Why You Should Be Scared To Visit Serbia
Serbian passport control officers do not like letting Indians, Turks, Pakistanis, Iranians, or other country nationals they deem to be undesirable enter Serbia.
So, when you land in Belgrade you will face a great deal of hostility, outright racism and shameful derogatory comments (mostly in Serbian) from the gun totting passport control officials as they detain you. Some of whom do not even wear uniform or name tag, but run around in wind breakers, ankle socks and sneakers yelling at you, humiliating you and insinuating heavily that you are in Serbia to leech off of their state and smuggle yourself in to western Europe.
The average wait time to clear passport control for people from countries such as India, Turkey, Pakistan lasts between 3 hours and 12 hours, during this time you will not be allowed to go to the bathroom or drink water. And, during this time you will be subjected to police interrogation type questioning. Indians are also likely to face strip-searches which are highly invasive, redundant and shameful.
Why have we set up this website?
We have done so as a public service to nationals of countries like India, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan - who may feel they can visit Serbia making use of their no-Visa policy but when you land you'll find an airport - very bleak place full of racist government officials (Borat level racists) who will humiliate you and hurt you. We have no other motivation other than to save people from the humilation we faced. 100% honesty is our policy, we (a group of indians) flew to Belgrade and saw this horrible treatment first hand and it terrified us.
Lies Serbia says about Visa-Free or No-Visa
According to the Serbian government, if you are a national of 1 of over 96 countries you can visit Serbia without a visa. But this is a complete scam! And a lie. If you are from USA, EU, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea or countries that have predominantly caucasian population OR a high GDP per capita then you will have a fine time clearing passport control. But if you are from India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey or any country they (the Serbian government officials at Passport Control) deem to be a country of people of lower race or deem a poor country you will be treated as though you are a criminal or a criminal-refugee.
No Visa For Tourism
"The Government of Serbia, based on bilateral agreements or unilateral decisions, allows citizens of certain countries and territories to visit Serbia for tourism or business purposes without having to obtain a visa." This is a lie!
Football Hooligans
Wherever you try to read up on this you'll see reports of football hooliganism and crime in Serbia having abated. This is a lie! You'll more than likely come across football hooligans who are highly racist. You will fear for your safety.
Serbians Are Helpful
Most of the people you meet in Serbia will not help you with anything. They will flat out refuse to help you. Why? Because they are generally very fearful of getting in to trouble with the state themselves. So don't try to appeal to compassion.
Serbia is Capitalist
This is a falsehood. Serbia is a highly statist collectivist transitionary economy. The people are generally very hostile toward rich people. And, the government outright discourages private enterprise with a variety of hostile measures.
Indian Detained in Serbia?
Embassy of India, phone: +381 11 2666520, Address: Đorđa Radojlovića 7a, Beograd 11040, Serbia, email: indemb@eunet.rs. If you've been detained contact the embassy and tell Passport Control what they are doing is a provocation!
Why do you want to go to Serbia?
Some facts about Serbia and why you may want to cancel any plans you have to go to Serbia.
Serbia is a very undesirable place from a business and employment perspective. If you wish to visit Serbia to get a job, then think again, the economy of Serbia is facing headwinds and employers are not hiring. And, the fact that the whole country only speaks Serbian and not English, you will have a very difficult time finding any jobs (let alone a good job). Do you wish to go to Serbia to set up a company? Big mistake! You'll need to file taxes every month (not yearly as in every other sensible country) and guess what? You might think the 10% corp tax rate is wonderful but that is also a lie. The Serbian corporate tax is just 1 part of what the government levies from business. You'll need to also pay unemployment insurance, social security and health insurance for each employee you hire as a business. The 10% corp tax rate is a complete lie, your effective tax rate will be much closer to 25% once you factor in all the indirect and direct taxes that remain (including a ridiculous extortionate VAT regime). A highly socialist marxist philosophy reigns supreme across the country, coupled with an insulting nationalist racist highly prideful attitude. If your intention is to start a world class company then go elsewhere, Serbia is not likely to be where you wish to set up. On the other hand if you're looking to find a job and think Serbia will offer you a good job, you are very wrong in thinking this. The government has stringent measures in place to make sure aliens from undesirable countries cannot come in and take jobs from Serbians. And even if you manage to dodge all that and are able to seek a job you'll find a labour market that is highly stagnant, defective, racist and cruel.
