How much Romanian do you need for work in Romania in 2026?

Bucharest holds the deepest English-friendly map: tech and product teams, shared-services centres, consulting, finance, and multinational headquarters, especially around Floreasca, Pipera, and central office corridors: Living in Bucharest. Cluj-Napoca adds a strong university and tech layer where meetings and Slack often stay English: Living in Cluj-Napoca. Timișoara and Iași offer thinner but real English niches in campus and corporate pockets.

Even in English teams, lunch chat, safety notices, HR mail, and client handovers can switch to Romanian. Ask the hiring manager how appraisals are written and whether customer contact is English-only before you assume a fully bilingual office. Remote-friendly bases lean the same way: Best places for remote workers. Daily English limits sit in English in Romania.

Healthcare receptions, teaching, social services, policing, and most public administration lean hard on Romanian for patients, parents, and residents. Domestic retail, trades, local law firms, and many small companies hire for Romanian even when staff can switch languages for tourists. Management tracks inside Romanian companies often need meeting fluency beyond café phrases.

A1–A2 Romanian can already unlock neighbour small talk and simpler office life. Working B1-range Romanian usually changes the job map more than another English-only CV rewrite. Pair classes with workplace practice rather than waiting for perfect grammar: Learn Romanian in Romania. Evenings still matter: Work-life balance in Romania.

Ads that say “English sufficient” still deserve a clarifying question about documentation, customer contact, and appraisal language. Ads that list Romanian as required usually mean it. A CEFR level on a CV helps as a hiring signal, but it is not a universal legal key for ordinary private jobs.

Ordinary temporary residence and work permits do not usually demand a Romanian classroom exam at the gate. Long-term residence commonly expects at least a satisfactory level of Romanian, often checked in an IGI interview, and citizenship under Articles 10 and 11 typically wants accepted B1 proof from named issuers. That sits on a different track from your employment contract: Romanian language requirements. Do not skip formal study because your boss speaks English. Counter help when forms stay Romanian: Romanian bureaucracy without Romanian and Apply for a residence permit.