Where is an employment contract registered in the Kurdistan Region?

The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, sets out where an employment contract is registered when the work is in the Kurdistan Region. The page identifies the body before which that registration is made, and distinguishes it from the path before the federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Registration in the Region is not federal lodging

In the governorates not organised in a region, if the employment contract is in writing, the employer draws it up in three copies and the third is lodged with the Department of Employment and Loans, under article 37 of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015. The Department in that Law, under article 1, is the Department of Employment and Loans at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. That lodging is part of the conclusion of a written contract in the federal framework, and is set out on the page Reviewing the employment file.

A contract under which the work is performed inside the Kurdistan Region is registered before the Region's labour departments, under the arrangements the Region's institutions make for employment relations there. That registration is not to be confused with lodging the third copy with the federal Department of Employment and Loans, and neither step takes the place of the other when the place of work is split between the Region and a governorate not organised in a region. The distinction between the two paths is set out on the page Federal and Kurdistan Region labour rules.

Registration of the employer on the Region's labour portal is a separate matter from registration of the contract itself, and belongs on the page The Kurdistan labour portal for employers. Completing the employer's registration on the portal does not take the place of registering the contract, and registering the contract does not take the place of the other duties that the law attaches to employment, including social-security enrolment before the body that organises it at the place of work, and a work permit for a person who is not Iraqi if one party to the relationship is a foreign worker.

What is read in the contract on registration?

Whatever the place of lodging or registration, the contract remains an employment agreement in which the parties, the work, the wage, the duration and the hours are identified. In the federal framework, article 37 requires a written contract to contain, at a minimum, the employer's name, the type of project and its address; the worker's name, date of birth, qualifications, occupation, residence and nationality; the nature, type and duration of the work and the date it starts; the wage, benefits, and the method, time and place of payment; and working hours and how they are divided. A reading of the contract in the Region is taken from the arrangements in force there and from the parties' agreement, while the distinction between a fixed-term contract and an open-ended contract continues to be governed by the rules that apply at the place the work is performed, as explained on the page Fixed-term and open-ended contracts.

Registration is not a heading that takes the place of the content of the contract. Rights that the law fixes as a minimum are not lost by a condition in an agreement by which the worker waives a right conferred on the worker, in the federal framework under article 14, and the corresponding rule in the arrangements in force in the Region is read in the same spirit. The file is not reduced to a registration receipt. Where an oral contract is permitted, the absence of writing does not negate the employment relationship, but it shifts the burden of proof to the parties.

If the worker is not Iraqi, registration of the contract in the Region does not take the place of a work permit, nor of a residence card. A work permit is a path before the Department of Labour and Vocational Training in the federal framework under the Labour Law and Instructions No. 1 of 2026, or under what the Region organises within its limits, and residence is read first from Foreigners' Residence Law No. 76 of 2017, together with the procedures the Region organises for a residence card, as on the page A residence card in the Kurdistan Region.

How is the filing followed from Baghdad?

The registration file is reviewed from the place where the work is performed, from the body through which the Region's labour departments organise that registration, and from the contract and the particulars of the parties. If the employer's activity also extends to a governorate not organised in a region, lodging the third copy with the federal Department of Employment and Loans remains a duty, in that framework, for contracts governed by Labour Law No. 37 of 2015. A plurality of places is not reduced to a single step.

A dispute arising from a contract performed in the Region is brought before the judicial and administrative bodies the Region organises for labour cases. It is not to be inferred from that that a Court of Labor in a governorate not organised in a region is the court for that dispute, unless the file itself supplies a basis that identifies the court. The office follows a reading of this path from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, with no branch in the Region.

Legal basis and sources

1. Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386 of 9/11/2015) — Article 37

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01Which labour and social-security rules apply in the governorates and in the Kurdistan Region?The reach of Labour Law 37/2015 and Law 18/2023 in the governorates not organised in a region, and how work is organised in the Kurdistan Region.
• 02Employer registration on the Kurdistan Region labour portalEmployer registration on the Kurdistan Region labour portal before the Region's labour departments, not mixed with the federal ministry's path.
• 03What is reviewed in the employment contract, a non-Iraqi's work permit, and social-security enrolment?What is reviewed in an employment file: the written contract, a non-Iraqi's work permit, and social-security enrolment,.
• 04End-of-service entitlements under Labour Law No. 37 of 2015The end-of-service gratuity under Labour Law 37/2015: the two-week formula, the statutory exceptions, and how it differs from benefits under Law 18/2023.
• 05When a job ends in Iraq: who ends it, on what ground, and what followsA practical map of ending a private-sector employment contract in Iraq: what ends it automatically, when the employer or the worker may end it, barred grounds, and the challenge deadline.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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