How to Obtain Residency in Montenegro

A question that I get a lot is “how to get residency in Montenegro?”. Essentially, there are two ways, the first way is through buying property in Montenegro and the second way is by creating a company in Montenegro. This article will provide you all the necessary details on the process and also the documents that you need to bring with you to Montenegro when you apply for residency.

Why seek to obtain residency in Montenegro?

• An absolutely gorgeous country with mountains, beaches, and historical towns.
• A low cost of living; Montenegro is competitively ranked in the Numbeo Cost of Living Index.
• Affordable, quality real estate.
• Geographic location – in Europe.
• 9-15% corporate income tax, 9-15% personal income tax, 15% capital gains tax, 15% dividend tax – amongst the lowest in Europe
• Multiple international schools.
• Affordable healthcare.

What are the Residency options in Montenegro?

• Residency through the ownership of local real estate worth at least €150,000. You can read my article on real estate in Montenegro
• Residency by creating a local company and appointing yourself a director (you can find out about how to create a company in Montenegro). There are two categories:
  1. People from the EU, Switzerland, Liechsteinstein, Iceland and Norway can just create a company with minimal activity and appoint themselves as director or own any real estate.
  2. People from other countries must create a company, appoint themselves as director and pay at least €5,000 in annual taxes and social security contributions to be able to renew the residency permit. Or they must invest at least €150,000.
• The Digital Nomad Visa in Montenegro which is an easy way to get to live in Montenegro without investing or creating a company.

What documents to you need to obtain residency in Montenegro

You’ll need the following documentation to obtain residency in Montenegro: 

• Passport
• A clean, criminal record from your country of citizenship
  
• Letter of application for registration
• Marriage and birth certificates for your family members
• A diploma which demonstrates your education level such as university or high school (in some cases)
  
• For residency through real estate – a copy of the real estate title deed
• For residency through a local company – the company documents and proof you are registered as the director
• Medical insurance

All  documents needs to be translated into Montenegrin. The immigration agent will take care of this. Documents from back home must be apostilled.

The whole process can take 45 days. It’s quite a bureaucratic process. 

If you obtain residency in Montenegro, can it lead to citizenship?

Yes, having residency in Montenegro can lead to citizenship…

• You must spend 5 years in Montenegro with your temporary residency. The government wants you to stay AT LEAST 9 months per year to renew it on a yearly basis. If you don’t spend the minimum amount of time, then you will have to apply for a temporary visa again, and the countdown will start from year one. Simply renewing the residency is simpler from a bureaucratic point of view.
• After 5 years of maintaining temporary residency, you can apply for permanent residency.
• 5 years later (year 10), you can apply for Montenegrin citizenship.

How my immigration agent can help you get residency in Montenegro

Marko provides professional immigration services through simple packages tailored to your desired path forward. He can help with all documentation, application screening, opening bank accounts, registering company addresses, obtaining your residency card, on-site support and much more.

What are the costs to get residency in Montenegro?

Full Package Residency Visa Service through Company Formation

This package is for those looking to get residency through company formation.

• Documentation preparation and registration in about a week (company)
• Certificate of Incorporation
• Company seal and stamp
• Official registered company address
• Obtention of tax number for company (PIB)
• Registration of the company director for insurance and social security contributions with the tax authorities
• Help with Company bank account opening
• Document preparation for immigration
• Application screening
• Support at the police and immigration departments to navigate the process
• Help to get the actual residency card
• Expect to pay some minor fees for the document translations
• Help with personal bank account opening

The cost will depend on which options you want and number/type of dependents.

Residency Visa Services

This package is for those looking to get residency through real estate

• Document preparation
• Application screening
• Support at the police and immigration departments to navigate the process
• Help to get the actual residency card
• Expect to pay some minor fees for the document translations

The cost will depend on the number/type of dependents.

Services in Montenegro:

• My Favourite Real Estate Agents in Montenegro
• How to obtain Residency in Montenegro
• Create a Company in Montenegro
• Real Estate Lawyer in Montenegro

Articles on Montenegro:

• Montenegro Real Estate Market: 2026 Investor Guide
• Decent rental yields for Real Estate in Montenegro
• The Pros and Cons of living in Montenegro
• Investment and lifestyle real estate in Tivat, Montenegro - a top European low-tax safe haven
• Seaview Properties near Budva, Montenegro: Investment Options

Transcript of “How to Obtain Residency in Montenegro”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, so today we’ll be discussing how to obtain residency in beautiful Montenegro here together with Marko, our immigration consultant. Marko, how are you? 

