NextSpring

Serbian Origin Is a Residence Category, a Shortcut to Settlement, and a Right to the Passport

Answer

The general rule applies to you

No exception is recorded for citizens of Austria on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.

195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Austria to Serbia · Residency through ancestry

Descent does more work in Serbian law than in most. It appears three times, each time at a different level. At the level of temporary residence, the Government regulation made under article 40(4) of the Law on Foreigners creates a category of "foreigners who are of Serbian origin", defined as a blood or adoptive relationship with an ancestor in the direct line who is a national of Serbia or of a predecessor state of Serbia, or who declares or declared himself a Serb; the first permit runs for a year, and the proof may be a public document or a baptismal certificate issued by an eparchy or parish of the Serbian Orthodox Church. At the level of permanent settlement, article 68 of the Law on Foreigners grants it independently of the usual three-year qualification to a foreigner originating from Serbia and to a foreigner of Serbian origin. And at the level of citizenship, article 23 of the Law on Citizenship gives a member of the Serbian people with no domicile in Serbia a right to be admitted - without release from any other nationality, without residence, and on a written declaration that they regard Serbia as their state.

Verified with official sourceStable2026-10-11

At a glance

Who counts as of Serbian origin
A person in a blood or adoptive relationship with a direct-line ancestor who is a national of Serbia or of a predecessor state, or who declares or has declared himself a Serb

Article 2(1)(4) of the Uredba o kriterijumima za određivanje kategorija stranaca. No generation limit is stated.

Proof accepted
A domestic or equivalent foreign public document, or a baptismal certificate of the Serbian Orthodox Church issued by an eparchy or parish

Article 3(1), points 4) and 5), of the Uredba.

First permit
One year, extended for one year

Article 5 of the Uredba.

Permanent settlement
Granted independently of the three-year rule to a foreigner originating from Serbia and to a foreigner of Serbian origin

Article 68(1), points 2) and 3), of the Zakon o strancima.

Citizenship
A member of the Serbian people without domicile in Serbia has the right to be admitted, with no release from the existing nationality required

Article 23(1) of the Zakon o državljanstvu Republike Srbije. The Act uses the word "право" - a right, not a discretion.

Emigrants and their descendants
May be admitted to citizenship at 18 on the written declaration, with no residence requirement stated

Article 18 of the Zakon o državljanstvu, which defines an emigrant as a person who emigrated from Serbia intending to live permanently abroad.

Requirements

  • For the residence category: a blood or adoptive relationship with an ancestor in the direct line who is a national of Serbia or of a predecessor state, or who declares or declared himself a Serb
  • Proof: a domestic public document, or a foreign public document with the evidential force of one, or a baptismal certificate of the Serbian Orthodox Church issued by an eparchy or parish
  • The general conditions for temporary residence in article 43 of the Law on Foreigners in addition
  • For permanent settlement under article 68: the conditions of article 70 - passport, means of subsistence, health insurance, evidence and fee - but not the three years of article 67(2)
  • For citizenship under article 23: age 18, legal capacity not withdrawn, and a written declaration that the applicant regards Serbia as their state

In detail

Three doors, and the widest is the last one

The residence category asks for a documented ancestor. Permanent settlement under article 68 asks the same and skips the three-year wait. But article 23 of the Law on Citizenship asks for neither residence nor an ancestor who was a citizen: its test is being a member of the Serbian people, and it is written as a right rather than a discretion, with no release from the existing nationality. A person who satisfies it has no reason to pass through either of the other two doors, which is why a comparison grid that shows Serbia only under "residency through ancestry" understates what is on offer.

Country-level policy

Six Documents, a Security Assessment, and Two Deadlines

Whatever the ground, a temporary residence application in Serbia carries the same six items under article 43(1) of the Law on Foreigners: a valid passport (or an identity card where that nationality may enter on one), evidence of means of subsistence for the planned stay, a registration of the place of stay or of the address of residence, evidence of health insurance for the planned stay, evidence that the application is justified on the ground relied on, and proof of the administrative fee. The passport must be valid at least three months longer than the residence sought. Two groups are relieved of the means and insurance documents by article 43a: the immediate family of a Serbian citizen, and a foreigner being employed together with that person's immediate family. Behind every decision sits an assessment by the security service of whether the foreigner's presence is an unacceptable security risk, which article 9 defines and which the Act requires on entry, on temporary residence, on the single permit and on permanent settlement. The deadlines differ by route: thirty days for ordinary temporary residence with twenty-five for the assessment, fifteen days for the single permit with ten for its two assessments, and sixty days for permanent settlement with fifty-five for the assessment.

