Work & Business

The Self-Employment Permit is specifically for earning income from non-Serbian sources. Working for a Serbian employer would typically require a standard employment work permit (different from the self-employment permit) and would also bring you under the standard employment tax and social contribution structure. Consult an immigration lawyer if you want to combine Serbian employment with the permit.

Stronger than most people expect. Belgrade has R&D centres for Microsoft, NCR, Nordeus, and dozens of outsourcing companies. The local talent is highly educated (Serbian universities produce strong engineers) and English-speaking. Several Serbian startups have received €10M+ funding rounds. The Startit Centre network provides community infrastructure. It's not Berlin or Lisbon, but it's a legitimate tech hub for the region.

Novi Sad has Startit Centre and Impact Hub, plus the large university campus which creates a work-friendly café culture. The coworking scene is smaller than Belgrade but adequate for remote workers. The Belgrade high-speed train (1.5 hours) means you can travel to Belgrade for specific networking events and return the same day.

Serbia has its own Law on Personal Data Protection (LPDP) which substantially mirrors GDPR principles, though Serbia is not an EU member. Businesses operating across EU clients should maintain GDPR compliance regardless of where they're based. Serbia is recognised by the EU as providing an adequate level of data protection for cross-border data transfers.