ZAGREB, 8 Dec, 2021 - The Croatian parliament on Wednesday confirmed a year-long extension of the deadline for the submission of applications for Croatian citizenship under the current law since the coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult for everyone to apply.

Under the current law, the deadline to apply for Croatian citizenship expires on 1 January 2022, but since the pandemic has made it difficult for many to apply, the law has been amended to extend the deadline.

Under the current law, adopted in 2019, the awarding of Croatian citizenship based on nationality can also refer to persons older than 21 born abroad, on the condition that at the time of their birth at least one of their parents was a Croatian national.

The same applies to persons born between 8 January 1977 and 8 October 1991 whose parents had Croatian citizenship at the time of their birth but who have different citizenship entered in their citizenship data.

In 2020 a total of 1,923 applications for Croatian citizenship were submitted, and in the first 11 months of 2021 another 2,980 were submitted, mostly in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The parliament today also adopted, by a majority vote, a law on renewable energy sources and high-efficiency cogeneration to promote the use of renewable energy sources.

Under the law, Croatia will promote the use of renewables in the heating and air conditioning sector by trying to raise the share of renewable energy by 1.1 percentage points as the annual average calculated for the period until 2025.

The law sets a national goal of making renewable energy account for at least 36.6% of energy consumption in 2030.

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January the 8th, 2020 - I'm back once again with another article attempting to turn the confusing and boring law in Croatia into something (somewhat) readable. Having covered residence, citizenship by descent, citizenship by marriage, naturalisation, special interest to Croatia and much more, I thought I'd explain what the new amendments on the Croatian Citizenship Act actually mean to us mere mortals.

Last year, one of the articles I linked above (how to obtain Croatian citizenship by descent/determining Croatian citizenship) mentioned what was then an upcoming amendment to the Croatian Citizenship Act, due in January 2020. That change has now come into effect.

What does it actually mean?

Last year, the Croatian Parliament put forward a motion to amend the appropriate piece of legislation, which was accepted, these alterations then officially came into force on January the 1st, 2020. 

The amendment states that the right to Croatian citizenship through parentage (descent/origin/ethnicity) has been extended past the age of 21.

You can apply for citizenship under Article 4 of the Croatian Citizenship Act if:

1) At least one of your parents was a Croatian citizen at the time of your birth.

2) At least one of your parents was a Croatian citizen at the time of your birth and you were born in the Republic of Croatia.

3) One of your parents was a Croatian citizen at the time of your birth and the citizenship of your other parent was either not known or they were stateless, and you were born outside of Croatia.

4) You can acquire Croatian citizenship by descent if you were born in another country to one parent who held Croatian citizenship at the time of your birth, and you were registered as a Croatian citizen before you reached the age of 18 (legal adulthood), either in Croatia or abroad. This can also apply if you move to Croatia, or if you wouldn't be automatically entitled to the citizenship of any other country otherwise.

Which one of these laws has been amended, and how does it affect me?

Number 4 of the above bullet points has been amended. This means that the right to apply for Croatian citizenship by descent (origin/ethnicity) is now available to individuals born outside of the Republic of Croatia who are over the age of 21.

The individual in question must still have one parent who was a Croatian citizen at the time of their birth if they submit an application for entry into the register (of births) of Croatian citizens within the next two years.

The Ministry of the Interior (MUP) would still have to determine that there are no legal obstacles standing in the way of the process for acquisition of Croatian citizenship in this case.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for more on Croatian citizenship.