It’s easy to move, but not everyone will like life here: a review of emigration to Serbia

Nikola Rakic ​​on Unsplash “My name is Aleksey, I am 29 years old and my wife and son and I decided to move to Serbia two years ago. Why Serbia? And because it seemed that this is a people very close to us in terms of mentality and way of life, the minimum requirements for legalization, it is easy to get a residence permit and even a passport. I have been to Belgrade several times for work, my wife has never been. I have my own small business, an online store selling sneakers of famous brands. When we left Moscow, the online store had to be closed, but I decided to immediately open offline in Serbia, in the city of Novi Sad,” says our reader Aleksey SAM. 1/1

• 

  /94/nw/94nw3j0maww0o44owo8kkg8sc.jpg

• 

  /d0/ch/d0ch33dol48ockk0gokcsso88.jpg

• 

  /8m/0c/8m0csj5cvt0ks8g0g04wowccw.jpg

All We have issued documents for a residence permit through a legal entity

It's not all as simple as it seems. To open a legal entity or individual entrepreneur, you need to register in the registry, the deadline is a week. And the second step is to open a bank account. I had to tinker, I waited more than three weeks (although it is written everywhere that the process takes a maximum of two days). But I waited and successfully opened my store.

I was lucky with the direction of trade

Serbs love sports, sneakers and… show-offs. I ordered exclusive Nike and Reebok models on Amazon and they flew away almost immediately, many customers even pre-ordered and were ready to make an advance payment (I had only a few such orders in our country).

Now I want to open another store in Belgrade, most of the orders and buyers are from the capital. Although courier delivery works well in Serbia, it is more convenient to open your own store. I have adapted well to life here, but my wife is still homesick. For her, Serbia is a big village, she doesn’t like Novi Sad at all. Therefore, I think that in the near future my family and I will move to the capital and try to find comfortable conditions for all of us there. I will talk about the cons below, but for now I wanted to add a few nuances to the design of an LLC or IP. 1/1

• 

  /16/y0/16y0d573i4pww8coo8008k0sk.jpg

• 

  /f3/1y/f31yo26dsco48gc0w0wog0o80.jpg

• 

  /dc/pq/dcpq76ufnz4kk4sw8o0sssg8g.jpg

Now there is a large influx of Russians in Serbia

Most of them work in Russia. Many open a legal entity and work with one customer. Is it dangerous! Such a process is a disguise of an employment relationship, and the local tax office does not like it very much. If you open, then try to run a real business or look for other grounds for obtaining a residence permit. It is better to “visit” than to fall under the close control of local tax authorities. Some of my friends already had problems. 1/1

• 

  /cf/ud/cfudw3x4erk0ogoog0wcwg4gs.jpg

• 

  /8i/06/8i063eor5n8c00gwcww8ccs8c.jpg

• 

  /bl/86/bl86zhzzn5kwokk0kkcgc8ws4.jpg

• 

  /0n/5s/0n5sueatna68wg4cg8w4oco04.jpg

Now about Novi Sad

I love this city. It is more European and calm compared to Belgrade. The main disadvantage for us is pollen and allergens (dust), the son suffers very much, he is allergic. Air pollution in winter is another problem, but it is only really felt in calm weather, that is, not every day. And people who moved here from Chelyabinsk, for example, do not consider this pollution at all. And again about the air: in Serbia there is a big problem with smoking in public places. Well, that is a problem for non-smokers.

In everyday life, the problems are mainly in terms of services (dentistry, car service, laptop repair), but I think that these are the features of Novi Sad, I am sure that there are no problems with this in Belgrade. Another of the minuses is expensive Internet, both home and mobile. We have not encountered serious illnesses here, so I can’t say anything about medicine, we pay about 20 EUR per month for insurance. But you can’t definitely call an ambulance at home, or you need a very good reason, most often they come for some kind of accident or accident. By the way, the local driving style is a separate song, here it is a bit Caucasian, well, or Ottoman-Balkan :)

Most of the drivers here drive without letting go of the phone. They manage to quarrel with an interlocutor, a pedestrian and another driver at the same time.

Despite the beautiful historical center, there are not quite beautiful areas

For example, we rent an apartment in the Liman district, this is a panel area in the best traditions of Soviet ugly architecture. But here is all the necessary infrastructure for living with a family: schools, gardens, parks, a beach. The center is not far away, you can even get there by bike (unlike Belgrade, there are no slides here, and the bike is one of the most convenient modes of transport here). Only the driving style of local drivers overshadows cycling :) The cuisine is simple, in our city 90% of the menu in a cafe with an average price tag consists of meat soup, splash and a couple of salads (Shopska and Serbian). This is not a minus for me, but even a plus. 1/1

• < source srcset="https://fs.tonkosti.ru/sized/f700x700/5e/71/5e71u7f072kos80ccsg08g08c.jpg" media="(min-width: 550px) and (max-width: 699px), (min-width: 960px)">

  /5e/71/5e71u7f072kos80ccsg08g08c.jpg

• 

  /2c/f0/2cf0sifg5p8gkgwk8wk4swo80.jpg

• 

  /ec/nl/ecnl8j4ayjw4wkw8kkg48o408.jpg

We I have been living in Serbia for two years now, and I still cannot call this country my home

Yes, it is better here than in Russia, there are prospects, there is no fear for the future, but there is still no complete comfort. Let's wait and see, maybe Belgrade will turn out to be the best city for us to live in, or maybe we will take a chance and try to move to a more developed European country, for example, Slovenia or Slovakia.

More to read on the topic

• Good to see that people with average incomes were drawn to the Maldives: a review of a budget holiday in paradise
• The best three-ruble note I have been to: an enthusiastic review of a budget holiday in Turkey 50 thousand for two: the hotel is not a palace, but the main thing is the sea. Tourist review