Intra corporate transfer in Serbia: moving a foreign worker from the parent company
Movement within a company is a separate ground under the Serbian Law on Employment of Foreigners, tied to a transfer act and the worker's return abroad.
Movement within a company is a separate ground for employment under the Serbian Law on Employment of Foreigners, Official Gazette RS 128/2014 through 62/2023. It is used where a foreign employer transfers its own employee into a related company in Serbia. The permit runs until the transferred person returns to the foreign employer, unless the transfer act says otherwise.
When this ground applies, and when it does not
The ground exists because a transferred worker does not enter the Serbian labour market in the ordinary way. He stays employed by the foreign employer and comes to Serbia to work in a related company under a transfer act. That separates him from ordinary employment, where a Serbian legal entity signs the employment contract and files for a single permit in its own name.
One question settles the difference: who pays the salary, and with whom the employment relationship remains. If that is the foreign employer, and the move is inside the same group of companies, the file runs on the movement within a company ground. If the Serbian company hires the worker directly, the ground does not hold and the case goes to an ordinary single permit, including the change of ground rules set out in our guide to changing employer on a Serbian single permit.
A third case is regularly confused with a transfer: a worker posted under a business and technical cooperation contract. There the worker comes to perform work for a client in Serbia rather than to work in a related company. The Rulebook on Work Permits ties the duration for posted persons to that contract and obliges the foreign employer to take the worker back once the work is done. That regime is covered in our note on inbound secondment to Serbia.
Annexes, duration and the labour market test
The Rulebook on Work Permits, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia 6/2024, sets out the contents of the file in Articles 6 to 11. The application carries the employer's registration certificate, the transfer act, and evidence of employment with the foreign employer. The transfer act is the document that carries the whole case: it shows who is transferring whom, into which position, for what period and on what terms.
Duration is not chosen freely. The permit runs until the transferred person returns to the foreign employer, unless the transfer act provides otherwise. A transfer act with no return date, or an open ended one, creates a problem at the decision stage rather than at renewal. The Rulebook has applied since 1 February 2024, the same day the single permit took effect, so forms and instructions from the previous regime are of no use.
Where a labour market test is required, the National Employment Service submits its report on the vacancy within four days, under Article 16a of the Law on Employment of Foreigners. Those four days are the reporting deadline for the service, not the total length of the test, which starts when the vacancy is notified. The cost side of both routes is broken down in our note on the cost of hiring a foreign worker in Serbia.
| Ground | Who employs the worker | Permit duration |
|---|---|---|
| Movement within a company | foreign employer, transfer into a related company | until return to the foreign employer, unless the transfer act says otherwise |
| Posted persons | foreign employer, under a business and technical cooperation contract | tied to that contract, with an obligation to take the worker back |
| Ordinary employment | Serbian company, employment contract | under the single permit, with a labour market test |
What sends a file back
The first problem is proving the companies are related. Employers file an extract for the Serbian company and assume the link to the parent is shown. It is not. The annexes must make the ownership or organisational link visible, and the name of the foreign employer in the transfer act must match the registration certificate letter for letter, legal form included.
The second is a transfer act written as an internal reassignment memo. Such a document usually has no period, no position in Serbia and no return clause, so the office cannot fix the duration of the permit. Write the transfer act with those three elements in the text, in the parent company's language, and file it with a certified court translator's translation.
The third is choosing the wrong ground at the start. If the Serbian company wants the worker to stay longer than the transfer covers and to move onto its own payroll, that is not a renewal on this ground but a new procedure with its own labour market test. Employers who miss that line plan around a renewal that does not exist.
A transfer inside the group is the fastest ground when the parent and the Serbian company are genuinely related and the transfer act states the period plainly. When they are not, the same worker goes through the ordinary procedure with a labour market test and a different calendar. How Werklist runs these files for groups with production in Serbia is set out on the page for employers.
Keep reading
All posts →What a UK sponsor licence costs an employer in 2026
The Home Office charges £1,682 for a medium or large Worker sponsor licence, £525 per Certificate of Sponsorship and £1,320 a year in skills charge.
UK skilled worker salary thresholds and going rates 2026
The Home Office sets an hourly floor of GBP 17.13 under Table 1 of Appendix Skilled Occupations and GBP 12.82 under Table 2, each alongside the going rate.