Position dated 10 October 2026. Status: Adopted, not yet in force. Instrument: Pravilnik o izmjenama i dopuni Pravilnika o obrascima, bližim uslovima i načinu izdavanja dozvole za privremeni boravak i dozvole za privremeni boravak i rad (rulebook amending the rulebook on forms and conditions for temporary residence permits and temporary residence and work permits), Official Gazette of Montenegro 147/2026, published 8 October 2026, registration number 2513. It enters into force on 16 October 2026 and applies from 1 November 2026.
Two readers should stop here. If you plan to file a first application or an extension with the Ministry of Interior (MUP) in November, the blank form you downloaded this month will be the old one by then. And if your partner of the same sex is a Montenegrin citizen, or a foreigner who already holds residence in Montenegro, the question that had no written answer was a narrow one: what do we hand over as proof? The Act gave the right. The rulebook was silent on the document. It no longer is.
What the rulebook changes
The amending text has five articles.
| Article | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 | Adds travel documents issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross to the definition of a foreign travel document |
| 2 | Adds same-sex life partnership, next to marital status, to the prescribed content of the application form |
| 3 | Rewrites Article 12 of the rulebook, the evidence rule for family reunification, as two items |
| 4 | Reprints Form 3 (first application) and Form 4 (extension) |
| 5 | In force on the eighth day after publication; applied from 1 November 2026 |
Article 3 carries the weight. In the 2019 text, Article 12 of the rulebook was one sentence about the član uže porodice, the immediate family member. It now has two items. The first keeps the old rule: a document issued by a competent authority showing that you are an immediate family member of a Montenegrin citizen, or of a foreigner granted permanent or temporary residence in Montenegro. The second is new and mirrors it for the partner u zajednici života lica istog pola, the same-sex life partner of any of those three people. Both items end with the same words, odnosno drugi dokaz o opravdanosti tog zahtjeva: or other evidence that the application is justified.
The rulebook is catching up with the statute here. The consolidated Zakon o strancima (Law on Foreigners) already lists six categories in Article 44(1), and items 4, 5 and 6 name the life partner of a citizen, of a permanent resident and of a temporary resident. Article 43(3) goes further for one of them: the partner of a Montenegrin citizen does not have to prove means of subsistence.
The new Form 3 has a separate block under the marital status boxes: u partnerstvu, prestanak partnerstva, raskid partnerstva (in partnership, terminated, dissolved). Its work section asks for the employer's tax number and e-mail address, and anyone who will act as executive director for several employers must list all of them. You also tick how you want to hear about the status of the file: the Ministry's web portal, e-mail, or the registered office address. Form 4 repeats this and adds the dates of the last approved residence.
What the rulebook does not settle
The first gap sits exactly where a foreign couple stands. Item 2 says "a document issued by a competent authority". It does not say the authority must be Montenegrin, and it does not say a foreign one will do. Under Article 32 of the Zakon o životnom partnerstvu lica istog pola (Official Gazette 67/20), the Montenegrin partnership register takes partnerships of Montenegrin citizens concluded at home or abroad, and partnerships of foreigners concluded in Montenegro. Two foreigners who married in Germany or registered in the Netherlands are not in that register, yet Article 44(1) item 6 of the Law on Foreigners is written for them. We have not seen a written source showing that MUP accepts a foreign marriage or partnership certificate for this item.
The second gap is transition. Nothing in the five articles deals with an application filed in October and still pending on 1 November. The third is the electronic route: Article 61b of the Act ties e-filing to a "prescribed form" too, and this amendment reprints only Forms 3 and 4.
Our reading
If your filing date is 1 November 2026 or later, collect the form again that week, from the MUP counter or its own page. Do not bring one you filled in earlier. The 40-day decision period in Article 62(4) runs from an application that is in order, and an outdated form is an argument you do not need. Extensions are tighter. Article 64 wants the request no earlier than 60 and no later than 30 days before the permit expires, so a permit ending in early December puts your window across both forms.
If you are joining a partner and the partnership was concluded outside Montenegro, prepare the certificate as you would any foreign public document: the original, its legalisation under the rules of the issuing state, and a translation by a court interpreter. The rulebook does not say this; it is our conservative reading. Add a second piece of evidence of your life together. The "other evidence" wording works in your favour, and Article 46 allows the authority to examine whether a marriage or partnership was concluded for advantage.
What did not change
The general conditions in Article 43 of the Act stand: means of subsistence, accommodation, health insurance, a valid travel document, the criminal record conditions and proof that the application is justified. The amendment leaves the rulebook's articles on proof of means, accommodation and insurance alone, and the permit card itself (Forms 1 and 2) is the same. A family reunification permit still runs for up to one year, or until the sponsor's own permit expires. It is still not available to the family or partner of a seasonal work permit holder. The application is still filed in person with the MUP unit for your place of stay under Article 61.
The EUR 150,000 threshold for residence based on property sits in Article 56 and has nothing to do with this rulebook.
How to verify
The full amending text is on the Official Gazette's own page: sluzbenilist.me/propisi/398907. It runs to five pages. Articles 1 to 3 are on the first, the two forms follow, and Article 5 with the reference "01 Broj: 207/26-45151/2" of 24 September 2026 closes the last. Search for partner u zajednici života lica istog pola. The consolidated Law on Foreigners is on gov.me at wapi.gov.me/download/b123dbc2-dfce-4751-9086-322072f9d7f3; read Articles 43, 44 and 46. For the scope of the register, Article 32 of the partnership law: wapi.gov.me/download/2d43bdbe-04bb-45a8-b5ef-d41a647e3796.
We covered the citizenship side of the same shift in our note on Gazette 119/2026. The new Law on Foreigners bill now before Parliament is a separate file and would apply only from the day of EU accession; your application today is governed by this rulebook. The wider permit map is in our Montenegro residence permit guide. If you would like us to read your file before November, write to us through the Montenegro residence permit services page; later steps appear under Legal Updates.
