Setting up business in Romania as a Moldovan citizen
For Moldovan founders, Romania is one of the most accessible places to run a European limited liability company, and the process is well-trodden. Moldovan citizens can be sole shareholders and administrators of a Romanian SRL, and the legal mechanics are the same as for any other foreign founder: a constitutive act, a registered office, share capital, and a filing with the Trade Register. What tends to make setting up business in Romania for Moldovan citizens smoother is proximity and familiarity. Many founders already travel to Romania, speak the language, or hold supporting paperwork that is straightforward to read, which can shorten the document review stage.
That said, proximity does not remove the need for consistency. The Trade Register and the bank both want every document to agree with itself, so the same care that any Romanian SRL for foreigners requires still applies to a Moldovan file. Below we set out what is usually checked, how signing tends to work in your case, and one planning point that is worth getting right from the start.
Documents usually checked for a Moldovan founder
In our experience, Moldovan citizens often have a comparatively simple document review, particularly when the identity document and residence details are clear and current. The core of the file is your valid passport or national ID, confirmation of where you live, and the details of the business you want to register. From there we prepare the Romanian-language documents the Trade Register expects, including the constitutive act and the administrator declarations.
A typical Moldovan file is built around the following:
- A valid Moldovan passport or ID, with name and personal details that are legible and current
- Your current residential address and country of residence
- The proposed company name (we run availability checks before filing)
- The chosen business activity, expressed through one or more CAEN codes
- Details of any additional shareholders, and whether each is an individual or a foreign legal entity
Where a document is issued in a language other than Romanian, a certified translation may be required, and certain documents may need an apostille depending on how and where they were issued. We confirm the exact list after reviewing what you hold, so you are not gathering paperwork you do not need.
Signing and the remote question
How you sign is often the part that benefits most from your closeness to Romania. If you are already in the country, planning to travel, or resident here, the signing route is frequently simpler than assembling a fully remote file, because steps that would otherwise require notarisation and apostille abroad can sometimes be handled in person. For founders who cannot travel, remote formation may be possible after we confirm the documents and formalities for the country of residence.
Neither route is automatically better; it depends on your schedule and where your documents originate. We assess both and recommend the path that involves the least duplication for your specific situation. For broader context on how foreign-citizen files are structured, the guidance for non-EU founders explains the remote and in-person options in more detail and applies directly to Moldovan citizens.
A Moldova-specific planning point: keep your details identical everywhere
The single most useful thing a Moldovan founder can do early is to fix one consistent spelling of their name and one consistent format of their address, and then use it on every document. Because names and addresses can be transliterated or formatted in more than one way between Moldovan, Romanian, and Latin-alphabet conventions, small inconsistencies, such as a different diacritic, an abbreviated street type, or a reordered middle name, can cause the Trade Register or the bank to query the file. Resolving such a query later is slower than getting it right at the outset.
Decide on the exact wording before we draft anything, and we will carry it through the constitutive act, the declarations, and the office paperwork so the whole Romanian company for Moldova matches end to end.
Costs and what shapes the quote
Formation of a Romanian SRL for foreign citizens starts from €300, and a registered office is available from €150/year. If you need both together, the remote SRL plus registered office package starts from €450, and later amendments such as adding a shareholder or changing the activity start from €200. These are starting points: the final quote depends on your citizenship, the documents you can provide, the number of shareholders, whether translations are required, and whether each shareholder is an individual or a foreign legal entity.
We give you a fixed figure once we have seen your situation, so there are no surprises after the file is underway.
Check your country case
Your dedicated contact keeps the context of your Moldovan identity documents, current residence and ownership structure, coordinates the confirmed formalities and follows your formation file through completion.
If you are a Moldovan founder thinking about a Romanian SRL, send us a short message and we will tell you exactly how your file would run. Include your citizenship, your current country of residence, whether you will need a registered office, and the business activity you have in mind. With that, we can outline the documents, the likely signing route, and a fixed quote. Reach us via WhatsApp or the contact form to check your country case and get started.