Russian citizens may stay in Serbia without a visa for up to 30 days per entry. If you plan to stay longer, you can either keep living under the visa-free regime by making visa runs, or apply for temporary residence — for which you will need a suitable ground.
Below is who each option suits. Each ground is covered in detail in its own guide.
Visa run
This is what people call leaving the country and entering again, after which a new visa-free period begins for a foreign national. Russian citizens may stay in Serbia without a visa for 30 days. A visa run is a legal way to be in the country without a residence permit, but it gives you no resident status and does not replace temporary residence.
How to live in Serbia on visa runs
Employment contract
You can obtain a residence permit through work if a Serbian company hires you officially. This is done through a single permit: it gives you the right to live in the country and to work for a Serbian employer at the same time.
How to get a Serbian residence permit through work
Studying in Serbia
Enrolling in a Serbian school or university makes you eligible for a residence permit. Study also covers student exchanges, academic research and learning Serbian, if the language course leads on to further study.
Family reunification
If your spouse, partner or close relative already lives in Serbia lawfully, you can obtain a residence permit through that person. This applies to the families of Serbian citizens as well as to foreigners with temporary or permanent residence. A registered marriage is not required: an unregistered partnership counts too, provided you can prove it.
How to get a Serbian residence permit through family and partners
The Talent scheme
It allows people holding a degree in any field of higher education, earned outside Serbia, to obtain a residence permit.
Serbian descent
This ground suits anyone who can prove Serbian roots. Birth, marriage and death certificates, military records and Serbian church registers all qualify. The key is to prove your family link to the ancestor through an unbroken chain of documents.
Volunteering
Volunteers can obtain a Serbian residence permit too. You will need to find an organisation that will take you on officially as a volunteer. The work is unpaid, and the residence permit itself does not take the place of a work permit.