Visa D for Serbia is the long-stay visa, granted for between 90 and 180 days with multiple entries, on one stated ground: employment, your own company, family, property, or study. It is the visa you obtain before you come if you intend to live here rather than visit.
The ground matters more than anything else in the file. A residence permit can only be applied for on the same ground the visa was issued on, and only while the visa is still valid, so a visa taken out on the wrong basis has to be started again from abroad.
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It turns on two things, the passport you hold and how long you intend to stay. Neither question is difficult on its own, but answering them in the wrong order costs a trip abroad and a second application.
If your nationality needs a visa to enter Serbia and you intend to live here, the long-stay visa is not optional. It is obtained before you travel, on the ground your residence permit will rest on, and the residence application follows from it.
Nationals who may enter Serbia without a visa generally apply for residence from inside the country during their permitted stay, with no visa D at all. Starting one you did not need costs weeks and a fee for nothing.
Where an assignment runs past 90 days but finishes inside 180, the visa can be the whole answer on its own. Issued on employment it carries the right to work for its full validity, and there is no residence permit to apply for at either end.
The ground is not a formality on a form. It decides your documents, it decides whether you may work, and because the residence application has to rest on the same ground, it decides the next three years as well.
A contract with a Serbian employer, an intra-company transfer, a secondment, an internship or a traineeship. On this ground the visa carries the right to work for as long as it is valid, so a posting can start on the day you land.
A company or entrepreneur registration of your own, worked through as director or as the entrepreneur. It is the route most freelancers and remote workers take, because Serbia has no separate digital nomad visa.
Marriage or a recognised partnership with a Serbian citizen, or with a foreign national who already holds a permit, together with dependent children. Foreign certificates have to be apostilled before they are any use.
Enrolment at a Serbian school or university, a language course, scientific research, or a professional specialisation, with a host institution willing to confirm it in writing.
Owning real estate here is a ground in its own right, and the law sets no minimum purchase price. It gives you the right to live in Serbia. It does not give you the right to work here.
Medical treatment or care, service with a registered religious community, seasonal work, and applicants of Serbian origin, who have a basis of their own that few people realise they qualify on.
You are told at the outset what each stage requires from you and what we do without you. Nothing is filed before you have seen it.
Start the processBefore anything is prepared we establish which ground actually fits, and whether you need a visa D at all. Applicants often qualify on two or three without realising it, and the one you choose governs everything that follows it.
Most of this file is assembled here rather than where you are. The employment contract, the company registration, the invitation, the enrolment or the title deed all have to exist and be in order before the application is worth lodging. We put that side together for you.
Passport, photograph, proof of means, health insurance, and an address in Serbia. Foreign civil documents need an apostille and a certified translation, and this is the stage that quietly costs applicants the most time.
Lodged for you as one file and followed to the decision. The decision is due within 15 days and can run to 30 where there is reason for it, and the security clearance behind it sits inside that window.
This is where the visa either works or is wasted. The residence permit has to be applied for while the visa is still valid, and on the same ground it was issued on. We diarise the date and file it, so the deadline is ours to watch rather than yours.
The visa is a bridge rather than a destination. Three rules govern the crossing, and every one of them has sent applicants back abroad to begin again.
A residence permit can only be applied for on the same ground the visa was issued on. A visa obtained on a family basis will not carry an employment application, and the mismatch is not something that can be corrected from inside Serbia.
The residence application belongs inside the validity period, not after it. Leave it until the visa has run out and the lawful basis for your stay has gone with it, along with the head start it was obtained to give you.
Between 90 and 180 days is what it gives, and it is not built to be renewed. The law allows narrow exceptions for professional reasons and for events outside your control, but no plan should be built on one.
The ground is chosen at this call and it governs everything after it. Tell us what you are actually planning rather than what you think the form wants to hear, because the second ground is very often the better one.
If your situation is not covered here, describe it and we will answer it directly.
Ask your question →It depends on your passport. Nationals who may enter Serbia without a visa generally apply for residence from inside the country during their permitted stay, and need no visa D at all. Nationals who need a visa to enter must obtain the long-stay visa first, on the ground the residence permit will rest on. We settle which of the two applies to you before anything is prepared.
Between 90 and 180 days, with multiple entries, and it is not built to be renewed. The law allows narrow exceptions for professional reasons and for events genuinely outside your control, decided case by case, but no plan should depend on one. The intended way out of a visa D is a residence permit, not an extension.
On the employment ground, yes, and from the day you arrive. A long-stay visa issued for employment carries the right to reside and work for as long as it is valid, which is what lets a posting start immediately rather than waiting on a permit. On the other grounds it does not, and work needs permission of its own.
It fails. The residence application has to rest on the same ground the visa was issued on, and the mismatch cannot be corrected from inside Serbia. That is why the ground is settled at the first call rather than at the end, and why we ask what you are actually planning rather than what is easiest to evidence.
The state fee for a long-stay visa is currently 50 euros, paid in dinars at the National Bank middle rate, with a handful of nationalities exempt under bilateral agreements. The decision is due within 15 days of the application and may run to 30 where there is reason for it. Building the Serbian side of the file usually takes longer than the decision does.
No, and there is no sign of one coming. What remote workers and freelancers actually use is a Serbian entrepreneur or company registration, which is a ground for the long-stay visa and for the residence permit that follows it. It also settles the tax question, which a nomad visa elsewhere usually leaves open.
Sometimes, and it is worth asking. Where an assignment runs past 90 days but finishes inside 180, the visa gives lawful stay for the whole of it, and on the employment ground the right to work throughout, with no residence permit to apply for at either end. For a posting of that length it is the shorter route rather than the longer one.
It has to have been issued within the last ten years, carry two blank pages next to each other, and stay valid for at least 90 days beyond the visa. Check it before anything else, because replacing a passport takes longer than obtaining the visa.
Tell us your nationality, what you intend to do in Serbia, and when you need to be here. You will get a written answer on whether a visa D is required, which ground it should rest on, and what the residence permit after it will ask for.