So, you have arrived in Serbia and you liked it. If the thoughts of staying here for the prolonged amount of time are occupying your mind then you are probably interested in a word or two on how to get a residence permit in Serbia. If living in Serbia is your goal then Serbian residence permit is the ticket for it.

There are different types of residence permits, temporary one and permanent one, but since you must first get in touch with temporary residence permit we will start with it. There are multiple ways by which a temporary residence permit in Serbia could be obtained, so we will mention those which are most used:
-formation of the company in Serbia (in most cases limited one) or formation of branch or representation office in Serbia (of your own foreign company)
-entrepreneurship
-employment in a Serbian company
-marriage with Serbian citizen or with a person with Serbian permanent residence permit, including common law marriage (when a couple lives together and act as the married couple without performing marriage ceremony before that)
-ownership of real estate in Serbia
-study at Serbian universities

Besides one the above-mentioned grounds for applying for the temporary residence permit in Serbia, you will also have to present to the authorities proof that you are medically insured in Serbia and that you have enough money to sustain yourself while in Serbia. Also, do note that in a majority of cases in order to apply for temporary residence permit in the first place, your current staying in Serbia must be based on previously issued visa type D (check our article on Serbian visa). A temporary residence permit is issued up to one year maximum, but you can renew it after it expires for as much as you still have some of the mentioned justifications to be in Serbia.

After you renewed your temporary residence permit in Serbia enough times, you may as well apply for a permanent one (“Serbian green card”) which gives your right to live in Serbia indefinitely without the need for constant approval from the authorities. Conditions that you need to fulfill for the permanent residence permit are the fact that you lived in Serbia for 5 years based on temporary residence permit in case of company ownership, entrepreneurship, employment or studying, while in case of marriage necessary time is shorter and only 3 years of living in Serbia is enough.

If you have desire for more information on residence permit in Serbia or you have desire to hire us for assistance in dealing with Serbian authorities feel free to check our website, our Homepage, especially our Contact page, while with our law office in Belgrade, law office in Novi Sad or other law offices, we are glad to be at your service.

If you are already in possession of Serbian residence permit then you might want to check our article on Serbian citizenship and Serbian passport, while if you haven’t touched the Serbian ground yet then it would be wiser for you to check our article on Serbian visa.