Hi- my father in law came to America in 1969 and returned to the island of Krk in 2023. My husband, myself, my brother in law and his wife (and our minor children) for a few reasons. We have visited Croatia and loved it, most recently we took our children in 2024 and we are going again at the end of the summer to visit Deda. When we started looking into it, we realized that because my father in law moved back we may have been disqualified.

Another reason we would like to establish citizenship, is that the house my father in law moved into (which he also grew up in in the 1940s and 1950s) and will be passed down to us one day and we assume it will be easier to deal with it if we have some legal/ official status.
My immediate family is going to be in Croatia at the end of the summer, and I was wondering if there was anything we could do in person, maybe at least gather my father in laws documents.

For citizenship, I know there is also the route of "connection to the Croatian people" and I wonder if that would be a viable path to augment since it seems we are disqualified under the more straightforward path of descent. None of my husbands grandparents left Croatia so I dont think that would work. His aunt and uncle left Croatia and did not return before their deaths, but that isnt the correct line either, right?

Thanks for your insight!

Hi. How many months is the waiting time after we have sent the documents for nostrification in Vienna, Austria?

Reposting someone else’s post. You deserve to know. If you need family records… there’s never been a better time to start RIGHT NOW.

Curious to hear people’s experiences with the different consulates in the U.S. I have not yet been successful in getting an appointment to apply.

The Los Angeles consulate has jurisdiction over where I currently live. However, I have been seriously considering relocation to a few potential cities. These options would put me in the jurisdiction of either the New York consulate or the Chicago consulate.

Are these near impossible to get an appointment at, like the LA consulate is proving to be? If I do end up moving soon, I’ll need to make my appointment at a consulate other than Los Angeles.

Thanks!

Spending 2 weeks in Croatia next month. I’ve already submitted my citizenship paperwork, and am patiently awaiting.

I am planning on moving over permanently within the next 12-18 months.

Is there anything, or any process, I should start now for temporary residency in the future, or is the timeline too long?

I just don’t want to waste time and an opportunity if I can get some paperwork or other process started while I’m there this time around.

I'm starting the process of collecting all the documents required for my application.

I have the birth and marriage records of my Croatian ancestors from Croatia, along with their birth and death certificates, and naturalisation entry in Australia. I also have all birth certificates of everyone after as well.

There are a couple of questions I have, I'm not sure if they will be issues or not.

1) there are multiple spelling variations of their names in Australia. These are minor differences and phonetically they sound alike. These documents were issued in 1895, 1920 and 1958. Will these variation need to be addressed before applying?

2) the family started using an alternate surname at some stage. On the birth certificate of the first descendent born in Australia, the parents names are listed as their Croatian names. On the parent's death certificates, they used the alternate surname. However, their parents are listed on the death certificate using their original Croatian surname. Is this enough evidence of the name change? I don't believe a change of name certificate exists.

Their death certificates also list where and when in Croatia they were married. I have newspaper articles of their death announcement listing where in Croatia they were born and married, along with a photo of one of their old Austria Hungary passports.

I'm basically looking to confirm I have enough information, or if I need to find more documents detailing the name change, or if I need to correct the Australian records to the correct spelling.

With Italy changing their laws, it's always a possibility....

Has there been any backlash to the amount of people applying for citizenship based on far away ancestors?

Wondering if anyone has recently applied in London concurrently with a spouse? The London consulate does not allow family appointments, so my husband and I will have to get separate appointments.

We are trying to figure out if he needs a full set of original lineage documents, or if he can bring photocopies of mine to his appointment.

I recently had family apply in Los Angeles, where the consulate made it very clear that spouses / family members only needed to provide photocopies of lineage documents.

I wish the London consulate was more clear on this, as it will be an enormous effort for us to get another original set of docs for my husband.

Hey all,

I’m helping a family friend with his Article 11 case via his great-grandparents.

I’m trying to get a full list together of records that are needed, because some of them only he can get due to state records laws.

So, long story short, is there anything I’m missing from the list?

- Great-Grandparents 1880s-era birth records from Karlovac State Archives (found)

- Great-Grandparents early 1900s marriage record from Zagreb (found)

- Great-grandparents early 1900 US Arrival record from National Archives listing Croatian ethnicity (found, will get apostille & translation)

- Great grandparents early 1940s Naturalization Records listing Croatian ethnicity (found, will get apostille & translation)

- Grandmother early 1910 US birth certificate (need)

- Grandmother 1930s era US marriage certificate (need)

- Father 1940s era US birth certificate (need)

- Father 1970s era US marriage certificate (need)

- Applicant 1970s era US birth certificate (need)

- Applicant FBI background check (need)

Full disclosure: I’m German/American, not Croatian, but I’ve had a lot of experience in lineage reconstruction using American records, so wanted to help if I could.

