To make your visit a pleasurable experience and avoid possible misunderstandings and unnecessary delays at the border, it would be useful to remind you of the main rules to be followed and the obligations to be complied with in going through the customs.

Always stick to the golden rule: Declare everything you have in your luggage or on you.

When crossing the border of Serbia, each traveller is required to declare and show, if asked, to the customs officer all items he/she is bringing into the country.

Personal luggage and items for personal use or use of family members are declared orally (unless the customs officer has not explicitly asked for a declaration to be made in writing). An exception in this respect are articles that are being imported or exported temporarily. Such articles are, as a rule, declared in writing.

Beside personal luggage, the goods to be imported or exported include household effects and non-commercial goods intended to cater for the needs of members of the family.

Personal luggage may contain any items that the traveller is carrying on his/her journey and are needed for that purpose, such as clothes, shoes, toiletries, food items and other articles intended for personal use. Quantities of these luggage items will vary depending on the purpose of journey, sex, occupation, season or other circumstances relating to the journey and stay of the traveller in this or in a foreign country.

Items such as one litre of strong alcoholic drink, one perfume, one toilet water, 200 cigarettes or an appropriate quantity of tobacco products and medicines for personal use in normal quantities are also regarded as personal luggage.

The goods imported should be cleared through the customs, in normal or summary procedure.

A specific feature of summary procedure is that it is simple and the traveller does not have to wait long for the items to be cleared at the border crossing point.

Such customs clearance procedure is applied to items intended for personal or household use whose value does not exceed EUR 3,000. If they are in excess of that value, normal procedure is applicable.

All duties payable in a summary procedure are under 33 per cent of the value of articles.

The traveller will receive a pro forma invoice of import taxes on carry-on items (Form 6).

Items that the traveller fails to declare up to the point when the customs officer asks him/her to show the items are considered as undeclared items. Such items will be confiscated until the relevant procedure is completed.

Travellers are exempted from import taxes on:

• personal luggage;
• articles for personal use and use of family members up to a total equivalent value of EUR 100 in the local currency (This does not apply to foreign travellers);
• books and publications of a scientific, educational or cultural nature and documents;
• own publications imported by researchers, writers and artists;
• decorations, medals, plaques, sporting or other trophies or items awarded as prizes abroad at competitions, exhibitions or events of international importance;
• farm or livestock products from the border zone that are brought in by citizens living in the border zone.

Travellers should not import any of these:

• any commercial goods;
• narcotic drugs, poisons or any other toxic substances;
• arms and ammunition (except for temporary import of hunting weapons with corresponding rounds of ammunition in case of organized game shooting);
• pesticides;
• any material that contains substances that are harmful to public health and interests of the country.

• Warning

*Goods used by self-employed persons or in a gainful occupation, whatever the value of goods, are to be cleared through customs according to normal procedure, after the necessary legal requirements have been met.

*Pet animals may be imported into the country, if furnished with a clean-bill-of-health document from the country of export upon entering.

Both residents and foreign nationals visiting for shorter periods of time may temporarily import articles that are needed by them during their visits.

These articles should be listed on Form 7 "Effects temporarily imported along with information on the traveller and description of goods that will permit their identification".

This list is to be signed and affixed seal to by the customs official. A comment "PUR" (meaning "temporarily imported goods") is then written in the passport, dated and signed.

Temporarily imported articles must be exported when first leaving the country. The PUR comment should be crossed out on that occasion.

Note. The articles temporarily imported may be declared at the customs office as well. The customs office clearing the Form 7 items will cancel out the PUR comment. However, in case the traveller clears through the customs only a part of the effects that he/she has temporarily imported, the customs official puts the reference number and date of the declaration and indicates the kind of customs procedure. The list will then be returned to the traveller without the PUR comment being voided. That will be done at the border crossing point when the rest of the effects are transported to a foreign country. If the traveller fails to let the relevant customs know that he/she will export the items he/she has temporarily imported by listing them, or if he/she fails to provide evidence that the items have been cleared through the customs, they will not be considered exported from the country and the customs will institute proceedings in breach of customs laws.

Foreign nationals and residents living abroad may enter the country in a vehicle bearing foreign registration plates and drive it as long as the reasons (visit, holiday, business) for it exist.

