“Visa-free” workers in Open Balkans, a joint labor market in Albania, Serbia and RMV
Albanian citizens can work in Serbia and North Macedonia, just like in Albania. The Open Balkans Agreement for a common labor market is already in force.
Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia have an agreement. Citizens can go to work without obstacles and paper bureaucracy in any of the two countries they are not residents of.
The initiative to keep employees in the region was launched at one of the Open Balkans summits in December 2021, and is already being finalized by the governments of the three countries, to allow citizens to work and live freely in each of the states.
According to the agreement, citizens of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia, who want to be employed in one of the members of the Open Balkans or have already found an employer, must have a personal identification number for which they can register electronically, initially with a form on the e-Government platform, and with an identification document.
After that, the interested part can enter the e-government portal of a given country and submit a request for free access to the labor market.
The three countries together have about 11 million inhabitants, and at the current stage, Serbia says that there are 30,000 vacancies for doctors, nurses, craftsmen and technicians. But Albania is not far behind either, with private service companies calling for the filling of empty places. Meanwhile, North Macedonia has mainly accepted seasonal employees so far and with the new approach, it is expected to announce its offers as well.