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 and updated video 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.

Updated Video: How to obtain residency in Montenegro in 2024

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?

1. Residency through the ownership of local real estate. You can read my article on real estate in Montenegro
2. Residency by creating a local company and appointing yourself a director (you can find out about how to create a company in Montenegro)
   
3. Residency through a mooring contract. If you have a contract to moor your boat, you can obtain residency in Montenegro this way.

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 much 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

Andreas has helped family members of mine obtain residency in Montenegro. Half German and half Montenegrin, he graduated from Nikola Tesla University in Belgrade, Serbia. He is reasonably priced, and will ensure you do not get “played” because let’s face it, that’s always a risk as a foreigner.

Andreas 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 and the cost is €1200.00.

• 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
• Extra €350 per dependent (spouse and children)

Residency Visa Services

This package is for those looking to get residency through real estate and the cost is €400.00.

• 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
• Extra €350 per dependent (spouse and children)

Other services in Montenegro

• Create a company in Montenegro
• My Favourite Real Estate Agents in Montenegro
• A Real Estate Lawyer in Montenegro

Articles on Montenegro

• Full Guide to buying and investing in Montenegro Real Estate
• How to flip a house for a 50% gain in Montenegro
• Decent rental yields for Airbnb Real Estate Investments in Montenegro
• Buying Montenegro Real Estate – a Case Study with ROI figures
• The Pros and Cons of living in Montenegro

Transcript of “How to Obtain Residency in Montenegro”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. Today, I’m in Podgorica, in beautiful Montenegro, and I’m with my immigration agent, Andreas. And we’ll be discussing how to get residency here in Montenegro. Andreas, how are you?

ANDREAS: Hey, it’s excellent. Thank you. How are you today?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Good, good. We see each other every summer here in Montenegro, and Andreas has been helping a lot of my clients obtain residency here in Montenegro. Today, we’ll be discussing how to obtain residency and then also the immigration trends that we’ve been seeing in Montenegro, because a lot of things have been changing.

Residency through company formation in Montenegro

LADISLAS MAURICE: Andreas, what are the ways that people can obtain residency here in Montenegro?

ANDREAS: Well, there are basically two major ways how to obtain residency in Montenegro. The most popular one is by establishing limited liability company in Montenegro, which is pretty straightforward. In order to establish it, you literally just need one person and a starting capital of just €1, along with some document requirements, which we can discuss maybe later. And then you’re able to apply for a residency permit for yourself and also for your spouse and children in Montenegro.

LADISLAS MAURICE: But you must be married, right?

ANDREAS: Married, yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Boyfriend, girlfriend, doesn’t count?

ANDREAS: No, no.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Married. Important.

ANDREAS: You need to have a marriage certificate, a valid one, and then you can also bring your partner on board. Your married partner, yeah, and your children.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And this gives you residency for how long?

ANDREAS: The residency program in Montenegro, it’s a temporary residency permit valid for one year, which can be renewed once a year. Yeah, it’s a yearly program.

How to get Permanent Residency in Montenegro

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so every year you need to be here to do the paperwork. At which stage can you get permanent residency?

ANDREAS: Well, permanent residency you can get after five years.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Is it realistic? Do people get it?

ANDREAS: It’s not easy, to tell you the truth. Like other small countries, Montenegro is only 620,000 people, so it’s not really easy to get a permanent residency. Honestly, I would not count on it because things change quite frequently in the world of immigration. I would say we need to be clear to you, it’s a temporary residency program that can be renewed once a year indefinitely. It’s really just that for now.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. I know people they’ve been living here for 15 years. They don’t have a permanent residency, just, every year, they just renew their temporary residency, and it’s not an issue whatsoever. Cool. This is for company formation.

Residency through real estate ownership in Montenegro

LADISLAS MAURICE: What is the other very popular way?

ANDREAS: The other one is through real estate ownership. You can buy residential or commercial property and apply for residency based on ownership of that real estate.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Essentially, what this means is that if you own real estate in Montenegro, it’s not just the real estate investment that you own, but you also have a call option on residency, which is what a lot of Russians and Ukrainians did when the war started. If they had property here, they just all flocked here and applied for residency based on their real estate ownership. It really proved to be a very good Plan B for a lot of people. They had nice real estate they were putting on Airbnb, earning money, and then things took a bad turn in their countries, and then they were able to come here, Plan B activated, and it worked perfectly fine.

