Categories of foreign citizens eligible for temporary residence permit

We hereby fish to inform you that Government of Serbia has adopted a Decree on the criteria for determining the category of foreign citizens who may be granted a temporary residence permit by the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter Decree), regardless from the criteria prescribed in the Law on Foreigners, during the session held on February 13th 2020.

Criteria and categories:

The Decree itself does not specify the criteria, however those are defined in the categories of the foreign citizens. There are three categories:

1. Founder of a legal entity in Serbia which performs innovative business activities that is recognized by the registered Science technology park founded by the Republic, autonomous province, City of Belgrade or a local municipality (i.e. start up);

2. Individuals who invest in already registered legal entity in Serbia, or in the business activity by way of investing into tangible and intangible assets (i.e. investor);

3. Individuals who have professional qualifications issued by the competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia (i.e. talent);

In practice, the first category (founders of the legal entity) is currently applicable and temporary residence was obtained on the basis of founding a legal entity or entrepreneurial establishment, however this Decree changes the type of documentation that serves as evidence of the justification of the request.

Temporary residence permit duration

Temporary residence permit would be issued for the period of one year for the categories from the points 1 and 3, while for the category from the point 2 temporary residence permit would be issued for the period of 6 months.
If conditions are met, temporary residence permit can be extended for the period of 1 year.

Necessary documentation

The documentation for filing the original request and the request for extension, which is used as evidence to justify the request, is different.

The original documentation proves the intention to fulfill these conditions, while the extension documentation proves that the conditions are fulfilled i.e. that the foreign citizen was staying in accordance with the approved temporary residence permit base.

Work permit

For the above mentioned categories, work permit is acquired in accordance with the Law on Employment of Foreigners.

Decree was published in the Official Gazette no. 13/2020, and will be in force 8 day from the publishing in the Official Gazette.