All residents entering Kosovo without Kosovo-issued documents will soon be required to report to a police station within three days of arrival. This is the latest measure introduced by the Kosovo authorities, which began promoting the new rules today.
In practice, the change means that a significant number of people – including Serbs who live, work, or study in Kosovo but hold documents from central Serbia – will be able to continue doing so only if they register with the police and obtain confirmation from the Ministry of Interior. Effectively, these individuals will be issued a form of “temporary residence.”
The Kosovo Police in the northern region launched an information campaign today across the four Serb-majority municipalities – North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic – to explain the new procedures. Officers distributed leaflets to people without Kosovo documents entitled “Guide for Entry, Movement, Residence and Employment in the Republic of Kosovo.”
Deputy police commander for the North Region, Veton Elshani, confirmed for KoSSev that officers visited several locations to hand out the leaflets and inform citizens of their rights and obligations. “The aim of the campaign is to inform foreign citizens about their rights and duties when entering, moving within, residing or working in the Republic of Kosovo,” he said.
Although the official materials do not specifically mention Serbia, the Kosovo authorities treat its citizens as foreign nationals.
The guide outlines a series of procedures, the most important of which is the obligation to report to a police station within three days of entering Kosovo. This applies to anyone without Kosovo-issued documents, including students and workers.
Police will provide confirmation that a person is present in Kosovo, after which the individual must apply to the Ministry of Interior office in the north to complete the paperwork for a residence permit.
According to the leaflet, temporary residence permits may be issued for family reunification, education (primary, secondary, or higher), scientific research, employment, humanitarian reasons (including refugees, stateless persons, victims of human trafficking, people under subsidiary protection, or those who agree to cooperate with Kosovo authorities), and other purposes established by international agreements.
Elshani said it is still unknown when the new rule will take full effect, stressing that the campaign is currently only informative.
“We do not know when it will start. This is just the campaign. We will issue a new announcement in time. Kosovo Police wants to help foreign citizens understand the legal procedures for obtaining residence permits and avoid problems caused by illegal stay. This law already exists; we are now working to implement it,” he told KoSSev.
Once the rules are enforced, anyone found without a valid residence permit or confirmation from the police could face fines, deportation from Kosovo and a possible entry ban.
The campaign will continue in the coming days, Elshani added.
The announcement follows another recent decision affecting Serbs – on vehicle use under power of attorney – and comes just a day after the latest round of EU-facilitated technical talks between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels, which lasted more than seven hours but produced no progress, according to both sides’ negotiators.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
