Serbia · Business & founder
Single Permit (Residence and Work) via Company Formation
Open. No minimum capital. Note that Serbian law does not grant residence for mere company ownership — the applicant must employ themselves in their own company.
The company route costs essentially nothing and delivers the same six-year naturalisation clock as the property route while also permitting economic activity. Combined with paušalac flat-rate status it produces an all-in tax and social burden of roughly EUR 150–300 a month for an IT freelancer — which is why it, not the investor visa, is what the relocation population actually uses.
Qualifying routes
no minimum capital; LLC registration takes roughly 5 business days
proof of funds in a Serbian bank; initial permit only 6 months; renewal requires demonstrated investment of at least EUR 5,000
The facts
- Total landed cost
- EUR 2,500–6,000 setup, plus EUR 300–600 a month for accounting and payroll.
- Timeline
- 1–2 months — 6–8 weeks end to end.
- Physical presence
- None for the permit; actual residence required to build the permanent-residence clock.
- Family
- spouseminor children
- Permanent residency
- 3 years of continuous temporary residence
- Citizenship
- a further 3 years after permanent residence — roughly 6 years in total
- Language test
- no formal test; written statement under Article 14
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- registered Serbian LLC or entrepreneur registrationemployment contract with own company and payroll registrationproof of accommodationhealth insuranceclean criminal record
- THE INVESTOR VISA IS WORSE THAN THE FREE COMPANY ROUTE for most applicants: EUR 50,000 parked, a 6-month initial permit, and a renewal test — for no timeline advantage. It is included here only for completeness.
- SELF-EMPLOYMENT IS MANDATORY. Owning the company is not enough; you must be employed by it, with the payroll and social contributions that implies.
- Paušalac ceilings are hard: RSD 6m per calendar year and RSD 8m rolling 365 days, with VAT registration triggered at RSD 8m. The imputed base growth is capped at 10% a year only through end-2027; the planned reform has been postponed, not cancelled.
- The same Russian-national enforcement and EU visa-pressure risks apply as on the property route.
- Serbia's CRS status could not be confirmed from primary sources.