Dealing With Romanian Authorities

I assist and represent foreign nationals before Romanian public authorities: drafting requests and complaints, following up on files, challenging decisions and, where needed, taking the authority to the administrative court. If you only need to know which office handles your question and what the procedure is, I can tell you that too.

What counts as an administrative procedure?

Anything that passes through a public institution: a request for a certificate or a registration, a petition, a complaint about a decision, an appeal, a reply you have to give within a deadline. In Romania these are done in Romanian, on paper or through online portals that assume you have a Romanian ID and a Romanian phone number. Under a lawyer’s power of attorney (împuternicire avocațială) I can file, follow up and collect documents in your name.

Authorities have deadlines too. A petition must be answered within 30 days of registration (art. 8 alin. (1) OG 27/2002), extendable by at most 15 days with notice to you (art. 9). A request for public information gets an answer in 10 days, or 30 at most for complex requests (art. 7 alin. (1) Legea 544/2001). Silence for 30 days counts as a failure to answer within the legal term, which opens the way to court (art. 2 alin. (1) lit. h) Legea 554/2004).

Which situations do expats usually bring me?

• Registrations and certificates. Tax registration of a person or a company, certificates from the local tax office, civil status records, and documents you need for a bank or an employer.
• Documents for use abroad or from abroad. When a Romanian document has to be used abroad, or a foreign one here, it may need an apostille or legalisation and a certified translation. I tell you which, and I obtain the Romanian documents for you.
• Letters you cannot read. Decisions, requests for information, summonses. I explain the meaning, not just the words, and tell you what the deadline is.
• Decisions you want to challenge. Refusals, tax assessments, local decisions. Each has its own appeal route and deadline, and some deadlines are measured in days.
• Fines. Contravention reports have a separate 15-day procedure described on the traffic fines page.
• Residence permits and visas. I do not handle immigration files. For a residence permit question I can tell you which authority is competent, the General Inspectorate for Immigration (Inspectoratul General pentru Imigrări), and which procedure applies, and I can help with documents that other authorities must issue for that file.

How do you challenge a decision of a Romanian authority?

The general route is the administrative litigation law (Legea contenciosului administrativ nr. 554/2004), unless a special law provides otherwise:

1. Prior complaint (plângere prealabilă). Within 30 days of the decision being communicated, you ask the issuing authority, or its superior, to revoke it in whole or in part (art. 7 alin. (1)). For good reasons the complaint can be filed later, but no more than 6 months after the decision was issued (art. 7 alin. (1), second sentence).
2. Court claim. Within 6 months of receiving the answer to the prior complaint, of the unjustified refusal, or of the expiry of the authority’s time to answer (art. 11 alin. (1)); for good reasons up to one year from the communication of the act (art. 11 alin. (2)). You can ask for annulment, recognition of your right and damages (art. 1 alin. (1) and art. 8 alin. (1)).
3. Which court. Acts of local and county authorities, and tax matters up to 3,000,000 lei, go to the tribunal, in Cluj the Cluj Tribunal (Tribunalul Cluj); acts of central authorities and larger tax matters go to the court of appeal, in Cluj the Cluj Court of Appeal (Curtea de Apel Cluj) (art. 10 alin. (1)).

Check the last day with the procedural deadline calculator.

Assistance or representation: which do you need?

With assistance (asistență juridică), I prepare and check the documents, explain the procedure and tell you what to say, but you deal with the authority yourself. With representation (reprezentare), I act in your name under the lawyer’s power of attorney: I file, correspond, attend and collect. Most procedures allow representation without your presence; where the law requires you in person, I tell you in advance and prepare you for it.

How working with me looks

1. You describe the problem and send me what you have received or what you want to obtain.
2. I identify the competent authority, the procedure and the deadline.
3. I draft the request, complaint or appeal in Romanian and file it, with you or for you.
4. I follow the file and, if the answer is unlawful or never comes, take it to court.

Related pages: the English home page, company formation for Trade Register filings, traffic fines for contravention reports, employment law for the Territorial Labour Inspectorate (ITM). The consolidated text of Law no. 554/2004 is on legislatie.just.ro. Contact me with the letter you received or the request you have in mind.