Foreign nationals staying for more than three months (students, foreigners married a national, business undertaking) may temporarily import a vehicle free of duty provided:

1. The vehicle is under six years old;

2. The person is allowed to stay in the country for more than three months;

3. The person has owned the vehicle at least six months prior to entering the country.

If conditions 2 and 3 are not applicable, a motor vehicle may be imported temporarily only if it is not older than six years. In that case, 3 per cent of all import taxes payable on the vehicle if sold on the date of the temporary import declaration will be paid for each month or part of the month during which the vehicle has been on the temporary import regimen.

• Foreign currencies may be brought into the country freely with no restrictions as to the amount of currencies imported;
• Foreigners and nationals living and working abroad (non-residents) may declare a foreign currency to the customs officer and receive a receipt allowing them to take it out on first leaving the country;
• Both nationals and foreigners may import up to 120,000 local currency (dinars) in 1,000 notes or in smaller denominations. An amount in excess of 120,000 dinars may be imported, if proved to have been bought abroad. A receipt from a foreign bank may serve as proof;
• Credit cards may be brought into freely.

No taxes are payable on items exported by travellers leaving the country. The traveller (i.e. the national or foreign national having temporary residence or permanent residence permit in this country) may take out personal luggage and items needed for travel purposes. If so, he/she will be asked to list them as items being temporarily exported (Form 5) and to provide personal details and information on the articles for identification purposes. The customs official will sign and affix seal to the list.

On return from abroad, the list may be used as proof that the articles have been temporarily exported from the country. As such they will not be subject to any import taxes.

In case citizens living and temporarily working abroad and foreigners have temporarily imported some items into Serbia, for which they have been issued with a certified list of effects temporarily imported (Form 5), they will be asked to produce it and show the items to the customs officer on leaving the country. Upon their inspection, the officer will cross out the PUR comment contained in the passport. In doing so, the officer will sign his name and affix the official seal.

There is no obligation to export the articles imported on the temporary regimen, if cleared through the customs previously. The passport with the voided PUR comment will be accepted as proof. (Voiding will be done by the customs office where the goods have been cleared.)

Travellers are not allowed to export

• any commercial goods;
• narcotics;
• arms and ammunition;
• gold bullions and nuggets.

Items having historic, artistic or cultural value as well as rare natural beauties under protection may be exported only if having the permission of the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations.

The permission is granted upon prior agreement of the competent authorities (i.e. Institute for the Protection of Cultural Sites).

The group of items of this class includes:

• any items forming real cultural property (monuments, historical architectural cores, archeological sites and places of interest) or parts thereof;
• movable cultural property (works of art or history, archival materials, film footage, old and rare books, etc.);
• heritage enjoying prior protection (e.g. registration material, objects of fine and applied arts, archeological, ethnographic and natural science items, rare or historically valuable items related to technological development, old coins and postage stamps and like items);
• protected species of wild animals and plants.

Trophies of wild animals may be exported if accompanied by :

• permission of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations in the Republic for stuffed animals and parts thereof;
• game shooting certificate in the case of other trophies.

Wildlife trophies mean:

• antlers of deer or roe buck;
• moufflon or chamoix horns;
• wild boar's teeth;
• deer's teeth and fangs;
• skulls and hide of bear, wolf, lynx or wildcat;
• skulls of fox or badger;
• stuffed animals and parts thereof.

• Nationals and foreigners are free to take out of Serbia without proof an amount of EUR under 2,000;
• Foreigners and nationals living and working abroad (non-residents) may also take out foreign money if they have written proof that they have brought it into the country. The letter proving it will expire on the date of first exiting the country;
• Foreigners and nationals living and working abroad (non-residents) may further take out foreign currency if they have a letter from their bank proving they have withdrawn it from their foreign exchange or savings account with the bank;
• Nationals and foreigners may take out up to 120,000 local currency in 1,000 notes or smaller denominations;
• If the traveller intends to take out foreign and local currency as well as traveller's cheques, the total amount may not exceed EUR 2,000;
• No restrictions are placed on credit cards upon exiting the country;
• Citizens may transfer the inherited foreign currency funds only through authorized bank remittances for the purpose of studies, medical treatment, business trips, emigration to a foreign country or financial support to the family living abroad.

• Warning to all travellers

*In case the above rule is not followed and local and foreign currency, cheques or securities are taken out together, they will be temporarily confiscated and a receipt issued. Further action will be taken before the Foreign Currency Inspectorate, as the competent body.

*In case plants, plant products, animals and animal products or inputs are imported or exported, it is necessary to provide a proper certificate to the effect that the plants, animals or their products have a clean bill of health issued by the country of origin or the receiving country. Depending on the products involved, this certificate may be sanitary, veterinary or phito-pathological.