Don't set up a company in Serbia
The corp tax rate of 10% is a lie. You'll need to do substantially higher number of compliance functions every month lot of your time will be spent filing paperwork with the Sebrian government and you'll have less time to run your business. Also, the government is very very hostile toward private enterprise. You'll face all manner of problems trying to set up a business. You will also be completely perplexed by the language barrier. Also, you'll need all manner of approvals and licences to do any business function. As far as banking goes, Serbia was almost recently banned by the FATF. Any money you wish to transfer out of Serbia - you will have a super difficult time doing so (especially EUR, USD).
Don't look for a job in Serbia
The economy is in the dolldrums and Serbia is moving away from the EU and closer to Russia. This is going to make the job situation even worse. Our party visited all across Serbia and most Serbians we spoke to told us the economy was going to hell. Most people are under-employed and more or less collecting welfare. If you do not speak Serbian your chance of finding a job in Serbia is 0.
Don't look for a lover in Serbia
You might feel that Serbia offers opportunity for you to find a romantic partner. If you are caucasian and from a wealthy country then you'll have an easy time doing this - generally. But if you are not white skinned and if you are from a poor country you'll find that Serbian people generally do not take kindly to you approaching them or speaking to them. The culture is one that is very very xenophobic and hostile towards outsiders. Your efforts to find a romantic partner are statistically doomed to failure based on this fact if you are not fair-skinned and if you are from a poor country. Language barrier, another reason you are not likely to find a romantic partner.
Are you a Serbian reading this?
We are very sorry about how poorly your country is being run. We urge you to write to your government officials and tell them to treat people visiting your beautiful country in a nicer way. Contrary to what you might think not every Indian from India is poor and coming to your country with forged documents.
You have been detained in Serbia? What to do now?
If you've made the mistake of getting detained in Serbia. Then first make sure you or someone with you can speak either Serbian or English. If you speak very good English then you must pretend to not speak very good English. As Serbian passport control officers are very envious of people who speak good English and they will make all sorts of derogatory comments about you speaking good English and they will detain you for longer if you give them any such reason to do so. Give short answers to their questions. Try to make sure your phone works and has full charge upon landing. The airport as of 2018 has free WiFi - use this to contact your nearest embassy via Skype or via E-Mail. Make sure you think carefully before you answer their questions as they will intentionally try to make you lie so as to arrest you and deport you.
Take deep breaths. And, if you must use the toilet - do so before you reach the passport control area. Do not pack anything valuable in your checked in baggage as the passport control officials will open it and go through it when you land.
If you are a Serbian reading this and care about your country...
Please have your government cancel this no-Visa policy for countries you clearly do not want people visting from. It's set up by some criminals within Serbia to benifit themselves obviously. The unfortunate souls who take your government at their word and visit are being treated worse than cattle. Is this the heritage you are so proud of? Institute some procedures to quickly validate the documents of people who are landing. Your passport control officers manually process 1 person at a time. And have only 1 official to process inbound visitors from the undesirable countries. This is not a good set up. Detaining people for 3 to 12 hours, not letting them use the toilet and not letting them even clarify their status to you is absolutely shameful. You should try to visit India and see if you recieve such poor treatment from our passport control officers (you will not). However much you might hate non-white skinned people, please try to understand that we are also human beings just like you. We also have families, hopes, aspirations and feelings. And however many illegal aliens you claim have snuck in to your country you do not need to treat us as less than human beings. Use technology to improve your document validation process, that's the simplest thing you can do. The most high tech piece of equipment your passport control officers use seems to be a xerox copier machine and a phone. Why is this? If you can muster it, bring in an e-visa policy that requires a payment of $250 or so for each visitor. And make it so that documents are pre-validated or easier to validate by your passport control officers - this way you can process inbound visitors easily and quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions
An easy to go over list of Frequently Asked Questions and their Answers we hope anyone from India, Pakistan, Iran, Africa, elsewhere thinking of visiting Serbia will find useful.
