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Flag of Croatia

Croatia

Temporary Stay of Digital Nomads

PR: NoUTC+2

The requirements

Programme status
Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income
$3,985 a month
Required savings
None
Annual total
$47,820
Initial duration
12 months + 6-month extension
Family allowed
Yes
Apply online
Yes

€3,622.50/month (2026), or €65,205 lump sum; +10% per family member.

How this figure is set: A formula in law, so the amount moves when its base moves. The wording on the source is: 3622.5. Formula: 2.5 x average monthly net salary of previous year (per Croatian Bureau of Statistics) = EUR 3,622.50/month in 2026; lump sum EUR 43,470 (12 months) or EUR 65,205 (18 months); +10% of avg net salary per family member.

Income confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Aliens Act (Zakon o strancima) and Regulation on means of subsistence for third-country nationals, Official Gazette 14/21 and 3/26.

Does this lead to permanent residence?

No pathway. Max 18mo total, forced 6-mo gap; can't reach the 5-yr continuous residence PR needs.

Zakon o strancima (NN 133/20, as amended) defines dugotrajno boravište (long-term residence) as requiring 5 continuous years on a temporary residence permit. MUP's own digital nomad page confirms the permit is capped at 18 months total with a mandatory 6-month gap before reapplying, which structurally prevents 5-year continuity. No statutory clause was found naming digital nomads specifically as excluded (a secondary source cites an Art. 78-area exclusion list for seasonal workers, au pairs and service providers, not nomads) — the 'No PR' conclusion rests on the permit's duration/gap structure, which is inference, not a stated legal bar.

Pathway confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07

Where it is

Zagreb sits at 45.81° N, 15.98° E.

Croatia picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Zagreb. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC+2 Zagreb (Europe/Zagreb)

The country

Region
Europe · Balkans
Capital
Zagreb
Currency
EUR
Schengen area
Yes

Next door

Croatia shares a land border with these.

Hungary and Slovenia are in the Schengen area, as Croatia is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.

What it costs to live there

$1,269 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Croatia spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Zagreb
$1,237 / month incl. rent
of which rent $550
Split
$1,064 / month incl. rent
of which rent $480

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • Croatian official
  • English widely spoken

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

Who can apply

Kinds of work covered
employee, freelancer, business owner

Third-country nationals only: EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not need it and cannot use it. The employer, or your own company, must not be registered in Croatia, and must not perform work or provide services to employers in Croatia.

Eligibility confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
Ministry of the Interior digital nomads page: 'A DIGITAL NOMAD IS a third-country national (this means a non EU/EEA/Swiss citizen)' working for 'a company or his own company that is not registered in the Republic of Croatia and does not perform work or provide services to employers in the Republic of Croatia'; the proof of purpose accepts an employment contract, a service contract or the registration of your own company.

Where you apply from

There are two routes in, and where you are decides which one you use.

Either at a Croatian mission abroad, which also issues the long-stay D visa you need to travel in, or at the police administration for where you will live once you are in Croatia. The route decides the price: EUR 189.88 through a mission against EUR 87.59 inside the country, because the in-country route has no visa to buy.

Where you apply confidence: high · checked 2026-09-19
Read 2026-09-19 from the MUP portal and fee schedule this row already cites and that apply_steps records (verified 2026-09-12): the steps name both the police administration and the missions, and the fee note itemises the two totals separately.

Say where you are now and this names your country.

How to apply

  1. Check you clear the requirements above — $3,985 a month is the figure this row records.
  2. Gather what the official page asks for:
    • copy of a valid travel document (i.e. passport)
    • proof of health insurance for the period of time that you plan to be in Croatia
    • proof of purpose: statement from the employer or third-country national, and contract of employment or service contract with a foreign employer, or copy of the registration of your own company
    • proof of means of subsistence (money to support yourself) during your stay
    • proof that you have not been convicted of criminal offences from your home country
    • provide address in the Republic of Croatia
    Documents confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
    Ministry of the Interior digital nomads page (mup.gov.hr, stranci/digital-nomads). Wording is the page's own.
  3. Apply in this order — the ministry page above describes the permit, these are where it is submitted:
    1. MUP digital nomads portal: the application form ↗The Ministry of the Interior takes the application here directly, online. This is the government’s own portal rather than a description of one.
    2. Police administration for where you will live ↗If you are already in Croatia you file with the police administration covering your intended address, and this is the cheaper of the two routes by a wide margin — see the fee note.
    3. Croatian embassies and consulates ↗From outside Croatia the same application goes to a mission, which also issues the long-stay D visa you need to travel in. That visa charge is what makes this route cost roughly twice the other.
    Portals checked 2026-09-12
    Checked 2026-09-12 against the MUP page the row already cited, which names all three places the application can be filed. Recorded because where you file changes what you pay and not just how long it takes.
  4. Pay the filing fee. Itemised, and it depends on where you file. At a mission abroad: EUR 55.74 for the temporary stay approval, EUR 93.00 for the long-stay D visa and EUR 41.14 for the biometric residence card — EUR 189.88 in all. At a police administration inside Croatia: EUR 46.45 for the approval, EUR 9.29 administrative fee and EUR 31.85 for the card (EUR 59.73 if you want it in a hurry) — EUR 87.59, less than half, because there is no visa to buy. Paid by bank transfer to the IBANs the page lists.MUP fee schedule for digital nomads ↗ · checked 2026-09-12
  5. Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
  6. Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

MUP nomad portal ↗

Foreign remote income tax-exempt; MUP online portal.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .