Business Licenses and Permits in Romania: autorizație de funcționare and Authorizations

When autorizație de funcționare becomes a surprise

The typical story of opening a business in Romania plays out the same way for dozens of clients. Someone registers an SRL with the ONRC, selects an activity code (CAEN), rents a premise for a shop, café, or service office, and signs a declarație pe propria răspundere—a self-certification stating the premise supposedly meets health, veterinary, fire safety, and environmental standards. The ONRC registers the company within days, and the owner genuinely believes the business is now fully legal.

Reality catches up within weeks. A notice arrives from the local primărie demanding production of an autorizație de funcționare—an operating permit for that specific address. It turns out the ONRC declaration was merely a statement of intent to comply with standards, not a permit that anyone has actually verified. The real permit is issued separately by the primărie, and often requires separate avize—formal approvals from health, veterinary, fire safety, and environmental authorities.

Worse, if it's not the owner who discovers the missing autorizație de funcționare but an inspection, then the demand to formalize the permit is accompanied by a fine, and sometimes a requirement to temporarily suspend operations. To avoid such surprises, it pays to understand the administrative procedures for doing business in Romania beforehand, rather than assuming that SRL registration automatically settles the question of legality. Check the main business procedures guide for Romania to get the full picture early.

Three levels of permits: ONRC, primărie, and avize

To understand why company registration alone is insufficient, it helps to divide Romania's permit system into three levels, each responsible for its own piece.

Level one: registration with ONRC

The ONRC registers a legal entity as such—recording its name, share capital, founders, legal address, and CAEN codes. For most business codes, ONRC accepts a declarație pe propria răspundere rather than requiring pre-existing approvals. This speeds up business registration, but applies only to registering the legal entity, not to the right to actually conduct operations at a specific physical address.

Level two: approvals from sector-specific authorities

Depending on the type of activity, the premises must meet standards set by several agencies, and each issues its own aviz. Most commonly involved are aviz sanitar (health approval), aviz sanitar-veterinar (for food of animal origin), aviz PSI (fire safety), and aviz de mediu (environmental approval). An office providing services without food production usually doesn't need aviz sanitar-veterinar, but a café with a kitchen almost always does.

Level three: autorizație de funcționare from primărie

The final and decisive step: the local primărie issues the autorizație de funcționare—the permit to actually operate at that address. The primărie requires submission of the already-obtained avize from sector authorities as part of the package, and also verifies that the premises comply with local rules—signage, operating hours, location relative to residences, schools, and other facilities. Without this permit, the company is formally registered but has no legal right to actually work at the address.

Permits by sector: food, transport, construction, services

The set of required permits varies dramatically by sector, and this is where it's easiest to miss something critical, especially if you're going by what a friend in a completely different business had to do.

Food and public catering

Cafés, restaurants, grocery shops, and food production face the tightest oversight. Beyond aviz sanitar, you need registration with the DSV—the veterinary and health authority that controls food movement. The establishment must implement a HACCP system—food safety control at each stage: intake, storage, preparation, service. DSV inspections evaluate not just paperwork but the actual kitchen condition.

Transport

Any business involving passenger or freight transport requires a licență de transport—a transport license issued to the company as a whole, plus separate copii conforme (certified copies) for each vehicle. A company with a fleet gets as many certified copies as it has working vehicles. Drivers carrying passengers or hazardous materials often need a professional qualification certificate.

Construction

New construction, renovation, or major reconstruction requires autorizație de construire. A company renting a premise and planning renovations (for instance, to build a restaurant kitchen) should verify this permit before signing the lease—otherwise the work could be deemed illegal, even if the landlord raised no objection.

Beauty, health, education

Beauty salons and cosmetic clinics undergo health inspection similar to food businesses, though usually without DSV. Medical and dental offices face substantially stricter licensing—staff qualifications are checked, and approval comes from the health authority. Educational services have their own requirements for child safety and instructor qualifications.

Who issues permits and whether the owner needs qualifications

The question "who exactly issues the permit" sounds simple, but in practice business owners get confused about departments and waste time calling the wrong office. The primărie issues the final autorizație de funcționare, but it doesn't check health or fire standards itself—it relies on avize from specialist agencies: health authority issues aviz sanitar, DSV issues the veterinary-health approval, fire authority issues aviz PSI, environmental agency issues aviz de mediu. Each agency answers only for its part and doesn't coordinate deadlines with the others.

Owner or staff qualifications

For some regulated activities, the permit is tied to the qualifications of the person actually doing the work. A hairdresser may need a relevant certificate, a driver needs a professional qualification and the right license category, a doctor or dentist needs a degree recognized in Romania and registration with the professional college. The owner doesn't always have to hold the qualification personally if they've hired a qualified employee, but must be able to document this during an inspection.

Owner's permis de ședere and business authorization

A separate issue for foreign founders: the link between personal residence status and the right to do business. SRL registration is formally possible without a permis de ședere, since we're registering a legal entity. But actually managing the business, obtaining avize and autorizație de funcționare, hiring staff—in practice all of this requires stable legal residence status for the owner or company administrator. For more on this, see the guide on legalizing business in Romania for foreigners—there are residence and other conditions to consider alongside permit procedures.

How it works: steps and real timelines

The sequence of actions that lets you avoid a postfactum letter from the primărie looks roughly like this, though the specific checklist depends on your sector and what your local primărie requires.