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When did you and your party visit Serbia?
Our visit was in mid 2019. It was a big mistake for us to go there. We are Indian nationals and we trusted the Serbian governments word that we could visit without a visa.
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Why didn't you get a Serbian visa from their embassy?
The Serbian embassy in New Delhi refused to process our visa application because our stay in Serbia was for less than 30 days. The Serbian embassy does not process visa applications from applicants who are from no-Visa countries - as long as their intended stay is within their no-Visa allowed period. This is a cruel trick by the Serbian government.
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What was your reason for visiting Serbia?
Not that it matters now but our intent was to start businesses in Serbia, invest tens of millions of USD and create high paying jobs in Serbia for Serbians, Indians and Europeans. We cancelled all our plans after the experience we suffered when we landed at Belgrade Airport at the hands of the horrible passport control officers.
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What did the passport control officers ask to see when you landed?
That's the funny thing. They ask you for very little. You walk toward their passport control counter they take your passport, and whatever else you give them. If you're from India, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran - they tell you to go and wait in an isolated area. A police officer then comes and directs you to the holding area. Very few Serbians speak English - generally and they loathe telling you that they can't understand or speak English.
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I am not from India, Iran, Turkey, or similar poor countries. Can I visit Serbia?
Sure. If you're from USA, EU, Hong Kong, Singapore, or other wealthy contries you will be just fine. If you're from Latin America - you should expect some mistreatment. Also, if you're from a wealthy nation please look at alternative destinations to visit other than Serbia. The world is large and wonderful. Why go somewhere that treats people (any people, maybe not your people) this poorly?
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Are there any nice people in Serbia?
Yes! There are plenty of wonderful, kind, nice people in Serbia. As long as you deal with the educated, younger, middle and upper middle class cosmopolitan crowd, you'll find plenty of wonderful Serbs. But the ranks of the government officers (police, passport control, the soldiers you see) - these are generally lower income, less educated people who see Russia as the greatest country that ever existed and everyone non-white as less than human. So, statistically speaking you are not likely to have a great time in Serbia because the majority of the people you'll encounter are likely to be russophile racist socialist ignorant borat like people -- IF you are not white. And they'll insist they are just following orders as they abuse you - not knowing the deeper meaning or history of that horrible line.
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Does everyone in Serbia speak fluent English?
No! English speakers are very rare. Especially in government offices. If you leave Belgrade and go to the smaller cities this will be a way bigger problem. All government functions are done in Serbian language only. And if you don't speak it then tough luck - that's the attitude Serbian government officials have.
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On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad was the racism you encountered in Serbia?
Unfortunately it was a 10. Serbians we dealt with did not seem to like non-white skinned people even in the slightest and seemed annoyed by us being in their country. The racism and xenophobia we faced was pretty jarring and extreme. Even people working at the airline (first class tickets) and our hotel (5 star hotel) would make comments behind our backs and seek to ridicule us - even when with the hotel we tipped generously and behaved nicely to them.
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Did you like anything about Serbia?
Belgrade looks very different from Indian cities. The weather was very cool and nice. We cut our trip short owing to the unpleasantness at passport control. Also, because the government functionaries seemed like white supremacist hooligans it was very worrying. The thick smell of nicotine and industrial pollutants mixed with air freshner was everywhere, this was quite bad.
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How long can Indians stay in Serbia actually?
This is another thing we found out when we reached Serbia. Serbian MFA states that Indians can stay in Serbia without a visa for up to 30 days in 1 year. But, passport control officers have changed the interpretation wherein if you visit Serbia once in a year even if it is just for 1 day then you are not elligible for the visa free. And you'll be denied entry and deported on your next visit. Please do not go to Serbia!