Fixed term contracts with foreign workers in Serbia: the 24 month limit and permit validity
Article 37 of the Serbian Labour Law caps fixed term work at 24 months, and the exception for foreigners follows a permit issued for up to three years.
Article 37 of the Serbian Labour Law caps a fixed term employment relationship at 24 months, subject to the exceptions listed in the same article. For a foreign worker the exception follows the work permit, meaning the single permit, which under the Law on Employment of Foreigners is issued as a rule for up to three years.
A contract with a foreign worker can therefore run beyond 24 months, but only while the permit runs and only if the contract was concluded for that period. The exception does not create an open term, it ties the term to another document.
How the two limits relate
The basic rule in Article 37 of the Labour Law is 24 months of fixed term employment, whether continuous or broken. The article then lists the cases in which that limit does not apply, one of which covers a foreigner holding a work permit issued for a fixed period. In that case the contract is concluded for the period of validity of the permit.
The consequence that gets overlooked sits in the same article. Where a fixed term relationship runs longer than the period the law allows, it is deemed to have been concluded for an indefinite period. For domestic workers that is a familiar sanction. For foreign workers it appears when the contract keeps running after the permit has expired and no renewal decision exists.
Contract dates therefore have to follow the dates in the decision. A contract concluded for 36 months against a permit issued for 24 leaves twelve months with no legal basis for work. A contract shorter than the permit is not a problem in itself, but it needs an annex or a new contract before work continues.
The amendments published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia number 62/2023 introduced expiry of the single permit as a distinct ground for termination of employment. Before that amendment employers reached the same outcome through the general provisions, with disputes that ran for months.
The dates the employer keeps in the calendar
A renewal application for the single permit can be filed at the earliest three months before expiry, under the guidance published on the Welcome to Serbia portal and the practice of the Ministry of the Interior. That is a ceiling rather than a recommendation: nothing is accepted before it, and the later the filing, the less room there is to complete the file if something is missing.
A workable schedule for a group looks like this. Ninety days before expiry the case is opened and every document older than six months is checked. Sixty days before expiry the application is filed. Thirty days before expiry the status is checked and an annex with the new term is prepared, so it can be signed the day the decision arrives.
| Document | Duration | What happens at expiry |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed term contract, general rule | 24 months at most | beyond the limit it is deemed indefinite |
| Contract with a foreign worker | the validity of the permit | employment ends when the permit expires |
| Single permit | as a rule up to three years | work without a basis, registration is closed |
| Renewal application | at the earliest 3 months before expiry | a new case instead of a renewal |
An indefinite contract with a foreign worker is not prohibited, but it does not extend the stay on its own. The permit keeps its own term, so a contract without an end date only means no new contract is needed after each renewal. Employers running repeat seasons often choose exactly that pairing, an open contract against a permit that is renewed.
What happens when the permit expires
Termination on the ground of single permit expiry takes effect by operation of law, but it is carried out like any other termination: a decision, a final settlement, and deregistration from mandatory social insurance. An employer that simply takes the worker off the site, with no decision and no deregistration, stays on record as the employer of a person with no basis for work. The registration steps are set out in social insurance registration in Serbia.
Where the worker keeps working after expiry, that is work without a basis under the Law on Employment of Foreigners, with the employer liable in misdemeanour proceedings. The fines and fees attached to the route are set out in the cost of hiring a foreign worker in Serbia.
There is also a path that does not end in termination. A worker holding a valid permit can move to another employer in a procedure that takes 10 days, and after a job ends has 30 days to sign a new contract. Those rules are covered in changing employer on a single permit.
The arithmetic is simpler than it looks. The contract term follows the permit term, renewal is filed inside the three month window before expiry, and expiry ends the employment whatever the contract says. Employers running larger groups with the Werklist employer team keep that calendar per worker, because decisions within one group rarely expire on the same day.
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