How to obtain Croatian citizenship

Author: Azur Prnjavorac, attorney at law and mediator · Last updated: 5 September 2026

How the office works: Law Office Prnjavorac obtains from registry offices and courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina the documents that go with an application for Croatian citizenship: birth and marriage certificates, certificates of citizenship, certificates of no criminal record, certifications and the Apostille. The application itself is conducted through an associated law office in Zagreb. Our office has been a member of the Croatian Bar Association since 2007 and has been handling citizenship matters for three decades.

Acquiring Croatian citizenship is a common goal for people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and the wider diaspora. Below are answers to the questions we are asked most often about the requirements and the procedure, and an account of how a lawyer can help. A separate page sets out the engagement of our office in acquiring Croatian citizenship together with the text of the 2021 amendments to the Law on Croatian Citizenship.

The four ways of acquiring Croatian citizenship

Under the Law on Croatian Citizenship (Narodne novine nos. 53/91, 70/91, 28/92, 113/93, 4/94, 130/11, 110/15 and 102/19, as amended in December 2021), Croatian citizenship may be acquired in four ways:

• By descent, that is on the basis of a parent who was a Croatian citizen at the time of the birth.
• By birth in the territory of the Republic of Croatia, on the conditions the law lays down, where a child is born or found there.
• By naturalisation, that is admission to citizenship on application, where the prescribed requirements are met as to age, residence, language and the rest.
• Under international treaties, in the particular cases such treaties provide for.

Alongside ordinary naturalisation the law provides privileged grounds for members of the Croatian people, for emigrants and their descendants, and for spouses of Croatian citizens. For most of our clients from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and the diaspora it is precisely those privileged grounds that matter, because they dispense with the language test, with prior residence in Croatia and with release from the existing citizenship.

Acquisition by descent, through a parent

A child acquires Croatian citizenship by descent where both parents were Croatian citizens at the time of the birth, whatever the place of birth. The same applies where one parent was a Croatian citizen and the child was born in the territory of Croatia.

Where one parent was a Croatian citizen and the child was born abroad, the child is likewise entitled to Croatian citizenship by descent, but the child has to be registered as a Croatian citizen. Under the guidance of the competent ministry that registration is to be applied for before the child reaches the age of 21, through a diplomatic or consular mission of Croatia or through a registry office in Croatia. The procedure may be conducted through a consulate or in person in Croatia, and the earlier it is started the better.

The special windows for persons over 21 have closed. Article 5(2) of the Law allowed a person over 21 born abroad, one of whose parents was a Croatian citizen at the time of the birth, to acquire citizenship by descent by applying for registration in the records of Croatian citizens within a set period after the Law entered into force. Article 30a(2) treated as a Croatian citizen a person born between 8 January 1977 and 8 October 1991 whose parents both held Croatian citizenship at the time of the birth but who has another citizenship entered in the register, again on an application made within a set period. The December 2021 amendment replaced the two-year period in both provisions with three years, with effect from 1 January 2022, which moved the closing date to 1 January 2023. That date has passed and neither window is open. A person over 21 in that position today has to be assessed on another ground, most often membership of the Croatian people.

In short, descendants of Croatian citizens by blood are entitled to citizenship, and for children born outside Croatia the registration procedure should be started as early as possible.

Emigrants, their descendants and members of the Croatian people

Croats abroad and their descendants have easier conditions for acquiring Croatian citizenship. The 2019 amendments to the Law liberalised the position considerably: the earlier generational limit was abolished, so it no longer matters how many generations back the Croatian ancestor lies, and the requirement of knowledge of the Croatian language and culture was abolished for emigrants and their descendants.

In practice this means that members of the Croatian people abroad may acquire Croatian citizenship without the usual language test, without prior residence in Croatia and without renouncing their existing citizenship.

What has to be proved is the Croatian origin, that is membership of the Croatian people. Evidence used for this purpose includes:

• documents in which the applicant, or a parent, grandparent or other ancestor, declared themselves as Croat in legal dealings;
• extracts from the registers of births or marriages recording nationality, an old domovnica, a work or military service book, school certificates and university records;
• evidence of active participation in Croatian cultural, scientific or sporting associations abroad;
• for emigrants, a certified copy of an old travel document or other public document showing that the ancestor emigrated from Croatia, together with the genealogical documents linking the applicant to that person.

