Montenegro · Business & founder
Temporary Residence via Company Formation and Self-Employment
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open and unaffected by the January 2026 property amendments. Share capital as low as EUR 1 plus operating costs.
For most clients this is the better instrument than the property route: it costs a fraction of EUR 150,000, is unaffected by the January 2026 amendments, and — unlike the property permit — actually permits economic activity in Montenegro. Advisers default to the property route because it generates a commission; the company route usually serves the client better.
Qualifying routes
€1
Montenegrin company with self-employment
minimum share capital EUR 1; residence via employment in your own company
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €1
- Total landed cost
- EUR 2,000–5,000 setup plus EUR 200–500 a month for accounting and payroll.
- Timeline
- 1–3 months — Company registration plus permit issuance.
- Physical presence
- Required to build the 5-year permanent-residence clock
- Family
- spouseminor children
- Permanent residency
- 5 years of continuous residence
- Citizenship
- 10 years, with mandatory renunciation
- Language test
- elementary Montenegrin
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- registered Montenegrin companyemployment contract with own companyproof of accommodationhealth insuranceclean criminal record
What can go wrong
- The renunciation trap applies identically — this is a residence play, not a citizenship play.
- Self-employment is mandatory: owning the company is not enough, and payroll plus social contributions follow.
- 9% corporate income tax is being fenced in by the Pillar Two DMTT gazetted 10 March 2026 for in-scope groups; small structures are unaffected but the direction is set.
- CFC rules, exit tax and the finer points of the residence tie-break could not be verified from primary sources.
- Montenegro uses the euro without being in the eurozone — it has no central bank of its own and no lender of last resort.