Work Permits in Armenia
A work permit in Armenia costs AMD 105,000 (about USD 289), takes roughly two months, and is filed by the employer on workpermit.am. From the activation of the new platform, no later than 1 November 2026, the fee rises once to AMD 155,950 and several categories lose their exemption.
At a glance
| Who needs a work permit | Most non-Armenian, non-EAEU foreign nationals |
| Who applies | The employer, on workpermit.am |
| Processing time | About 2 months (NSS plus Migration and Citizenship Service) |
| Government fee | AMD 105,000 (about USD 289), rising once to AMD 155,950 (about USD 429) |
| Minimum salary | AMD 75,000 per month net (about USD 206) |
| Permit duration | 1 year, renewable |
| Key reform date | 1 November 2026, except the work entry visa |
Holding a valid visa does not give a foreign national the right to work in Armenia. Most foreigners who are not Armenian citizens and not citizens of an EAEU member state need a work permit before they can be employed here, and the permit is obtained by the employer, not by the worker.
The employer files the application on the state platform workpermit.am. On approval the employee receives a combined work and residence card, a single plastic document that serves as both work authorisation and temporary residence permit, valid for up to one year and issued to the individual.
Armenia’s new Law on Foreigners takes effect on 1 November 2026. It replaces the labour market test with annual quotas, narrows the exemption list, and moves everything to one electronic platform. The work entry visa in the same law is on a separate trigger: it commences only when the new electronic visa system becomes operational, and no launch date has been announced. For contracts, payroll, termination and working conditions, see our Employment and Labor Compliance guide.
Who Needs a Work Permit?
Does Your Employee Need a Work Permit?
Is the employee an Armenian citizen?
YES → No permit needed
Is the employee from an EAEU country? (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan)
YES → No permit needed
Does the employee hold permanent or special residency?
YES → No permit needed
Does any other exemption apply? (see table below)
YES → No permit needed
None of the above?
Work permit required, and the employer must apply
Work Permit Exemptions: Current vs November 2026
Armenian law currently exempts a broad list of categories from the work permit requirement. The reform of 1 November 2026 removes seven of them. The table shows each category under both sets of rules.
| Category | Current | Post-Nov 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| EAEU citizens | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | Protected by Article 97 of the EAEU Treaty. Also exempt from quotas. See the EAEU section. |
| Permanent residents | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | |
| Special residence holders | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Abolished | Special residence status is discontinued. Existing holders retain their rights until expiry. |
| Family of Armenian citizen or resident | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | Narrowed after November to spouse, parent and child. Siblings and grandparents are removed. |
| Ethnic Armenians (temporary residence) | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | |
| Students | ✅ Exempt | ⚠️ Changed | Currently exempt during studies and for one year after graduation. After November the student exemption widens to non-formal education and innovation activities, and the one-year post-graduation exemption is removed. Exchange students during holidays are retained separately. |
| Entrepreneurs (temporary residence) | n/a | ✅ Newly exempt | Temporary residence for entrepreneurial activity carries the right to work without an employment-based permit. Statutory thresholds apply, see founders and directors. |
| Business owners and executives | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Removed | Founders and executive directors of foreign-invested companies lose the blanket exemption and move to the entrepreneurial residence route. |
| Branch and representative office staff | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Removed | Foreign employees of branches and representative offices in Armenia lose their exemption. |
| Foreign specialists (machinery and training) | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Removed | Specialists sent to install or repair equipment or to train local staff lose their exemption. The new law does not carry the category forward. |
| Lecturers, teachers, scientific workers | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Removed | Invited academic and educational staff, including institution managers, lose their exemption. |
| Highly qualified foreigners | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Removed | Those meeting government-set qualification criteria lose the blanket exemption. |
| Professional athletes | ✅ Exempt | ❌ Removed | Professional athletes with sports activity contracts lose their exemption. |
| Diplomatic staff family members | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | On a reciprocity basis. |
| Performers and artists | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | Cinema, theatre and concert tours, including administrative and technical staff. |
| Accredited foreign media | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | |
| Refugees and asylum seekers | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | |
| Emergency workers, law enforcement, trafficking victims, ethnic Armenians (emergency), convicts and detainees | ✅ Exempt | ✅ Exempt | Retained in the new law. |
Highlighted rows are the categories that lose their exemption after 1 November 2026.
Exempt does not mean paperwork-free. Employers must still register the employment contract on the electronic platform for every foreign worker, including those exempt from the permit itself. For several exempt categories the employer also has to obtain a formal conclusion from the relevant authority confirming that the worker qualifies, so the exemption is not always automatic. Foreigners holding temporary residence on the basis of a volunteer work contract are currently exempt as well.
Founders and Directors
A foreign founder or executive director of a company with foreign participation is currently exempt from the work permit requirement. That blanket exemption disappears on 1 November 2026. The replacement is temporary residence for entrepreneurial activity, and the qualifying thresholds are set in the statute itself: an investment of at least AMD 2,000,000 (about USD 5,500) in the Armenian company, or, for a registered individual entrepreneur, turnover or balance sheet assets of at least AMD 1,000,000 (about USD 2,750).