MARKO: Hi, hi Ladislas. I’m good. Very good, thank you. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: So a lot of people want to move to Montenegro. There were recently immigration changes, it became a little harder, but it’s still very much possible.  

How to obtain residency in Montenegro? 

LADISLAS MAURICE: So can you tell us the different pathways to obtain residency here? 

MARKO: Yes. So basically, there are three ways to obtain residency in Montenegro. The first, the most popular way is to register a company and be employed in it. The second way is to purchase a property and the third way is to be a digital nomad by the definition of the government, and then in that case you can also obtain residency. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so let’s go through the three options in detail.  

Residency by company creation and self-employment in Montenegro 

LADISLAS MAURICE: So the first one is creating a company and employing yourself effectively? 

MARKO: Yes. Yes, basically, a lot of people mix that residency for being a company registration residency, but it’s not, it’s actually employment residency, but you employ yourself in your own company, you don’t have to search for some employer in Montenegro. So basically, how it works is that you register a company first, appoint yourself as a director, and then you apply for the residency based on that position of yours. You can, of course, employ other people, like if you have some family members that cannot be your dependents, or if you want to bring your employees from another country, you can also do that, or you can employ Montenegrins. But in general, that’s the main thing that you are employed in the company. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so effectively just create a company, pay yourself a salary, minimum wage, that’s it. 

MARKO: Yes, that’s right. 

Residency renewal for EU citizens in Montenegro 

LADISLAS MAURICE: And there are slightly different paths within the company formation route for EU, Swiss people, and then other Westerners such as Americans, Canadians, and then people from more emerging markets like Africa, the Middle East, South Asia. Can you elaborate on the different pathways? 

MARKO: Yes. So the main difference is at renewal, where people from the EU, Swiss, Norway, Iceland, they don’t have any requirements to renew the residency, their company just goes on and that’s it. However, people from the USA, UK and non-EU Western countries, they need to show that their company has paid at least 5,000 euros in taxes per year, per residency year, to extend their residency. This goes only for the people who are directors in the company that they have majority stake in. If they don’t have the majority stake in, then this rule doesn’t apply. The main also difference for the people from Asia and Africa, for example, is that they would need to go through a  visa process. So just opening a company for 1 euro would not be a good pathway for them, it would have to be a business that actually has some investment and has some activity at the start. 

Residency by investing in real estate in Montenegro 

LADISLAS MAURICE: The second pathway is investing in property in Montenegro for 150,000 euros, correct? 

MARKO: Yes. That’s the one of the recent changes to the law on foreigners. If you want to obtain a residency based on property investment and property ownership, the property value needs to be at least 150,000 euros. This rule again doesn’t apply to people from the EU, Swiss, Norway, and Iceland, but it does apply to everybody else. You can still apply for the residency if there are two equal owners of the property, and in the same case, the minimum value is 150,000 euros. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: And it’s 150,000 euros like paid on the contract or is it the cadastral value, tax assess value? Because sometimes they can be different. 

MARKO: It depends when the property is purchased. If it’s a recent transaction, then the tax authority would take on the value that is in the purchasing contract. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: What about people from non-Western countries? So it’s clear. Americans, Canadians, Australians, Brits, 150,000 euros, you get residency. What about, let’s say, I come from Kenya or from certain countries in the Middle East? Does this work? 

MARKO: If your country needs a visa for Montenegro, then you need to first invest, then apply for the visa and then apply for the residence permit. If you don’t invest, your visa will definitely be declined if your goal is to apply for the residence permit. However, if you invest something, then that’s a pathway that could work actually to lead you towards residency in Montenegro. 

Does investing in Montenegro guarantee obtaining the visa? 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Could work. Now, that’s a little problematic. People want it to work, they don’t like hope that it’ll work. How do you make sure that it actually works for people? Because you also help clients go through the visa process. 

