The visa · Serbia
Serbia
Serbia has no visa or permit expressly for remote workers; the routes that exist are a temporary residence permit of up to three years on the basis of self-employment (usually as a flat-rate registered entrepreneur), on property ownership, or via the single work-and-residence permit for those taking a local job. Most nomads from visa-free countries enter for 90 days and lodge the application from inside Serbia through the eForeigner portal. The one thing to know before applying is that the entrepreneur route means registering a Serbian business and paying Serbian tax and contributions from day one, since no published rule permits paid work on a visa-free stay.
- Nomad visa · September 2026None as suchRoutes4Bases0
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The routes
Researched 6 September 2026 · rules as of September 2026 · as published, not legal advice
Freelance / self-employed
Temporary residence on self-employment (registered entrepreneur, preduzetnik)
Privremeni boravak po osnovu samozapošljavanja (jedinstvena dozvola) / Temporary residence on the basis of self-employment (single permit)
Remote workers and freelancers of any non-EU nationality who are willing to register as a Serbian sole trader, typically under the flat-rate (paušal) tax regime, and invoice foreign clients through it.
- Income floor
- None published on the official pages opened. In practice the flat-rate (paušal) regime is available while annual revenue stays under 6,000,000 RSD (roughly 51,000 EUR); the monthly flat tax and contributions are set by the Tax Administration according to activity code and municipality, reported by lawyers at about 200 to 500 EUR a month for IT activities, with a 50 per cent reduction in the first year.
- Duration
- Up to three years per approval, calculated from the date the request is lodged; extendable for further periods, with the extension request lodged no earlier than three months before and no later than the expiry date.
- Cost
- Submission fee 430 RSD plus 22,770 RSD for approval of the single permit (or 23,450 RSD for approval of a standard temporary residence). Citizens of North Macedonia, Mongolia, Cyprus and Belarus pay only the submission fee. Business registration and accountancy costs are extra.
- Processing
- Statutory decision within 15 days of a properly completed request; lawyers report 30 to 60 days for the residence decision and about five working days for business registration, with the biometric card issued within seven days of giving biometrics. A total set-up of two to three months is reported.
- Eligibility
- Any nationality; adults registered as an entrepreneur with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR); passport valid at least three months beyond the period requested; health insurance; the request must be lodged during lawful stay (visa-free period or a D visa for visa-required nationals). A clean criminal record is cited by practitioners.
- Work rights
- The single permit on the self-employment basis authorises the holder to work through the registered business, which may invoice foreign and local clients. Local employment by another employer would require a separate single permit basis.
- Dependants
- Spouses, partners and close relatives may apply for temporary residence on the basis of family reunification with a permit holder; the reduced fee of 11,725 RSD applies only where the family link is to a Serbian citizen.
- Leads to
- Permanent residence after three continuous years on temporary residence; permanent residents may apply for citizenship. Permanent residence is lost after more than one continuous year abroad.
- Apply
- Single-permit requests are submitted exclusively online through the eForeigner portal (eforeigner.welcometoserbia.gov.rs), from inside Serbia during lawful stay; visa-required nationals first obtain a D visa, now available through the e-Visa system.
Documents Valid passport (valid at least three months beyond the period requested) · Extract of the entrepreneur registration from the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR) · Recent biometric photograph · Proof of payment of the administrative fees · White card (address registration issued by the police or through the host) · Proof of health insurance
Residence
Temporary residence as a property owner
Privremeni boravak po osnovu vlasništva nad nepokretnošću / Temporary residence on the basis of real-estate ownership
Remote workers who buy a flat or house in Serbia and want residence without registering a business; it carries no work authorisation.
- Income floor
- None published; the property must be suitable for all foreign co-owners to live in if several buy one property.
- Duration
- Up to three years per approval, extendable on the same basis.
- Cost
- Submission fee 430 RSD plus 23,450 RSD for approval of temporary residence.
