Serbia · Business & founder
Single Permit (Residence and Work) via Company Formation
Open, with no minimum capital requirement. 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. It delivers the same six-year naturalisation clock as the property route, and it also permits 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. That is why it, not the investor visa, is what the relocation population actually uses.
Qualifying routes
No minimum capital is required, and LLC registration takes roughly 5 business days.
You will need proof of funds in a Serbian bank. The initial permit lasts only 6 months, and 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.
- Route type
- Business & founder
- Timeline
- 1–2 months (6–8 weeks end to end.)
- Physical presence
- None is required for the permit itself. Actual residence is 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. A written statement is required under Article 14.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- Registered Serbian LLC or entrepreneur registration.Employment contract with your own company and payroll registration.Proof of accommodation.Health insurance.Clean criminal record.
- THE INVESTOR VISA IS WORSE THAN THE FREE COMPANY ROUTE for most applicants. It asks for EUR 50,000 parked, a 6-month initial permit, and a renewal test, and it offers no timeline advantage in return. We include it 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, but only through end-2027. The planned reform has been postponed, not cancelled.
- The same Russian-national enforcement and EU visa-pressure risks apply here as on the property route.
- No primary source settles Serbia's CRS status.