MARKO: Yes. We can’t guarantee 100% that it would be possible, but it definitely increases chances for somebody to obtain a visa if the person has invested in Montenegro already, and if the person has active or past Schengen visa, USA visa, Australia visa, Canada visa, UK visa. In that case, if you show some travel history and the possibility to invest in Montenegro, that is, that you already invested, then you have much higher chance to obtain the visa and then in the next step to obtain residency. 

Are all the passports and visas the same? 

LADISLAS MAURICE: This is interesting. There are quite a few countries that have these relatively vague immigration policies. What Marko just said, it isn’t written anywhere in government files or anywhere in Montenegro. It’s just how things work. There’s a lot of that in Latin America as well, where countries will make a distinction for residency between, with the same documents, between Westerners and people from other countries. It’s really dependent on the passport. And in this case, again, it shows the value of having a US visa, of having a Canadian visa, having a Schengen visa because it opens the door to getting a visa as well from Montenegro for residency purposes. 

MARKO: That’s true. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Just keep this ambiguity in mind. If you’re sitting in Nigeria and you’re hoping that just by putting 150k in property in Montenegro, it’s suddenly going to get you and your whole family residency and that that’ll be your way into the EU, it’s not going to work. They kind of see through that. 

MARKO: Yeah. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, that’s interesting. 

How much time do I need to stay in Montenegro to renew my residency? 

LADISLAS MAURICE: We’ll go to the third one, which is the digital nomad visa, but before, I’d like to know what are the physical presence requirements to be able to renew easily for both visas. So that I I can’t after a year, then I can just easily renew. 

MARKO: The law says that you can be absent for up to 30 days per your residency year without asking anybody, traveling freely. You can also have additional 60 days with the previous notification to the police and their approval, and you need a valid reason for that. Now, that part is also a bit vague because the actual permission will depend from municipality to municipality. However, this rule does not apply for people who are directors in their companies. So that is the only residence permit that does not have absence limitations for now, and that person can spend as much time out of Montenegro as they want. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: So it works, you can renew on your the company formation route every year, you can renew easily, even though you don’t live here. Property hard, they really want you to live here in Montenegro, which nine out of 12 months? 

MARKO: You live more than nine because you can’t expect that every year they will allow you those additional 60 days. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: So you’re here and, you know, Montenegro’s quite small. Not that great, but you can still apply from year one every time. So you can still have the residency, but then you’ll just never progress to permanent residency. 

Obtaining Permanent Residency in Montenegro 

LADISLAS MAURICE: But then permanent residency is not necessarily that easy to get in Montenegro as well, right? 

MARKO: You will need to live in Montenegro for five years to have constant renewals of your temporary residency, and then you don’t qualify for the permanent residency automatically, you qualify to apply for it. And you still need to make some requirements made for it to work. First of all, in those five years, you can be absent only for up to 10 months in all those five years. If you are absent more than that, then you are not qualified to apply for the permanent residency. That’s why this director residency is convenient for people who like to travel and who need to travel for work, but they cannot count on permanent residency after five years because they are not in the country. They can renew their residency indefinitely, year per year, year per year, but they cannot qualify for the permanent residency. Other than that, the person needs to know the basics of Montenegrin language. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Except people above 60. No language requirements. 

MARKO: Yeah. And from the recent changes, they need to show that they have paid all the taxes in Montenegro. That is one news that now every residency that allows people to become tax residents in Montenegro or to own something in Montenegro, like a property, every renewal you need to show that you have paid all the taxes that are due in Montenegro. Before, it wasn’t the case. Now, if you own a property, you need to show that you actually paid the tax. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Which is fine. Taxes are low in Montenegro and it’s one of the reasons people move to Montenegro. It’s in the on the fringes of the European Union. It’s still a bit of a tax haven, et cetera. So just be careful with people that I’ve come across a fair amount of real estate agencies that will say, “Buy this property and you get residency and after five years you have permanent residency and guaranteed path into the European Union.” It’s more complicated. 

MARKO: Yes, it’s complicated. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, and there are a lot of rejections for permanent residency. A lot of Russians and Ukrainians that moved here during when the war started, and some of them are starting to apply for permanent residency. They moved a bit before, et cetera. A lot of them are getting rejected because their Montenegrin just isn’t up to scratch. 

