardian, or, where none exists or can be identified, with any other relative. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × national minimum gross base wage guaranteed in payment per month as of 2026-08-25[5] IGI states it per member and on top of the sponsor's own: the applicant must possess means of maintenance, IN ADDITION TO those needed for their own maintenance according to the law, in an amount corresponding to the national minimum gross base wage guaranteed in payment FOR EACH FAMILY MEMBER. Beneficiaries of refugee status or subsidiary protection are exempt from proving means, accommodation and health insurance. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Yes as of 2026-08-25[5] The sponsor must hold a dwelling CONSIDERED NORMAL FOR A SIMILAR FAMILY IN ROMANIA. Refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are exempt. |
| Sponsor waiting period | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-08-25[2][5] Romania states the sponsor's qualification as a PERMIT VALIDITY THRESHOLD, not as a period of prior residence: the sponsor must hold a temporary permit valid one year, which a person can hold on the day they arrive if the permit is issued for a year. This field holds a duration of prior residence and there is none to record; recording 12 months would assert a waiting period Romania does not impose, and recording nothing would lose the threshold. The threshold itself is in sponsor_statuses and in sponsor_qualifier. |
| Pre-entry language test | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. IGI's list of approval conditions states no language condition, but it is not framed as the closed list of every condition and the articles are unread. |
| Who qualifies as a sponsor | |
| Sponsor and relation matrix |
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Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2026-08-25[5] Three steps and the first is in Romania but taken by the sponsor, not the applicant. The sponsor files for IGI's aviz at the territorial immigration unit for the county where they live; IGI decides within at most 3 months and answers in writing; the sponsor then sends the approval to the family members, who must present it at the Romanian mission WITHIN 60 DAYS OF ITS ISSUE together with the D/VF visa application. The visa is issued by the mission in the state where the family members have their residence or domicile. |
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| Statutory processing time | up to 3 months as of 2026-08-25[5] IGI: the reunification application is decided within a maximum of 3 months of submission. The residence-permit stage that follows runs on the ordinary 30-day clock for family members of third-country sponsors. The application to grant or extend the residence right is decided within 30 days of submission, extendable by at most 15 days where further checks are needed. Where the information or documents supplied are inadequate, IGI sets a reasonable deadline of no more than 30 days for the applicant to supply more and the 30-day clock is suspended until they arrive; if they do not, the application may be rejected. |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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| Stages |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-08-25[3] No day-count or absence condition on the current permit is stated. What IGI does state is a substantive continuing condition rather than a presence one: the extension is refused where the two spouses no longer have a conjugal relationship or an effective family relationship ON ROMANIAN TERRITORY, where a state of bigamy or polygamy exists, or where the foreigner recognised the filiation of a Romanian child exclusively in order to obtain the residence right. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-08-25[3] The family route carries its own succession rule rather than a nested reunification right: IGI grants an INDEPENDENT residence right to family members whose qualifying conditions have fallen away. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2026-08-25[2][5] 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 | 8 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 8 |
| 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] Perceperea taxei de viza
Ministerul Afacerilor Externe — Centrul National de Vize · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [2] Tipuri de vize şi scopurile deplasării
Ministerul Afacerilor Externe – Centrul Naţional de Vize (eViza) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [3] 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 - [4] 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 - [5] Aprobarea reintregirii familiei cu cetateni terti
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [6] 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 - [7] Taxele pe care trebuie sa le achitati pentru obtinerea permisului de sedere
Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrari · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [8] 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