Instructions No. 1 of 2026 on the recruitment, employment and work permits of foreign workers

Instructions No. 1 of 2026 on the recruitment, employment and work permits of foreign workers were issued on the basis of article 33 of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, They appeared in the Official Gazette, issue 4863, dated 30/3/2026, took effect on the day they were published, and, under articles 12 and 13, set aside the earlier 1987 instrument numbered 18 on foreigners practising work in Iraq. The general framework is on the work-permit page. This page follows the articles of the Instructions as they appear in the Legislation Database.

Where is the application presented?

Under article 1, filings for recruitment or placement go to دائرة العمل والتدريب المهني at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. They may come from a company that has a contract with a State department or the public sector, from a privately licensed placement office, from an employer, or from the foreign worker acting through the employer who brought the worker in. That Department is not دائرة التشغيل والقروض, the body named in article 1 of the Labour Law for other tasks.

The conditions for recruitment or employment in article 2

The text ties the matter to these 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 in the section; 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 text. The form in force at the Department is reviewed at the time of filing.

Committees when three or more workers are sought

Where a filing seeks to bring in or place three foreign workers or more, article 3 provides for committees at the Department's seat, and for a committee in the labour sections of the governorates. An official of experience, of a grade not below the fourth, chairs each of them, with two members of a grade not below the fifth. Their tasks include visiting the site to confirm the address and that the project is actually operating; checking that foreign staff do not form more than half of the workforce; judging the real need, counting foreign staff already engaged on that same project; and checking that housing, food and working conditions are adequate. That judgment is a review of need, not an assurance of approval.

Grant of the permit, renewal, and the paths from outside and from inside Iraq

Article 4 forbids a foreign worker to start any work in Iraq until a permit has been issued. A grant depends on a written request by the worker, submitted through the employer to دائرة العمل والتدريب المهني; on entry and stay already being lawful under Residence Law No. 76 of 2017; on there being no security bar on the person working in Iraq; on medical reports issued by an official body; and on the Department's jobseeker database containing no matching candidate.

Under article 5, the Minister, or a person the Minister authorises, issues the permit for a year, and it may be extended, on a form the Department itself prepares. Extension follows once the requirements in the Instructions have been satisfied, and the request is filed through the employer in the final month before expiry.

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, records of experience and papers; the Department's information form is filled in; and the approvals needed for an entry visa are completed. Under article 6, the employer or a formally appointed agent then attends in Baghdad or at a section within 30 days of arrival, so that the remaining steps 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. The visa and stay path is not the permit path.

Duties after the grant, and grounds for cancellation

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. Article 9 requires the contract to be made in Arabic and English, or in the worker's first language.

Article 10 lists the grounds on which the permit falls away: particulars or papers given when it was sought later proving untrue; the employer dying and no request being made, while the permit is still valid, to name a new employer; the worker dying; the employment contract ending; the project being closed; absence from work without a lawful reason for 10 days running, or for 30 days in broken periods, during the working year; a notice from the security authorities that the worker's presence has become harmful to the public interest or to national security; or the worker taking up an occupation other than the one for which the permit was issued.

On a project of a technical or specialised character, article 11 requires the foreign worker to give a written undertaking to train one Iraqi worker or more already engaged on that project, in the work the foreign worker carries out, during the life of the permit.

The Instructions do not, in these articles, set out a route for objecting to a refusal to grant the permit or to a decision cancelling it, and they do not name a body that hears such an objection.

What remains outside this page?

The fee for the permit is referred to by article 30 of the Labour Law. Enrolment of the worker in social security is a separate page. Residence of a person who is not Iraqi in the Kurdistan Region is read on its page. The office follows a reading of these Instructions from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk.

Legal basis and sources

1. Instructions No. 1 of 2026 on the recruitment, employment and work permits of foreign workers (Official Gazette No. 4863 of 30/3/2026)
2. Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, article 33
3. Foreigners' Residence Law No. 76 of 2017 (Iraqi Legislation Database)

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01A 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.
• 02Renewing 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.
• 03The employer's duties in workers' social securityEmployer duties under Law No. 18 of 2023: yearly particulars, payment time limits, clearance, contractors and work injury.

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

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