December 8, 2021 - In the last two years, 4,903 applications for the Croatian passport were received by the Ministry of the Interior. Of those, 2,982 were submitted by Serbian citizens.
Of the 4,903 applications received by the Interior Ministry this year and last year, Serbian citizens submitted 2,982 applications, followed by BiH citizens with 974 applications, and in the past 30 years 1.1 million foreign citizens have been granted Croatian citizenship by naturalization, Vecernji List reported on Wednesday.
Although it is due to expire in less than a month, on January 1 next year, the Parliament last Friday extended the deadline for submitting applications for Croatian citizenship by another year.
State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior Žarko Katić also stated that 1,923 such requests for the Croatian passport were received in 2020, and 2,980 in the first 11 months of this year, adding that in some consular offices the deadline is several weeks and sometimes several months.
The electronic system of received applications for determining Croatian citizenship enables the provision of statistical data by the parameter of citizenship of the person submitting the application, and not by the place (consular office or diplomatic mission of the Republic of Croatia abroad) of submitting the application.
Who can apply for citizenship?
As a rule, the nationality of the person coincides with the state in which the application was made, with rare exceptions. For example, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Republic of Serbia can also apply in Germany if he is legally residing in that country for work, the Ministry of the Interior told Večernji list, followed by a numerical statement of data on requests received.
Out of the total number of applications for Croatian citizenship (4903) received at the Ministry of the Interior, after the Act on Amendments to the Act on Croatian Citizenship entered into force on 1 January 2020, the largest number of applications were submitted by citizens of Serbia ( 2982 requests), Bosnia and Herzegovina (974), Canada (212), the United States (135), Australia (98), the Federal Republic of Germany (87), Montenegro (77), the Republic of Slovenia (63), the Republic of Northern Macedonia (52), United Kingdom (42), France (18), Sweden (15).
Citizens of some other countries are represented with less than 10 applications for Croatian citizenship (Kosovo, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, etc.), according to a response from the Interior Ministry, Vecernji List reports.
Source: Index.hr
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