The older and the more consistent the documentation, the stronger the ground. It matters that the ancestor emigrated before 8 October 1991, or was a member of the Croatian people in the former Yugoslavia, and that the family relationship is documented.

Acquisition through marriage to a Croatian citizen

Marriage to a Croatian citizen is a privileged ground, but it comes with a condition of residence. A foreign national married to a Croatian citizen who has been granted permanent residence in Croatia may be admitted to citizenship by naturalisation although the ordinary requirements of Article 8, points 1 to 4, of the Law are not met.

In practical terms, the spouse of a Croatian citizen who lives in Croatia and holds permanent residence does not have to wait out the eight years of residence, does not have to sit the language and culture examination and does not have to renounce the previous citizenship. What matters is that the marriage is lawful and that the foreign spouse respects the legal order of Croatia, meaning no relevant convictions, no outstanding tax or other public dues and no security objection.

Where the couple live outside Croatia, marriage alone confers no automatic right to citizenship. In practice such an applicant is expected to move to Croatia and obtain permanent residence before applying on that ground.

The requirements for ordinary naturalisation

For foreign nationals with no entitlement by descent or through marriage, Article 8 of the Law lays down the general requirements, which must be met cumulatively:

• Age and capacity: the applicant has reached the age of 18 and has legal capacity.
• Release from the existing citizenship: the applicant has been released from the existing citizenship, or produces evidence that release will follow on acquisition of Croatian citizenship. Where a state does not permit renunciation or attaches conditions that cannot be met, a written statement undertaking to renounce the foreign citizenship after acquiring the Croatian one is enough. Where release has not yet been obtained, a guarantee of admission may be issued, valid for two years.
• Residence: the applicant has lived in Croatia continuously for at least eight years as a registered resident, holding temporary and then permanent residence, before the application is made.
• Language and culture: the applicant knows the Croatian language and the Latin script, and the basic facts about Croatian culture and social order. This is checked by examination at the police administration. Persons over 60 are exempt from that examination.
• Conduct and security: the applicant respects the legal order of Croatia, which covers the absence of convictions for serious criminal offences, settled taxes and other public dues, and the absence of any security objection.

Where a foreign national meets all of these and files a complete application, the Ministry of the Interior may issue a decision admitting the applicant to Croatian citizenship.

The Croatian language and culture test

Knowledge of the Croatian language, of the Latin script and of the basics of the culture is one of the standard requirements in ordinary naturalisation. The culture test is a questionnaire of 15 questions drawn from a bank of 110, completed unaided in the presence of an official within 60 minutes, and it is treated as passed with at least 10 correct answers. Basic ability to communicate in Croatian must also be shown, and knowledge of the language may equally be proved by a document, for example a certificate at B1 level or schooling in Croatian.

There are important exceptions. Persons who acquire citizenship on the privileged grounds, that is emigrants, their descendants and members of the Croatian people abroad, are released from the requirement of proving knowledge of the language and culture. The legislature abolished that requirement for those categories in 2019 precisely in order to make the return of emigrants easier. Persons over 60 are exempt from the examination by law.

So an applicant with no Croatian roots should expect to have to show knowledge of the language and to pass the culture test, while an applicant of Croatian origin or from the diaspora may obtain citizenship without any language test, on appropriate evidence of Croatian identity.

Dual citizenship and release from a previous citizenship

Croatia permits dual citizenship in many situations. On the privileged grounds of naturalisation there is no need to renounce the other citizenship. That covers acquisition through marriage to a Croatian citizen, emigrant status or membership of the Croatian people, the interest of the Republic of Croatia, and minor children included in a parent's application.

For citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular: Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia have a treaty on dual citizenship, signed in 2007 and ratified in 2011, which expressly allows a person to hold both citizenships at once. A citizen of BiH who acquires Croatian citizenship does not automatically lose BiH citizenship, and BiH does not require renunciation on that account. The same applies in the other direction. Bosnia and Herzegovina has treaties of this kind with Serbia and Sweden as well.

For a foreign national who does not fall within a privileged category, by contrast, Croatian law formally requires release from the previous citizenship, or at least evidence that release will follow. The exceptions above apply where release is impossible or the home state does not allow it, in which case a statement of renunciation after acquisition of Croatian citizenship suffices. Because the answer turns entirely on the ground of the application, the ground has to be settled at the outset.