Entrepreneurial residence carries no education or qualification requirement, which employment-based residence does. It also counts toward the three-year residence period for permanent residence, whereas employment-based temporary residence is excluded from direct conversion. The procedure for applying and the evidence the authorities will accept have not been published.
Short-Term Technical Assignments
A specialist sent to Armenia to install or repair equipment, or to train local staff, is exempt under the current law. The exemption carries no fixed assignment length. The new law does not reproduce this category, so from 1 November 2026 a short installation or training visit needs work authorisation unless a different exemption applies. Suppliers with service obligations in Armenia should check whether their engineers travel before or after that date.
Work Permit Application Process
The employer files the application through the Migration and Citizenship Service online platform, workpermit.am. The file passes a labour market assessment, a national security check and a Migration and Citizenship Service decision. Employer and employee documents are all submitted by the employer.
Employer Registers
Create a company account on workpermit.am using the executive’s electronic signature, then post the job vacancy.
Labour Market Check
The Ministry assesses whether the role can be filled from the local labour market. The employer may have to interview Armenian candidates. This step is abolished on 1 November 2026 and replaced by annual quotas.
Security Review
The National Security Service runs a background check and interview, taking roughly 15 business days.
Migration Service Decision
The Migration and Citizenship Service decides and issues the combined work and residence card, taking roughly 15 business days.
Contract Signed and Uploaded
Employee and employer conclude the employment agreement after approval. Armenian law sets no deadline in days for signing it at this stage. Under Government Decree 493-N the pressure is financial: if the contract is not concluded within one month, the employer carries the employee’s relocation and return expenses. The employer then uploads the signed contract to the platform within 10 working days.
Total processing runs to about two months. Start well before the intended start date, and note that applications filed before 1 November 2026 are decided under the current rules.
Grounds for Refusal
A work permit application may be refused if:
• The position requires Armenian citizenship by law
• The submitted documents or information are forged
• The employer has previously violated the rules on hiring foreign nationals
• National security concerns exist
• From 1 November 2026, the annual quota for that residence category has been exhausted
If the Application Is Refused
A refusal on national security grounds usually arrives without reasons, and the National Security Service is not obliged to disclose them. The route of challenge is the Administrative Court, and the deadline is two months from receipt of the decision under Article 72 of the Administrative Procedure Code.
A refusal ordinarily bars a fresh application for one year. The new law carves out one case: where the application failed only because the annual quota had been exhausted, the one-year bar does not apply and the applicant can file again in the next quota period.
Required Documents
The employer submits everything through the workpermit.am platform:
✅ One passport-sized photo (3×4 cm)
✅ Company registration documents
✅ Job description and employment terms
✅ Salary information
✅ Letter of commitment to sign an employment contract
✅ Education or qualification documents with apostille, where available
✅ Employee’s Armenian social security number
✅ Proof of government fee payment (AMD 105,000)
Fees and Salary Requirements
| Item | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Government fee, current | AMD 105,000 (about USD 289) | Covers the combined work and residence card. |
| Government fee, after the increase | AMD 155,950 (about USD 429) | AMD 150,000 for consideration of the application plus AMD 5,950 for issuing the card. One single step, triggered by activation of the new platform and no later than 1 November 2026. |
| Permanent residence card, after the increase | AMD 255,950 (about USD 703) | AMD 250,000 plus the same AMD 5,950 card charge, on the same trigger. |
| EAEU certificate of lawful residence | Free now, AMD 35,950 (about USD 99) after | AMD 30,000 plus the AMD 5,950 card charge, on the same trigger. |
| Minimum salary | AMD 75,000 per month net (about USD 206) | For full-time employment. |
| Work entry visa | AMD 15,000 (about USD 41) | The duty provision commences on 1 January 2027. The visa itself becomes available only when the electronic visa system launches, which is a separate trigger with no announced date. |
| Platform | workpermit.am | All applications are submitted digitally. Replaced by the unified electronic platform after the reform. |
The fee increase happens once. An earlier timetable that split it into a November 2026 stage and a January 2027 stage, with a reduced-fee window in between, was repealed before it ever commenced. There is no such window, and there is no intermediate AMD 110,950 figure. The charge for replacing a lost or damaged card after the cutover has not been fixed in a published instrument.
Dram amounts are converted at the Central Bank of Armenia official rate of AMD 363.85 to USD 1, last updated 4 September 2026.
Employment Contract Requirements
The permit names the job and the employer. The residence card is issued to the individual, but the work authorisation behind it is tied to the specific position and employer in the application. The contract has to comply with Armenian labour law and must cover the employee’s transport to and from Armenia, social security and insurance, accommodation, address registration arrangements, and return arrangements for the employee and accompanying family members. See our Employment Compliance guide for the contract terms in full.
Changing Employers
If the contract ends before the permit expires, the Migration and Citizenship Service picks it up through income tax withholding records. Once withholdings on the employee stop, the service may cancel the permit, and the employee has to find a new employer and go through a fresh application.
The November 2026 reforms formalise this into a grace period: 15 working days from termination to conclude a new employment contract. Miss it and the residence status can be invalidated.