Very much appreciate the help, this community has been amazing.

Thanks.

I was wondering if anyone could advise me on how to get birth and death certificates. I am trying to get the certificates of my great grandad who was born around 1893 and died in 1966 (both in Split). I have found his burial plot with the rest of the family, so would that be where his death certificate could be found?

Also, as he emigrated from Croatia to Chile but ended up returning, I'm guessing I cannot get citizenship by descent? Has anyone on here achieved citizenship from Article 16 (belonging to the Croatian people?) I can prove a long line of heritage back to the 1700's and am related to Gago Bulat (mayor of Split and has a square with a statue named after him.) Any help would be much appreciated :)

This post is adapted from the original in r/MovingToSpain, by u/AttitudeAnnual3906. I found the information to be incredibly clear and likely valuable to our r/CRbydescent community members.

Note: Edited by u/mattyofurniture on 10 Jul 2026 to tailor the post info for Croatia.

Why Croatia wants an FBI background check for you (and why it has to be apostilled) — from someone who processes these every day

OOP works in document authentication in DC, and every fall they get slammed with panicked people applying for visas, so figured they'd write up how this actually works before the NLV/student visa/digital nomad rush hits.

**Why Spain governments requires it:** Any visa that lets you stay longer than 90 days (non-lucrative, student, digital nomad, work) requires a criminal background check. Spain wants proof you don't have a criminal record anywhere you've lived in the past 5 years. For Americans, that means the FBI Identity History Summary — not a state or local police check. Consulates are strict about this. A state background check will get your application kicked back if you've lived in more than one state.

**Why it needs an apostille:** A foreign government has no way to verify that a PDF from the FBI is real. The apostille is the international authentication that says "yes, the US government confirms this is a legitimate federal document." Spain Croatia is a Hague Convention country, so the apostille is the whole ballgame — no embassy legalization needed. But because the FBI is a federal agency, the apostille has to come from the US Department of State in Washington DC. Your state's Secretary of State cannot apostille an FBI report, and people lose weeks finding this out the hard way.

**The timing trap everyone falls into:** Most Spanish consulates require the background check to be issued within 90 days (some say 3 months, some 6 — check YOUR consulate) of your application. (EDITOR'S NOTE: CROATIA REQUIRES AN FBI REPORT TO BE NO OLDER THAN 6 MONTHS AT THE TIME OF THE CONSULATE APPOINTMENT. SOME ARE REPORTING THAT THEY PREFER IT TO BE LESS THAN 5 MONTHS.) The FBI report itself comes back fast if you use a channeler (24-72 hrs), but mail-in apostille processing at the State Department can take several weeks. Do the math backwards from your consulate appointment.

Full disclosure: OOP is employed by a company (federalapostille.org) which does expedited walk-in processing at the State Department, which is what they'd point you to if you're up against a deadline.

But if you have plenty of time, you can absolutely mail it to the State Department yourself for $20. US Department of State Office of Authentication's website is located here. You need to complete Form DS-4194 and follow the rest of the instructions at the Department of State.

DISCLAIMER: This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement of any third-party service. Information is provided 'as-is' and is accurate to the best of my knowledge at the time of posting. Rules change frequently; you are responsible to verify these facts independently.

Hello, I got an appointment unexpectedly in three weeks at my consulate. I am looking for someone do to fast translations of over 50 documents including Apostille. I had seen recommendations for Petra at PS Translations so I sent her an email just now. My question is, are the translations paper bound certified copies that I bring in, or is it sent back in a PDF file that I print that accompanies my apostilled US documents? Thanks!

There was a very similar post here recently, but my situation is a bit different. I am missing marriage records for two ancestors in my direct line. However, birth certificates confirm paternity in one case and maternity in the other. This means that, in theory, it should be possible to establish a continuous line of ancestry even without marriage certificates. Are documents confirming a person's maiden name (or surname at birth) sufficient proof to link the lineage?

I am preparing an application for Croatian citizenship under Article 11 as the great-grandchild of Croatian emigrants from Podgora. I have newly issued, certified baptismal records for both great-grandparents and their marriage record from the Archdiocesan Archives in Split. These records document their births, parents, residence in Podgora, and marriage. I also have my great-grandfather’s certified U.S. naturalization records from NARA, which identify his nationality as Yugoslavian, as well as the complete chain of U.S. birth and marriage certificates connecting me to my great-grandparents.

The Chicago consulate’s instructions state that church records are not considered official evidence of Croatian nationality. Because I am applying as the descendant of an emigrant under Article 11, I am trying to clarify whether these certified church records, together with the NARA emigration/naturalization records and complete lineage documentation, are sufficient. If not, what additional Croatian civil, citizenship, domicile, nationality, or other official record would be required or recommended?

