LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

of April 30, 2026 No. 66

About the admission of foreigners, their stay and supervision of them in the Republic of Moldova

The Parliament adopts this organic law.

This law:

- partially shifts (Items (a), (b), (e) and (g) of Article 2, Article 3, of part (1) and (1a) articles 4, of article 5-7, of part (1) - (3) Articles 8, of part (1) - (3) and (7) Articles 9, Article 10, of part (1), (3) and (4) Article 11 and Article 12) the Directive of Council 2003/109/EU of November 25, 2003 about the status of constantly living citizens of the third countries, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 016 of January 23, 2004, CELEX: 32003L0109, taking into account the last changes made by the Directive of the European parliament and Council 2011/51/EC of May 11, 2011;

- partially shifts (Item 16 of Article 2, Article 6 and the subitem (vi) of Item (a) of part (3) Articles 8) Regulations of the European parliament and Council (EU) 2016/399 of March 9, 2016 about the Code of the Union about the mode of crossing by people of borders (The Schengen code about borders), published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 77 of March 23, 2016, CELEX: 32016R0399, taking into account the last changes made by Regulations of the European parliament and Council (EU) 2024/1717 of June 13, 2024;

- partially shifts (part (3) Articles 1, Item 2 of Article 2, of part (1) and (2) Articles 4, Article 12, Item (2a) of Article 24, of part (1) and (3) Articles 26, of part (3), (4), (6) and (7) Articles 34, parts (1) and (7) Articles 35) Regulations of the European parliament and Council (EU) No. 810/2009 of July 13, 2009 establishing the Code of Community about visas (The visa code) published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 243 of September 15, 2009, CELEX: 32009R0810, taking into account the last changes made by the Delegated regulations of the Commission (EU) 2024/1415 of March 14, 2024;

- partially shifts (Articles 1, of 2, parts (1) - (4) Articles 3, of part (1), (2) and (4) articles 4, of article 5-13, of part (1) and (2) Articles 14, Article 15-18) the Directive of Council 2003/86/EU of September 22, 2003 about the right of families to reunion, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 251 of October 3, 2003, CELEX: 32003L0086;

- partially shifts (Articles 1, 2, parts (1) and (2) Articles 3, Articles 6, 8, 10, part (1) articles 11, of article 13 and 14) the Directive of Council 2004/81/EU of April 29, 2004 about the residence permit issued to citizens of the third countries which are the victims of human trafficking or were subject to the help of illegal immigration and which cooperate with competent authorities, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 261 of August 6, 2004, CELEX: 32004L0081;

- partially shifts (part (3) Articles 2, Article 3, part (1) Articles 4, Article 5, of part (1) and (4) - (6) Articles 6, Article 7, of part (1), (4) and (6) Articles 8, Article 9, part (1) Articles 10, paragraphs first and third parts (3) and part (5) Articles 11, of part (1) and (2) Articles 12, Article 13, part (2) Articles 14, Article 15, of part (1), (3) and (5) Articles 16, part (1) Articles 17) the Directive of the European parliament and Council 2008/115/EC of December 16, 2008 about the general standards and procedures which are subject to application in state members for return illegally of the staying citizens of the third countries, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 348 of December 24, 2008, CELEX: 32008L0115;

- partially shifts (Articles 3, 5 and 6, parts (1), (2) and (4) - (6) Articles 8, of part (1) - (3), (5) and (6) articles 9, of article 10, of 11, Items (a) and (b) of part (1), parts (2) - (5) and (8) Articles 12, Article 13, part (1) Articles 14, of part (1), (2), (5), (7), (10) and (11) Articles 15, Articles 16, 18-20 and 22-25) Directive of the European parliament and Council 2014/36/EU of February 26, 2014 about conditions of entrance and stay of citizens of the third countries for the purpose of implementation of labor activity as seasonal workers, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 94 of March 28, 2014, CELEX: 32014L0036;

- partially shifts (Items (a) - (i) and (k) of Article 3, Article 5-10, of part (1), (2), (4), (5) and (9) Articles 11, part (1) Articles 12, of part (1) - (6) articles 13, of article 14-18, of part (2) - (6) Articles 19) the Directive of the European parliament and Council 2014/66/EU of May 15, 2014 about conditions of entrance and stay of citizens of the third countries within internal transfer, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 157 of May 27, 2014, CELEX: 32014L0066;