MARKO: And it’s not an easy path to get to. So, as we said, there is always a catch. So for example, you can spend your time out of Montenegro, but then you can’t apply for the permanent residency. So when you decide to be here and get residency, you should think about the long-term strategy and what is your end goal? 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. 

MARKO: If your end goal is permanent residency, then spend your time here. If your main goal is lifestyle or decreasing taxes or something like that, it’s always good to consult first and think about the end strategy. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s very good advice. We typically tell people if your goal is permanent residency, citizenship, there are other countries that are better as destinations than Montenegro. I mean, it’s just… In citizenship, it’s you got another five years to permanent residency. 

MARKO: That’s also maybe because that’s also not automatically, but you become eligible to apply. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. 

MARKO: It’s not the same as, you know, getting it automatically. So, yeah. 

Digital Nomad visa in Montenegro 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Everything’s clear. Tell us about the digital nomad visa. 

MARKO: Yeah, so basically, the third way is to be a digital nomad by the definition of Montenegrin government. It’s a person who works remotely online for a foreign company, a company that is not registered in Montenegro. In this case, you need to prove that you are employed in that company, that that company is active, and that you receive a certain amount of monthly salary or you have a lump sum of money on your bank account. That bank account can be foreign bank account, it doesn’t have to be in Montenegro. And one of the, let’s say, conditional perks of this residency is that you don’t pay any taxes in Montenegro because your employment at the foreign company is the proof that you are paying your taxes in another country. If your goal is to become a tax resident of Montenegro, you don’t do this residency. You only do it maybe for the lifestyle and the chance to spend time in Montenegro, but you don’t pay any taxes and you can’t become a tax resident of Montenegro with it. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s an interesting gray zone that can work for a lot of people. 

MARKO: And also, this residency is can be awarded for two years. You can secure yourself for two years to not do any new applications and stuff, and you can also extend it for another two years after it. But after that, you need to leave for at least six months. Also, this residency cannot lead to permanent residency at all. You cannot even get a chance to apply. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: I think the digital nomad visa option is great for people who are considering Montenegro, but don’t necessarily want to commit to creating a company and paying taxes on their minimum wage, etc. And it’s two years upfront as opposed to one year. So that also makes a difference. 

MARKO: It’s sometimes a good strategy, and we have clients who start with digital nomad residency because they are not sure if Montenegro is the place for them, and they want an option where they can leave at any time without anything to do to make that exit. 

Who is applying for residency in Montenegro? 

LADISLAS MAURICE: So, question for you, because you’ve processed hundreds of applications over the years, of 10 clients, how many do company formation, how many do the property, and how many do the digital nomad visa? Just out of… Well, small sample size, just out of curiosity. 

MARKO: Overall, in all the years, it’s five companies, three properties, and two digital nomads. However, in the last year, it’s four companies, three properties, three digital nomads. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Interesting. And your distribution of clients out of 10 clients, how many are European, how many are kind of like Anglophone countries, US, Canada, UK, and then others? 

MARKO: Most of them are from Anglo-Western countries. Maybe out of 10, it’s seven to South and Middle America and one is Asia, Africa. If we would say in average. However, we have worked so far with people from 25 countries from all over the world, from every continent, and what I can say that in the last two years, majority of our clients come from UK, US, and Canada, and Germany. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Interesting. So the profile of people moving to Montenegro really has shifted over the years. 

How to contact Marko to apply for residency in Montenegro  

LADISLAS MAURICE: I wrote a whole guide on how to obtain residency in Montenegro, all the details, including importantly, all the paperwork that you have to bring when you apply for residency. There’s a link below. You can also use this link to contact Marko, and he can help you with the whole process from A to Z for immigration here in beautiful Montenegro for you and then your family as well. Marko, thank you. 

MARKO: Thank you, Ladislas. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you so much. 

MARKO: Thank you very much. 

LADISLAS MAURICE: Make sure to download my free ebook, 12 Mistakes to Avoid When Investing in International Real Estate, which you can find on my website, link below, and feel free to follow me on Instagram @thewanderinginvestor. I look forward to hearing from you.