- Processing
- Statutory 15 days from a complete request; practitioners report longer waits; biometric card within seven days of biometrics.
- Eligibility
- Any nationality; registered ownership of Serbian real estate; valid passport; health insurance; request lodged during lawful stay.
- Work rights
- No work rights attached. The published rules do not address remote work for a foreign employer from a property-owner residence; paid activity in Serbia requires a single permit.
- Dependants
- Family members apply separately for temporary residence on the basis of family reunification with the permit holder.
- Leads to
- Counts towards permanent residence after three continuous years of temporary residence; permanent residents may apply for citizenship.
- Apply
- Online through the eForeigner portal or in person at the regional police directorate competent for the place of residence (appointments by email).
Documents Valid passport · Extract from the Real Estate Cadastre · Real-estate sale and purchase agreement · Recent biometric photograph · Proof of paid administrative fees · White card (address registration) · Proof of health insurance
Long stay
Single permit for employment with a Serbian employer (including one's own company)
Jedinstvena dozvola za privremeni boravak i rad / Single permit for temporary residence and work
Remote workers who take a job with a Serbian company, are posted or transferred to one, or hire themselves through a Serbian limited company (d.o.o.) they found.
- Income floor
- None published for the permit itself; salary is set by the employment contract.
- Duration
- Issued for up to 36 months and extendable; extension lodged no earlier than three months before and no later than expiry.
- Cost
- Submission fee 430 RSD plus 22,770 RSD for approval of the single permit.
- Processing
- Statutory decision within 15 days of a properly completed request.
- Eligibility
- Any nationality; an employment contract, posting, intra-company transfer, independent-professional or training basis with a Serbian entity; passport valid three months beyond the period; health insurance.
- Work rights
- Authorises residence and work for the named employer and basis in Serbia; the employer or the foreigner may lodge the request.
- Dependants
- Family members may apply on the basis of family reunification with the single-permit holder.
- Leads to
- Counts towards permanent residence after three continuous years; permanent residents may apply for citizenship.
- Apply
- Exclusively online through the eForeigner portal, by the foreigner or by the employer on the foreigner's behalf; visa-required nationals obtain a D visa first.
Documents Valid passport · Employer's registration extract from the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR) · Employment contract or posting documentation · Recent biometric photograph · Proof of paid administrative fees · White card (address registration) · Proof of health insurance
Temporary stay
Long-stay visa D
Viza za duži boravak (viza D) / Long-stay visa (type D)
Nationals who cannot enter Serbia visa-free (for example Indian or South African passport holders) and need to enter in order to lodge a residence or single-permit application.
- Income floor
- Not published on the pages opened.
- Duration
- Permits a stay of 90 to 180 days for employment, education or family reunification; it is the entry document, and the residence permit itself is then obtained in-country for up to three years.
- Cost
- Not verified on the pages opened.
- Processing
- Not published on the pages opened.
- Eligibility
- Nationals of visa-regime countries with a qualifying purpose (employment, study, family reunification); holders of valid Schengen, UK, EU or US visas or residence permits may instead enter without a visa for up to 90 days in six months.
- Work rights
- None by itself; work in Serbia requires the single permit obtained after entry.
- Dependants
- Family members apply for their own D visa on the family-reunification basis.
- Leads to
- Only indirectly, through the temporary residence permit obtained after entry.
- Apply
- Serbian diplomatic and consular missions, or through the e-Visa system that has issued visas electronically since 23 April 2025 (type C and D visas online from June 2025).
Documents Valid passport · Documents proving the purpose of stay (employment, study or family reunification) · Proof of accommodation and funds as requested by the consulate
Without a visa, by passport
The stay you get on arrival, and whether working remotely on it is tolerated
- EU / EEA / Switzerland90 days in any 180; entry on a national ID card is acceptedGrey. The published 90-day stay excludes employment, study and residence, yet the government's own digital-nomad page describes nomads staying an average of two and a half months; no rule expressly permits or forbids remote work for a foreign employer on a short stay.
