If you’re wondering how to enter and leave Kosovo legally from Serbia or other countries, this article has the answers to your questions.
Since it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo has been the subject of much international dispute. Along with several other United Nations member states, Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent nation, while over 100 different countries do. So, whether Kosovo is the youngest country in Europe or not even a country at all depends entirely on your perspective.
Either way, regardless of where you stand politically, the rules that determine how to enter Kosovo legally are the same for everyone. In this post, we’ll outline clearly how you can enter and leave Kosovo legally. We’ll also point out a couple of travel circumstances that might cause issues.
In short, however, entering Kosovo legally is not that complicated. Once you get a deeper understanding of the geography and border situation of Kosovo, Serbia, and the other surrounding Balkan countries, you’ll clearly see what your options are.
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How To Enter And Leave Kosovo Legally From Serbia Or Other Countries
There are two main options to enter and leave Kosovo legally: directly via Kosovo’s borders with Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia or via the Pristina airport for those not planning to visit Serbia, and entering from Serbia and leaving back to Serbia if you plan to visit both countries.
The first one is entering Kosovo and leaving Kosovo without crossing any other borders in the meantime. Option number two is entering Kosovo via Serbia and going back from Kosovo to Serbia via the Kosovo-Serbian border.
The authorities in Serbia do not consider the designated crossing points with Kosovo to be official international border crossing points. You cannot travel from Kosovo to Serbia without a Serbian entry stamp from Belgrade, Niš, or Kraljevo airports or one of Serbia’s other border crossings with neighboring countries.
They regard Kosovo as a Serbian region. In their eyes, there is no Kosovo-Serbia border because they consider both regions to be one and the same country.
However, because the Serbian authorities do not manage the border between Kosovo and its neighboring countries, they won’t have a record of anyone entering Kosovo (and, in their eyes, Serbia) that way. This may cause problems if you want to travel from Kosovo to Serbia later on since you won’t have a Serbian entry stamp in your passport.
To avoid this immigration problem, you can choose between the following two options to enter and leave Kosovo legally.
Option 1: Enter Kosovo And Leave Kosovo Via Non-Serbian Borders
The best option for people who only want to visit Kosovo and not go to Serbia later on.
This is definitely your best option if you just want to visit Kosovo and not continue to Serbia. You can enter Kosovo without any problems via its border with Montenegro, Albania, and North Macedonia or via the airport in Pristina, the country’s capital.
When you do that, you’ll get a Kosovo entry stamp in your passport (so, not a Serbian one). Since, to Serbian authorities, there won’t be a record of your legally entering Serbia this way, you might have trouble crossing the Kosovo-Serbia border. Just driving in Kosovo and even (re)visiting neighboring countries (but not Serbia!) won’t be an issue whatsoever this way.
There’s an easy way to circumvent this potential problem, though. When you enter Kosovo via one of its neighboring countries, you can simply leave via one of those three borders, too. This way, you’ll have both an entry and exit stamp of Kosovo in your passport.
Steps To Enter And Leave Kosovo Legally Via A Non-Serbian Border
- Enter Kosovo legally via the Pristina Airport or a border with Montenegro, Albania, or North Macedonia. You’ll get a Kosovo entry stamp in your passport
- Travel around Kosovo without visiting Serbia
- Leave Kosovo legally via the Pristina Airport or a border with Montenegro, Albania, or North Macedonia. You’ll get a Kosovo exit stamp on your passport
You do not need a visa to enter or travel through Kosovo as a visitor. Officials will issue a 90-day entry stamp, which is renewable for longer stays. Citizens of EU member states can enter Kosovo on a photo ID card.
If traveling by land to Serbia from Kosovo, you should transit first via a third country such as Albania, North Macedonia, or Montenegro. Don’t attempt to enter Serbia directly from Kosovo, unless you have a valid entry stamp from the Serbian immigration authorities showing that you initially travelled into Kosovo from Serbia.