The Gazette Is Official in Print and in PDF; Everything Else Is Unofficial and Free

Every citation on these pages goes to the Pravno-informacioni sistem Republike Srbije, and Serbian law says exactly what that is. The Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata establishes the system in article 28 as a collection of data in electronic form containing the electronic form of the Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of the regulations in force, case law and a link to EU legal acts, published on the internet pages of the public enterprise. Article 26 settles what is authoritative and what is not: the basic and special editions of the Gazette are issued in printed form and in electronic form in PDF and HTML, and it is the printed form and the electronic form in PDF that are the official editions. HTML is produced and is not named among them. Article 29 then describes what the system gives away free to every internet user, and the first item on the list is 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts of regulations - alongside the original gazettes in PDF carrying the base texts and the gazettes carrying their amendments; for everything else the enterprise charges a price the Government approves. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text: a third phrase for the same status. So the consolidated text this corpus quotes is free, current, produced by the state's own publisher, and not the official edition of anything.

What applies to you

Nothing changes for a citizen of Austria

We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedУредба о критеријумима за одређивање категорија странаца и категоријама странаца којима се привремени боравак у Републици Србији може одобрити независно од основа за одобрење привременог боравка · Члан 2
«Привремени боравак, независно од основа за одобрење привременог боравка прописаних одредбама Закона о странцима, а у складу са овом уредбом, може се одобрити следећим категоријама странаца: 1) странцима који су у Републици Србији основали привредно друштво чија је иновациона делатност препозната (потврђена) од стране регистрованог научно технолошког парка, чији је један од оснивача Република Србија, аутономна покрајина, град Београд или јединица локалне самоуправе (тзв. „startup”); 2) странцима који врше улагање у већ регистровано привредно друштво у Републици Србији, односно у делатност тог друштва улагањем у основна материјална и нематеријална средства (тзв. „инвеститор”); 3) странцима који поседују решење о професионалном признавању високошколске исправе издато од стране надлежног органа Републике Србије (тзв. „таленат”); 4) странцима који имају српско порекло. Српским пореклом подносиоца захтева, у смислу ове уредбе, сматра се крвно или адоптивно сродство са претком у правој линији који је држављанин Републике Србије или држављанин држава претходница Републике Србије, односно држава чији је Република Србија правни следбеник, односно који се изјашњава или се изјашњавао као Србин.»

Our translation - not official

Temporary residence, independently of the grounds for approving temporary residence prescribed by the provisions of the Law on Foreigners, and in accordance with this regulation, may be approved to the following categories of foreigner: 1) foreigners who have founded in the Republic of Serbia a company whose innovative activity is recognised (confirmed) by a registered science and technology park one of whose founders is the Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province, the City of Belgrade or a unit of local self-government (a so-called "startup"); 2) foreigners who invest in an already registered company in the Republic of Serbia, that is, in the activity of that company, by investing in fixed tangible and intangible assets (a so-called "investor"); 3) foreigners holding a decision on the professional recognition of a higher-education document issued by a competent authority of the Republic of Serbia (a so-called "talent"); 4) foreigners who are of Serbian origin. Serbian origin of an applicant, within the meaning of this regulation, means a blood or adoptive relationship with an ancestor in the direct line who is a national of the Republic of Serbia or a national of a predecessor state of the Republic of Serbia, that is, of a state whose legal successor the Republic of Serbia is, or who declares or has declared himself a Serb.

Read it at the source
About this source

The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedУредба о критеријумима за одређивање категорија странаца и категоријама странаца којима се привремени боравак у Републици Србији може одобрити независно од основа за одобрење привременог боравка · Члан 3 став 1 тач. 4) и 5)
«домаћа јавна исправа или страна јавна исправа која у складу са законом има доказну снагу домаће јавне исправе, којом се може утврдити српско порекло подносиоца захтева (члан 2\. став 1. тачка 4) ове уредбе); 5) крштеница Српске православне цркве коју је издала епархија или парохија цркве из које се може утврдити српско порекло подносиоца захтева, односно његовог претка (члан 2\. став 1\. тачка 4) ове уредбе).»

Our translation - not official

a domestic public document or a foreign public document which under the law has the evidential force of a domestic public document, from which the Serbian origin of the applicant can be established (article 2(1), point 4), of this regulation); 5) a baptismal certificate of the Serbian Orthodox Church issued by an eparchy or a parish of the church, from which the Serbian origin of the applicant, or of his ancestor, can be established (article 2(1), point 4), of this regulation).