- United Kingdom90 days in any 180; passport requiredGrey, as above; lawyers report that most nomads enter visa-free and lodge the residence application from inside Serbia.
- United States90 days in any 180Grey, as above. No double-taxation treaty exists with Serbia, which matters once the 183-day tax threshold is crossed.
- Canada90 days in any 180Grey, as above.
- Australia90 days in any 180Grey, as above.
- IndiaVisa required (visa-free entry withdrawn in January 2023, as recorded in secondary sources); e-Visa availableRemote work is not possible on a tourist basis without first securing a visa; a D visa followed by the single permit is the published route.
- Brazil90 days in any 180Grey, as above.
- South AfricaVisa required (secondary source); e-Visa availableNot visa-free; the published route is a visa first, then the in-country permit.
- Turkey90 days in any 180Grey, as above.
- Japan90 days in any 180Grey, as above.
- China30 days (secondary source)Grey; the short stay makes the in-country application window tight.
- Holders of a valid Schengen, EU, UK or US visa or residence permit (any nationality)90 days in a six-month period, as published by the Ministry of Foreign AffairsGrey, as above; useful for otherwise visa-required nationals such as Indian passport holders with a US or Schengen visa.
Tax
When the country starts counting you as its taxpayer
- Residency trigger
- An individual is tax resident if their domicile or centre of business and vital interests is in Serbia, or if they reside in Serbia for 183 or more days, continuously or with breaks, over a 12-month period beginning or ending in the tax year. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; non-residents only on Serbian-source income. Where a treaty applies, the treaty's residence rules prevail.
- Special regime
- No nomad-specific regime. Three published arrangements matter: the flat-rate (paušal) entrepreneur regime, which fixes monthly tax and contributions by activity and municipality while annual revenue stays under 6,000,000 RSD, with a 50 per cent reduction in the first year and coefficients for IT and professional services raised in 2025; the newly-settled-taxpayer incentive, a 70 per cent reduction in the tax and contribution base for five years for qualifying employees who were non-resident for the preceding 24 months (or under 40 and abroad 12 months for study), on a minimum gross salary of about 2,485 EUR a month in 2025; and the freelancer self-taxation portal (frilenseri.purs.gov.rs) with two quarterly models for individuals paid from abroad. Personal income tax is a flat 10 per cent on employment and self-employment income with an annual surtax of 10 and 15 per cent above three and six times the average salary.
- Social security
- A registered flat-rate entrepreneur pays pension and disability contributions at 25.5 per cent and health at 10.3 per cent of the presumed base, which brings state health cover through the Republic Fund for Health Insurance (RFZO). Employees pay about 19.9 per cent (pension 14, health 5.15, unemployment 0.75), capped at five times the average monthly salary. Whether a remote employee of a foreign company can stay under the home-country scheme depends on a bilateral social-security agreement and a certificate of coverage; no general exemption is published.
- Treaties
- Serbia has 61 double-taxation treaties, including with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada (in force since 2015). There is no treaty with the United States, so US-passport nomads who become Serbian tax resident rely on the foreign tax credit alone. For a resident contractor or employee of a foreign firm, a treaty generally allocates taxing rights to Serbia once residence is established and gives credit for tax paid abroad.
Practicalities
- Address registration (white card)
- Every foreigner must be registered at the address of stay within 24 hours of entry, by the host or at the police; the white card is a required document for every permit application, and fines are reported for non-compliance.
- Fees and exemptions
- 430 RSD to lodge; 22,770 RSD single permit; 23,450 RSD temporary residence; 11,725 RSD where the basis is marriage or kinship with a Serbian citizen. Citizens of North Macedonia, Mongolia, Cyprus and Belarus pay only the submission fee.
- Stay while the application is pending
- A request lodged in time during lawful stay allows the applicant to remain until the procedure ends; visa-free nationals may leave Serbia while it is processed. Decisions arrive in the eDatabox (eSanduče).
