Status date: 16 September 2026. Status: In process (draft/bill). Instrument: Predlog zakona o graničnoj kontroli (Border Control Bill), EPA 1193 XXVIII, act no. 24-1/26-1. The Government of Montenegro adopted it on 14 September 2026 and sent it to the Skupština (Parliament) with a request for hitni postupak, the urgent procedure; it was referred to committees on 15 September 2026. If passed, it replaces the current Zakon o graničnoj kontroli ("Sl. list CG" 72/09, 39/13, 17/19, 146/21 and 125/23).
Most "Montenegro entry requirements" pages answer one question: visa or no visa. This bill leaves that alone. What it changes is the paperwork at the booth for families and the route for anyone arriving by boat, and it raises the fines behind both.
What the text says
Article 64 of the bill requires a detailed border check for every child under 16 and makes the consent you need depend on two things: the document the child travels on, and the parents' situation. The current Article 50 only says that officers check a travel consent "issued under special regulations" or a decision on parental rights. It draws no line between passports and identity cards.
| Child under 16 | Travelling on a passport | Travelling on an ID card |
|---|---|---|
| With one parent, parents married | No consent from the other parent | Other parent's consent required |
| With one parent, only one parent exercises parental rights | Other parent's consent required | Other parent's consent required |
| Alone or with a non-parent, parents married | Consent of one parent | Consent of both parents |
| Alone or with a non-parent, only one parent exercises parental rights | Consent of both parents | Consent of both parents |
Where the conditions are not met and the child is alone, or with an adult who has no legal basis to accompany them, the officer notifies the centar za socijalni rad (social welfare centre) and follows its instructions (Art. 64(7)-(8)). Article 88, point 9, fines the accompanying adult €200 to €800. The current law has no such fine. Revoked consents and court decisions on border crossing go into a police register (Art. 64(5)). A child aged 16 or over may cross without consent, which has been the rule since amendment 146/2021.
The second change concerns yacht owners and skippers. Under Article 72(1), the master of a sport or leisure vessel entering Montenegrin territorial waters must sail by the shortest route to the nearest port with a maritime border crossing, unless in innocent passage. Entering any other port is allowed only "in exceptional situations" with the harbour master's permission, or in force majeure (Art. 72(4)). The current Article 55 contains no such routing duty. The bill attaches a fine of €500 to €3,000 for a natural person to each of three breaches (Art. 87, points 13-15): not taking that route, entering another port without permission, and not returning the copy of the vessel document to the border police on departure.
The general fine bands rise too. Crossing outside a border crossing, without a valid document, or avoiding the check currently costs €100 to €1,100 (Art. 67); the bill sets €500 to €3,000 (Art. 87). The band for companies moves from €1,000–5,500 to €5,000–30,000 (Art. 86).
What the text does not say
Read literally, the second table row produces an unexpected result: if only one parent exercises parental rights, that parent, travelling with the child, still needs "the other parent's" consent. The text does not tell us whether the drafters meant this or meant the trip of the parent without parental rights. Unmarried parents who share parental rights, and divorced parents with joint custody, do not appear in the passport rows at all. We cannot show today which reading officers will apply.
The form of the consent is not written either: notarisation, translation, whether a foreign notary's document is accepted. Article 89 leaves implementing regulations to within one year of entry into force. For yachts, the bill does not define "nearest" port or "exceptional situation". And there is a numbering slip: the first paragraph of Article 86 jumps from point 14 to point 17, while its third paragraph refers to points 15 and 16.
Our reading
The Government asked for the urgent procedure, but as of 16 September 2026 the file shows no voting date. If adopted, the law enters into force eight days after publication in the Official Gazette (Art. 95). For children under 16 travelling on an identity card, we recommend the conservative reading: once this provision is in force, carry a written, signature-certified consent from the parent who is not travelling, married or not, or get the child a passport. If you arrive by boat, pick your first port from the ports with a border crossing before you plot the route.
What did not change
The bill does not change who needs a visa or how long you may stay; that stays in Zakon o strancima (Law on Foreigners) and Uredba o viznom režimu (Visa Regime Decree). The category of foreigners who may enter with an identity card, and the certificate of entry issued to them on request (Art. 56(3)), already exist. Officers may still hold a person for a check for at most six hours (Art. 37). The duty to file a flight plan and a general declaration before a non-commercial international flight is in the current law as well; only the fine changes. The EU's EES (Entry/Exit System), SIS and VIS checks will not apply until Montenegro is connected to those systems (Art. 93), so fingerprint registration does not start with this law.
How to verify
The file is public on the Parliament's site: zakoni.skupstina.me/zakoni/web/app.php/akt/4370. The bill is a 54-page scanned PDF; the child rule is on pages 27-28 (search for "maloljetnog lica mlađeg od 16 godina"), the yacht rule on page 33 ("plovilo za slobodnu plovidbu"), the fines on pages 38-42. As long as the "Status" field reads "U proceduri", there is no law. The Government's decision is item one of the 14 September 2026 telephone session notice on gov.me. The current wording of Article 50 comes from amendment 146/2021 in the Official Gazette.
The same ministry's Law on Foreigners bill won the support of two committees on 15 September 2026; we follow it in our piece on the €250,000 investment permit for EU citizens. Visa-free stays and the rules as they stand are in our Montenegro visa guide, and once the bill is adopted we will add the gazette reference and the entry-into-force date on our Legal Updates page.
