Status date: 25 September 2026. Status: In process (draft/bill) — termination decided, not yet effective. Instrument: Informacija o potrebi otkazivanja sporazuma kojima je regulisan bezvizni režim (information note on the need to terminate the agreements governing visa-free travel), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro; adopted by the Government at its 139th session on 24 September 2026, agenda item 9.
If you advise Turkish or Russian clients on Montenegro, you already work with 1 November 2026 as the day visa-free entry ends. That date stands. What the Government added on 24 September is the legal clean-up behind it: the bilateral treaties that granted visa-free travel in the first place are to be terminated. Those treaties have their own notice periods; neither the Turkish nor the Russian one ends on 1 November.
What the text says
The note names three agreements for termination: the agreement with the Russian Federation on the conditions of mutual travel of citizens, the agreement with Belarus on mutual travel of citizens, and the agreement with Türkiye on the mutual abolition of visas. Its stated reason is Montenegro's duty, as a candidate, to align its visa policy fully with the EU's. A second instruction concerns Türkiye alone: the ministry is to start negotiating a new agreement that restores visa-free travel for holders of diplomatic, service and special passports, securing continuity "to the greatest possible extent".
We read the two treaties we could obtain in full.
| Agreement | Visa-free stay | Suspension clause | Termination takes effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Türkiye–Montenegro, Ankara, 18 January 2008 | 90 days in any 6 months, all passport types including special and service (Art. 3/1) | Temporary suspension in emergencies, notice within 72 hours (Art. 7/2-3) | Six months after written notice through diplomatic channels (Art. 11) |
| Russia–Montenegro, New York, 24 September 2008 | 30 days' continuous stay; 90 days for diplomatic and service passports (Arts. 1 and 5) | Suspension for security, public order or health, notice at least 48 hours before (Art. 10) | 90 days after the other party receives the notice (Art. 11(4)) |
Montenegro's own visa decree leans on these treaties. The consolidated Uredba o viznom režimu (Visa Regime Decree, last amended by Official Gazette 108/26) lets Russian and Belarusian nationals stay 30 days until 31 October 2026 "in accordance with the concluded international agreements on mutual travel" (Art. 3a). Turkish nationals get the same 30 days until the same date under Art. 1a. When Montenegro suspended visa-free entry for Turkish nationals in October 2025, the Government's notice limited it to ordinary passports and said that diplomatic, service and special passports stayed visa-free under the agreement.
What the text does not say
The note gives no date for the notices. Since the Government decided on 24 September 2026, our own arithmetic says the Turkish agreement cannot end before 24 March 2027 and the Russian one not before 23 December 2026, even if the notes went out that same day. For at least seven weeks after 1 November, then, the decree and a treaty in force point in different directions.
The decree's default rule (Art. 4) requires a visa from nationals of states not listed in Arts. 1, 1a, 2 and 3 "or" with which no international agreement on entry has been concluded. After 1 November Türkiye and Russia are on no list. One reading says that is enough. The other says a treaty still in force keeps its nationals outside Art. 4. We have seen no document showing which reading border police will apply. In 2025 Montenegro used the suspension route; whether it will do so again is not written anywhere.
For Turkish special and service passport holders the gap is concrete. The new agreement does not exist yet. If the old one lapses first, the decree's Art. 11 has no bilateral agreement left to point to for them.
Our reading
Treat 1 November 2026 as the working date for ordinary passports and apply for the visa accordingly. Arguing the notice period at the border is not a plan we would build a trip or a signing around. Clients travelling on a Turkish special or service passport after that date should ask the Montenegrin Embassy in Ankara or the Consulate General in Istanbul for written confirmation before they fly. Russian diplomatic and service passport holders should note that the note proposes no replacement agreement for them.
What did not change
The 1 November 2026 date itself (Arts. 1a and 3a). The ban on granting visa exemptions by separate Government act from 31 October 2026 (Art. 12c). Entry for up to 30 days with a valid Schengen, US, UK, Irish, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand or Japanese visa or residence permit, regardless of nationality (Art. 7). Saudi and Chinese nationals, also covered by the July decree, are not affected by this decision: the note lists only the Russian, Belarusian and Turkish agreements.
How to verify
The decision is item 9 of the 139th session press release; the note itself is a one-page scanned PDF. The Turkish agreement, including Art. 11, is published in the Turkish Official Gazette of 20 March 2008; in case of divergence its English text prevails. The 2025 carve-out for special passports is the last paragraph of the Government notice of 30 October 2025. The decree's consolidated text is on gov.me.
The entry rules from 1 November are set out in what changes for visas in November 2026 and the full stay tables in our Montenegro visa guide. If your stay in Montenegro needs a basis that does not depend on visa policy, see our residence permit services. We will add the notice dates to Legal Updates once they are published.