Changing your address after a move in Serbia

Start with the police: residence and ID card

The boxes are unpacked, but the move is not finished until the paperwork has moved too. Almost everything else on this list depends on this first step, because every other institution wants to see an ID card with the new address on it.

The legal deadline is eight days from the day you move in. You register at the police station (MUP) of the municipality you are moving into, with your ID card and proof that you are entitled to live at the address — the title deed, the purchase contract, or a notarised tenancy agreement. If you are not the owner, you also need the owner's written consent.

The address on the ID card is changed as part of the same visit. If you own a vehicle, the address on the vehicle registration is changed at the same station, and the deadline for that is short as well — the fines for out-of-date details are not nominal.

Foreign nationals register their residence at the same station, but under the rules for foreigners and usually on a shorter deadline, so check your own case rather than assuming the eight days applies.

Electricity, communal services and internet

At the old address: read the meters on the day you hand over the keys, and photograph them. That photograph is what separates your bills from the next occupant's, and it settles any argument in seconds.

At the new address, put the accounts in your own name:

• Electricity (EPS) — with the meter reading and proof of ownership or tenancy.
• Infostan — water, heating and refuse in Belgrade, all through one counter.
• Internet, television and telephone — allow five to ten days for a connection to be transferred, which is why the request goes in as soon as you know the moving date, not after it.

Bank, employer, insurance

Tell your bank in the branch or through the app — this matters mainly because of where cards and statements are sent. Tell your employer for their personnel records.

Then the ones people forget:

• Insurance policies. The address is part of the contract, and for home insurance it is the contract — a policy on an address you no longer live at is not covering anything.
• The e-Uprava (government services portal) registration.
• Subscriptions and deliveries. The post office can forward your mail for a set period.
• Online shops that have your old address saved as the default.

Doctor, school, nursery

Your health card transfers to the health centre (dom zdravlja) of the new municipality, where you choose a GP again. The procedure is quick — the card and an ID with the new address.

For children, the transfer between schools goes through the secretariats of both schools. For nursery places you submit a transfer request, and in the busier municipalities waiting lists are a real thing — start as soon as you know the address, not once you have moved.

The order, and the deadlines

• Before the move: request the internet transfer, tell the bank it is coming, read the meters at the old address.
• Within eight days: MUP — residence registration, ID card, vehicle registration.
• Within two weeks: EPS and Infostan into your own name, the health centre, home insurance.
• Within the first month: everything else — subscriptions, e-Uprava, memberships, deliveries.

One practical thing: the day before the move, put every document — ID cards, contracts, certificates — into one folder that travels with you, not in the van. The same goes for the keys to both addresses.

The full preparation sequence is in the complete moving checklist. If a company is changing address rather than a household, the list is longer — the business register, the bank, the fiscal till, suppliers and the Google profile — and that is covered in moving an office. If you are leaving Serbia altogether, customs paperwork comes into it as well: see customs when moving to the EU.

Frequently asked questions