Employing a foreign worker in Serbia

This is an entry guide for HR, legal, payroll and management teams that are employing a foreign national in Serbia for the first time. The employer’s country of origin is not the decisive issue. What matters is the legal model actually used in Serbia: local employment, self-employment, posting by a foreign employer, intra-company transfer, an independent professional, or B2B work with an entrepreneur.

This guide is available in three languages

Русская версия · Српска верзија

Start by identifying the work model

Do not begin with “which permit should we apply for?” First establish who pays whom, who directs the work, who is the employer and why the person is working from Serbia.

Situation	Basic model	Main points to check
A Serbian company or Serbia-registered preduzetnik hires a foreign national	local employment	right to work, PPZ, single permit, contract, CROSO
The foreign national opens a Serbian preduzetnik or works under a qualifying self-employment business role	samozapošljavanje	the person’s own single-permit basis and NSZ assessment
A foreign company sends its employee to a Serbian counterparty under a cooperation agreement	upućeno lice	posted-worker basis and documents from both sides
A foreign company transfers a manager or specialist to a Serbian branch, representative office or subsidiary	kretanje u okviru privrednog društva	intra-company transfer conditions
A self-employed professional is registered abroad and personally performs a contract for a Serbian client	nezavisni profesionalac	separate work basis for an independent professional
A company buys services from a Serbian preduzetnik	B2B, not employment by the client	contractor’s own right to work and the Test samostalnosti

Serbia’s official portal treats ordinary employment, self-employment, posted workers, intra-company transfers, independent professionals and professional training as different grounds under which a single residence-and-work permit may be issued.¹

Check whether the person already has the right to work

Not every foreign candidate needs a new single permit tied to your company.

• Permanent residence (stalno nastanjenje) provides access to the labour market without a new single permit.
• Some temporary-residence grounds also include a right to work; check the exact basis and the note on the biometric card.
• If the person already holds a jedinstvena dozvola, verify the work basis and employer connected to it.
• A filed residence or single-permit application is not, by itself, permission to start work.

Welcome to Serbia expressly tells holders of temporary residence to check the note on their card to see whether they have the right to work. A number of temporary-residence grounds allow work without a separate single permit.¹

The detailed Russian-language RSLive article is Single residence and work permit.

Standard local employment

If a Serbian company or preduzetnik hires a foreign national under an employment contract or another contract that creates rights under Serbian labour law, use the following sequence.¹²

1. Check the visa regime and the candidate’s current status. If the person’s nationality requires a D visa for employment, use that route first. Where visa rules allow direct filing, a single-permit application can be submitted electronically without a separate D visa.¹
2. Fix the employer, role and contractual document. The application must identify the actual employer and the legal work basis.
3. Start PPZ — prijava potrebe za zapošljavanjem. For ordinary employment, the employer initiates the labour-market test. NSZ allows PPZ through eUprava, through the Foreigner Portal when the employer files the permit application, or through the competent NSZ branch.²
4. Submit the single-permit application. A single permit is filed only electronically through Welcome to Serbia; the foreign national, employer or an authorised person may file it.¹
5. Wait for the decision and biometrics. The official decision period for a complete single-permit application is 15 days. After approval, the foreign national is called for biometrics.¹
6. Do not let the person start work before the right to work exists. An application receipt or case number is not a substitute for an effective work basis.
7. Register the worker in CROSO before the actual start of work. The unified mandatory-social-insurance registration must be filed no later than the worker’s commencement of work.³
8. Run the normal Serbian HR and payroll process. Keep the evidence of lawful employment, the contract, CROSO confirmation and permit records.⁴

NSZ states that PPZ may be filed no earlier than 60 days before the single-permit application and no later than the day the permit application is filed. The labour-market-test report is prepared within four days after PPZ is submitted.²

PPZ does not apply in the same way to every work basis

The labour-market test primarily belongs to ordinary employment. Self-employment, posted workers, intra-company transfers and other grounds are subject to different NSZ assessments. Do not reuse the ordinary-employment document set for a different legal model.²

Can a Serbian preduzetnik employ a foreign national?

Yes. A Serbian entrepreneur (preduzetnik) can act as the employer of a foreign national. The official Welcome to Serbia help page explicitly allows a privredno društvo or preduzetnik to submit PPZ through the Foreigner Portal.⁵

This is different from a situation where the foreign national is the preduzetnik. In the first case, an entrepreneur hires the person as an employer. In the second, the person works under their own self-employment basis.

If the foreign national already has a single permit for self-employment

A single permit issued on the basis of samozapošljavanje should not be treated as automatic permission to take employment with any other company. The work basis matters.

During the validity of a single permit, a foreign national may:

• change employer;
• work for two or more employers;
• change the work basis,

but only after obtaining consent from the National Employment Service — NSZ. The request may be filed by the foreign national, the employer or an authorised person; the official period for deciding a complete request is 10 days.²

If the person is moving from self-employment to ordinary employment, the new employer must satisfy the conditions of the new basis, including the employment assessment and PPZ where applicable. The person must not start work for the new employer before NSZ consent is obtained.²

Step-by-step: self-employment → local employment

For a valid jedinstvena dozvola based on samozapošljavanje, use From self-employment to employment in Serbia. It covers saglasnost NSZ, the PPZ → NSZ → CROSO sequence, moving from preduzetnik to employee for the same client, the Test samostalnosti, temporary contract models and work already performed.

