Hiring Serbian nationals in Slovenia under the bilateral labour agreement
The Employment Service of Slovenia issues a three year work permit and decides within 15 days, while Serbia's NSZ selects and refers the candidates.
The agreement between Slovenia and Serbia on the employment of Serbian nationals was ratified by the BRSZD act, published in the International Treaties series of the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia on 14 June 2019 (Official Gazette 38/19), and has applied since 1 September 2019. Under it the Employment Service of Slovenia (ZRSZ) issues a work permit valid for three years, while Serbia's National Employment Service (NSZ) selects and refers the candidates. The employment contract must run for at least one year.
How the candidate is selected
The procedure starts with the vacancy, not with the candidate. The employer notifies the post to the ZRSZ on form PDM-KTD, and the service passes the notification to the National Employment Service in Serbia. The NSZ publishes the post, carries out the selection and refers candidates to the employer, which according to the ZRSZ (2026) is expected to take up to 15 days.
That step is the substantive difference between the agreement route and the ordinary single permit route. An employer cannot bring a candidate it found itself past the NSZ and expect the file to run under the agreement. Official referral by the NSZ is part of the procedure, and without it the application does not stand. The route for cases outside the agreement is set out in the single permit employer procedure in Slovenia, and the vacancy notification form in the labour market test on form PDM-KTD.
Forms, deadlines and the duration of the permit
The application is filed with the ZRSZ on form TUJ-SRB-1 together with Annex 2, and a renewal on form TUJ-SRB-2 (ZRSZ, 2026). The service decides no later than 15 days from receipt of a complete application. The work permit is issued for three years and may be renewed for a further three.
| Step | Form | Who does it | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vacancy notification | PDM-KTD | employer, with the ZRSZ | before the application |
| Publication and selection of candidates | NSZ procedure | National Employment Service of Serbia | expected up to 15 days |
| Application for the work permit | TUJ-SRB-1 with Annex 2 | employer | decision within 15 days of a complete file |
| Renewal of the permit | TUJ-SRB-2 | employer | from 60 days before expiry to 15 days after |
A work permit under the agreement is not itself a residence title. The worker still has to obtain the single residence and work permit from the administrative unit, where the permit issued under the agreement is treated as the consent of the Employment Service. That is a second authority and a second deadline, so the filing calendar does not end when the ZRSZ issues its permit. Employers who fix the start date the moment the ZRSZ decision arrives are usually the ones who miss this step.
The renewal window is where this procedure most often fails. The application may be filed at the earliest 60 days before the permit expires and at the latest 15 days after it has expired. On the sixteenth day after expiry the renewal option is gone, and the post returns to the start of the procedure with a fresh vacancy notification and a fresh selection through the NSZ. For a worker who has been on the job in Slovenia for two and a half years, that means an interruption of work and a new entry on a new permit.
What the agreement means for the employer
Three years of validity with a renewal of a further three make this route suitable for permanent posts rather than short peaks. The requirement that the contract run for at least one year rules out fixed term work of a few months. An employer that needs workers for a season has to look elsewhere.
In structure the Serbian agreement is close to the one with Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the selection runs through ARZ-BiH and the forms carry the TUJ-BiH marking. The differences sit in the partner service and the form codes, not in the logic of the procedure. The comparison is set out in hiring Bosnian nationals under the bilateral agreement.
Plan backwards from the two deadlines the employer does not control: the NSZ selection, expected to take up to 15 days, and the ZRSZ decision within 15 days of a complete file. Entry formalities and the worker's travel sit on top of both, so the realistic gap between the hiring decision and the first working day is measured in weeks rather than days.
The agreement is therefore a solid basis for permanent posts and a poor one for peaks. An employer that needs ten workers in Slovenia in six weeks will not get them through this route. An employer building a team for three years, filing the permit application alongside the vacancy notification, ends up with a permit that only comes up for renewal in the third year.
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