Romania: checking student work and traineeship hours against your own status

A student certificate does not by itself explain permitted working time. Term dates, holidays, compulsory placements and contract arrangements may be treated differently; borrowing a friend’s weekly limit can leave employment records inconsistent with your own permission and study commitments.

Apply the local route to your case

How are term-time work, holiday work and placements counted under my particular permission category? Before accepting a job, check work rights against your current immigration status, mode of study and contract type. Romania’s current Romanian IGI guidance allows study-residence holders to work without separate employment approval under a part-time individual contract, up to 6 hours daily. Do not copy outdated English four-hour guidance. Paid employment, a compulsory placement, self-employment and volunteering are not the same category. Ask the employer to specify duties, duration, pay and notification responsibilities in writing. Separately check whether employment changes scholarship income assessments or health insurance. Continued university enrolment alone does not establish unrestricted work rights; do not treat an unverified job offer as certain money in your study budget.

• Confirm the permit, notification or student-employment route for your status with IGI / territorial labour inspectorate.
• Ask the employer for a written contract recording duties, hours, gross pay and social-insurance registration.
• Check the new job’s effects on scholarships, attendance and health coverage with the relevant institutions separately.

Steps for this specific problem

1. Describe whether the activity is employment, self-employment, a paid placement or a compulsory traineeship. Confirm the rule for that category and your own permission before signing; an employer’s willingness to hire does not establish work authorisation.
2. Check how hours are counted, including other jobs, semester periods and traineeships. Keep your timetable and employer records, and use the rule applicable to your permit rather than a student limit quoted for another country.
3. Compare the approved learning agreement with the courses actually available. Keep module descriptions, assessment rules and both institutions’ written approval of changes, rather than relying on a verbal understanding or a timetable screenshot alone.
4. Before employment or a placement starts, ask whether it changes your study permission, insurance or grant eligibility. Keep each responsible office’s answer separately; approval in one process is not approval in all the others.
5. If the published response period has passed, send one concise status request with the case reference and practical deadline. Follow the official escalation or review route instead of opening repeated duplicate applications or assuming silence means approval.
6. Keep one dated record of submissions and replies. Redact unnecessary personal information when asking for help, and never give group members your passwords, payment credentials or uncontrolled copies of identity documents.

The linked procedure to check

University admission, entry permission and permission to remain are separate decisions. Keep a distinct document and validity date for each part of the file. In Romania, a third-country student follows academic admission, D/SD long-stay visa and IGI residence as separate stages. Portaligi uploads do not remove any required personal document submission. Correct mismatches between the application number, passport and enrolment record before processing advances. When documents are missing, retain the exact official request; obtain an academic-calendar answer from the university and an immigration answer from the competent authority. An acknowledgement of submission is not automatically permission to travel or work.

A common decision point

How are term-time work, holiday work and placements counted under my particular permission category?

Have the permission conditions, contract and academic calendar checked together. Ask in writing how hours from multiple jobs are combined and how a compulsory placement is classified; simply remaining enrolled does not authorise every form or amount of work.

Requirements change. Before applying or paying, use the current call at the linked source and obtain the institution's written confirmation.