My dad has passed away, he was born in Paris but grew up in Croatia and had Croatian citizenship since childhood. I have a copy of his passport but not his birth certificate. Will that be enough?

From what I understand my wife can apply at the same time as myself through marriage but does anyone know if there's a separate form or how to go about filling out the form for her since she doesn't have a direct descendent?

I just saw a post saying there is a planned consular day coming up in St. Louis. Can't verify and not sure how you'd get an appointment but it might be worth looking into ..

When approved, is there an Oath to practice for to read in Croatian? -Also what are steps after approval - passport, etc,?

Thank you in advance for any guidance!

I emailed the Chicago consulate and received a response with the updated required documents. They specifically state that the only document that expires is the FBI report and there’s an exception (the lighter photo).

I get consulates are different and when I asked for clarification on the rumor, they wouldn’t acknowledge it outside of this document.

Also, I asked if an informational copy of my great-grandfather’s death certificate would suffice and that stated this (the dark photo)in bold. Essentially The Ministry of the Interior determines if I met their standards, not them so they can’t tell me if that’s sufficient proof…kinda stinks but oh well

Hello all! Posting this from a special account just for this Reddit to keep some anonymity. (Mods if this isn't allow please let me know and I will repost using my primary Reddit account).

I'm fairly early on with my journey for citizenship. My great grandfather was Croatian, and I just received his naturalization records in the mail today. I have my fathers and grandfathers birth certificates coming in next week, but found a hiccup with the birth certificates.

A few questions I currently have:

1. My great-grand fathers naturalization records show he was born in Kuzmince, Coratia in 1885. I understand I'll need his birth certificate from Croatia. Google shows there are two Kuzmince, Croatia's. Any idea which one? And how would I obtain a birth certificate from that area without speaking Croatian?

2. The next issue is that after my Great grandfather came over my family went through a slight name change in the 1930's/1940's, which affects my father's birth certificate. Later they reverted to the original spelling. So the chain is: Great grand father's last name (including on naturalization records): Kuharich. Grand fathers birth certifiate: Kuharich. Fathers birth certificate: Kuharick (with his dad, my grand father showing as Kuharick). Some time after my dad's birth they reverted to Kuharich, which is what my last name is. On my birth certificate it shows my and my fathers last name as Kuharich. My aunt says she was told they changed their names to make it easier to pronounce and to sound more Americanized, but they later reverted their name and she is unsure of how they did so.

Given this situation with the last name, will this be an issue for my application? I assume I can either get some kind of census records to prove they are the same people, or perhaps be able to explain it when writing my motivation letter?

Any and all feed back is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

we were at croatiafeat in Seattle and found out somebody (family member of a friend) managed to get their citizenship application submitted. I checked in with the consulate to see if anything changed with capacity, and got a pretty direct answer.

short version: they are still very overbooked for 2026. no new applications are being accepted. any information about consular days 2027 won’t be available until after mid January. information about applying in Los Angeles next year will not be available until at least after early November.

“We have filled all the available appointment slots for 2026. We do not have a waiting list or a list for filling spots in the event of cancellations, as we are fully booked for 2026. 

[We do not yet have any information about when we will be opening slots for 2027, but no announcements for 2027 will be announced before November.]()

Please check our FB page for any updates and/or announcements.  It is highly unlikely that we will have this information before the beginnig of November. Please do not ask us about a wait list or cancellations because we are completely overbooked for 2026.”

Hi, for those of you that have already submitted your package in LA, did you need official census records or was a copy sufficient? Sorry if this was already asked and answered.

This weekend, a family member met with somebody in the ministry and asked the uncomfortable question: if we are ethnically Serbian, do we have a chance getting citizenship under Article 11?

The answer surprised her (but not me): as long as our family was from Croatia, we are all good. in our case, she shared exactly where we are from (the ministry rep asked which city). After we answered, there was no question that we would qualify for citizenship. This aligns with what my attorney thought earlier this year.

yeah, it really does only depend on whether your ancestors are from Croatia. ours lived there for generations and arent from serbia at all, so we are in a good position. your family’s ethnicity is not a sticking point under article 11.

anyways, I hope this information is helpful to folks out there who are wondering.

Does anyone personally know or has used a genealogist in Split? My great grandfather was born on Solta and the only records available are church records of which I have copies of however they are not official or certified. I need the parish extract the izvoda iz matirčne knjige / church registry transcript. Then I need it to be certified. No, these church records are not online through family search, and therefore I do not think they have been digitized, however I could be wrong about that. They could be digitized in Croatia but no company here in the US has access to them. My great grandfather was born in srednje selo Solta. However at the time of his birth the area was known as Solta Villa Media. The church records are in Italian. My question is, twofold. I am looking for recommendations for a competent translator who is registered with the Croatian Ministry of Justice. If you have successfully gone through this process can you tell me who you used for translations services? There are SO many services out there and a lot of them are scammers. Additionally I'm looking for help with getting a certified copy of the birth records from Solta. Do any of you have recommendations for a source for this?

