stay and work permit
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | dozvola za boravak i rad as of 2026-08-15[3][8] The Act's own term for the single permit; art. 91(2) issues it as a residence card, with employer, occupation and job named in a separate certificate (potvrda). |
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| Official name (English) | stay and work permit as of 2026-08-15[6] The Ministry's own English rendering: 'A stay and work permit is a single permit that allows third-country nationals to temporarily stay and work in the Republic of Croatia.' |
| Legal basis | Zakon o strancima (NN 133/20, 114/22, 151/22, 40/25, 55/26), čl. 88., 91., 92., 92.a, 97.–99. i 103.a–103.f as of 2026-05-27[8][9] Art. 97 sets the conditions of issue; art. 98 the labour market test; art. 99 the employer conditions for a positive Croatian Employment Service opinion; art. 91 the procedure and the terms of validity; art. 92 renewal; art. 92a (added by NN 55/2026) the Croatian-language condition; arts. 103.a-103.f unemployment, change of employer, change of occupation, additional work and appropriate accommodation. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2025-03-07[8] Art. 91(2): the permit is issued as a residence card (dozvola boravka) under art. 3(1)(9). |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-15[6] Nationals of EEA member states and their family members may work in Croatia without a stay and work permit or a work registration certificate; the Ministry treats the Swiss Confederation the same way throughout the work chapter. The sources do not use bloc names themselves. |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source No minimum age is stated for this permit in the sources retrieved. |
| Criminal-record condition | Yes as of 2026-08-15[5][7] Art. 59(1)(5): on a first application, proof of no final conviction in the home state or in a state of residence of more than one year immediately before arrival. The Ministry's instruction for employers repeats it and confirms it is required only on the first application. Posted workers, students, researchers and intra-corporate transferees using EEA mobility are exempt. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 3 years as of 2025-03-07[8] Art. 91(10) first indent as substituted by NN 40/2025: the permit is issued for the term of the concluded employment contract and at most three years, on first issue under art. 97 and on extension. The same ceiling applies where the employer is a temporary employment agency (second indent). |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the contract |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2025-03-07[3][8] Art. 92(1): an application to extend for the same employer, the same occupation and the same third-country national is lodged at the latest 30 days before the permit expires, at the police administration of the holder's place of residence, which decides before the current permit expires. No labour market test and no Employment Service opinion is required for that extension (art. 97(7)). A 'renewal' involving a different employer goes back through the Employment Service platform as a new application. The holder may stay and work until the decision is enforceable (art. 92(5)). |
| Renewal duration | up to 3 years as of 2025-03-07[8] Art. 91(10) first indent applies the same contract-term-and-at-most-three-years rule to extensions. |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2026-08-15[6][8] A third-country national may work only in the jobs for which the permit was granted and only with the employer named in the certificate. Within the permit's validity the Act now allows a facilitated change of occupation with the same employer (art. 103.c), a facilitated change of employer (art. 103.d) and additional work for a second employer (art. 103.e), each on a fresh Employment Service opinion and a new certificate. Art. 103.a allows the holder to be unemployed, once or cumulatively, for no longer than 60 days inside the permit's validity, and to look for and take work during that period; that condition governs the current permit and has no schema field of its own. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-15[2][7] Time on a stay and work permit is lawful temporary stay and counts in full toward the five years of uninterrupted lawful stay required for long-term residence; the country-level record carries that default. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2025-03-07[8] Art. 97(3)(1): a concluded employment contract is attached to the application. The contract must not contain discriminatory terms placing the worker in a worse position than other workers in Croatia (art. 97(8)). |
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| Salary threshold |
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| Labour-market test | Yes as of 2025-03-07[3][8] |
| Qualification requirement | degree, equivalent experience, regulated profession, none as of 2025-03-07[8] Four alternative positions, all in art. 97. Ordinary hires: proof of meeting the education level, qualification, work experience and any other conditions the employer stated in the labour market test (art. 97(3)(2)). Shortage-list occupations: proof of the competences needed for the occupation, shown by appropriate work experience or by completed education (art. 97(4)). Simple occupations on the shortage list for which no full secondary-level qualification is needed under the Croatian Qualifications Framework: neither work experience nor completed education has to be proved (art. 97(5)) – the reason 'none' is in this array. Regulated professions: a decision recognising the foreign professional qualification (art. 97(6)). |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2025-03-07[8] Art. 99(1) conditions the Employment