Additionally, it’s important to note that EU residents with an EU ID card won’t have any issues with any of Kosovo’s borders—both Serbian and international. This is simply because those ID cards are not stamped upon entry or exit. With an EU ID card, you can cross all Kosovo borders freely and unrestrictedly.
Option 2: Enter Kosovo From Serbia And Leave Via Serbian Border
The best option for travelers who want to visit both Serbia and Kosovo.
Your second option to enter and leave Kosovo legally is via Serbia, which considers Kosovo to be one of its regions. When you enter Serbia lawfully and get a Serbia entry stamp, you can freely travel back and forth to Kosovo across the (unofficial) Kosovo-Serbia border.
Once you’re in Serbia—via the airport in Belgrade or one of its many borders with Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, or Bosnia-Herzegovina—you can go to Kosovo and back as often as you’d like. (You won’t get a Serbia exit stamp when you travel from Serbia to Kosovo.)
In case you’d like to revisit Serbia later on, we recommend leaving Serbia via one of its official border checkpoints. This can either be the Belgrade Airport or a border crossing with one of those numerous neighboring countries.
The reason for this is that when you leave Kosovo (and not Serbia), you’ll have a Kosovo passport stamp that shows your exit (and not a Serbian one). This way, there’s no record of your leaving Serbia, which could make it seem like you overstayed your visit in Serbia.
This second option is arguably your best one since there will not be any record of your ever having entered Kosovo at all in your passport. You won’t have Kosovo passport stamps, which may avoid potential problems if you’d like to revisit Serbia at some point in the future.
Steps To Enter And Leave Kosovo Legally Via Serbia
- Enter Serbia legally via the Belgrade Airport or from one of its neighboring countries. You’ll get a Serbia entry stamp in your passport.
- Enter Kosovo via the (unofficial) Kosovo-Serbia border
- Exit Kosovo via the same (unofficial) Kosovo-Serbia border
- Leave Serbia legally via the Belgrade Airport or a border crossing with one of the neighboring countries. You’ll get a Serbia exit stamp in your passport.
NOTE: Again, EU residents with an EU ID card can cross all Serbian and Kosovar borders freely and won’t experience any trouble on the way because they won’t have any immigration stamps. So, entering Kosovo from Serbia and all other cross-border movements should not pose a problem for EU residents.
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Entering And Leaving Kosovo: The Bottom Line
Simply put, most international travelers will always be able to enter Kosovo legally. Whether it’s via an international border with Montenegro, Albania, or North Macedonia or via the Kosovo-Serbia border, getting into Kosovo is not an issue.
It’s leaving Kosovo that could cause a problem, but only in one case. If you’d like to travel from Kosovo to Serbia after entering Kosovo first, you might be turned away because you’ll have a Kosovo entry stamp and not a Serbian one.
You can avoid this issue by leaving Kosovo the same way you entered, either via an international border or via Serbia. So, to summarize, you have two options:
- Enter Kosovo and exit Kosovo legally via Pristina Airport or a border with Montenegro, Albania, or North Macedonia without visiting Serbia.
- Enter Kosovo and exit Kosovo via the Kosovo-Serbia border in Serbia (and arrive and leave Serbia via the Belgrade Airport or a border with one of its neighboring countries).
I guess serbia has internally agreed that Kosovo is separate country. I am indian passport holder and I decided to go to Kosovo from serbia, but serbian officer denied me the exit/entry, saying that I should have valid schengen visa to enter kosovo. Firstly, If serbia consider kosovo as their part then why would I require visa to go to kosovo. That’s kosovo immigration headache that I have valid visa or not. Secondly, I have a valid USA visa and I should get entry for 15 days as per kosovo visa regulations. Ridiculous border rules.
Oh yikes! That is ridiculous!
It seems he wanted to collect bribe from poor Indian.
Question:
Since Serbia doesn’t stamp EU ID cards ( and possibly passports),is travel to Serbia onward from Kosovo possible without hinderance?
