The Montenegro Immigration Law, which entered into force in February 2018, was changed recently.
In January of 2019, the new amendments to the Montenegro Immigration Law were adopted. The latest edition of the Law has already entered into force. In this article, we will highlight the most important innovations.
Temporary residence permit for property owners
The procedure for issuing the real estate owners a temporary residence permit in 2018, had perhaps the most significant changes and interpretations. Finally a temporary compromise was found before the adoption of the relevant amendments to the Law. In the new version of the Law, the residence permit from the real property possession can be obtained in case if shared ownership is at least 1/2 (Article 56 of the Law).
Temporary residence for employment
There are few changes in this part.
►A fundamentally new position is included. From now it is possible to obtain a residence permit by occupying the post of executive director in several Montenegrin companies. The Labor Law governs details of such employment. For ordinary employees, not directors, nothing has changed. A residence permit can be issued only for a specific workplace with a particular employer.
►Foreigners over 67 years old will be able to get a temporary residence permit as employees: individual entrepreneur or executive director. In case of an executive director, there are some possible terms: the foreigner should be an executive director of his own company and have a share in the authorized capital of at least 51%. Previously, employment of foreigners over 67 was unavailable due to restrictions in the Labor Law.
Considering that the Immigration law gives no reason for obtaining a “pension” residence permit this amendment is more or less a mcompromise.
►Requirements for some terms have been changed.
The term for the decision-making process regarding the application for a working residence permit is reduced from 20 to 15 days. The period for signing a job contract and registration with the tax authorities is reduced from 8 days to 24 hours.
Quotas by profession are abolished, only quotas by industry remain.
Permanent residence in Montenegro
Children under the age of 14 and adults over the age of 65 are not obliged to provide a certificate confirming the local language proficiency when applying for a permanent residency.
Visa to Montenegro
An electronic application system is to be developed for obtaining a Montenegrin visa. It will be available on the websites of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Montenegro and its diplomatic missions. The application form is to be submitted online. Scanned documents which confirm the purpose of obtaining a visa, as well as passport and photo, are to be attached.
Considering that Montenegro has very few diplomatic missions outside the country, this measure will significantly simplify the process of submitting visa applications.