Where the application is filed and how the procedure runs

An application for Croatian citizenship is filed in person, which means the applicant signs and lodges it personally. There are two routes, depending on where the applicant lives:

How long the procedure takes

The length varies considerably from case to case. On average the procedure runs from about six months to two years, and in complex cases longer. Some applications are decided within six months to a year, others wait much longer.

Several factors bear on the length: the complexity of the case, the workload of the competent departments, and any checks or requests to complete the file. If a document is missing, or the file shows that further verification is needed, for example establishing the facts of descent or a security check, the procedure is extended. Changes in the law and the deadlines they set can also produce a surge of applications in a short period, and the administrative load then slows everything down.

In extreme cases the process has run for years. Those are exceptions. With the documents properly collected and the requirements met, the expected duration is around one to two years. A file that is complete and correctly filed from the outset is the single best protection against delay caused by formal defects.

The documents required

The basic set of documents is:

• the completed application form for admission to citizenship, obtained from the Ministry of the Interior or the consulate, together with a curriculum vitae setting out the reasons for the application;
• an extract from the register of births, and for a married applicant a marriage certificate as well;
• evidence of the current citizenship, for example a certificate of citizenship or a copy of a valid passport or identity card;
• a certificate of no criminal record from the competent authority of the applicant's state, and of the state of residence where that is a different one, as a rule not older than six months and accompanied by a certified translation into Croatian;
• a certified copy of a photographic identity document;
• evidence of payment of the consular or administrative fee.

Depending on the ground of the application, further documents are added:

• As a member of the Croatian people or a descendant of an emigrant: evidence of Croatian origin, that is older documents in which the applicant or the applicant's parents or grandparents were declared as Croat, an old domovnica, a work or military service book, school certificates, and evidence of active participation in Croatian cultural or sporting associations in the diaspora.
• As an emigrant or the descendant of one: evidence that the ancestor emigrated from Croatia, such as a certified copy of an old travel document or other public document, together with the genealogical documents connecting the applicant to that person.
• As the spouse of a Croatian citizen: the marriage certificate, a copy of the spouse's document evidencing Croatian citizenship, and evidence of the foreign spouse's approved permanent residence in Croatia.
• For minor children acquiring citizenship with a parent: their birth certificates, and the written consent of the other parent where that parent is not covered by the application.

Documents from abroad are submitted in the original and in copy, with a certified translation. Documents issued in Bosnia and Herzegovina normally require certification or an Apostille before they are used in Croatia.

Fees and charges

Where the application is filed in Croatia, the administrative fee is paid on collection of the decision. Where it is filed abroad, a consular fee is paid on lodging the application. The administrative fee for a decision admitting an applicant to Croatian citizenship currently stands at 139.36 EUR under tariff number 9 of the Regulation on the tariff of administrative fees, and no fee is charged where the application is refused. Consular fees abroad differ from post to post and the amounts change from time to time, so the exact figure should be checked with the competent authority. Alongside the fees, allow for the cost of obtaining the documents and of certified translations.

What Croatian citizenship brings: the domovnica, the passport and EU rights

Admission is followed by the solemn oath and the decision on admission, on the basis of which the domovnica is issued. The domovnica is the public document by which Croatian citizenship is proved, and citizenship is also evidenced by the identity card or the passport.

A Croatian passport is at the same time citizenship of the European Union, which carries the right of free movement, work, study and residence in the countries of the EU and the European Economic Area. For most applicants that is the principal motive.

How a lawyer helps in the procedure

Legal assistance is not formally required, but it is of considerable use. The procedure can be involved: the legal grounds have to be understood, the right documents collected, the forms completed and the application followed through the administration. Errors or omissions in the documentation lead to delay and sometimes to refusal.

Law Office Prnjavorac has specialised in citizenship matters for more than 30 years. Through an associated law office in Zagreb we represent clients from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and the wider diaspora in proceedings for the acquisition of Croatian citizenship.

What we do: we advise on and assess the entitlement to Croatian citizenship on the ground of descent, marriage, residence or origin; we collect and certify the documentation, complete the application and draft the curriculum vitae or supporting letter; we follow the file with the Ministry of the Interior through the associated office in Croatia and respond to requests to complete it; and we advise on preparing for the language and culture test where it applies, and on the practical steps that follow, from the payment of fees and the taking of the oath to obtaining the domovnica and the passport.

Related work of the office covers the acquisition of BiH citizenship, the renunciation of BiH citizenship and the subsequent registration of facts in the civil registers of BiH, which is often the first step where the ancestral documents are missing.