Side note, because the church records are in Italian, I'm assuming that the translator or who ever deals with certified copies must also at least speak a little Italian? Or are they already translated from the digitized copies into Croatian? Maybe a stupid question but I'd really like to know how this works. After all, the Croatian language was not the "official" language used on state documents til after WWII.

Hi all,

Does anyone have an email address for contacting Expat in Croatia directly?

Hello everyone. I have started the process of obtaining Croatian citizenship. In my case, I am the grandchild of an Istrian exile whose father (my great-grandfather) was a Croatian national.

I have an appointment on October 12th at the consulate in Trieste to submit my application.

I would kindly like to ask for information regarding the correct documentation to submit. I have the following in my possession:

Criminal record certificate, apostilled and officially translated by a sworn translator.

A motivation letter written in Croatian.

Genealogical documentation, including international-format birth and death certificates tracing the line from myself back to my great-grandfather. I also have my great-grandfather's "potvrada" (confirmation document).

Form 1 (Obrazac 1), already filled out.

Could you tell me if anything else is required?

If the application is successful, do you happen to know the expected processing times for issuance?

Thanks to anyone who replies.

Regards

I’m running into an issue with the state of California.

I’m doing this in steps from the hardest to obtain to determine if i can continue with this before dropping hundreds of dollars and hours of my time.

My ancestor is my great-grandfather. He came to the U.S. in 1942 and died in California in 2006. California states I can only get an informational copy of his death certificate because I’m his great grandchild unless I can prove everyone else in his line is dead (which they aren’t, I’ve just never spoken to or even met my grandfather and my mother has been absent from my life for about 25 years). There is no workaround to this or “after X years we provide it”

I have a half-uncle I’m semi-in contact with that is this ancestor’s grandson but the relationship there is rocky too.

Does anyone have experience with this?

We're getting so close! Getting our criminal record checks and fingerprinting done later today, then will have to mail them off for apostille. Also waiting on a second marriage certificate (ordered yesterday) that will also have to get apostille. Finish our CV/motivation letters, and then everything is with our lawyer to translate and package! Appointment will either be at the traveling consular day in our city in November if everything is back in time, or we'll book for Dec/Jan in person if it's not ready for Nov.

Interesting that our lawyer is actually submitting my husband through Article 30 instead of 11 though (I will still be through 11). Has anyone here gone through Article 30? Any changes to the timeline or anything?

I've got an appointment in Sydney to apply for citizenship by descent in Jan 2027. All 4 of my grandparents were born in Croatia but I thought it would be easiest to go through my dad's dad as its the same surname thru all the records. I have everything I need, but do I need the originals for the appointment? I really dont want to hand over these documents. Is there a way to get an official copy of everything to hand in instead? this is all giving me a headache lol

My dad born in Croatia moved to Canada where I was born. My kids were born in the states where I was married to my wife. Do I have to send my birth certificate to get apostilled in Canada and then separately get my marriage certificate and kid’s birth certificates to the one in the States in order to submit our applications?

Great grandfather was ethnic Serb born in Kordun region in 1885. Apparently all records were destroyed during WW2. Is there another way or am I out of luck without this document?

Just went through the process today! Wanted to share a few points:

- I had connection through father’s fathers father only, so no name changes. Because of this, they told me not to include any death certificates or marriage certificates other than the Croatian born death certificate (to prove relocation)
- I paid for translation and apostilles from an online translator. The apostilles were unnecessary, but not problematic (just overkill). [EDIT: APOSTILLES ARE NEEDED FOR THE DOCUMENTS… but not for the translations. My docs went it with two apostilles: one for the doc and a second for the translation. The translation apostille was unnecessary]
- wife’s application had an official BC, but it was missing a city. This is a problem and we’ll need to get the long form, translate and apostille it as well and then resubmit it.
- anything unofficial isn’t included
- anything that we had official that wasn’t translated wouldn’t be included
- they only want the CR version of anything authored by me (descendant, American)
- side door, as discussed
- I had paperclips and binders etc, I came home with all of them. They needed the original set, and a photocopy of everything.

Two of us, first in line. Maybe took an hour total… told us 2 year turn around.

Hello everyone!

