Serbian passport

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The Serbian passport (Serbian: пасош/pasoš) is issued to Serbian citizens at any age, and it is the primary document of international travel issued by the Republic of Serbia.

The passport is issued by the Ministry of Interior or, if the citizen resides abroad, at the embassy. Besides serving as proof of citizenship, they facilitate the process of securing assistance from Serbian consular officials abroad, if needed. Citizens can not have multiple passports at the same time.

Citizens of Montenegro still use the same travel document, as both Serbia and Montenegro were part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and state union of Serbia and Montenegro until 2006.

[edit] Appearance

[edit] Design

Passport

Current passports are issued in order with the “Law on Travel Documents of Yugoslav Nationals” which came into force on 26 July 1996, although the country came into existence in 1992. They are navy blue in color and have two inscriptions in golden letters - Савезна Република Југославија (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) at the top and the word passport written in three languages: Serbian (Cyrillic script), English and French at the bottom divided by the coat of arms.

Even though Federal Republic of Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, passports with the new name have not been issued, probably due to expected breakup of the state union, which in fact occurred in 2006. Due to the fact, Serbian citizens face delays and additional checks at the border crossings of countries where they are not among frequent travelers, and consequently local authorities are not aware of those issues, usually due to three country codes which may be in usage for passport holders - YU, CS and RS (See also: Serbian country codes). Passport code, YU, usually does not match the code used for issuing tickets and visas. Further more troubles can be caused in countries that do not require visas for holders of Serbian passport. Usually the immigration officers are supplied with the list of countries and the name on the list (usually Serbia and Montenegro) might be inconsistent with the name of the country on the passport (FR Yugoslavia).

[edit] Identity information page

The Serbian passport includes the following data:

Country code ('YU' for Yugoslavia)
Nationality (Jugoslovensko (Yugoslav) )
Type ('P' for passport)
Passport serial number
Name of bearer
Place of birth
Date of birth (DD.MM.YYYY.)
National identity number (JMBG)
Place of residence (street address)
Date of issue (DD.MM.YYYY.)
Date of expiry (DD.MM.YYYY.)
Issuing office
Signature and photo of bearer

[edit] Languages

The data page is printed in Serbian (Cyrillic script), English and French. Information page on consular assistance, on the back cover, is printed in Serbian only.

[edit] Visa pages

Passport contains 32 pages, out of which 29 are suitable for visas and border stamps. They are predominantly light and dark brown, and are perforated with the passport's serial number on the side.

[edit] Types

Passports that can be issued are:

Ordinary passport is issued to all citizens.

Valid for 10 years, or for 5 years if issued to a person under 18 years of age or to males under 27 years of age if they did not complete their army conscription service^†.
Processing time is up to 15 days, but if not applied for during or just before major holiday season, processing times are significantly shorter. Fee is RSD 870.00.

Ordinary passport on business is in fact an ordinary passport with processing time of 1-2 days.

Applicants in urgent need of passport for business travel can provide the Ministry of Interior with a letter from their company, explaining the reasons for the urgency - the passport will usually be issued the following day, without an additional fee.

Collective passport is issued to groups travelling together.

Valid for a single trip abroad.
Though it is not primary means of international travel for organized groups, it is oftenly used to facilitate the issuance of visas, or to decrease administrative costs if a lot of group members do not have their individual passports. Main users of these passports are high schools and tourist agencies.
Collective passport can be used for travel only to specific, usually nearby, countries. Some countries that do not accept collective passport as valid travel ID, do issue collective visas, but still stamp individual passports.
All members of the group must cross the border at the same time and be part of the same organized trip.

Diplomatic passport is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to diplomats, high-ranking officials, members of the parliament and persons travelling on official state business, and in some cases to immediate family members of the above.

Validity is determined by the nature of the position held - diplomats and officials will usually receive the passport covering their mandate in office.
Diplomatic passport holders require an exit visa in order to leave Serbia with their travel documents.

Official passport is identical in all aspects to the diplomatic passport, but lacks the privileges of diplomatic immunity. It is issued to mid and low-ranking officials, as well as to non-diplomatic staff at the embassies and consulates.

In case of a loss of passport abroad, emergency travel document is issued by the embassy. A seaman's book is also considered a travel document if supplied with a valid visa.

^† Although the law states that the Serbian army can object to the regular validity of the passport for those who have not completed their conscription service, this privilege has been used in a manner that all males aged over 16 and under 27 had to provide the issuing authority with an army-designated approval of validity period. It has been, by rule, considerably shorter than 5 years, usually only 2 years. Cases of clear abuse of the privilege have been recorded, such as issuing the passport with virtually unusable validity period of 40 days. This process usually took two weeks, and was subject to heavy corruption and bribery. Army approval has been abolished in 2002 by the Federal Interior minister Zoran Živković, and since then the army can only object by filing a specific request to the Ministry of Interior, without the knowledge of whether the person did or will apply for passport.

[edit] Documents required

The following documents are required in order to obtain a Serbian passport^[1] :

Request (Form P-11)
Old passport (if applicable, regardless of expiry date)
National ID card (adults only)
Birth certificate or Certificate of citizenship, and Residence certificate (minors only)
Certificate of citizenship (not older than 6 months)
Two photographs (3.5 x 4.5 cm, light background)
Proof of administrative taxes paid

[edit] Future

New passports are planned to replace the current outdated ones, which are not even machine-readable, in 2007 after the adoption of the new Law on Travel Documents. They will share the standardised layout and burgundy-red design with EU countries and are planned to be biometric passports. Introduction of new passports is one of the main requests by EU to waive visas for Serbian citizens.

