A work permit for a person who is not Iraqi

Administrations and employers are forbidden to employ a foreign worker in any capacity unless the worker holds a work permit issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, under article 30 of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, which appeared in the Official Gazette, issue 4386, dated 9/11/2015. A foreign worker is forbidden to take up any work before obtaining that permit, under article 31. The Minister may issue special instructions on recruitment and employment, under article 33. The instructions in force in this field are Instructions No. 1 of 2026 on the recruitment, employment and work permits of foreign workers, which appeared in the Official Gazette, issue 4863, dated 30/3/2026, and which set aside the earlier 1987 instrument numbered 18 on foreigners practising work in Iraq.

Under article 1 of those Instructions, filings go to دائرة العمل والتدريب المهني at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. That is not دائرة التشغيل والقروض, the body defined in article 1 of the Labour Law for other tasks, among them lodging a copy of the employment contract. The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, follows a reading of this path. The detail is on the recruitment, employment and permit instructions, and what concerns residence in the Region is on a residence card in the Kurdistan Region. The statutory text refers the fee to instructions issued by the Minister.

Who presents the application, and who grants the permit?

Article 1 allows the filing to come from a company that has a contract with a State department or the public sector, from a privately licensed placement office that works on recruitment and placement, from an employer, or from the foreign worker acting through the employer who brought the worker in.

Under article 5, the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, or a person the Minister authorises, issues the permit. It runs for a year and may be extended, on a form that the Department itself prepares. A renewal request is filed through the employer in the final month before expiry, once the requirements in the Instructions have been satisfied.

Conditions in outline, and the share of foreign labour

Article 2 ties recruitment and placement to a set of controls: entry and stay must be lawful under Foreigners' Residence Law No. 76 of 2017; the workers' social-security department and the Directorate of Residence Affairs at the Ministry of Interior must state that no outstanding breach remains against the employer or the worker in connection with recruitment or placement; the jobseeker database must contain no person who matches the profile sought, or the employment sections in Baghdad and the governorates must issue an apology within 15 days after the filing arrives and is recorded; foreign staff may not form more than half of those engaged on the project; medical screening and the absence of contagious or communicable illness must appear in reports issued by an official body, together with the fitness the type of work requires; for skilled staff, competence must appear in a written record of experience or in an authenticated graduation paper; and the employer must show the means to meet the wage. In domestic work the number may not rise above two in one household, unless the Department agrees that necessity so requires. A written undertaking is given not to switch the occupation for which the person was brought in, and a change of employer waits until the approvals have been obtained.

These are the conditions in the Instructions. When an application is made to employ three or more foreign workers, committees are formed at the Department's headquarters and in the labour sections in the governorates, with tasks that include a field visit and an assessment of actual need, under article 3. The detail is on the page about the Instructions.

Recruitment from outside Iraq, and employment from inside it

Where the worker is still abroad, a written filing goes to the Department or to a governorate section, or through a privately licensed placement office, with authenticated particulars and papers, and the approvals needed for an entry visa are completed. Under article 6, the employer or a formally appointed agent must then attend in Baghdad or at a section within 30 days of the worker's arrival, so that the remaining steps for issuing the permit can be finished.

Where the worker is already in the country, a similar filing is made, and article 7 requires that entry and stay already be lawful under Residence Law No. 76 of 2017. In both paths, article 4 of the Instructions and article 31 of the Law forbid starting any work before the permit has been issued.

What is required of the employer after the permit is granted?

Article 9 of the Instructions requires the contract with the foreign worker to be made in Arabic and English, or in the worker's first language. Article 8 requires the employer, and any licensed placement office that arranged the placement, to inform the Department and the nearest police station if the worker runs away. Under article 32 of the Labour Law, an employer who brought the worker to Iraq at the employer's own cost must supply a return ticket to the country from which the worker came, unless the worker left the job before the contract ended without a lawful reason. If the foreign worker dies, the employer meets the cost of preparing the body and of carrying it to the home country or the place of stay, when the family asks for that.

Article 34 of the Labour Law provides that merely losing a job does not, by itself, put a foreign worker whose stay for work is already lawful into an irregular position, and does not of itself pull back the residence authorisation or the work permit, unless a breach of Iraqi laws is shown. Cancellation of the work permit itself has grounds listed in article 10 of the Instructions, set out on the page about the Instructions.

What is not mixed with this permit?

A work permit is a path before the Department of Labour and Vocational Training. Residence is a different path, read from the Foreigners' Residence Law and, if the work is in the Region, from the Region's procedures. Enrolment of the worker with the Department of Pension and Social Security for Workers is a third path, in which the employer's share for a foreign worker is reviewed on the social-security page. Drafting the employment contract is a separate page, preparing a contract.

The office follows these questions from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, with no branch in another governorate.

Legal basis and sources

1. Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, especially articles 30–34 (Official Gazette No. 4386 of 9/11/2015)
2. Instructions No. 1 of 2026 on the recruitment, employment and work permits of foreign workers (Official Gazette No. 4863 of 30/3/2026)
3. Foreigners' Residence Law No. 76 of 2017 (Iraqi Legislation Database)

Frequently asked questions

Topics in this area

• 01Instructions No. 1 of 2026 on the recruitment, employment and work permits of foreign workersA reading of Instructions No. 1 of 2026: applications, committees for three or more workers, cancellation and training.
• 02A residence card for a person who is not Iraqi in the Kurdistan RegionKurdistan residence card under Law No. 76 of 2017, distinct from a work permit, with no regional law number cited without a published official instrument.
• 03Renewing and cancelling a non-Iraqi's work permit, and what happens when the job endsWhen a non-Iraqi worker's permit is renewed and when it is cancelled under Instructions No. 1 of 2026, what follows from a contract ending, a business closing, unauthorised absence or a change of employer, and what rights the worker keeps.

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

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