Montenegro: nomad visa for up to 4 years and 9-15% taxation

Montenegro has created a permit for digital nomads, making it one of the first Balkan states to formalise this status.

The permit is issued for up to two years, renewable once for the same period, making up to 4 years¹ in total.

This cumulative duration far exceeds that of the Croatian or Cape Verdean schemes, and it allows a genuinely lasting move — with the tax consequences that entails.

The permit is reserved for people working for an employer or clients based outside Montenegro. Working for a Montenegrin company is excluded.

The official portal states that the temporary residence permit is issued within up to 40 days² of filing a complete application — the period running from the compliant application, not from the first submission.

Montenegrin law treats as resident a person whose habitual residence is in the country or who stays there for at least 183 days³ in a tax year.

A continuous stay under a nomad permit therefore crosses this threshold in the very first year. Montenegrin tax residency is not an option of the scheme: it is its automatic consequence.

The scale is short. A first portion of taxable income is exempt, then the applicable rate is from 9%⁴ on the middle band and 15%⁵ above it.

These levels are among the lowest in Europe. For a remote worker, the equation is therefore favourable, provided they accept becoming a Montenegrin taxpayer — which entails reporting obligations and coordination with France.

We do not publish the income conditions required of applicants, the Montenegrin rates applicable to dividends, capital gains and inheritances, or the corporate tax rate: they do not appear in the official sources we have been able to verify.

Montenegro adopted the euro unilaterally, without belonging to the euro area. There is therefore no currency risk for a French resident, but the country has no monetary policy levers.

It is a candidate for membership of the European Union. This process involves gradual regulatory and tax convergence, whose effect on current rates cannot be predicted with certainty. A long-term project must factor in this trajectory.

The country has also ended its citizenship by investment programme: offers that claim to rely on it are out of date.

The Adriatic coast concentrates the property supply aimed at foreigners, with strong seasonality and buildings whose legal compliance must be checked property by property. International flights are seasonal and few outside the summer.

Healthcare deserves separate consideration. The Montenegrin public system is limited, and foreign residents turn to the private sector or to neighbouring countries for major procedures. International cover is therefore the norm, and its cost should be included in the budget from the first year.

1. Check the income conditions in force with the authorities, as the scheme is recent.
2. Gather civil status documents and criminal record extracts in France, apostilled and translated.
3. Plan for Montenegrin tax residency, which the 183 days³ threshold makes almost certain.
4. Get local support for reporting obligations, which are poorly documented in French.
5. Deal with the departure from France according to its own criteria and the applicable tax treaty.

The third point sets Montenegro apart from Croatia, which excludes remote work income from its tax base. Here, there is no exclusion: the holder becomes an ordinary taxpayer, simply at a lower rate. It is a simpler architecture, but it requires preparation.