EAEU Citizens: Simplified Registration
Citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are fully exempt from the work permit requirement under Article 97 of the EAEU Treaty. They cannot be subjected to labour market tests, employment quotas or other domestic labour protection restrictions, and that treaty protection survives the November 2026 reform: EAEU citizens are expressly outside the new quota system.
An EAEU citizen staying to work long-term receives a Certificate of Lawful Residence instead, which is an administrative registration. The employee applies individually through the EAEU section of workpermit.am. The employer needs no account on the platform for this application type. What the system does check is State Revenue Committee payroll data, so the employer’s monthly income tax withholding reports naming the applicant must already have been filed or the application will not match.
| Detail | Certificate of Lawful Residence |
|---|---|
| Fee | Free at present. AMD 35,950 (about USD 99) once the new platform is activated, no later than 1 November 2026. |
| Format | Plastic card. Biometric card after the reform, with fingerprints taken in person in Armenia. |
| Validity | Duration of the employment contract, up to a maximum of 1 year. Renewable. |
| Processing time | 30 days is the official service period. Additional examination extends it, and the firm has seen files run longer. |
| Required documents | Passport scan, one photo (3.5×4.5 cm), Armenian social security number, signed employment contract. No notarised translation is required at this step. |
| Family members | Parents, spouse and children obtain derivative certificates carrying independent work rights, with no separate work permit. No apostille is required for CIS civil documents under the 1993 Minsk Convention. |
Russian Citizens: The Address Registration Route
Address registration is the recording of a foreign national’s Armenian address in the population register, done through the passport and visa division of the Migration and Citizenship Service with the agreement of the property owner or host. It is a residence formality in its own right, separate from any work authorisation.
Russian citizens have extra flexibility under a bilateral agreement. For stays of up to 180 days in any rolling 365-day period, address registration alone legalises the stay, with no Certificate of Lawful Residence. Combined with an Armenian social security number, that is enough to sign an employment contract and start work immediately. Past 180 days the certificate becomes necessary through workpermit.am. The filing deadline for address registration and the penalty for missing it are not settled in our verified sources, so treat the timing as something to confirm before relying on it.
What Changes on 1 November 2026
Armenia’s new Law on Foreigners was adopted on 20 January 2026 and takes effect on 1 November 2026. The work entry visa and the work-purpose permission created by the same law sit on a separate trigger and do not start on that date.
Labour Market Test Abolished
An annual government quota system takes its place. The government sets yearly limits on residence statuses by type and category, and once a quota is filled further applications are refused until the next period. The implementing acts fixing the quota levels by sector and category have not been published, so the size of each quota is unknown.
Work Entry Visa: Created, Not Yet in Force
The law creates a work entry visa for nationals who need a visa to enter Armenia: valid up to 120 days, single or multiple entry, not extendable, once per calendar year, at AMD 15,000 (about USD 41) under a duty provision commencing 1 January 2027. It does not become available on 1 November 2026. The transitional provisions defer the work visa and the work-purpose permission until the new electronic visa system is operational, and no launch date has been announced. Until then entry and work authorisation continue under the current rules. Most published summaries of the reform state a flat 1 November start for the work visa, which the transitional provisions do not support.
Visa-Free Nationals
Citizens of visa-free countries, including the United States and EU member states, continue to enter Armenia without a visa and apply for work-based residence from inside the country. When the electronic visa system finally triggers the new provisions, the work entry visa will reach only nationals who require a visa to enter. A visa-free entrant will need the separate work-purpose permission.
Exemptions Narrowed
Business owners and executives, branch and representative office staff, foreign specialists, lecturers, highly qualified foreigners and professional athletes lose their work permit exemption. Entrepreneurs holding temporary residence become newly exempt. See the comparison table.
Unified Electronic Platform
All residence proceedings move to a single digital platform, replacing workpermit.am and in-person Migration and Citizenship Service processes, with automated cross-government verification checks. Activation of that platform is also what triggers the fee increase.
Biometric Cards and One Fee Increase
Every permit holder must appear in person in Armenia for fingerprints and an electronic signature. Fees rise once, on platform activation and no later than 1 November 2026: the work and residence card to AMD 155,950 (about USD 429), permanent residence to AMD 255,950 (about USD 703), and the EAEU certificate from free to AMD 35,950 (about USD 99).
New Residence Categories
The law creates dedicated grounds for residence based on study and research, entrepreneurial activity, family or ethnic Armenian ties, investment, and exceptional services to Armenia. These are structured pathways outside employment-based residence. Learn more about residence permits.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
| Violation | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Working without a work permit | AMD 100,000 to 150,000 (about USD 275 to 412) |
| Overstaying a visa or violating immigration status | AMD 50,000 to 100,000 (about USD 137 to 275) |
| Employer fails to provide the position after the permit is issued | The employer may be liable for the employee’s return travel, living expenses and transport of personal property, for the employee and accompanying family members. |
| Employing a foreigner without using the electronic platform | Violations are reported to the police and the Migration and Citizenship Service. Suspected trafficking or exploitation cases are referred on. |
| Employee death during employment | If a foreign employee dies during the contract for work-related reasons, the employer covers the cost of transporting the remains to the home country. |
