Romania
Romania is a southeastern European country in the Carpathian Basin, bordered by Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, with a Black Sea coastline and Bucharest as its capital, home to around 19 million people. It is the easternmost survival of the Latin language family in Europe, tracing back to Roman Dacia — a lineage that runs through medieval Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania to EU membership in 2007 and full Schengen membership in 2025. Most non-EU nationalities enter visa-free for up to 90 days, with EES biometric registration at first entry and the EU's ETIAS pre-travel authorisation applying to visa-exempt nationalities as it phases in.
Romania visa system overview
Romania is now a full member of the Schengen Area — air and sea borders from 2024, land borders from 2025 — which means the standard Schengen short-stay framework applies at every crossing, and it also means a good deal of older published advice about Romania is out of date. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens enter freely. Most non-EU nationalities, among them the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and most Latin American and Gulf countries, enter visa-free for up to 90 days within any rolling 180-day period — and that allowance is counted across the whole Schengen Area rather than per country, so days already spent in Hungary, Bulgaria or anywhere else in the zone come out of the same 90. Before any of that, though, there is a rule that refuses more travellers at the gate than the day count ever does, and it is about the passport rather than the stay: to enter, the passport must have been ISSUED less than ten years before your date of arrival, and be valid for at least three months beyond your intended departure from the Schengen Area. Both conditions have to hold at once. A passport that is still in date can therefore be unusable if it was issued more than a decade ago — which happens most often where a renewal added leftover months from an old document onto the new one — and there is nothing an airline or a border officer can do about it. Check the issue date, not just the expiry. Travellers whose nationality requires a visa apply for a Schengen visa at a Romanian embassy or consulate, or at a designated visa application centre, and a Schengen visa issued by any other member state is equally valid for Romania. Two systems now sit alongside this: the Entry/Exit System records fingerprints and a facial photograph at your first crossing in place of a manual stamp, and the EU's ETIAS pre-travel authorisation applies to visa-exempt nationalities as it phases in — check its current status before you travel rather than assuming either that it is live or that it is not. One customs rule is worth knowing because it applies at the border rather than at a desk: cash above the EU-wide declaration threshold, counting currency and equivalents together, must be declared when entering or leaving the Union, and the threshold is set centrally and revised, so confirm the current figure if you are carrying a substantial sum. Long-stay routes for work, study, family, remote work and business are set out below and all run through the Type D visa followed by an in-country residence permit.
Visa types
The standard route for tourism, family visits, conferences, contract negotiations, short courses and cultural events. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens enter freely; nationals of the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and most Latin American and Gulf countries enter visa-free with a Schengen-compliant passport. Nationalities that do require a visa apply at a Romanian embassy or consulate, or at a designated visa application centre, with the standard Schengen documentation — and a Schengen visa issued by another member state is valid for Romania. The Entry/Exit System captures biometric data at the first crossing; ETIAS adds a pre-travel authorisation step for visa-exempt passports as it phases in.
Guides
Romania rewards a thoughtful itinerary that mixes Transylvania, the Bucovina painted monasteries and Bucharest, with one or two single-region deep dives — the Danube Delta, Maramureș, the Black Sea coast or the Carpathians — slotted in by interest. Most visitors land at Henri Coandă International in Bucharest and use the capital as the anchor before heading into the medieval Saxon towns of Transylvania, the country's signature region. Romania carries one of Europe's densest UNESCO World Heritage circuits for its size, at a noticeably lower cost than Western Europe, and the distances between those clusters are the real planning constraint — this is a country that rewards a route rather than a base.
Romania travel guide →
The full guide — Saxon Transylvania, painted monasteries, bear hides and the Delta, in one loop.
Money in Romania →
The leu in practice — no euro yet, the DCC trap to refuse, and where cards and cash each win.
Eating in Romania →
A cuisine built on a specific sourness — taste it once and the whole kitchen makes sense.
Getting around Romania →
Trains reach every city and none of the villages — rail for long hops, a car for the rest.
Health & safety in Romania →
Safe, with three living hazards — bears, strays and ticks — plus the unmetered taxi to refuse.
Cities & planning
Regions
Embassies & missions
Europe · 2
Accredited missions for Romania
Frequently asked questions
Most non-EU nationalities — the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand among them — enter visa-free for up to 90 days now that Romania is a full Schengen member; EU/EEA/Swiss citizens enter freely with no time limit.
Ten days to two weeks covers Bucharest, Transylvania and one northern extension (Bucovina or Maramureș) comfortably; a week is enough if you're focusing on just Bucharest and Transylvania and treating the rest as a future trip.
Only loosely — Bram Stoker never visited Romania and attached the legend to the castle's silhouette from a description, not firsthand knowledge; the historical Vlad III's actual fortress is Poenari Castle, a much less visited site reached by a steep climb above the Argeș river.
Treat this Visaja page as your starting point: verify the current rules directly with the official source before you submit an application.