Guide · Admissions
Moving to Belgrade mid-year: can your child start in January?
Which schools take a child mid-year, how long it takes, what to have ready before you arrive, and the one part of the system that does have deadlines.
Updated August 2026 · schools' own pages read 24 August 2026
Yes — almost every international school in Belgrade will take a child mid-year if it has a place. Admission here is rolling rather than seasonal, so there is no closed window to miss. Chartwell states explicitly that it can accommodate a child arriving in the middle of the year; Brook Hill, Westbridge, EDUCA and Crnjanski all admit year-round; Ruđer Bošković asks you to nominate your own start date. The constraint is not the calendar. It is whether a seat exists in your child's specific year group on the day you want to start — and, if you are enrolling in the Serbian state system instead, a set of fixed statutory dates that do not bend.
Which schools take a child mid-year
Every private international school in Belgrade admits year-round. What differs is how long the process takes once you make contact — and that is the number that matters when you are landing in three weeks.
| School | Mid-year entry | How long it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Chartwell | Explicitly accommodates mid-year arrivals | Usually a couple of days |
| Brook Hill | Year-round, all age groups | Not published |
| Westbridge | Applications open for all semesters | Usually a few days |
| EDUCA | Rolling | Not published |
| Crnjanski | Enrolment open all year | Not published |
| Ruđer Bošković | You nominate a desired start date | Documents due within 14 days |
| International School of Belgrade | Ongoing intake, no deadlines | Minimum three weeks from a complete application |
| PRIMA | Gated on a place in the year group | Not published |
| British International School | No published deadlines | Begins with an admissions conference |
| International School Savremena | Rolling | Not published |
| Deutsche Schule Belgrad | Transfer students assessed individually | Language test required for non-native German speakers |
| École française de Belgrade | Pre-registration window in February for the following year | Placement test for children from a non-French system |
From each school's own published admissions information, checked 24 August 2026. Where a school does not publish a timescale we say so rather than estimating.
What to have ready before you arrive
The single most useful thing you can do is get the paperwork moving before you fly. Two items in particular take longer than families expect and hold everything else up.
- School reports, officially translated into English. ISB asks for the previous three years. Sworn translation in Serbia takes days you will not have, and doing it in your departure country is usually faster and cheaper. Start this first.
- Vaccination records. Not a school preference — under Article 32 of the Law on Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases, children must be vaccinated to remain in preschool and school institutions in Serbia, except where a doctor certifies a contraindication. Get the records in a form a Serbian doctor will accept before you leave.
- Passport and birth certificate for the child; passports or, for Serbian citizens, ID cards for the parents.
- Any individual education plan or record of learning support. Disclose it at the first conversation.
Several schools will start the process on scans and complete it when you arrive. Ask — it can save a fortnight.
The part of the system that does have deadlines
If your child is going into a Serbian state school rather than an international one, the picture reverses: there are real deadlines and they are statutory.
- Choosing a school outside your catchment requires an application to that school by 1 February, with an answer due by 30 April, under Article 55 of the Law on Primary Education and Upbringing.
- Grade 1 enrolment ran through the eUprava portal from late March, with testing and enrolment slots from 1 April to 31 May in 2026.
- Secondary allocation happens in a compressed window at the end of June through the national portal.
Arriving outside those windows does not lock a child out — schools take transfers — but it does mean less choice about which school. Our admissions calendar sets the two systems side by side.
The one that catches people later
Moving a child out of an international school and into the Serbian system, or on to a Serbian university, requires recognition of their foreign qualifications through the Agency for Qualifications. The statutory deadline is 30 days from a complete submission, and a primary certificate must be recognised before a child enrols in a Serbian secondary school. Families arriving straight into an international school rarely meet this; families who later switch almost always do, usually at the worst moment. If there is any chance of it, start early.
Questions families ask
Can my child start at a Belgrade international school in January?
Yes, at almost all of them. Admission in Belgrade is rolling rather than seasonal — Chartwell states explicitly that it accommodates mid-year arrivals, and Brook Hill, Westbridge, EDUCA and Crnjanski all admit year-round. The constraint is whether a place exists in your child's specific year group, not the date.
How long does it take to enrol in a Belgrade school?
It varies more than you would expect. Chartwell says a couple of days. ISB requires a minimum of three weeks from a complete application. Ruđer Bošković wants documents within 14 days of applying. Several schools publish no timescale at all. Assume three to four weeks and start the translations first — they are usually the bottleneck.
What documents do I need to enrol a child mid-year in Belgrade?
Passport and birth certificate for the child, parent identification, school reports from the previous two to three years officially translated into English, and vaccination records — vaccination is a legal condition of school attendance in Serbia, not a school preference. Bring any individual education plan and disclose additional needs at the first conversation.
Is it harder to get a place mid-year in Belgrade?
Not in principle — schools admit year-round — but it is more luck-dependent, because you are relying on a specific seat being free in a specific year group at a specific moment. Applying to three or four schools in parallel is normal here and considerably improves the odds.