New rules for the residence and work of foreigners in Serbia

At the end of March 2023, proposals for amendments to the Law on the Employment of Foreigners and the Law on Foreigners were sent to the National Assembly, which aim to simplify the procedures for granting temporary residence and issuing work permits. For this purpose, starting from 1 February 2024, a unique procedure will be introduced under which foreigners, through a unified procedure on eGovernment portal, can secure both residence permit and work permit. Such unified procedure implies the issuance of a unique permit that is issued in the form of a biometric document.

In case of adoption of the proposed amendments, temporary residence permits will be extended to a period of up to 3 years (instead of the current one-year regime). Validity period of the unified permit will also be extended to up to 3 years, whereas employers will be able to apply for the permit on behalf of their foreign employees (which was not the case with the residence permit so far). The application for the extension of the residence permit will be possible until its expiration date (rather than 30 days before the expiration date, which is the current requirement that has caused many problems in practice).

The proposed amendments also include reducing the requirement for obtaining permanent residence from 5 to 3 years, whereas the foreigners, in such cases, will be issued special personal identification cards with a validity period of 5 years, which will be renewed without re-evaluation of the necessary conditions for permanent residency.

Furthermore, to facilitate the process of obtaining a temporary residence permit for certain categories of foreigners, they will be exempt from providing proof of financial means for their support and proof of health insurance during their temporary residence.

The implementation of all proposed amendments to the Law on the Employment of Foreigners, as well as some provisions of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Foreigners, will be postponed until 1 February 2024, to allow the competent authorities to ensure effective implementation of the new legal solutions. Given the significant increase in the number of requests for residence and work permits in recent years, it is expected that the proposed changes will simplify the procedure for obtaining a unified permit for residence and work of foreigners, in line with the needs of the labor market.