Some 35,000 Foreigners Granted Work Permits in Serbia in 2022, More than 11,000 Since Start of 2023

Panorama of Belgrade (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

In the first three months of this year, Serbia issued 11,717 work permits to foreign nationals, whereas last year it issued 35,168 in total, according to National Employment Service data.
The biggest number of work permits were issued to citizens of China, Russia, Turkey, India, Cuba, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and Nepal.

From Feb. 24, 2022, when the Russian military intervention in Ukraine began, to April 6 this year 12,593 permits were issued to Russian citizens, of which 3,546 were given to women, while 568 permits were issued to Ukrainian citizens, 328 of them to women.

Draft amendments to the Law on Employment of Foreign Citizens and the Law on Foreigners envisage the issuance of temporary residence and work permits to foreign nationals immediately for a period of three years, instead of one year as the case has been so far. Where permanent residence in the territory of Serbia is concerned, the required period of a foreigner's stay in the country has been shortened from five to three years.

Unions in Serbia are unhappy with the aforementioned legal amendments, the making of which did not involve them.

Secretary of the Council of the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia Zoran Mihajlovic said to BETA that the Serbian government, if the amended Law on Employment of Foreign Citizens was adopted, would be implementing a devastating policy and thereby only speeding up the departure of domestic workers abroad and further worsening demographics.