VisaFamilies hiring a foreign care worker in San Marino need employment and residence paperwork
A current-rule guide to the care-worker hiring desk, the employer’s guarantees and the separate residence and social-security filings.
Official announcement date: not established (undated guidance)
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Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
Start with the care-worker hiring service
Families in San Marino arranging a foreign worker to provide care at home need to coordinate employment clearance and the worker’s permission to live in the republic. This current-rule guide concerns temporary residence for assistance work, rather than the separate hospital-nurse route. The Foreign Affairs service directory links a specific assistance-work checklist, while its general guidance identifies the Gendarmeria Foreigners Office as the authority handling residence permits.
The Labour Office’s Hiring Assistants for Elderly People and People with Disabilities resource directs families to the assistance desk at the Territorial Home Service, known as STD. It says STD collects the documentation, manages the hiring file and forwards it complete to the Labour Office for employment clearance, or nulla osta. Use that service to establish the hiring route before treating an agreement with a prospective worker as the completed immigration process.
Separate the employer’s guarantees from the worker’s residence evidence
Article 12 in the official consolidated immigration text requires the employer’s declaration to address suitable accommodation, the duties to be performed and notification of employment changes, and the cost of the worker’s return journey. The employment clearance and a certified copy of the employer’s declaration then form part of the residence application. These are responsibilities beyond confirming the job.
The implementing rules contain an important accommodation distinction. Full-time assistants for non-self-sufficient elderly or disabled people, and the specified family-assistant category, are exempted from producing a lease or equivalent proof of holding suitable housing. This document exemption should not be read as removing the employer’s accommodation guarantee. For the family-assistant category, the rules additionally specify cohabitation and a medical examination. Ask STD which category applies.
Prepare the residence checklist and check certificate formalities
The Foreign Affairs assistance-work checklist calls for a valid identity document or passport copy, four ICAO-format photographs for a first application, residence and family-status certificates, criminal-record and pending-proceedings evidence, the Labour Office clearance and the certified employer declaration. It specifies two photographs for renewal. Keep the first-application and renewal lists separate when asking which evidence must be supplied.
The same checklist says documents should be in Italian, accompanied by an appropriately sworn Italian translation, or issued in a multilingual form. Certificates should normally be no more than six months old, although the receiving office can require newer evidence. Documents from abroad, excluding Italy, must be legalised or apostilled. It also provides for self-certification at the Foreigners Office for documents issued by San Marino public offices. Confirm the applicable foreign-document route before paying for translations or ordering duplicate certificates.
Plan the appointment, fees and duration questions
The checklist publishes EUR 50 at submission and EUR 30 at collection, describing payment in revenue stamps purchased beforehand. The separate 2026 administrative-fee ordinance identifies temporary assistance-work permits under item 29.21 of Annex Q. Ask the Foreigners Office to confirm the payment method and any separate certificate charges for the actual file; the two permit instalments are not a complete estimate of employment or document-preparation costs.
The general Foreign Affairs guidance describes temporary permits as having a maximum validity of 12 months, renewable on request. Article 15 of the implementing rules states that after 48 months the permit is interrupted, the worker must return to the home country and another application cannot be made until 30 days after interruption. That longer limit does not make an individual permit valid for four years. Discuss the worker’s previous residence history before arranging a further contract.
Keep the newer social-security filing separate from residence approval
An ISS circular dated 13 April 2026 states that, from 1 May 2026, contracts for workers assisting non-self-sufficient people and the corresponding payslips can be submitted through CONTRISS, under Requests for ISS Procedures. This gives the household a separate social-security filing channel to organise alongside the employment and residence file.
The circular’s published scope is contracts and payslips. It does not establish that uploading them grants residence or replaces the Foreigners Office appointment. Confirm access and filing arrangements with ISS Contributions, whose contact appears on the circular, while asking STD about employment clearance and the Foreigners Office about the permit. No end-to-end processing time or current individual approval was established by this public-source check.
