Belgrade, Serbia

The short version: Timothy John Byford (wiki, official website) is a British TV director, author and educator who moved to Belgrade back in 1971 to help the Yugoslav national TV make some children’s TV shows. And he did – he is the author of some of the most legendary and memorable children’s series’ ever created in Yugoslavia. Mr Byford has been living in Yugoslavia/Serbia for past 40 years but as it turns out, he can’t retire because he still doesn’t fulfill all the requirements for a Serbian pension. He got his Serbian citizenship only some six years ago, after president Tadic virtually ordered the Serbian state bureaucracy to grant him that privilege. After a public outburst upon hearing this news, I’m sure that mr Byford will receive a national pension by a special procedure for all his extraordinary work in these areas.

All this bureaucratic hullabaloo reminded me of some conversations with fellow foreigners I’ve had here in Belgrade. I asked several friends from abroad who have been living here for some time if they ever thought of getting a Serbian citizenship, just for fun, and nobody really knew the procedure for that sort of thing. Let’s put aside the fact that not so many people would need our citizenship in the first place, but let’s say that someone does. So I decided to check on the net how difficult it can be to become a Serbian.

After surfing a ton of forums that have enormous amount of info on how to emigrate from Serbia, but not so many info on the other way around, my little research on this topic leads me to believe that the only way you can get a Serbian citizenship is:

1) if you are born in one of the former Yugoslav countries
2) if some of your ancestors was Serbian and you can prove it
3) if you once had Serbian citizenship but you lost it and you want it back
4) if you are an athlete with extraordinary skills (
5) if you marry someone who already has Serbian citizenship
6) if you are really really hot, like Adriana Lima (and marry someone who has Serbian citizenship)

What I don’t understand is this how to get it if you are none of these things. It seems to me that a person can’t automatically become Serbian after living and working here legally after, say five or ten years, which is strange because it would mean that it’s easier to get an American or Japanese citizenship than Serbian. Someone correct me if I’m wrong – You will surely help all those thirteen people out there looking for this answer.

photo credit: Aleksandar Anđić, Vreme

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