Read it at the source
About this source

The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedЗакон о странцима · Члан 68
«Независно од члана 67. овог закона стално настањење ће се одобрити и странцу који испуњава услове из члана 70. овог закона и то: 1) малолетнику, ако је један од родитеља држављанин Републике Србије или странац коме је одобрено стално настањење; 2) који је пореклом из Републике Србије; 3) који је српског порекла; 4) другом странцу, ако то представља интерес Републике Србије.»

Our translation - not official

Independently of article 67 of this Act, permanent settlement shall also be approved to a foreigner who meets the conditions of article 70 of this Act, namely: 1) to a minor, if one of the parents is a national of the Republic of Serbia or a foreigner who has been granted permanent settlement; 2) who originates from the Republic of Serbia; 3) who is of Serbian origin; 4) to another foreigner, if that represents an interest of the Republic of Serbia.

Read it at the source
About this source

The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedЗакон о држављанству Републике Србије · Члан 23
«Припадник српског народа који нема пребивалиште на територији Републике Србије има право да буде примљен у држављанство Републике Србије без отпуста из страног држављанства, ако је навршио 18 година живота и није му одузета пословна способност и ако поднесе писмену изјаву да Републику Србију сматра својом државом. Под условима из става 1\. овог члана, у држављанство Републике Србије може бити примљено и лице рођено у другој републици раније СФРЈ које је имало држављанство те републике или је држављанин друге државе настале на територији раније СФРЈ, које као избегло, прогнано или расељено лице борави на територији Републике Србије или је избегло у иностранство. Под условима из става 1\. овог члана у држављанство Републике Србије може бити примљен припадник другог народа или етничке заједнице са територије Републике Србије.»

Our translation - not official

A member of the Serbian people who has no domicile on the territory of the Republic of Serbia has the right to be admitted to citizenship of the Republic of Serbia without release from a foreign citizenship, if he has reached 18 years of age and his legal capacity has not been withdrawn and if he submits a written declaration that he regards the Republic of Serbia as his state. Under the conditions of paragraph 1 of this article, a person born in another republic of the former SFRY who held the citizenship of that republic, or who is a national of another state formed on the territory of the former SFRY, and who as a refugee, expelled or displaced person is staying on the territory of the Republic of Serbia or has fled abroad, may also be admitted to citizenship of the Republic of Serbia. Under the conditions of paragraph 1 of this article, a member of another people or ethnic community from the territory of the Republic of Serbia may be admitted to citizenship of the Republic of Serbia.

Read it at the source
About this source

The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedЗакон о држављанству Републике Србије · Члан 18
«Исељеник и његов потомак могу бити примљени у држављанство Републике Србије ако су навршили 18 година живота и није им одузета пословна способност и ако поднесу писмену изјаву да Републику Србију сматрају својом државом. Брачни друг лица из става 1\. овог члана које је стекло држављанство Републике Србије може бити примљен у држављанство Републике Србије ако поднесе писмену изјаву да Републику Србију сматра својом државом. Под исељеником, у смислу става 1\. овог члана, сматра се лице које се иселило из Републике Србије са намером да стално живи у иностранству.»

Our translation - not official

An emigrant and his descendant may be admitted to citizenship of the Republic of Serbia if they have reached 18 years of age and their legal capacity has not been withdrawn and if they submit a written declaration that they regard the Republic of Serbia as their state. The spouse of a person under paragraph 1 of this article who has acquired citizenship of the Republic of Serbia may be admitted to citizenship of the Republic of Serbia if he submits a written declaration that he regards the Republic of Serbia as his state. An emigrant, within the meaning of paragraph 1 of this article, means a person who emigrated from the Republic of Serbia with the intention of living permanently abroad.

Read it at the source
About this source

The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Practical notes

The regulation and the Citizenship Act use two different tests that are easy to conflate. The regulation's test is documentary - a direct-line ancestor who was a national of Serbia or a predecessor state, or who declared himself a Serb. Article 23's test is membership of the Serbian people, and the Act sets out no document for it in the provision itself.

Article 23(2) and (3) widen the same route to a person born in another republic of the former SFRY who is in Serbia as a refugee or displaced person or who fled abroad, and to a member of another people or ethnic community from the territory of Serbia.

