POSTERN

Serbia

Temporary residence via company founder/director status. Serbia has no branded digital-nomad visa, but registering a Serbian limited company (d.o.o.) with no minimum capital and becoming its director is the country's fast, well-worn route to a multi-year residence permit.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 27, 2026

Temporary residence via company founder/director status

A temporary residence permit, usually issued for 1 year at a time and renewed annually, applied for through the Unified Permit (residence and work combined since 1 February 2024) that ties status to keeping the company active.

Who qualifies

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

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It could fit.

Serbia has no branded digital-nomad visa, but registering a Serbian limited company (d.o.o.) with no minimum capital and becoming its director is the country's fast, well-worn route to a multi-year residence permit.

Every door that fits your family

Not legal advice.

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What it takes.

Time
4–8 weeks for the Unified Permit once the company is registered (company formation itself takes 5–10 business days).
Cost
About $500–1,500 for company formation, notary fees and the permit itself (source: Zunic Law, Serbia residence-by-company-formation guide, used here only for the cost estimate).
The hard part
Bookkeeping for a real, if minimal, Serbian company — invoices, a working corporate bank account, and monthly tax filings — since the permit is tied to keeping the company genuinely active, not just registered.
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Citizens by 2034.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

  1. 2027
    First residence permit

    3 years, renewable for 3 years at a time.

  2. 2030
    Permanent residence

    Three years in a row on temporary residence, with a valid permit when you apply. Trips abroad may add up to 10 months, or one trip up to 6 months. Apply between 60 days before and the day your current permit expires.

  3. 2033
    Apply for citizenship
  4. 2034
    Citizenship
Time away
Three years of registered permanent residence in Serbia without a break. The law sets no separate count of days abroad for this step.
Two passports
It depends on the rules at the time and on your home country.
  • Company-director residence counts in full: after 3 unbroken years a family can apply for permanent residence, and 3 years after that for citizenship.
  • No language or civics test appears in the law, only a signed statement that you regard Serbia as your country. A test could be added in future amendments.
  • No official processing time for citizenship was found.
  • RS-COMPANY: the law allows temporary residence of up to 3 years per grant. The officer can grant less, so a company-director permit may be shorter than the 3 years this file assumes.
  • How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.
  • Whether you can keep your current citizenship depends on the rules at the time and your home country.
The law behind these dates
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Living there.

Time you must spend there
No fixed day-count for holding the permit, but genuine, ongoing business activity is required and long absences can jeopardise renewal.
Tax
Foreign-sourced income is generally not taxed in Serbia while on a temporary residence permit without local employment, though this is an area under active 2025–2026 review as Serbia debates formal digital-nomad tax rules.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

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Start today.

  1. Read the Ministry of Interior's page on temporary residence and confirm the company-founder basis with a local lawyer.Open mup.gov.rs ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • The business plan, and the endorsement or approval it needs
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health insurance that meets the program’s rules
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Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

18 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 4 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →
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ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

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