Before you start

Residence permit and white card
Employment with Serbian payroll, or voluntary contributions
RFZO health booklet or card
Registration with a doctor at your local dom zdravlja

Step-by-step

1
Confirm your employer has registered you with RFZO
Employment triggers compulsory pension, health and unemployment contributions — around 19.9% from the employee and a further amount from the employer. Health registration should follow automatically; check in the first month, because a delay for a foreign employee is common and silent.
Via employerWho: YouFirst month
2
Check whether a bilateral social security agreement covers you
Serbia has social security agreements with many European and other countries which can affect contribution liability, healthcare access and pension aggregation. This is the EU-coordination substitute and it is genuinely useful — but it is country-by-country, so establish your own position rather than assuming.
OnlineWho: You
3
Register with a doctor at your dom zdravlja
The local health centre covering your address is the entry point to the state system: a chosen general practitioner, referrals and prescriptions. Registration is a short procedure with your health card and address details.
In personWho: You
4
Set up private cover or a clinic relationship for routine care
Belgrade has a dense private clinic market with same-week appointments and prices well below Western Europe. Many employers provide private packages. Even without one, paying privately for routine consultations while relying on the state system for serious care is the normal pattern.
Via employerWho: You
5
Arrange your own insurance if you are not employed here
Company directors, freelancers and residents on property or family grounds must arrange contributions or private insurance themselves. Residence does not confer cover, and Serbia will not accept an EHIC in place of it.
OnlineWho: You
6
Track winter air quality and act on it
Belgrade's air during cold, still winter spells is among the worst in Europe. Readings are published and widely followed. An air purifier at home and a habit of checking before outdoor exercise are the practical responses; this is a real health factor rather than a talking point.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

RFZO health card or booklet
Residence permit and white card
Employment registration confirmation
Private insurance documents, where held
Evidence of any bilateral social security agreement coverage

Things most newcomers don’t know

Your European Health Insurance Card does not work in Serbia, and people find out in a clinic.

The EHIC covers the EU, the EEA and Switzerland. Serbia is in none of them. An EU national arriving in Belgrade with an EHIC and no other cover is an uninsured self-payer for anything other than emergency stabilisation. What partly replaces it is Serbia's network of bilateral social security agreements, which for some nationalities gives access on presentation of a specific form obtained before travelling — but that is a different document from the EHIC and has to be arranged in advance.

Source: RFZO

Belgrade's winter air quality is a genuine, measurable health issue rather than an urban grumble.

During cold, still December and January periods, temperature inversions trap emissions from household solid-fuel heating in the surrounding settlements, older vehicles and regional power generation, and Belgrade repeatedly appears at or near the top of global live pollution rankings on those days. It is not constant and summer air is fine. But for anyone with asthma, young children, or a running habit, an air purifier and the habit of checking readings before going out are worth more than any other health precaution you will take here.

Source: community-reported; published air quality monitoring

Private healthcare here is cheap enough to change how you use healthcare.

A specialist consultation, an ultrasound or a set of blood tests in a Belgrade private clinic costs a small fraction of the Western European equivalent and is generally available within days. The consequence is that residents use private care for things they would have waited months for elsewhere, and reserve the state system for hospital-level treatment. Newcomers who assume private means expensive spend their first year on public waiting lists unnecessarily.

Source: community-reported

Serbia's bilateral social security agreements are the substitute for EU coordination, and they matter for pensions too.

Because Serbia is outside EU social security coordination, contribution years accrued here do not automatically aggregate with EU ones. Serbia's bilateral agreements with individual countries do that work instead, covering healthcare access, avoidance of double contributions for posted workers, and pension aggregation. Anyone spending several years here with a career elsewhere should check whether their home country has one, because the answer determines whether these years count later.

Source: RFZO