Self-Employment Permit

The self-employment permit is the route for foreign nationals who do not work for a Macedonian employer under a normal employment contract but instead earn their living through a Macedonian business they own, manage, or operate as a licensed professional. It covers three distinct profiles: the founder of a Macedonian limited liability company (ДООЕЛ for a single founder, ДОО for several, АД for a joint-stock structure) who acts as managing director; the owner-manager who is both shareholder and director and draws salary from the company; and the regulated independent professional — for example a foreign physician with their own practice, a registered architect, an attorney admitted to the Macedonian Bar, or an independent consultant operating under a registered self-employed activity.

Each profile has the same conceptual structure: an underlying economic activity in a Macedonian legal form, plus a labour-market authorisation from АВРМ, plus a residence permit from МВР.

The starting point is the Macedonian legal entity. Foreign founders register a company at the Central Registry of North Macedonia (Централен регистар, ЦРМ); the registration takes 3–5 working days when documents are clean. ДООЕЛ is by far the most common form for a single foreign founder: there is no statutory minimum capital that meaningfully filters market entry, the founder can be a non-resident foreign individual, and the management structure can be as simple as a single managing director.

The act of incorporation, the company seat, the activity codes, and the appointment of the director all need to be in order before АВРМ will look at the work-permit file. Foreign founders usually appoint themselves as managing director, but they can also hire a Macedonian or already-resident foreign director and structure their own role as a foreign managerial appointee — which routes the file through different АВРМ logic.

АВРМ then runs a labour-market analysis adapted to self-employment. For the founder-director profile, the test is essentially formal: the foreigner is the owner of capital and the law recognises this as a legitimate ground for the foreigner's own employment. For the hired-director profile (foreign founder who appoints a Macedonian director and seeks to be a salaried specialist), АВРМ runs a closer analysis of why the role cannot be filled locally.

For regulated professions, АВРМ requires evidence of the Macedonian regulator's recognition or licence (Macedonian Medical Chamber for physicians, Chamber of Architects, Bar of the Republic of North Macedonia, etc.) — without that licence, the file is incomplete and АВРМ will refuse the opinion. In all profiles АВРМ also checks that the company has a registered seat, declared activity codes that match the work to be performed, and a credible business model — sham companies registered solely as a residence vehicle are flagged and refused.

The documentary core matches the employment-permit dossier with self-employment-specific additions. The standard documents apply: notarised passport, apostilled and translated criminal record and non-prosecution certificates, apostilled and translated diploma, regulatory licence where applicable, notarised lease, valid health insurance, and the МВР temporary residence form.

Self-employment-specific additions are: the Central Registry registration documents (founding act, decision on appointment of director, current registry extract), evidence of paid-in capital where required, the company's tax number (ЕДБ) issued by the Public Revenue Office, and a business plan or activity description that explains how the company will operate and generate revenue. Where the foreigner intends to draw salary from the company, the standard employment contract between the company and the director-owner is required.

Procedurally, the foreigner (or the foreigner's authorised representative — typically a Macedonian lawyer) registers the company at the Central Registry, obtains the tax number, opens the corporate bank account, and then files at АВРМ. АВРМ issues the positive opinion within 30–45 days for clean files. The residence file at МВР follows the standard temporary-residence-for-work track: 4–8 weeks for a decision, Visa D from the consulate for visa-required nationals within 3 working days of МВР's positive decision, address registration within 48 hours of entry, biometrics and card collection within 5 days.

The whole sequence — incorporation, АВРМ, МВР, Visa D, entry, biometrics — typically takes 10–16 weeks. Real economic activity is critical: МВР and the tax authority both check, on renewal and ad-hoc, that the company is filing returns, paying contributions, and conducting actual business — a dormant company will lose the residence ground at the next renewal cycle.

Renewal applies the same logic as the initial decision but with one additional checkpoint: economic substance. At renewal, expect АВРМ and МВР to look at filed financial statements, registered VAT (where applicable), payments of social contributions for any staff, and the foreigner-director's own salary record.

After five years of continuous lawful residence, the foreigner becomes eligible for permanent residence, which decouples the residence right from the specific company and removes the annual renewal burden. Many self-employed foreigners use this path as a long-horizon route to permanent residence and, eventually, to naturalisation under the Law on Citizenship.