On 28 July 2022, the Parliament of Montenegro enacted the Law on Amendments to the Foreigners Law (the “Law“). The purpose of enactment of the Law is to enable digital nomads to regulate their residential status in Montenegro. The Law will enter into force on 11 August 2022.

The effect of the Law

The Law was formed with the aim of defining the term “digital nomad“, as well as due to necessity of providing the conditions for regulation of the digital nomads’ stay in Montenegro.

As defined by the Law, the digital nomad is any foreigner who is employed or performs work electronically for:

• the foreign company, or
• its own company that is not registered in Montenegro.

Up until now, Visa D was known as a long stay visa which can be issued to a foreigner who intends to stay in Montenegro for more than 90 days, for the purpose of performing business activities (work in a foreign diplomatic or consular mission and representative office of international organizations, accredited in Montenegro), but not more than 180 days over the total period of one year, counting from the first entrance into Montenegro.

However, the Law extends the aspect of personal application of the aforementioned Visa D provision, in a manner that such visa can be also issued to foreigners – digital nomads. However, in case that digital nomad decides to form its own company in Montenegro or to register itself as the entrepreneur in Montenegro, the status of the digital nomad, alongside the benefits arisen out of it, will be lost.

Apart from this, in order to additionally strengthen the position of digital nomads in Montenegro, the Law envisages that the temporary residence permit can be issued to digital nomad, who is, inter alia, obliged to provide the competent authority with the evidence on the employment relation with foreign company, proving the fulfilment of required conditions. Such residence permit can be issued for the period of up to 2 (two) years, with possibility for one “up to 2-year” extension. Furthermore, the new temporary residence permit can be issued after 6 (six) months, counting as of the expiration of temporary residence of digital nomad.

Conclusion

The enactment of the Law is the result of the fact that, back in December 2021, the Government of Montenegro enacted the Program for Attracting Digital Nomads until 2025 (the “Program”), with a goal to increase the number of digital nomads staying in Montenegro, but also to make Montenegro recognizable as an attractive tourist destination for their stay.

In that line, the enactment of the Law represents significant step forward to achieving the goals set out in the Program, and it is expected that, together with the amendments of the Personal Income Tax Law applicable as of January 2022, the Law will represent the adequate legislative background for all interested digital nomads to discover Montenegro as the suitable country to stay and conduct their regular business activities.

The information contained in this document is given for general purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal advice on any particular matter.