Serbia does not recognize its border with Kosovo as any legitimate border. They regard Kosovo as a Serbian region. In their eyes, there is no Kosovo-Serbia border because they consider both regions to be one and the same country.
Because the Serbian authorities do not manage the border between Kosovo and its neighboring countries, they won’t have a record of anyone entering Kosovo (and, in their eyes, Serbia) if you go to Kosovo first – so this may cause problems if you want to travel from Kosovo to Serbia as you wont have a Serbian entry stamp in your passport. If you plan to go to both places, go to Serbia FIRST – get your stamp/record and be safer.
I travelled to Kosovo from Serbia in 2018. And I left Kosovo for N. Macedonia. I had a multi-entry Schengen then. Obviously, I do not have a Serbian exit stamp in my passport. Instead, I do have a Kosovo stamp. My question is if I would face problems when I enter Serbia via Belgrade airport or any other international borders (excluding the one with Kosovo that Serbia does not recognize)?
Thank you for your post! It has been really useful.
I want to enter Kosovo from Albania, and then go to Serbia, and finally exit Serbia to Bosnia or Montenegro, all by land.
Do you think getting out from Serbia by land will be impossible? Or can I get my passport stamped in the Serbian-Kosovo land borders?
Thanks again!
Contrary to what the article states, there aren’t more than 100 countries that recognize Kosovo. Wikipedia itself only lists 98, with however some of such claims disputed.
98 member states, plus Taiwan, Cook Islands and Niue last I checked.
Is a Covid test required going from Kosovo to Serbia?
My question is: If I enter in Kosovo, get a ‘entry stamp’, leave the country and get a ‘exit stamp’ and later on enter in serbia through any other borders, will I have any problem to enter in serbia if they see a kosovo stamp in my passport?
I followed your advice and entered from Macedonia into Kosovo and from Kosovo into Serbia just using my German EU ID (Oct 2021).
Even though we got through, traveling with EU ID seems not to be as easy as told in the article. As expected, there were no problems with the Kosovo Police (in fact, they were really welcoming), but the Serbian police officer at the Merdare border was very rude and shouted something at us in Serbian what we didn’t understand (so far, no problem, he let us through).
What was the problem is, that they seemed to register me electronically or something like that, because exiting Serbia (to Hungary) was problematic then. We were asked from where we entered Serbia (of course we said Macedonia) and then after looking at her computer, the Serbian police officer pulled us to the side. After letting us wait for 30min not even letting us leave the car, someone came to us and said they wanted to do a routine check. Then we waited for another 30min until they completely raided my car in search for drugs as they said (of course with some breaks in between). While waiting, they stood in front of my car waving their night sticks around and treated us really disrespectfully. After 2 hours they gave us the ID cards back and let us leave but since all of this happened directly after scanning my ID card, I’m sure, it was because they knew we visited Kosovo before.
We don’t look suspicious at all (I think) and neither of us has a Serbian or Albanian/Kosovo background. We are just tourists traveling the Balkans region and despite one Albanian customs officer who routinely checked my car, we never had problems crossing one of the 11 borders in the region.
So even though I don’t have proof and can’t even know whether everyone will have problems traveling between Kosovo and Serbia with EU ID, I for myself can’t recommend it at all. Next time, we would enter Serbia “cleanly” with our passports and with a proper entry stamp.
Thanks for the feedback, and for sharing your story. Glad you made it through in the end – despite the terrible experience. I have heard similar stories before – you have to remember that Serbia does not recognize Kosovo and tensions are very high.
Whoops, i realized too late that I don’t have a Serbian exit stamp as I exited via Kosovo. I would love to visit Serbia again but since my passport is expiring soon, it would be with an empty future passport. Do you know if this would resolve my problem? If Serbian border control have another way to know I did not (in their eyes) officially leave? Thanks!
Thanks alot