As of December 1st last year, the Rulebook for submitting a joint application for obtaining a temporary residence permit and work permit for foreigners is in force in Serbia. This was said at an online conference on “Employment of foreigners in the Republic of Serbia”, organized by the Slovenian Business Club.
According to Sanja Gavranovic from the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the problem is that there is no single act for issuing a work and residence permit in Serbia, but Serbia is obliged to introduce a single residence and work permit for foreigners in accordance with the chapter 24 in negotiations with the European Union.
– As a step towards that goal, this Rulebook was adopted, which enables the submission of a unified request, in one place, and that is the Administration for Foreigners. Until now, the procedure for obtaining a temporary residence was conducted by the Directorate for Foreigners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the other, for obtaining a work permit, by the National Employment Service. Amendments to the Law on Foreigners and the Law on Employment of Foreigners are also planned, in order to issue a single work and residence permit in the form of a single act – stated Gavranović.
Another novelty from last year is that the amendments to the law enable foreigners to obtain work permits on the basis of a D visa issued by our diplomatic and consular missions.
– From January 1, 2020, foreigners can start the procedure of obtaining a permit abroad, so that they can start working immediately after entering Serbia – Gavranovic pointed out and added that all these innovations mean more efficient obtaining of residence and work permits.
She said that the changes in the Law on Employment of Foreigners in the last two years brought an increase in the number of issued permits on an annual level, so last year 12,931 work permits were issued, while that number was previously between 1,500 and 2,000 permits.
She pointed out that Serbia uses the experience of Slovenia in terms of the introduction of a single residence and work permit, and added that 100 work permits were issued to Slovenian citizens last year, of which 28 were for women.
Representatives of the law office Tomic Sindjelic Groza spoke about specific procedures when it comes to the news for the employment of foreigners.
Lawyer Aleksandra Rajic reminded that the approved temporary stay is a precondition for obtaining a work permit.
– We advise clients to prepare the documentation for the work permit in parallel with the preparation of the documentation for the temporary residence, because a foreigner will not be able to extend the temporary residence if he has not already obtained a work permit.
According to Andjelija Milicevic, a law graduate, from April 1st, it will be possible to submit a request for approval or extension of temporary residence electronically.
– The Rulebook on detailed conditions for submitting a request for temporary residence permit electronically will enable foreigners to submit this request on the eGovernment website, within the domain livinginserbia. If the conditions for temporary residence are met, the order of a foreign citizen will receive a notification via the eGovernment portal about the day, place and time when the person will have to come in person to the Administration for Foreigners in order to take the approval, ie. temporary residence sticker. This will significantly facilitate the procedure of applying for and obtaining a temporary residence permit, because currently a foreigner must appear twice in person at the Administration office, once when applying, and the second time when taking over the sticker – said Milicevic, explaining the procedure for submitting a joint application for approval that is, extension of temporary residence and application for work permit.
– After receiving the sticker which is stamped in the passport in the Administration for Foreigners, the work permit is sent to the address of the seat of the employer or the address of the proxy who submitted the request – she added.
Milicevic pointed out that this change will contribute to the efficiency and acceleration of the procedure, considering that until now it took employers two months to hire a foreign citizen, and now they can do it in twice the time.
– So far, according to our information, the Directorate for Foreigners has not yet received such requests, but we will recommend them to clients in the future – concluded Andjelija Milicevic, eKapija reports.