- partially shifts (Item (a) of Article 1, Article 2, Items 1-9, 12, of 14, of 15, of 21, 23 both 24 articles 3, of article 5 and 7, of part (1) and (2) Articles 8, of part (1) and (2) Articles 9, of part (1) and (2) Articles 10, of part (1) and (2) Articles 11, part (1) Articles 12, Items (a) - (c), (e) and (f) of part (1) and part (4) Articles 13, part (1) Articles 14, part (1), Item (a) of part (2), parts (5) and (6) Articles 16, of part (1), (2) and (4) Articles 17, Article 18, of part (1) and (4) Articles 20, part (1), Items (d) - (f) of part (2), parts (4), (6) and (7) Articles 21, of part (1) and (4) Articles 22, Article 23, of part (1) and (3) Articles 24, of part (1), (3), (5) and (6) Articles 25, parts (1) - (5) Articles 26, Article 34, paragraph one of Article 35 and Article 36) the Directive of the European parliament and Council (EU) 2016/801 of May 11, 2016 about conditions of entrance and stay of citizens of the third countries for the purpose of carrying out researches, training, professional training, implementation of volunteer activities, participation in programs of exchange of pupils or educational projects, and also work on the Au pair program (in the new edition), published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 132 of May 21, 2016, CELEX: 32016L0801, taking into account the last changes made by the Directive of the European parliament and Council (EU) 2021/1883 of October 20, 2021;

- partially shifts (Items 1-3 and 6 of Article 2, part (3) Articles 3, of part (1) - (3) Articles 5, part (1), Items (b) - (d) of part (2) Articles 7, of part (1) - (3) Articles 8, of part (1) - (3) and (7) Articles 9, Article 10, of part (1) - (5) articles 11, of article 12, of 14, part (1) Articles 15, of part (1), (4), (5) and (7) Articles 16, of part (1) - (3), (5), (8) and (10) Articles 17, part (1) Articles 18, part (1) Articles 24) the Directive of the European parliament and Council (EU) 2021/1883 of October 20, 2021 about conditions of entrance and stay of citizens of the third countries for the purpose of implementation of highly skilled labor activity and about cancellation of the Directive of Council 2009/50/EU, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 382 of October 28, 2021, CELEX: 32021L1883;

- partially shifts (Articles 2, 4-10, parts (1) - (5) Articles 11, part (1) Articles 12, Articles 13, 14 and 16) the Directive of the European parliament and Council (EU) 2024/1233 of April 24, 2024 about the single procedure of filing of application on receipt of single permission for citizens of the third countries for the purpose of stay and implementation of labor activity in the territory of state members and about general set of the rights for workers from the third countries which are legally staying in the territory of state member (in the new edition), published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 2024/1233 of April 30, 2024, CELEX: 32024L1233;

- partially shifts (Items (a), (b), (d), (e) and (j) of Article 2, Article 3, of part (1) and (3) Articles 4, part (1) Articles 13) the Directive of the European parliament and Council 2009/52/EU of June 18, 2009 about establishment of the minimum standards concerning sanctions and measures against employers illegally the staying citizens of the third countries, published in the Official magazine of the European Union by L 168 of June 30, 2009, CELEX: 32009L0052.

Chapter I. General provisions

Part 1 Subject, purpose and scope

Article 1. Subject and purpose of the law

(1) This law regulates the admission and stay of foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Moldova, rendering public services in provision and prolongation of the right to stay, recognition of the status of the stateless person, issue to foreigners of identification documents, special measures on immigration accounting, and also establishes enforcement measures in case of non-compliance with the mode of stay according to the obligations accepted by the Republic of Moldova within international treaties which party it is.

(2) the Purpose of this law is providing the approved and accurate legal basis for the admission and stay of foreigners in the territory of the Republic of Moldova, and also for supervision of them and their accounting.

Article 2. Exceptions in case of application of this law

(1) Provisions of this law do not extend to the following categories of foreigners:

a) persons whose mode of stay is regulated by the Vienna convention on the diplomatic intercourses signed on April 18, 1961 and the Vienna convention on the consular intercourses concluded on April 24, 1963, except for Chapters III of this law;

b) representatives of the international organizations, and also members of their families which mode of stay is regulated by international treaties which party is the Republic of Moldova;

c) persons which are in the international transit areas of the airports or on the small size vessels moored in river ports, except for Chapters III of this law;

d) persons whose mode of stay is regulated by the Law on shelter in the Republic of Moldova No. 270/2008, except as specified when person using international protection petitions for provision to it the rights to stay for the purpose of reunion of family;

e) persons from structure of foreign armed forces, the civil personnel accompanying them, persons from staff of foreign special anti-terrorist forming, and also the representatives of foreign and international specialized agencies performing joint actions in the territory of the country based on international treaties which party is the Republic of Moldova;

f) citizens of the member states of the European Union or states which signed the Schengen agreement including the members of their families performing movement right to liberty according to the Law on free movement and stay in the territory of the Republic of Moldova of citizens of the European Union and members of their families No. 200/2025.