Residency through mooring contract in Montenegro

ANDREAS: Yeah. Maybe a third option, which it’s not one of the most popular ones, but you can also apply if you have a boat or a yacht, have a mooring contract with one of our marinas. You will get a residency permit over that period of the contract. If you have one-year contract in a marina in Montenegro, you can straightaway apply for residency.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Interesting. Is it hard to get a spot for a boat in a marina in Montenegro?

ANDREAS: No, I wouldn’t say it’s hard. No, no.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, this is really interesting. I just found this out. Cool, okay. And then the usual, if you have a child here, you’re married, blah, blah, the usual stuff.

Difference in flexibility between company formation and real estate residency in Montenegro

LADISLAS MAURICE: What is the difference between the company formation and the real estate ownership in terms of flexibility?

ANDREAS: That’s a good point. If you’re somebody who travels a lot, the company formation route is more flexible, because the authorities consider somebody who’s running a company that he needs more flexibility and can be in and out of the country for longer period of time.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can you quantify this?

ANDREAS: Well, honestly, it’s not a written rule. It’s how the authorities handle each individual case. But so far, they didn’t revoke any residency permits based on the time out of the country based on company formation. In contrast to that, if you have your residency permit based on real estate ownership, we had cases where it was revoked if you had been out of the country for more than 90 days, that’s actually the rule.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool.

ANDREAS: Doesn’t have to be that way, but if you need more flexibility it’s definitely better to open a company and apply for residency.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And it’s hard to give a very precise answer because, to your point, there is what’s written, there’s what’s being done in practice, it’s often a bit different, it depends on the immigration officer in front of you, etc., etc. There are a lot of moving parts and it evolves over time. But I think the overall point is if you want flexibility, create a company. If you’re fine living here 10 months of the year, then you go for the real estate option. I have some relatives who live here in Montenegro, they own real estate in Montenegro, but they still apply using the company formation route because they want that added flexibility, just to give a bit of an example.

Documents needed to apply for residency in Montenegro

LADISLAS MAURICE: Andreas, can you tell us about the documents that people need to bring with them when they want to apply for residency here in Montenegro?

ANDREAS: Absolutely. In all cases, whether it be the company formation route, or the route by having your real estate, or a mooring contract, you will need to have a criminal record certificate, and it needs to be the old-fashioned one with a stamp or a signature, and it cannot be older than six months. It’s, like, the most important document. And in some countries, you would also need to get it apostilled.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Depending on the country.

ANDREAS: Depending on the country. It really depends if Montenegro has any bilateral agreements, yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: But for US, yes.

ANDREAS: US needs an apostille, Canada as well. Australia.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, Canada it’s different. It’s the double certification. Australia, apostille. Essentially, European Union, no apostille. Outside of European union, generally speaking, apostille or double certification.

ANDREAS: Yeah, more or less.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool.

ANDREAS: Yeah, more or less. Exactly. You also need, as a company, if you go the company formation route, you need to show proof of education. This can be any education, you don’t need to have attended university, it can be middle school, high school, whatever. It needs to be at least eight years of schooling. This does not need to be apostilled, just a copy of your diploma along with the grades.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.

ANDREAS: This is for the main applicant. If you have a spouse, you will need a marriage certificate, again, not older than six months, apostilled in most cases. If you have children, a birth certificate for each child, again, not older than six months, apostilled. And children up to the age of 18 can apply for this family reunification.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. I think it’s important to note that Montenegro is probably the easiest country to obtain residency in Europe for non-Europeans from OECD countries. If you’re Egyptian, African, or, whatever, from the Middle East, South Asia, forget about it, you’re probably going to get rejected. The farthest non-OECD that they’re fine with is Turkish, essentially, or Caucasus, or Central Asia, that’s fine. But again, South Asia, Africa, Middle East, generally, they don’t want you here in this country. For Americans, Australians, OECD people, EU people, this is an extremely easy place to obtain residency.

I find that it’s particularly attractive for North Americans who want to live in Europe but who don’t necessarily want to deal with all the bureaucracy of trying to move to an EU country, which is complicated. You’ve got some countries, like Portugal, that are relatively easy, but even that’s a lot more bureaucratic than trying to move here to Montenegro. You literally do not have to go to a Montenegrin embassy. All you need to do is to come speak to Andreas, you get in touch with Andreas. He tells you exactly the documents that you need. He creates the company for you before you even get here. And then you come here and then you have your documents, boom, you get residency. It’s a very simple process.