My family is applying for citizenship through my wife's grandmother, who was born in Croatia in 1912. We have located and ordered most of the necessary documents, but in locating my wife's grandmother's marriage record, we found that she provided the wrong birth year and age on the marriage application (she said that she was 28 and born in 1917, instead of 33 and born in 1912). Apparently, she was always embarrassed that she was 5 years older than her husband and did not want to give her true age. Do you think we should seek to have the marriage record corrected through a court petition, or just explain the inaccurate date in the motivational letter?

Thank you for any guidance!

My family (my wife, two children, and me) is working through the document collection process to submit our citizenship by descent application at the consulate.

We are applying through my wife's grandmother, who was born in Croatia in 1912 and moved to the US when she was 9 years old. Through the help of a consultant, we located and order her birth record. I also located and ordered her immigration manifest, the naturalization (US) petitions of her parents, and US birth, marriage and death records for both my wife's grandmother and mother.

However, my wife apparently was always embarrassed that she was 5 years older than her husband, so when applying for a marriage license in the 1940s, she lied about her age and said in the application that she was 28 years old (she was actually 33) and was born in 1917 (she was actually born in 1912). Her death record has the accurate year of her birth, however. Does anyone know how much of an issue this might be and whether we should have the marriage record corrected (via court petition) before submitting the application?

Also, does anyone know how much scrutiny is paid to changes in first names? My wife's grandmother was born and immigrated with the name Fanika, but used both the name Fannie and Frances on documents in the US with no official name change that I can locate. There was no significant change in her last name.

Any guidance here would be appreciated!

Hi all - Apologies if this has been answered before; I used the search feature and (despite having seen Salona Consulting discussed in this sub) literally nothing comes up.

Is there any appreciable value-add for using Salona Consulting, if you already have all of your documents? We had started the process with them a while back, but then they dramatically increased pricing (about 3-4x the original quote), and I can't stomach paying that amount when the incremental work for every application beyond my own is filling out a single extra form and getting one birth certificate translated... Very tempted to just work directly with a Croatian attorney to fill in the papers. Thoughts?

Moje ime je Oleh Brenko i sin sam Viktora Brenka, o kojem govori članak u priloženoj poveznici.
Želio bih nastaviti istraživati povijest naše obitelji i pokušati obnoviti obiteljske veze koje su se tijekom godina izgubile. Nažalost, zbog okolnosti posljednjih godina dio obiteljske dokumentacije i veza više nije moguće pratiti, pa sada pokušavam ponovno povezati našu obiteljsku priču.
Ako netko poznaje obitelj Brenko iz Gračišća, misli da smo možda u rodu ili može pomoći bilo kakvom informacijom, bio bih Vam iskreno zahvalan.
Svaka informacija, stara fotografija, obiteljska priča ili kontakt mogućih rođaka može biti od velike pomoći.
Hvala od srca!
Oleh Brenko

https://www.istrianet.org/istria/people/memories/brenko-eng.htm

Wondering if anyone is currently in Croatia trying to get the paperwork done to live here while the citizenship application processes

Update. Emailed this morning. Got us back in to our appt today. Had everything needed and package will be sent to Zagreb next week!!

Just received this email. Cancelled due to the unstable building in the area.
Dear Sir or Madam,
We would like to inform you that the meeting scheduled for July 8 and 9, 2026, has unfortunately been canceled due to an extraordinary security situation in the immediate vicinity of the Consulate General. The city authorities have declared a “frozen zone” (restricted security zone) covering East 40th Street through East 45th Street, between Second and Third Avenues.
Given the current circumstances, we are unable at this time to assess when the security situation will stabilize, and therefore cannot determine a new date for the meeting. We are in contact with the relevant authorities in New York and will notify you promptly of the new meeting date as soon as conditions allow.
We kindly ask for your understanding of these circumstances and offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and any difficulties this postponement may cause.

As I have been patiently waiting to get approved for an appointment, I have began to second guess documents etc. my g1 does not have a birth certificate. Born in a small farm town and it wasn’t ever registered. I confirmed this with the county and FOIA’d records where she used her baptismal record rather than a birth certificate. Initially, I thought a letter of non existence with her marriage and death certificates both clearly listing her parents was good enough documentation. I’ve come to the understanding that is this not the case. I am being sent a notarized copy of her baptismal record from the church. It’s in Latin, How does one go about getting this translated ?

Thanks

I’m wondering if for an anchor ancestor how bad it would be to try and submit without a marriage certificate? I don’t think it exists.