(2) Provisions of Items d) and f) parts (1) the concerning expulsions out of limits of the Republic of Moldova of foreigners who pose threat for homeland security, public order and public safety, in case of observance of the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and international treaties on fundamental human rights which party is the Republic of Moldova do not affect situation of this law.

Part 2 Basic concepts. Rights and obligations

Article 3. Concepts

For the purposes of this law the following concepts are used:

1) activities in the field of information technologies - activities of persons holding executive positions within legal entities - residents of the information and technological park, or one of the types of activity performed by specialists in the field of information technologies, provided by the Law on information and technological parks No. 77/2016;

2) the admission - the preliminary ministerial procedure establishing conditions of legal access to the territory of the Republic of Moldova depending on stated purpose;

3) the worker-trainee - person having the university diploma who is transferred to the accepting organization for the purpose of development of career or receipt of professional training in the business sphere and which activities are paid during transfer;

4) the stateless person - person who is not considered by the citizen any state owing to its legislation;

5) the conclusion about reunion of family - the document issued by the General inspectorate on migration according to the statement of the initiator of reunion and which is one of conditions of receipt of a visa on long-term stay for the purpose of reunion of family with citizens of the states who require receipt of a visa;

6) the beneficiary applicant - the company, organization or the organization with the status of the legal entity irrespective of type of property and form of business, including representation of foreign subjects or the physical person who employ foreigners or use foreign labor power;

7) marriage of convenience - the scrap concluded between the citizen of the Republic of Moldova and the foreign citizen or between two foreign citizens in which at least one of spouses, being effective from bad faith, pursues only the admission aim on the territory of the Republic of Moldova without intention to conduct joint family life;

8) research - the creative activities performed on systematic basis for the purpose of increase in amount of knowledge including knowledge of the person, culture and society, and also for the purpose of use of this knowledge for creation of innovations;

9) the scientific researcher - the foreigner having the higher education, having knowledge, skills and competences of scientific area and selected by the public or private research organization for implementation in the territory of the Republic of Moldova of research activities which usually require availability of the corresponding qualification;

10) mark - the data of restrictive or information nature on physical persons or legal entities entered into the information system "Migration". Availability of mark is checked by the General inspectorate on migration according to the legislation with acceptance of proper measures;

11) the unaccompanied child - the foreigner who did not reach age of 18 years which drives/drove on the territory of the Republic of Moldova or was left in the territory of the Republic of Moldova without responsible for it according to the law of adult person until it actually is not given to care of such person;

12) the state content - the measure for restriction of freedom of travel appointed by degree of jurisdiction;

13) the decision on return - the administrative act of the General inspectorate on migrations to which stay of the foreigner is recognized to illegal and which is assigned to it obligation to leave the territory of the Republic of Moldova with establishment in need of prohibition on entry into the country;

14) the right to stay - the right of the foreigner to determine the place of temporary stay or the residence in the territory of the Republic of Moldova for the term exceeding 90 days, according to the procedure, provided by this law, provided by the General inspectorate on migration;

15) the right to permanent stay - the right of the foreigner to remain in the territory of the Republic of Moldova during uncertain term according to the procedure, provided by this law which is confirmed by issue the General inspectorate on migration of the deciding act;

16) the right to temporary stay - the right of the foreigner to remain in the territory of the Republic of Moldova during certain term, provided or prolonged according to the procedure, provided by this law which is confirmed by issue the General inspectorate on migration of the deciding act;

17) the pupil - the foreigner allowed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova for the purpose of training in the program of average or vocational training corresponding to the level 2 or 3 of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCE) within the program of exchange of pupils or the educational project realized by educational institution according to the national legal system;

18) the accepting organization - the research organization, institution of higher education, educational institution, the organization responsible for implementation of the volunteer program, or the organization accepting trainees irrespective of their form of business to which the foreigner goes and which are in the territory of the Republic of Moldova;

19) the accepting family - the family consisting of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova having at least one general child which temporarily accepts the participant of the Au pair program and allows it to participate in the everyday family life in the territory of the Republic of Moldova based on the agreement signed between this family and the participant of the Au pair program;

20) person who was earlier petitioning for provision of shelter - the foreigner whose statement for provision of shelter was rejected by the decision which took legal effect and who has no other legal basis for stay in the territory of the Republic of Moldova;

21) single window of documentation of foreigners (further - single window) - single point of access and the mechanism allowing the applicant to address to one body of the public power according to the powers assigned for this purpose to the General inspectorate on migration for receipt of information and registration of the right to stay with issue of the deciding act and/or the document confirming this right;

