Serbia's bilateral agreements and the hiring of foreign workers

Serbia has not run foreign hiring through state to state quotas. Its first labour mobility agreement was signed with Uzbekistan in October 2025, and alongside it sits an older network of social security agreements with roughly 30 states, prepared by the Ministry of Labour and applied by the Social Insurance Institute as the liaison body.

The two instrument types solve different problems. A labour mobility agreement governs how people are recruited and prepared. A social security agreement governs where contributions are paid and how service periods are added up.

The labour mobility agreement with Uzbekistan

The agreement was signed by the Minister of Labour, Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski, with the director of Uzbekistan's Migration Agency, during a visit that also produced a series of other documents between the two states. It is the first instrument of its kind Serbia holds, and it sets a framework for recruitment, preparation and worker protection in place of open market brokerage.

The practical effect is already visible on the preparation side. In May 2026 a training centre opened in Uzbekistan offering instruction in eight foreign languages and 12 occupations, so candidates reach Serbia with a language and a trade rather than only a passport. In April 2026 Serbia introduced electronic visas for Uzbek nationals for stays of up to 30 days, shortening the entry leg.

None of this changes the procedure for the employer. The single permit is still applied for through the Unified Portal for Foreigners, the decision deadline is still 15 days from receipt of a complete application, and the fees are still 430 dinars to file and 22,770 dinars on approval. The agreement changes the quality and predictability of the inbound flow, not the administrative path, which is set out in the Serbian D visa procedure.

Social security agreements and what follows from them

The social security network is older and wider. It covers European Union states including Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Switzerland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Russia, Canada and Australia. The Ministry of Labour prepares and concludes them, the Social Insurance Institute acts as liaison body, and the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund handles payments.

The last row is the one most often missed. Serbia has no social security agreement with Nepal, India, Bangladesh or the Philippines, so for workers from those countries contributions are paid in Serbia under the general regime, with no posting exemption and no transfer of service. The rates and registration deadlines are set out in social insurance registration in Serbia.

What this means for corridor planning

First, an agreement does not replace a permit. The procedure under the Law on Employment of Foreigners is identical whatever the country of origin, including the labour market test and the National Employment Service report within four days under Article 16a.

Second, an agreement changes risk. Recruiting through a partner state's own agency reduces exposure to fees charged to workers and to forged documents, the two reasons files most often collapse late.

That protection does not cover the domestic end of the chain. An intermediary in Serbia must hold a licence from the Ministry of Labour and appear in the public register, whatever country it recruits from. An agreement with the country of origin neither replaces that licence nor relieves the employer of checking it. The same applies to the principle that a worker pays no recruitment fee: it sits in mobility agreements, but it is enforced through the contract with the intermediary and through payment records rather than through a declaration.

Third, the direction can reverse. Serbian nationals going to work in Germany still use the special German regime for the Western Balkans, so the same class of instrument works both ways. The budget consequences of either direction are set out in the cost of hiring a foreign worker in Serbia.

The network is therefore young on the employment side and mature on the insurance side. An employer planning a corridor should ask two questions before signing anything: is there a labour mobility agreement with that country, and is there a social security agreement. For a specific country of origin, our employer desk checks the status of both instruments.