Residence Permit Montenegro: The Definitive Guide [2021]

Residence Permit Montenegro: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction

Are you looking for a country within Europe with astonishing landscape, friendly people, and a great natural and business climate where you can base yourself to live either temporary or permanently, acquiring a residence permit in Montenegro might be a great idea!

Before we dive into details on how the process works, what document requirements there are, and how the costs and timelines are structured, let us first talk a little bit about Montenegro in general. Montenegro is a small country with just 620,000 inhabitants, located in South-East Europe across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, and bordering Croatia, Serbia Bosnia, Albania, and Kosovo.

Montenegro’s favorable location has many advantages such as the proximity to many European destinations (by airplane):

Vienna 1h 30min
Rome 1 hour
Berlin 2 hours
Belgrade 30 min
Istanbul 1h 45 min
Luxembourg 2 hours

Montenegro has sea access, but is NOT AN ISLAND which sets it somewhat apart from competing low-tax destinations such as Malta or Cyprus. After all, it is just about 10 hours driving away from Venice, and 13 hours from Munich.

How big of an advantage this is, could be seen just recently when countries started to shut down their borders in reaction to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Island Nations had the strictest and most prolongued travel restrictions in place out of fear that the virus would spread uncontrollably. Now imagine how it would feel to be locked up on a small island without the opportunity to come or leave.

Montenegro is also incredibly SAFE, meaning that you can stroll around day and night without having to fear major acts of violence or petty crime. Compare this to many Central and Latin American countries where safety risk is a major issue. Even many cities and towns in Western Europe and North America have to fight with serious safety concerns that makes daily living and raising children harder than ever.

Chapter 2: Residency Options in Montenegro

As you could read above in the short introduction, Montenegro has a lot going for it. I did not even touch the topic of taxation which deserves a post of its own. Let us now talk about the main ways in which YOU can obtain a residence permit in Montenegro.