First step towards the issuing of new passports is the introduction of new ID cards in January 2007.^[2]

[edit] Visa free travel

[edit] Regular Passports

Serbian passport holders can travel without a visa to following countries († indicates countries that have an agreement with Serbia on visa free travel; rest of the countries generally do not require visas or have adopted a unilateral waiver):

[edit] Africa

Countries	allowed stay
Botswana† ^[3]^[4]	90 days
Côte d'Ivoire ^[5]	90 days
Djibouti ^[6]	10 days (upon entry)
Egypt† ^[3]	no restriction (issued upon entry)
Kenya ^[7]	no restriction (issued upon entry)
Niger† ^[3]	90 days
São Tomé and Príncipe ^[8]	no restriction (issued upon entry)
Seychelles† ^[3]	90 days
Tanzania ^[9]	90 days (issued upon entry)
Tunisia† ^[3]	90 days
Zambia† ^[3]	90 days

[edit] Asia

Countries	allowed stay
Azerbaijan ^[3]	7 days
Jordan ^[6]	14 days (issued upon entry)
Republic of Korea ^[10]	30 days
Lebanon ^[11]	90 days (issued upon entry)
Maldives ^[3]	no restricion (return ticket required)
Oman/ Qatar ^[12]	3 weeks (issued upon entry, valid for both countries)
Singapore ^[13]	return ticket required
Sri Lanka ^[3]^[14]	30 days
Timor-Leste ^[6]	30 days (upon entry)
Turkey† ^[3]	30 days (issued upon entry)

[edit] Europe

Countries	allowed stay
Andorra ^[3]	no restriction
Belarus† ^[3]^[15]	30 days
Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[3]	30 days*
Croatia ^[3]^[16]	90 days
Republic of Macedonia† ^[3]^[17]	60 days
Montenegro	no restricion*
_{* Serbian citizens can use their national ID card to travel to these countries, instead of passport.}

[edit] Latin America

Countries	allowed stay
Argentina† ^[3]^[18]	90 days
Chile† ^[3]	90 days
Costa Rica ^[19]	90 days
Cuba ^[3]	90 days
Haiti ^[20]	90 days
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ^[21]	no restricion
Peru ^[22]	90 days
Trinidad and Tobago ^[23]^[6]	exempted for 30 days

[edit] Oceania

Countries	allowed stay
Fiji ^[24]	4 months
Niue ^[25]	30 days
Palau ^[26]	return ticket required
Samoa ^[27]	30 days
Solomon Islands ^[28]	no restriction
Tonga ^[29]	30 days

[edit] Visa free travel "on business"

Visa free travel is also possible to the following countries, provided that Serbian Ministry of Interior indicate in the passport that holder is travelling to the specific country "on business" - such note is granted without many formalities, usually a simple, informal invitation letter from foreign company or a public institution would suffice: This visa type is generally used by students as well due to the easy and cheap procedure.

[edit] Asia

Countries	allowed stay
Armenia ^[3]^[30]	90 days
Azerbaijan ^[3]^[30]	90 days
China ^[3]	90 days
DPR Korea ^[3]	90 days
Kyrgyzstan ^[3]^[30]	90 days
Mongolia ^[3]	90 days

[edit] Europe

Countries	allowed stay
Russia ^[3]^[30]	90 days
Ukraine ^[3]^[30]	90 days

[edit] Other visa free arrangements

Countries	note
European Union	member states, as well as other European countries, allow visa-free airside transit (type A visa), but do not allow visit in transit (type B visa) without appropriate travel document.
Hungary/ Poland ^[3]^[31]^[32]	provide 5-day visa-free transit, if the passport holder is in a possesion of either a valid visitor visa or residence permit of any EU-25 country, or any other country that is fully implementing the Schengen Agreement (presently, Norway and Iceland); or a residence permit issued by Switzerland or Liechtenstein.
Slovenia ^[33]	90-day visa-free stay for Schengen state, United Kingdom or Ireland residence permit holders (valid for more than 3 months from the date of entry); 15-day visa-free stay for the category above (if the permit is valid for more than 15 days, but less than 3 months), or for C, D and C/D visa holders issued by the same countries (valid for more than 15 days); Visa-free transit, provided that the documents above are valid for more than 5 days. However, visa-free transit is allowed in the direction of Serbia (entering from Italy or Austria, exiting to Croatia or Hungary) even if the remaining validity of the documents above is less than 5 days, or if they have just expired (e.g. single entry Schengen visa becomes expired the moment a person leaves Schengen territory).
United Kingdom^[34]	provides visa-free visit in transit (type B visa) if a person holds either Australian, Canadian, New Zealand or United States visa, and is in transit to or from these countries.

[edit] Diplomatic and official passports

Countries	allowed stay
Armenia ^[3]	90 days
Azerbaijan ^[3]	90 days
China ^[3]	90 days
Croatia ^[3]	30 days
Czech Republic ^[3]	90 days (diplomatic only)
Ecuador ^[3]	90 days
Georgia ^[3]	90 days
Guinea ^[3]	90 days
Greece ^[3]	no restricion
Hungary ^[3]	90 days
Indonesia ^[6]
Italy ^[3]	90 days
Mexico ^[6]
DPR Korea ^[3]	90 days
Kyrgyzstan ^[3]	90 days
Mongolia ^[3]	90 days
Pakistan ^[3]	30 days
Peru ^[3]
Russia ^[3]	90 days
Slovakia ^[3]
Slovenia ^[3]
Spain ^[6]	(diplomatic only)
Turkey ^[3]
Ukraine ^[3]	90 days
Vietnam ^[6]