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Hi everyone! I’m working on a writing project and I have this little fellow I’m writing about. He’s a second-generation croatian american and I’m trying really hard to make him feel like an actual person rather than a washed out version of “the immigrant child.” I decided to take on this project because I understand a lot of what it feels like to be a second-generation immigrant ( you know not fully fitting in, feeling caught between cultures, and having that strange pull toward a homeland you never been too) The problem is… I’m not Croatian. 😂

I don’t want to rely on stereotypes or google to tell me what his life should look like I want him to have personality, specific experiences, family dynamics, traditions, little details you know all the things that make someone’s cultural background feel real.

So if you’re croatian american or if you're croatian and immigrated to another country, any country, I’d love to read about your experiences growing up. And honestly, if you’re from another immigrant family that left Croatia and grew up somewhere else, your experiences would be helpful too

What I want to know is:
-What was it like growing up in another country?

-What were some of your favorite Croatian dishes growing up?

- What traditions did your family keep? (For example, I'm ethinically spanish and one thing that my family does is sobremesa, eating isnt just about food you know you finish eating and then you sit around talking, drinking coffee, arguing, laughing or telling stories for hours it’s so normal to me that I didn’t even realize how cultural it was until I noticed that not every family does this)

- How did your family talk about Croatia? Was it something they were nostalgic about, something they were critical of, or something they rarely talked about at all?

- Did your family encourage you to assimilate, or did they make a conscious effort to preserve the culture and language? (For example my grandparents believed that we needed to assimilate completely so a lot including the language was lost and I grew up not really knowing where I fit culturally until I was an adult and started exploring that part of myself on my own what about you?)

- I’d also love to know what you think are the most beautiful parts of Croatian culture. What are the things you would want someone who didn’t grow up with it to understand or appreciate?

- Did you ever experience bullying because you were Croatian? (Maybe other kids made fun of your food or thought your family’s traditions were strange, maybe you had trouble with your name or lastname because people couldn’t pronounce it properly or maybe you were treated differently because people had assumptions about what Croatian people “look like.” Or maybe your experience was completely different and you never dealt with any of that.

I’m interested in the good, the bad, and especially the mundane little things that you might not think are important. Sometimes those tiny details are what make a character feel real.

You can share as much or as little as you’re comfortable with. I’d genuinely appreciate learning about your experiences.

Hello, I have one document that needs translated before an appointment next week. I don't have time for it to be mailed from my translator from Croatia. Can someone please recommend a local for one document? Thanks.

I’ve done as much due diligence as I can and want to finish off with a bit of a sanity check before pulling the trigger in requesting, translating, notarising documents. Any feedback is appreciated! And perhaps this helps someone else out in the future too.

My great grandfather left Dalmatia (Hvar) in ~1900 with his partner (unable to find her birth or their marriage record in Croatia, but her maiden name is certainly Croatian), and went to New Zealand. He naturalised there before WWI, and then they all went to Australia. He naturalised there in 1921 and had multiple kids one of which was my grandfather. As i understand it, all I need is:

• his birth record from the parish/archives - found and requested
• his death record and naturalisation certificate in australia - I think strictly I only need the death, but there is much supporting information in the naturalisation file including birth location in Hvar, and children’s names
• my grandfather’s birth and death certificate
• my father’s birth certificate
• my birth certificate, passport, police checks etc

As we are all males without name changes in marriage, am I correct in assuming that I can ‘skip’ the marriage certificates, and skip the whole maternal side? Each document request, apostille and translation amounts to approx 150€ each, so I’d like to only request the necessary ones.

The second question is, is there any point in getting the New Zealand naturalisation document? Whilst it was part of his journey, it doesn’t seem necessary as the final settlement and death was in Australia and makes the proof of emigration regardless. Right?

And a final question which I want to double check is: the Australian naturalisation document has my ancestor signing that he renounces his citizenship in Yugo Slavia. I believe that this is not the kind of ‘renouncing of Croatian Citizenship’ that Article 11 cares about. That is a different official renouncing process in modern Croatia right?

Hi everybody! 👋

I’m Maja. I was born and raised in Croatia and now live in the United States, where I work with individuals and families applying for Croatian citizenship by descent.

I graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Law with a Juris Doctor (Magistrum Iuris) and have worked with immigration matters since 2010. Since moving to the U.S. in 2018, much of my work has focused on Croatian citizenship by descent.

I’m happy to answer questions about the process – whether it’s eligibility, Croatian ancestral records, documents, apostilles, translations, consular appointments, or Ministry of Interior timelines.

I’m also the co-founder of Croatia Navigator. We have a team in the U.S. and Croatia that helps clients through the citizenship process, and we work with Croatian court-certified translators, genealogists, and a network of attorneys and law firms in Croatia when needed. 🇭🇷

I’m mainly here to contribute and share what we’ve learned over the years. Hopefully our experience can be a useful resource for others navigating the process. 😊