22) prohibition on entrance - the decision or other administrative or court resolution to which entrance and stay of the foreigner in the territory of the Republic of Moldova for certain term is forbidden;

23) the invitation - the administrative act issued by the General inspectorate on migration for the purpose of receipt of a visa for entrance on the territory of the Republic of Moldova;

24) exclusion - the intervention measure consisting accompanied by the foreigner government employees with special status as a part of the General inspectorate on migration to the check point through frontier, open for the international message or in country of source, transit or appointment;

25) identification - the intervention measure consisting in reclamation and verification of the identification document or other documents of the foreigner for the purpose of establishment of observance of stay conditions by it in the territory of the Republic of Moldova;

26) the border worker - the citizen of the state, adjacent with the Republic of Moldova, working in the settlements located in border zone in the territory of the Republic of Moldova who daily or at least once a week returns to the territory of the state in which he has the permanent residence and which citizen is;

27) the worker immigrant - the foreigner having permission to implementation of hired or independent labor activity in the territory of the Republic of Moldova according to the labor law;

28) the highly-skilled employee - the foreigner performing professional activity which requires the profound knowledge and skills confirmed with the diploma of the licentiate, master or doctor of science or availability of equivalent working experience and which is paid according to skill level of the worker;

29) the seasonal worker - the foreigner allowed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova for implementation of labor activity of seasonal nature based on the individual employment contract signed for certain term;

30) the transferred employee (further also - the worker translated within VKP) - the foreigner living outside the territory of the Republic of Moldova who is temporarily transferred in one company or one group of companies from the company founded abroad to the affiliated subject located in the territory of the Republic of Moldova for the purpose of implementation of professional activity or passing of preparation based on the existing individual employment contract signed with the company of origin and who petitions for provision to it the rights to stay in this quality;

31) family member:

a) spouses/spouse;

b) the children born in scrap or out of scrap, including adopted; the children entrusted to both spouses, one of spouses or not the married person by the decision of competent authority of the State of origin provided that such children actually are on care of specified persons;

c) not married full age children of the citizen of the Republic of Moldova or his spouse or the spouse concerning whom the measure of judicial protection is established;

d) the parents who are on content of the citizen of the Republic of Moldova or his spouse or spouse;

32) illegal migration - movement of person between the states with violation of the law about entrance on the territory of the state, stay in the territory of the state or the departure from the territory of the state which is expressed in lack of necessary documents or non-compliance with processes at law;

33) economic mobility - regulation of procedure for stay in the Republic of Moldova of foreigners whose specialties are included in the list of priority specialties established by the Government;

34) the digital nomad - the foreigner who performs labor activity remotely with use of information and communication technologies based on the individual employment contract or the service provision agreement with the legal entity registered outside the territory of the Republic of Moldova or which acts as the participant or the managing director within the legal entity registered outside the territory of the Republic of Moldova and which acquires the right to temporary stay in the Republic of Moldova;

35) the organization in the field of researches and innovations - the legal entity of public or private law performing research and innovative activities according to the current legislation;

36) the participant of the Au pair program - the foreigner aged from 18 up to 26 years, allowed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova for temporary residence in the accepting family for the purpose of enhancement of language competences and increasing knowledge of the host state in exchange for accomplishment of easy housework and care of children;

37) person holding executive position - the foreigner holding the position specified in compound groups 112-143 Qualifiers of occupations of the Republic of Moldova;

38) the undesirable person - the foreigner who performed performs or concerning which there is reasonable suspicion that he intends to perform the activities posing threat for homeland security, public order and public safety and to which the prohibition on entrance on the territory of the Republic of Moldova is established;

39) the volunteer program - the institutional program certified according to the law within which volunteers can perform the volunteer work aimed at providing public concerns;

40) the educational project - set of actions and content of educational and educational process or the informal and informalny actions organized by educational institution of the Republic of Moldova in cooperation with similar organizations of the third states for the purpose of forming of general and special skills for cross-cultural exchange and knowledge sharing;

41) pseudo-legalization - the fraudulent actions confirmed with the objective and giving-in to check data, the rights to stay directed to obtaining by submission of false data, doubtful documents or other illegal way in the absence of real legal, economic or employment relationships;

42) the Dnestr region - administrative and territorial units of left bank of Dniester (except for settlements Kochiyer, Korzhova, the Basket, Dorotskaya, Molovata Noue, Pyryta, Pokhrebya, Vasilyevka of the area Dubesar), Bender's municipium and settlements of Gysk, Kitskan, Zakhorn, Merenesht and Kremenchuk of the area Keushen;

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