This record rests on the Uredba o kriterijumima za određivanje kategorija stranaca, the Zakon o strancima and the Zakon o državljanstvu Republike Srbije. We did not read the Pravilnik o odobravanju stalnog nastanjenja (Sl. glasnik RS 118/2023), which sets the closer conditions for article 68.

Sources3 · all accessed 2026-10-11
  • consolidates
    Уредба о критеријумима за одређивање категорија странаца … („Службени гласник РС”, бр. 13/2020, 69/2022)

    Правно-информациони систем Републике Србије (ЈП „Службени гласник”)

    About this source

    The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Закон о странцима, редакцијски пречишћен текст („Службени гласник РС”, бр. 24/2018, 31/2019, 62/2023)

    Правно-информациони систем Републике Србије (ЈП „Службени гласник”)

    About this source

    The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    Закон о држављанству Републике Србије, редакцијски пречишћен текст („Службени гласник РС”, бр. 135/2004, 90/2007, 24/2018)

    Правно-информациони систем Републике Србије (ЈП „Службени гласник”)

    About this source

    The legal information system of the Republic of Serbia, established by article 28 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata and run by the state publishing enterprise JP Službeni glasnik, which also prints the gazette itself. It carries the electronic Official Gazette, the archive of gazettes, the register and texts of regulations in force, case law, and a link to EU legal acts. Article 29 makes three things free to every internet user: the consolidated texts of regulations, the original gazettes in PDF in which the base texts were published, and the gazettes in which their amendments were published; everything else is charged for at a price the enterprise sets with the Government's consent. Addresses follow ELI: https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/{body}/{type}/{year}/{issue}/{item} where {body} is skupstina, vlada or ministarstva, {type} is zakon, uredba, odluka or pravilnik, {issue} is the gazette number and {item} is the instrument's position among that body's instruments of that type in that issue - not its page and not its article. An amending act's own ELI resolves to the consolidated text of the act it amended. The end of every consolidated text carries a register block - Основ доношења прописа, Акт којима је пропис основ доношења, Повезани пропис - listing every subordinate instrument by gazette number and page, which is the cheapest index to Serbian secondary legislation we have found.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: **Its consolidated texts are not official and the governing Act says so.** Article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona i drugih propisa i akata provides that the printed gazette and the electronic gazette in PDF are the official editions; the HTML edition is produced but is not named among them. Article 29 describes what the system offers free as 'незванично пречишћени текстови прописа' - unofficially consolidated texts. The pages themselves are headed 'Редакцијски пречишћен текст', an editorially consolidated text, which is a third form of words for the same thing. Cite it for what the law now says and say what it is; for the text as enacted, go to the gazette PDF the page links. **Its consolidations carry no sweep date.** The masthead lists every gazette number incorporated and nothing else, so there is a last amendment incorporated but no statement of a date up to which the text was checked. Do not record a consolidation cut-off from it. **It is unreliable to render and fails silently in two distinguishable ways.** A 73-character reply beginning 'Ne postoji akt sa URI-jem' is the publisher saying the address does not exist. A reply of roughly 1,225, 6,691 or 8,000 characters that begins with the Glasnik contact line or with the gazette navigation is the PIS home page served because the single-page application did not render the document - a failure of our extraction, never an absence of the instrument. Where /reg returns one of those, dropping /reg often renders the same instrument: the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana at .../zakon/2001/24/1/reg returned the home page on four attempts and .../zakon/2001/24/1 returned 266,652 characters of it. The dated form .../reg/YYYY-MM-DD renders a different and shorter version of the same instrument, so quotations must not be mixed between the two addresses. **Its texts mix scripts.** The statutes are published in Cyrillic, but article 40 of the Zakon o porezu na dohodak građana carries Latin e, o and a glyphs inside Cyrillic words, and article 26 of the Zakon o objavljivanju zakona prints 'РDF' with a Cyrillic Р while article 29 prints 'PDF' with a Latin one. Both are the publisher's own encoding and quotations must reproduce them. **It interleaves furniture with the statute**: 'Мишљења, модели и литература' and 'Судска пракса' are inserted after article headings, so a quotation taken across an article boundary will contain words the legislator never wrote. **Its English service cannot be cited.** propisi.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs advertises 'More than 200 basic and refined texts of regulations of the Republic of Serbia translated into English' under ISSN 1452-6662, but it is a subscription product and a single-page application: both / and /index returned the same 1,499-character shell, so no English text of any Serbian instrument was readable here.

    We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source