Since the Economy of the Republic of Serbia functions following the principles of free transfer of goods, equity, technology and human resources, foreign citizens can be employed and work freely on the territory of Serbia. However, there are some administrative procedures, which must be fulfilled.
The first step in the employment procedure of foreign citizen is obtaining the work permit. If a foreign citizen stays in Serbia for more than 90 days within 6-month period, his / her employer is obliged to obtain the work permit. Obtaining the work permit is mandatory for foreign citizens that perform duties of enterprise CEOs and it is carried out under certain conditions.
In order to have the work permit issued, the foreign citizen should comply with one of following conditions:
- To have permanent address
- To have issued temporary residence
- To have long stay visa.
In case the work permit is issued based on long stay visa, it cannot last longer than the visa.
Types of Work Permits
Personal work permit can be issued in the Republic of Serbia. Such work permit is issued based on the foreign citizen’s demand. It allows the foreign citizen to get employed freely or perform the right in case of job loss or get self-employed.
The work permit can be:
The work permit for employment. Such type of work permit is demanded by the employer. The employer in this case is a legal entity from Serbia, which the foreign citizen concludes employment agreement with. This type of work permit is issued for the certain period, maximum to the period of temporary residence.
Work permit for special cases of employment. This type of work permit is issued upon the request of employer as well in special cases of foreign citizen employment. They might be issued in the cases of assignment of specialists employed in foreign company, which has business cooperation agreement with a legal entity registered in the Republic of Serbia. This type of work permits may include work permits for assignments within foreign legal entity that is registered in another country. It can be issued in cases of assignment of employee for temporary work engagement in representative office or subsidiary, which is registered in Republic of Serbia to the persons employed in foreign company at management positions or positions of leading specialists in some activities for one year at least. In some cases this type of work permit may be issued to trainee. It usually is demanded by foreign company representative office or subsidiary, which is registered in Republic of Serbia. Work permit for special cases of employment can be issued to independent professional as well. An independent professional is self-employed person registered for performance of certain commercial activities in foreign country. An independent professional can render certain services to a legal entity registered in Republic of Serbia based on concluded contract. In such case the permit is issued upon demand of domestic legal entity, which the services are rendered to. Another special case of work permit issue is training and skill improvement of persons, employed abroad. The aim of such permits is improvement of skills, training and in-service training of employees of a foreign company. This permit may be demanded by either foreign citizen or legal entity registered in Republic of Serbia.
Work permit for self-employment. Such type of work permit is issued only to the foreign citizens, which have either long stay visa or approved temporary residence in the Republic of Serbia. Self-employment of the foreign citizen is related to the person’s work engagement within a legal entity, in which the person is the owner or the member with conrol right. This type of permit is issued upon the request of the foreign citizen.
For every type of above-described work permits there is a specific documentation that should be prepared. SIMON’s team of professionals is willing to meet the needs of our clients with great pleasure regarding collection and preparation of the necessary documents and proofs for obtaining the work permits.