Status date: 30 September 2026. Status: Adopted, not yet in force. Instrument: Zakon o graničnoj kontroli (Border Control Act), EPA 1193 XXVIII, act no. 24-1/26-1, proposed by the Government of Montenegro. The voting record dated 29 September 2026, from a sitting of the twelfth extraordinary session of the Skupština (Parliament), shows 43 votes for, none against and no abstentions, both in principle and on the text as a whole. The President's promulgation decree and the Official Gazette reference have not appeared yet. The law enters into force on the eighth day after publication in Službeni list Crne Gore (Art. 95).
When we wrote about the bill on 16 September, one question kept coming back from parents: would the final text soften the rule that a child travelling on an identity card needs the other parent's consent, even when the parents are married? We now have the committee reports, and the answer is no.
What the adopted text changes
Both committees met on 29 September 2026, the day of the vote. The Committee on Security and Defence proposed four amendments and the Legislative Committee one. The Government's representative accepted all five, so under Article 150(3) of the Rules of Procedure they became part of the bill without a separate vote. The voting record lists no amendment votes.
| Amendment | Article | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Security Committee 1 | Art. 41(4) | Cross-reference corrected from paragraph 2 to paragraph 3 |
| Security Committee 2 | Art. 68(2), point 1, indent 7 | "this Article" becomes "this point" (air passenger data) |
| Security Committee 3 | Art. 71(7) | Missing "Arts." added before 38, 41 and 42 (cruise ships) |
| Security Committee 4 | Art. 86(1), point 31 | "this Article" becomes "this Law" |
| Legislative Committee 1 | Art. 29(2)-(4) | "the public enterprise managing the maritime domain" becomes "the business entity managing the maritime domain" |
The Legislative Committee also listed four spelling corrections in Articles 12, 31 and 33, to be made when the text is prepared for publication.
Only the last amendment changes who carries a duty. Article 29(2) obliges whoever manages the morsko dobro (maritime domain), and any legal or natural person given part of it for business or for berthing boats, to let the border police carry out checks on the water and install equipment. The bill named a public enterprise as the manager; the adopted text speaks of a business entity. Marinas and berth concessionaires were already covered by the second half of the sentence, and that half did not change. The report gives no reason for the switch, so we do not offer one.
What survived unchanged
Everything we described on 16 September for families and skippers stands. Article 64 still ties the consent requirement for a child under 16 to the travel document: on a passport with one of two married parents, no consent from the other parent; on an identity card, the other parent's consent regardless of marital status; alone or with a non-parent on an identity card, the consent of both parents. The adult accompanying a child without the required consents faces a fine of €200 to €800 (Art. 88, point 9). The master of a pleasure vessel must still sail by the shortest route to the nearest port with a border crossing (Art. 72(1)), with a fine of €500 to €3,000 for each of the three breaches in Article 87, points 13-15.
What the text does not tell us yet
We compared the amendments and the committee reports with the bill. We have not seen the adopted text itself: the Parliament page does not carry it yet, and it will appear with the decree. The numbering slip we flagged in Article 86(1), where the points jump from 14 to 17, is not in any amendment or in the Legislative Committee's correction list. The Security Committee wrote only that "legal and technical corrections" will be made before publication, without listing them. We will check the gazette text.
Nor does the law say in what form the parental consent must be given. Article 89 gives the Ministry one year from entry into force to adopt the implementing regulations.
Our reading
The law is not yet in force, and we cannot give you a date. The President's website did not respond when we checked on 30 September. If you plan to cross with a child on an identity card in the coming weeks, carry a written consent from the parent who is not travelling, with the signature certified, or travel on the child's passport. Once the gazette number appears, we will write the exact date on this page.
What did not change
The law does not change who needs a visa or how long you may stay; those rules sit in Zakon o strancima (Law on Foreigners) and the Uredba o viznom režimu (Visa Regime Decree). Until the new law enters into force, border officers apply the current Border Control Act ("Sl. list CG" 72/09 as amended), which ceases to have effect on that day (Art. 94). EES fingerprinting, SIS and VIS checks stay deferred until Montenegro is connected to those systems (Art. 93).
How to verify
Open the act page on the Parliament's site: zakoni.skupstina.me act 4370. The "Status" field may still read "U proceduri"; the adoption is shown by the voting record, 43-0-0 twice. The four technical amendments are in the Security Committee report; the Article 29 amendment is in the Legislative Committee report, a scanned page in Cyrillic. Once published, search the Official Gazette for "Zakon o graničnoj kontroli".
The full consent table and the yacht rule are explained in our 16 September piece on the bill. Visa-free stays are in the Montenegro visa guide, and the gazette reference will be added on our Legal Updates page.