It’s a bit bureaucratic here on the Montenegrin side of things. Andreas needs to deal with a lot of bureaucracy. But as an applicant who uses an agent, an immigration agent on the ground, it’s actually very easy. For people who want a base in Europe, who want to spend a lot of time in Europe, this is a very good option.

North Americans in Montenegro

LADISLAS MAURICE: What we’re seeing is a lot of Americans who kind of want paperwork that they’re staying in Europe, but are comfortable, they want to stay six, seven months of the year here, the rest of the time they want to go around the Schengen zone, whenever they need to recharge their 90 days of Schengen time, they come back home to Montenegro, etc. We’re seeing quite a lot of such North American digital nomads who just like having a base here to travel around Europe.

Who is moving to Montenegro?

LADISLAS MAURICE: What are you seeing, Andreas, in terms of immigration here to Montenegro? Because, since COVID, it’s been very eventful. Immigration has been very, very eventful here in Montenegro.

ANDREAS: We’ve seen large numbers of people basically fleeing their home country due to conflicts. It can be it’s either the war in Ukraine that’s going on right now, or it’s some economic hardships in their country, and uncertainty, as we have in Turkey, for example. I already mentioned these three regions. It’s like most immigrants, in 2022 and 2023, have been from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey. These are like the top three countries where we are getting the most applicants from. But there are also many people from Germany, we have Americans, we have Canadians, we have Australians, we have French, we have a little bit of every European country, South Africans.

Why are people moving to Montenegro?

LADISLAS MAURICE: These Westerners that you describe, these Europeans, these North Americans, why are they moving to Montenegro?

ANDREAS: Yeah. I think it’s pretty easy to answer the question. They’re looking for a safe and free country which is pretty traditional. There’s not much government oppression going on in Montenegro, so you have more freedom than in these countries. Not so many regulations, so you can basically live a freer and more fulfilled life in beautiful surroundings, right?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah.

ANDREAS: I would say these are the main arguments. It’s safe, beautiful, and more free.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. There were two trends that we’ve been noticing. Yeah, so one, for sure, is all the Russians, and the Turks, and the Ukrainians, they’re leaving for their own reasons. From a Western perspective, COVID was a big driver, because here, I mean, there were essentially no lockdowns. There were some rules, but they were not really implemented. During the whole COVID situation, this place was a very easy place to live comfortably for people that are not really into restrictions.

And then the second one, the second big driver for Western influx into Montenegro, is the whole energy/political situation in Western Europe, where people are increasingly, especially Germans, are worried about the direction of their country that their country is heading into. And they want to live somewhere that they feel is more peaceful, and where they have more, essentially, political and economic freedom. And we’re seeing this as well with North Americans and Australians, who just come here to get away from all the politics. It’s quite interesting. The more I look into it, it’s people come to Montenegro, generally, because they’re fleeing from somewhere. They’re fleeing from something. They’re fleeing from war, they’re fleeing from politics they disagree with, they’re fleeing from economic oppression. And they just, all these random people, just end up together in Montenegro, in a beautiful setting, like you said.

I mean, I’m not going to sell Montenegro here, but skiing, and beaches, and all of that. And they’re just happy to be here. It’s almost like Montenegro it’s almost like the VIX on the stock market, when things go bad in the world, more people come here. If you think that things are going to be bad in the world, you can expect more people moving to Montenegro. Most people that I meet that move here to Montenegro, including my relatives, are very happy here. They don’t want to go anywhere. They spend more than half of the year here in Montenegro. Yeah, they’re very relaxed, much more relaxed than when they lived in Western Europe, for example.

Cool, fantastic. Andreas, thank you. If you’re interested in finding out more information about obtaining residency here in Montenegro, and the price lists, and all of that, and how to get in touch with Andreas, feel free to click on the link below. You’ll find all the information here. Andreas has been helping my relatives for the last few years obtaining residency, and they’ve had everything renewed, etc., no issues whatsoever. Andreas, thank you very much.

ANDREAS: Yeah. Thank you, Ladislas. Till next time.