Service's positive opinion on the employer: economic activity in a registered sector, no public-charge arrears, at least one Croatian, EEA or Swiss worker employed continuously full-time and indefinitely for the past year, no final conviction for offences against employment relations, social security or general safety, no final sanction for the gravest employment, social-security or occupational-safety offences, turnover in the last six months of at least EUR 10,000 a month for a legal person or EUR 15,000 over the period for a natural person, and absence from the undeclared-work register. Art. 99(9) and (10) add a ratio: Croatian, EEA or Swiss full-time employees must be at least 16 % of the number of third-country workers, or 8 % for shortage-list occupations. Art. 95 requires the employer to pay one average monthly gross Croatian salary into the state budget where it obtains a permit for a worker entering on a visa and then does not employ them. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-08-15[4][8] |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2025-03-07[3][8] Art. 58(1): the application is lodged at a Croatian diplomatic mission or consular post. Art. 58(2): a third-country national who does not need a visa to enter may lodge it at the police administration or station of the intended place of stay, the employer's seat or the place of work. Where a labour market test is required the employer files through the joint Croatian Employment Service / Ministry platform. |
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| Statutory processing time | up to 15 days as of 2025-03-07[8] Art. 91(7) as substituted by NN 40/2025: the Ministry must decide an application under art. 97 within 15 days of a complete application. The police administration notifies the applicant within five working days if the application needs completing (Ministry instruction for employers). The Croatian Employment Service must report the result of the labour market test within 15 days of the employer's request (art. 98(5)), and that clock runs before this one. |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-05-27[1][9] Family reunification with the holder of a stay and work permit is possible but gated: art. 63(2) as substituted by NN 55/2026 allows it only where the sponsor has held temporary stay in Croatia continuously for at least two years. The Ministry's English page still states the earlier one-year rule. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, unmarried partner, minor child as of 2026-08-15[1][7] Art. 64(1): spouse, common-law partner, and the minor children of the spouses or partners including each of their own and adopted minor children who are not married. The fourth limb of art. 64(1) – a parent of a minor child – is available only where the child is a Croatian citizen or holds long-term residence, permanent stay or protection, so it is not available to the family of a work-permit holder. Art. 64(2) allows another relative on special personal or serious humanitarian grounds. |
| Family may apply at the same time | No as of 2026-05-27[9] Art. 63(2) makes the family member's application depend on two completed years of the sponsor's own temporary stay, so a simultaneous family application is excluded for this route. |
| Family members' work rights | authorisation required as of 2025-03-07[6][8] Art. 89(1) lists the categories that may work without a permit or a work registration certificate. Family reunification appears there only where the sponsor is a Croatian citizen, or a third-country national with long-term residence, permanent stay, asylum or subsidiary protection, or an EU Blue Card holder, or an intra-corporate transferee, or a person with long-term residence in another EEA state. A family member of an ordinary art. 97 permit holder is not in that list and needs a permit or a certificate of their own. Art. 71's general statement that family-reunification holders have the right to work and self-employment is expressed 'in accordance with the provisions of this Act', which is what art. 89(1) then narrows. |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 9 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 9 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2025-03-07 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-15 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Temporary stay for the purpose of family reunification
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-15 - [2] Long-Term Residence and Permanent stay
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-15 · Archived copy - [3] Radne dozvole – dozvole za boravak i rad
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-15 · Archived copy - [4] Temporary stay of third-country nationals
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-15 · Archived copy - [5] Uputa za elektroničko podnošenje zahtjeva za dozvole za boravak i rad državljana trećih zemalja
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-15 - [6] Work of third-country nationals
Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-15 · Archived copy - [7] Zakon o strancima (Aliens Act), NN 133/2020
Narodne novine (Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia) / Hrvatski sabor · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2020-12-04 · Accessed 2026-08-15 · Amended by hr-zakon-o-strancima-114-22, hr-zakon-o-strancima-40-25, hr-zakon-o-strancima-55-26 - [8] Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o strancima, NN 40/2025
Narodne novine / Hrvatski sabor · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2025-03-07 · Accessed 2026-08-15 - [9] Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o strancima, NN 55/2026
Narodne novine / Hrvatski sabor · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2026-05-27 · Accessed 2026-08-15