Draft of the Amendments to the Law on Foreigners and the Law on the Employment of Foreigners -harmonisation of the Serbian legislation with the regulations of the EU

The Serbian Law on Foreigners (“Official Gazette of RS”, nos. 24/2018 and 31/2019) regulates requirements for the entry, movement, residence, and return of foreigners, as well as the respective authorities of the competent legal bodies. In addition, the Law on the Employment of Foreigners (“Official Gazette of the RS”, nos. 128/2014, 113/2017, 50/2018 and 31/2019) regulates the requirements and procedure for the employment of foreigners in the Republic of Serbia.

In order to harmonize the Serbian legislation with the regulations of the European Union, in February 2023 the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Labour prepared a draft of the Amendments to the Law on Foreigners and the Law on the Employment of Foreigners (“Draft Amendments to the Laws”).

The Draft Amendments to the Laws prescribe a unified procedure for obtaining both the temporary residence and work permit in the Republic of Serbia. Through the unified procedure, the competent authority shall perform the necessary verifications related to the issuance of the temporary residence and work permits. The deadline for issuing a unified permit is 15 days from the day of the submission.

If the foreigner fulfils all the requirements prescribed by the law, he/she would obtain a single document for the temporary residence and work permit in the Republic of Serbia. So far, before submitting a request for the work permit the foreigners had to obtain the residence permit.

By this proposed solutions, the procedure for obtaining a residence and work permit will be simplified and more efficient, without major administrative obstacles.

Finally, bearing in mind the strategic goals of the Serbian Government related to digitalization, the Amendments to the Laws provide that the request for issuing a single permit has to be submitted electronically.