Keeping a business while also taking employment is not an automatic right

The general NSZ procedure expressly covers changing the work basis and working for two or more employers, but that does not mean a self-employment single permit automatically covers parallel employment. A preduzetnik is not a “second employer” to themselves. If the person needs to keep the Serbian business and also sign an employment contract, process the concrete combination through NSZ and separately review the tax and social-insurance consequences.

Changing the residence basis and changing the work basis within an existing single permit are different procedures. The detailed Russian-language guide is Changing the residence basis and terminating temporary residence.

If a foreign company sends its employee to Serbia

Do not automatically force every cross-border assignment into ordinary Serbian employment. Serbia has separate work grounds for cross-border arrangements.⁶

Posted worker — upućeno lice

This model applies when the person remains employed by the foreign employer and that employer sends the employee for a limited period to work with an employer in Serbia under a business-and-technical cooperation agreement.⁶

Intra-company transfer — kretanje u okviru privrednog društva

This model applies when an employee of a foreign company is transferred for a limited period to a branch, representative office or subsidiary registered in Serbia. Welcome to Serbia describes this basis for managers and specialists who had worked for the foreign employer for at least one year before the transfer.⁶

Independent professional — nezavisni profesionalac

This is a separate ground for a self-employed individual or entrepreneur registered abroad who performs, in Serbia, a directly concluded contract with a Serbian employer.⁶

These grounds are not interchangeable. Use the model that matches the actual legal and operational relationship, not the one that appears to have the shortest document list.

If the company contracts with a Serbian preduzetnik on a B2B basis

A services agreement with a preduzetnik is not an employment contract with the client company. The entrepreneur must have their own valid business and immigration basis, while the client should separately assess whether the relationship is genuinely independent.

Serbia’s Test samostalnosti uses nine criteria. If at least five of the nine criteria are met in relation to a particular client or a related person, the entrepreneur’s remuneration is generally given a special tax treatment as ostali prihod rather than income from independent activity.⁷

An entrepreneur's invoice does not replace the right to work

A contract and invoice from a preduzetnik do not, by themselves, answer the immigration question. If the entrepreneur is a foreign national, separately verify the legal basis on which they may perform that activity in Serbia. Conversely, a valid immigration basis does not remove the tax Test samostalnosti.

The detailed Russian-language business guide is Business forms in Serbia.

After the permit is in place

The migration permit is only one layer of lawful onboarding. The employer still has to complete the ordinary Serbian employment process.

• execute and retain the relevant contract documents;
• register the worker for mandatory social insurance through CROSO before work starts;³
• keep the M-A and other registration evidence;
• set up payroll, taxes and contributions;
• comply with Serbian labour rules on working time, leave, termination and other employment conditions;
• track the permit expiry date and plan renewal or a change of basis in advance.

Welcome to Serbia separately states that an employer must not employ or use the work of a foreign national who is unlawfully staying in Serbia or does not meet the conditions for lawful employment, and the employer must retain evidence that the conditions are satisfied.⁴

For detailed labour-law rules, see the Russian-language RSLive article Serbian labour law.

HR and legal checklist

Before the person’s start date, make sure you can answer every item below:

• who is legally the employer or client;
• which model applies: employment, self-employment, posting, intra-company transfer or B2B;
• the person’s nationality and visa regime;
• current residence status and right to work;
• the exact single-permit basis, where required;
• PPZ and the relevant NSZ assessment, where applicable;
• the employment contract, proposal or other relevant contract;
• application confirmation and then the decision/card;
• NSZ consent if the employer or work basis changes;
• CROSO registration before the actual start of work;
• HR, tax and payroll documents;
• the permit expiry date and the person responsible for renewal.

If one of these points is still unknown, do not replace it with “they have residence” or “they invoice us as an entrepreneur.” For the employer, the legally relevant facts are the exact residence-and-work basis, the actual contractual model and completion of the required procedures.

Footnotes

1. Welcome to Serbia: Residence and work permit and Temporary residence — work grounds, work rights under other residence statuses, electronic filing and the decision period for a single permit. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. National Employment Service of Serbia (NSZ): Employment of foreigners in Serbia from 1 February 2024 — PPZ, labour-market test, change of employer, change of work basis and employment with multiple employers. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. CROSO: How to file the unified registration and deadline guidance — mandatory social-insurance registration is filed electronically and, for an employee, must be completed before work starts. ↩ ↩²

4. Welcome to Serbia: Employer obligations — employer duties when employing a foreign national, mandatory social insurance and retention of evidence of lawful employment. ↩ ↩²

5. Welcome to Serbia: Help — employer filing, the Rad sa strancima role and the ability of a company or preduzetnik to file PPZ through the Foreigner Portal. ↩

6. Welcome to Serbia: Visa D — purpose of stay: employment — official definitions of self-employment, posted workers, intra-company transfer and independent professionals. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Tax Administration of Serbia: Tax guide for individuals carrying out independent activity, section Test samostalnosti — nine criteria and the five-of-nine rule. ↩