- Biometric residence card
- The permit is issued as a biometric card in ID-card format, reported to be produced within seven days of giving biometrics.
- Health insurance
- Proof of health insurance is required with every temporary residence application; a registered entrepreneur's contributions bring cover through RFZO, while property owners and others need private or foreign cover.
- Banking and money
- Serbia joined SEPA in May 2025, so euro transfers clear in about one business day at EU rates; Serbia remains outside the OECD Common Reporting Standard. Banks generally open accounts for foreigners with a passport and a white card or residence card; requirements vary by bank.
- Permanent residence
- Available after three continuous years on temporary residence; apply at the earliest 60 days before the current permit expires with proof of means, health insurance and address; the status lapses after more than one continuous year abroad.
- Overstay
- Staying beyond the 90-day allowance or permit expiry without a pending application is an offence; the fine amounts were not published on the pages opened.
Serbia: no nomad visa, but a three-year entrepreneur residence that most remote workers use
The routes as they stand
Serbia advertises itself to digital nomads but has never enacted the special nomad category that the August 2023 amendments allow parliament to create. What remote workers actually obtain is an ordinary temporary residence permit, now valid for up to three years, on one of the published bases. The self-employment basis under the single permit is the one lawyers and applicants describe as the default: register as an entrepreneur with the Business Registers Agency, opt into the flat-rate tax regime if revenue will stay under six million dinars a year, then lodge the permit request online.
The property-owner basis suits those who buy, and the employment basis suits those who take a Serbian contract or hire themselves through their own limited company. The government's digital-nomad page itself reports that most nomads stay an average of two and a half months between April and October, which is to say inside the visa-free window and outside any permit at all.
What applicants report about the process
The statute promises a decision within 15 days of a complete request, and the official portal repeats that figure. Practitioners report that the residence decision more often takes 30 to 60 days because several authorities are consulted, and that the whole set-up from business registration to biometric card runs two to three months. Applications must be lodged during lawful stay, and the portal warns against waiting until the last day of the 90-day allowance; a timely request lets the applicant remain, and visa-free nationals may travel while it is pending.
The white card is the recurring stumbling block: it must be obtained within 24 hours of entry and is a required attachment, so landlords and hosts who will not register a guest can stall an application. Notifications arrive in the eDatabox rather than by post, and the card is collected after biometrics at the police directorate.
Money, tax and daily practicalities
The flat-rate regime is the reason the entrepreneur route is popular: tax and contributions are fixed monthly amounts set by activity and municipality rather than a percentage of income, reported at roughly 200 to 500 euros a month for IT work and halved in the first year, and they carry state health cover. The 2025 revision of the presumed-income coefficients pushed those amounts up for IT and consulting. Anyone spending 183 days in a 12-month window, or whose centre of vital interests moves to Serbia, becomes resident on worldwide income; a separate portal exists for individuals paid from abroad who choose quarterly self-taxation instead of registering a business.
Banking became simpler in May 2025 when Serbia joined SEPA, and the country sits outside the Common Reporting Standard. Belgrade remains the base for most, with Novi Sad reported as a quarter to a third cheaper and Niš cheaper still; a comfortable solo budget in Belgrade is reported at 1,200 to 1,500 euros a month.
What is changing
The direction since 2023 has been towards alignment with EU visa policy, with visa-free access withdrawn for India, Cuba, Bolivia and several Gulf and Asian states, and towards digitisation, with electronic visas from April 2025 and the online-only single permit from February 2024. The dedicated digital-nomad category remains a power on the statute book rather than a permit anyone can apply for, and no draft implementing it was found on the official pages opened in September 2026.
Researched from welcometoserbia.gov.rs · welcometoserbia.gov.rs · welcometoserbia.gov.rs · welcometoserbia.gov.rs · welcometoserbia.gov.rs · welcometoserbia.gov.rs · eforeigner.welcometoserbia.gov.rs · mfa.gov.rs · ey.com · taxsummaries.pwc.com · the authority