In front of the General Inspectorate for Immigration (IGI) in Piața Romană in Bucharest, there is a queue to submit residence permit documents, some for renewal, others for the first time.

Queue at IGI by registrationPhoto: Romul Badei/personal archive

Some had been in the car since 9:00 p.m. Tuesday night.

HotNews.ro recently wrote about the problem of queues for Asian workers: The Romanian railway file also hits immigrants. Queues that show how ready we are to administratively accept 100,000 new foreign workers

They are obliged to solve the problems related to the bureaucracy, otherwise they will have to leave Romania. Those who go home for the holidays want to return, so it is impossible without an extension of the residence permit.

They must submit the files physically and they cannot wait for appointments received online which have too long deadlines.

“We need more people working at IGI. Funds and people are needed. The number of Asian workers will not decrease, especially since next year we will have a contingent of 100,000,” said Romulus Badea, vice president of the Association of Labor Importers and a partner at Soter&Partners, a firm that also deals with attracting foreign workers to the country.