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I read:

The biggest problem is that Serbia does not admit 3rd party nationals who are entering from Kosovo if their passport bears evidence (stamps) of having first entered Kosovo from outside of Serbia (i.e. from Albania, Montenegro or North Macedonia.

Why doesn't Serbia admit 3rd party nationals who are entering from Kosovo if their passport bears evidence (stamps) of having first entered Kosovo from outside of Serbia?

Franck Dernoncourt
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    This is quite common: See also the countries who do not allow you to enter if you have previously entered Israel or Azerbaijan banning people who have previously been to Nagorno-Karabakh. I'm sure there are more examples. – xyldke Jan 10 '23 at 11:00
  • Huh. Is that new? I travelled Montenegro -> Kosovo -> Montenegro -> Serbia back in 2016 without difficulty. – Roddy of the Frozen Peas Jan 10 '23 at 21:34
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    @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas did your passport bear evidence (e.g., stamps) of having first entered Kosovo from outside of Serbia? – Franck Dernoncourt Jan 10 '23 at 21:38
  • @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas Wouldn't that not be entering Serbia from Kosovo, but rather from Montenegro? – Solomon Ucko Jan 11 '23 at 13:33
  • True, but I was under the impression this whole discussion was about the fact that having a Kosovo stamp would cause the Serbian border guards to reject you, kind of like how certain middle eastern countries will reject your entry if you have an Israeli stamp. The Serbia-Kosovo crossing was closed at the time (or, at least, they wouldn't sell me a bus ticket), so I wasn't able to try that route. (And in Serbia they wouldn't sell me a bus ticket to Kosovo either; it's a real mess, tbh.) Or maybe how much the border guards care has changed (or how vigilant they are). – Roddy of the Frozen Peas Jan 11 '23 at 16:07

1 Answers1

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From a legal POV, it makes sense.

Imagine that the US government finds that you, as a foreigner, went into Texas without getting approved by the CBP. That would show that you did illegally enter the USA, and would probably ban you from entering the USA for a time.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence. So, if they have evidence that you illegally entered Serbian (from their POV) territory, they refuse you to enter again.

In general, these things are a balance between showing off the seriousness of your claim (to the international community, to your population and to the other country), damaging the other country (tourism, etc.) and the damage to your own country.

SJuan76
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