In order to promote the self-sufficiency of applicants and to limit wide discrepancies between Member States, it is essential to provide clear rules on the applicants’ access to the labour market and to ensure that such access is effective, by not imposing conditions that effectively hinder an applicant from seeking employment, not unduly restricting access to specific sectors of the labour market or working time of an applicant and not setting unreasonable administrative formalities. Applicants who have effective access to the labour market and have been allowed to reside only in a specific place should be able to seek employment within a reasonable distance from that place. Where required by an applicant’s employment contract, Member States should be able to grant the applicant permission to leave their territory to carry out specific work tasks in another Member State in accordance with national law. Labour market tests used to give priority to nationals or to other Union citizens or to third-country nationals and stateless persons lawfully residing in the Member State concerned should not hinder effective access for applicants to the labour market and should be implemented without prejudice to the principle of preference for Union citizens as expressed in the relevant provisions of the applicable Acts of Accession.