Step one: plan your permits before registering

Before registering the SRL, figure out which CAEN codes and, accordingly, which avize and permits you'll need. Not every rented location is technically suitable for food production or activities requiring autorizație de construire for renovations.

Step two: register with ONRC

Company registration with declarație pe propria răspundere usually takes a few working days. You get a legal entity—but not yet the right to actually open doors to clients where additional permits are needed.

Step three: obtain the avize

In parallel, applications for sector-specific avize are submitted—health, veterinary-health, fire safety, environmental. Each agency schedules its own inspection and issues its approval on its own schedule; timelines vary between agencies and regions.

Step four: autorizație de funcționare

Once all required avize are collected, the full package goes to the primărie to obtain autorizație de funcționare. The primărie may conduct its own inspection to verify the premise, check signage and hours against local rules. Only after this permit is issued can the business be considered fully authorized to operate at the address.

Fines and suspension for operating without authorization

Operating without autorizație de funcționare or without a required aviz is not a formality you can fix "when you get around to it." It's a violation that typically surfaces in the worst possible way—during an inspection, when clients are already on the premises and equipment has been bought and installed.

Consequences typically include a fine, whose amount depends on the type of violation and the agency that caught it, plus an order to correct the violation within a set period. But the sting isn't the fine itself—it's the risk of temporary suspension of operations until the required permits are obtained. For a business with customer traffic, every day of suspension is direct lost revenue, not an abstract paperwork problem.

A separate risk category: a company that obtained autorizație de funcționare once but later changed its activity profile, expanded the premise, or added a new CAEN code without updating permits. Any material change may require updating the avize and the permit itself, even if everything was correctly formalized the first time.

Risks compound when the owner tries to fix things independently, without legal support, after an inspection. Responding to the inspecting agency, appealing a fine, negotiating a timeline for correcting violations—these are procedural actions with their own deadlines, and a mistake here can turn a temporary suspension into a longer ordeal.

How Dorosh & Partners handles business licensing

An accountant who manages the company's books and the person who actually defends the business before authorities are often different professionals. An accountant will calculate taxes correctly but won't appeal a primărie refusal or attend an inspection alongside the owner. For that you need a lawyer—which is why at Dorosh & Partners businesses get accounting and legal support together, in one package.

The model is designed so owners don't have to personally navigate Romanian administrative language or run between ONRC, primărie, DSV, and other agencies blind. A client describes their situation in plain language to a lawyer—"I registered the SRL but primărie is asking for autorizație de funcționare," or "DSV refused a permit because of something in the kitchen layout." The lawyer translates this into legal language for the advocate: identifies the agency and procedure, determines what documents are missing, and checks whether there's grounds to appeal a refusal or a fine.

Next the lawyer directs the advocate precisely where the client needs real help—and supervises the work to keep it on track, preventing the case from stalling between departments. The owner receives clear interim reports instead of bureaucratic jargon. The key is: it's the advocate, not the accountant, who can argue convincingly to challenge a suspension or permit denial, because these are questions of legal procedure, not accounting.

What licensing support includes

• Analysis of your CAEN code to identify upfront which avize and permits you'll need—before you sign a lease.
• Support submitting applications for aviz sanitar, aviz sanitar-veterinar, aviz PSI, aviz de mediu, and tracking deadlines at each agency.
• Preparing and submitting the full document package for autorizație de funcționare to the primărie, including handling refusals.
• Processing licență de transport and certified copies for transport businesses.
• Responding to fines and notices for operating without permits: checking grounds, appealing within deadlines.
• Aligning permit questions with the owner's residence status, including permis de ședere.

The key difference from a one-off consultation is that your lawyer already understands your company structure when an inspection or refusal arrives—rather than meeting your business for the first time after a letter with a deadline. This matters especially for those running business across multiple EU countries. If you're just starting your registration or have already received a letter from primărie about a missing autorizație de funcționare, it makes sense to begin with a lawyer consultation to map out the exact steps for your situation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the ONRC's declarație pe propria răspundere replace the primărie permit?

No. The declarație pe propria răspundere is a founder's statement of intent to comply with standards, which speeds up ONRC registration. The right to actually work at the address is granted separately by autorizație de funcționare from the primărie, usually after obtaining the needed avize.

How long does obtaining all permits take?

The exact timeline depends on sector, your specific primărie, and the workload of specialist agencies, so there's no single answer. The realistic approach is to budget weeks, not days, and build that buffer into your business launch plan.

What happens if an inspection finds you operating without autorizație de funcționare?

Usually a fine and an order to correct the violation within a set period; in some cases, temporary suspension of operations. The fine amount depends on the type of violation and the agency that found it, so assess risk for your specific situation.

Do I need a separate permit if my business moves or expands?

Typically yes. The autorizație de funcționare is issued for a specific address and scope of activity, so changing location or adding a new activity type usually requires updating the permit and possibly re-obtaining some avize.

Does the owner's permis de ședere affect obtaining business permits?

Formal SRL registration with ONRC is possible without the founder's permis de ședere being in order. But actually running the business on-site, communicating with the primărie and specialist agencies, hiring staff—all of this is tied to stable legal residence status for the owner in Romania.

Permits in Romania are not a single procedure but several parallel tracks that are easy to mix up or skip, especially when it seems like SRL registration with ONRC has already settled the legality question. Checking the list of needed avize and a permit from the primărie upfront, before opening doors to your first clients, costs far less than a fine and suspended operations.

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