Foreign Nationals in Armenia Do Not Need Work Permit Effective 2018

Artem Asatryan, Armenia’s Labor and Social Affairs Minister (Photo: gov.am)

YEREVAN (Arka)—The Armenian government has suspended today a provision of the law that obliges foreign nationals to apply for a work permit in Armenia. According to labor and social affairs minister Artem Asatryan, the provision in question will be ineffective until January 1, 2018.

“Today we have 5,179 foreign citizens, predominantly Armenians by nationality, working in the country,  employed in areas such as science, education, technology and communications, processing industry, trade and health care,”  said Asatryan.

The minister said although the Armenian law regulating this issue is relatively friendly, it, nonetheless, creates certain difficulties for employers, including loss of time and additional financial expenses (15 days for formalization of documents and 25 thousand drams paid as duty for each work permit).

“Without setting specific quotas it is difficult to regulate this sector. However, there is no such a need yet as the number of foreign workers in the country is not large. This is why after studying the issue, we propose to temporarily suspend the provision of the law,” Asatryan said.