Moving to Croatia

February the 8th, 2023 - In this edition of How to Croatia, I'm going to create a mini series of articles entitled Moving to Croatia, which looks specifically into residence permits and the types on offer for each nationality or work/personal situation. In this article, I'll be looking at third country nationals. Who are third country nationals? Third country nationals are nationals who hold the citizenships of countries which do not belong to the European Economic Area (EEA) and British nationals who did not exercise their right to free movement when the UK was an EU member state. These people…

December the 10th, 2022 - So you've decided to take the plunge and explore living in Croatia. Just as a snail needs a shell, you'll need a house. Here's how to find a Croatian apartment or house, with a few tips and tricks thrown in. If you’ve already applied (and hopefully been granted) residence in Croatia, then you’ve already got a place to live, as you need to have a Croatian address to apply, and you can skip this article. Looking for somewhere to live anywhere can be a task and a half, let alone in a foreign land where…

November the 9th, 2022 - In our latest edition to our How to Croatia series, we look into how to get a personal identification number (OIB) and open a Croatian bank account as a resident. It appears that wherever we may roam on this tiny blue dot taking trips around the sun, we end up ‘roaming’ into a taxman. Croatian taxes are the bane of society for a multitude of reasons, but I won’t get into that now. Once you’ve got your residence permit, you’ll need what’s known as an OIB to be able to work, open a bank account,…

4 November 2022 - Moving to Croatia can be stressful, with many hurdles to negotiate. A new TCN section to ease the pain, Moving to Croatia, starting with how to get connected and the mobile phone package options. In 2022, there are three main mobile service providers in Croatia: T-Mobile (098, 099), A1 (091), and Telemach (095), and two virtual networks, Tomato (092; operated by A1) and bonbon (097). There are two great sites for comparing prices of mobile phone and Internet services, Kompare and Procjenitelj troškova, but both are available only in Croatian. As in most other countries, you…

November the 2nd, 2022 - For foreigners and even those with Croatian citizenship who are moving here, the stress of navigating the sometimes needlessly complicated world of Croatian health insurance tends to come as a surprise... Nobody wants to think of themselves becoming unwell, developing a hernia or breaking a bone, but it happens. You might eat one too many oysters and need to be in extremely close proximity to a very well functioning toilet, you could jump off a rugged Adriatic cliff and land in a less than ideal position in the sea below, or you might step on…

October the 26th, 2022 - In this edition of How to Croatia, we're going to be looking at pets in Croatia and exploring everything from animal welfare laws, vaccines, dog beaches, and adopting stray animals to Croatian dog breeds (because the list doesn't begin and end with the beloved Dalmatian). While the City of Zagreb is dominated by well looked-after small ‘apartment dogs’ such as Lhasa Apsos, Pomeranians, Yorkshire Terriers and mongrels consisting of genetic mixes of everything from the Jack Russell to the Pug, the Dalmatian coast is unfortunately dominated by stray cats and the apparent total inability to…

October the 18th, 2022 - When it comes to the question of how to drive in Croatia, you'll need to pay attention to several road rules and laws that might differ slightly to those of your own country, such as keeping up with traffic updates on road closures due to strong winds like bura on the coast. People always laugh at me when I go on about how good Croatian roads are, but they really, really are. Compared to British roads anyway. The further north you get in the UK, the more track-like they become. The amount of potholes in…

October the 12th, 2022 - Volunteering is always an excellent way of showcasing altruism and selflessness. On the more practical side, it’s often a way into a paid position or simply to beef up the level of experience you have in a particular industry or field on your CV. To volunteer in Croatia, you'll need to get acquainted with some paperwork, nationality depending, of course. When it comes to volunteering abroad, you tend to get back just as much as you give in the form of a wealth of new experiences, the taking in of another culture or language, and…

May the 6th, 2022 - Croatian residence permits come with certain rules when it comes to travelling outside of the country which vary from case to case, nationality to nationality, and reason for applying. Once you've received your first temporary residence permit, be it valid for a year, two years, three years, four or the full five year stretch before you can typically apply for permanent residence, you're faced with certain limitations when it comes to how long you can be absent from Croatia without risking the termination of your permit. The same is true for permanent residence holders, albeit…

January the 12th, 2020 - I've written extensively on the process of gaining residence in Croatia, citizenship laws and processes, from gaining residence in Croatia to naturalising, to citizenship by marriage, descent, special interest, the latest amendments to the Law on Croatian Citizenship and much more, but what about when your residence application is actually approved?  It's surprising how often people find themselves in a bit of a pickle (for want of a better word) when their residence is approved and they're given a little white sheet of paper with a government stamp on it and their name, address and other…