Everything You Need To Know About A Serbian Visa

If you own an ordinary British passport, you do not need a visa to enter Serbia. You can stay in the country for up to 90 days in a 180-day period as long as you travel to Serbia for business or tourism purposes.

Passport requirements to avail visa-exemption

Your British passport should be valid for at least six months and should contain a minimum of two blank pages in order to be granted entry into Serbia.

You should carry a national passport or valid UK residency permit or a UK visa which specifies re-entry into the UK.

But you must ensure that your stay period in Serbia does not exceed the time frame, stamped on your UK residency permit/passport/visa after arrival.

The immigration authorities will ask you to present your residency permit card or your passport once you land in the country. Again, if your residency permit does not contain your photo, you need to apply for a visa.

However, if you hold UK travel documents but staying as an alien or refugee in the UK, you might need an entry visa to enter the Republic of Serbia.

You can find the detailed guidelines on the visa application process and documentation requirements on the official site for the Embassy of Serbia in Great Britain.

Additional requirements to gain visa-free entry into Serbia

Apart from your passport, there are some additional criteria that you need to fulfil in order to avail the visa-exemption facility.

You must present proof of sufficient funds that will sustain you during your stay in Serbia.

This amounts to 50 Euros per day of stay, which can be proved via possession of cash, bank statements, traveller's cheques, credit cards or a letter of guarantee.

You should carry necessary vaccination certificates when arriving from a country or region affected by a contagious disease. You can get the required information on vaccinations from the Ministry of Health website.

Children under 18 years, travelling without their parents, must present a certified authorization from either of their parents. Even when traveling with a third person, underage children require to carry the authorization, signed by their parent(s) or guardian.

It is strongly advised to have a health certificate that covers your stay period in Serbia. It should cover medical costs, amounting to at least a sum of 20,000 Euros.

If your travel itinerary includes onward travel to another country, you must showcase the necessary documentation that grants you entry into the next destination.

Once you arrive in Serbia, you should be able to prove your intended purpose during the specified period of stay -- which must include only business or tourist activities.

Sometimes, border authorities request for a tourist travel voucher issued by a travel operator or a certified letter of invitation from the sponsoring company in Serbia.

Other proofs of purpose include return flight tickets, hotel bookings or reservations, and verification of the private residence where you plan to stay.

Before planning your travel to Serbia, please crosscheck with your airlines if they allow boarding without a visa.

Also, ensure if there are overseas connecting flights that might need you to carry a separate, country-specific transit visa.

After you arrive in Serbia, the immigration officials will put an entry stamp in your passport. If you are a temporary resident, you will need to have an exit-entry visa along with a residence stamp.

Failure to follow these rules can result in charges of illegal immigration, a hefty fine and sometimes, even imprisonment.

Visa extension in Serbia

You can extend your stay in Serbia only once you are within the country’s borders. For this purpose, you have to submit an application for temporary residence status. Please remember that you need to make this request at least 30 days in advance, prior to the expiry of the granted 90 day stay period on your passport. The application needs to be made in the police station where you registered your stay after arriving in Serbia.

Previous travel to Kosovo

You must enter Serbia only through designated border crossing points. Although Kosovo shares its borders with Serbia, it is not considered as an official ‘international’ border crossing point by the Serbian authorities. Hence, if you have any entry or exit Republic of Kosovo stamps in your passport, you might be denied entry into the nation.

However, if you travel from Serbia to Kosovo and then re-enter through the same route, you won’t face many problems. You can easily gain entry to Serbia if you are traveling from Albania, Macedonia or Montenegro.

Registration after entering Serbia

You must register yourself within a day of your arrival in Serbia. You can carry out the registration process in the nearest local police station. However, if you are planning to stay in a hotel, the staff members will automatically do your registration once you complete the check-in formalities.

Registration is a legal requirement and failure to do so can lead you to be fined, detained or made to appear in court.

Customs regulations

If you enter Serbia, carrying cash or cheques, amounting to more than €10,000, you need to declare it at the immigration counter by filling in a declaration form issued by customs officers. You need to submit a receipt of purchase for Dinars bought from a foreign bank.

When you exit Serbia, you have to return a certified copy of this declaration to the customs department -- in order to be granted permission for carrying out money exceeding €10,000 outside Serbia. Failure to do so may result in the confiscation of your money.

Again, you should declare items of value (for example, jewellery, photographic gadgets, and computing equipment) after arriving in Serbia -- to avoid customs charges.

UK Emergency Travel Documents

You can use UK Emergency Travel Documents to enter, exit, or transit from Serbia. You can even use ETDs as a valid ID document in the country. Your ETD should be valid for not less than 7 days and not more than 180 days throughout your stay in Serbia.