Author
In Croatia, family reunification is regulated by the LITP,[1] as well as by the Law on Foreigners. At the moment, no requirements in relation to waiting periods before a family member of a beneficiary of international protection can apply for family reunification are prescribed nor is a maximum time limit for applying for family reunification prescribed by the legislation. A minimum income requirement is also not prescribed.
A family member for whom reasons exist for exclusion and for reasons of protection of the national security or public order of the Republic of Croatia shall not have the right to family reunification.[2]
The Croatian Law Centre (CLC), in cooperation with UNHCR Croatia, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, created leaflets with information on the procedure for family reunification. The leaflet was published in Croatian, and translated into Arabic, Farsi and English.[3]
In practice, family reunification procedures remain lengthy and highly bureaucratized and beneficiaries of international protection and their family members experience difficulties in managing the procedure without additional support.
In January 2022, CLC started the implementation of the two years’ AMIF funded project “Complementary pathways for Southeast Europe – COMP4SEE”. The project aimed to contribute to the development of complementary pathways by creating new models of private sponsorship and by making and advocating recommendations for improving national systems in the area of family reunification. During 2023, within COMP4SEE project, CLC assisted beneficiaries of international protection and their family members via so called family reunification assistance program (assistance program). The assistance program, in addition to the legal aid component, also included other aspects of support, primarily assistance with the translation of documents and financial support for certain aspects of the procedure (e.g., payment of consular fees or travel expenses).The experiences gained from the implementation of the assistance program indicate major challenges within the system. On the one hand, the clients, and on the other, the embassies’ employees who receive the applications, are not informed about the specifics of the family reunification procedure in the case of refugee families. In addition, the following challenges were mapped: collection of the necessary documents in the family reunification procedure, as well as related difficulties in legalization of documents; difficulties in accessing embassies or external service providers for the purpose of submitting a visa application, high costs of the procedure (translation and legalization of documents, and fees), duration of the procedure, costs of travel to the embassy/external service providers during the procedure and/or to the Croatia.
During 2023, IOM helped the organization Centre for Cultural Dialogue, which assisted clients in family reunification procedures by supporting the preparation of travels (collection of travel documents, organization of medical examination) and by operational escort during travels.[4]
Eligible family members
According to the LITP both refugees (“asylees”) and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection have the right to family reunification[5] with the following family members:[6]
- the spouse or unmarried partner under the regulations of the Republic of Croatia, and persons who are in a union, which under the regulations of the Republic of Croatia may be deemed to be a life partnership or informal life partnership;
- the minor child of the marital or unmarried partners; their minor adopted child; the minor child and minor adopted child of a married, unmarried or life partner who exercises parental care of the child;
- the adult unmarried child of a refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection who, due to his or her state of health is not able to take care of his or her own needs;
- the parent or other legal representative of a child;
- a relative of the first degree in a direct ascending blood line, with whom he or she lived in a shared household, if it is established that he or she is dependent on the care of a refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection.
However, according to the Law on Foreigners,[7] another relative can also be considered a family member of a third-country national who has been granted asylum or subsidiary protection if there are special personal or serious humanitarian reasons for family reunification in Croatia. In order to prove the existence of serious personal or humanitarian reasons for family reunification, relevant documentation must be submitted, to prove family connection between the third country national and the beneficiary of international protection in Croatia, and the proof of existence of serious personal or humanitarian reasons (excerpt from the registry of births, medical and other documentation).[8]
A minor child of a refugee or beneficiary of subsidiary protection who has not formed their own family shall follow the legal status of their legal representative to whom international protection has been granted, on which the Ministry of Interior shall issue a decision.[9] In practice that means that children will be granted asylum or subsidiary protection depending on the status of their parent. However, this is not an automatic process as children should be first granted temporary stay followed by a long term visa to enter Croatia. Once child arrives in Croatia, the parent who has been granted protection submits an application for approval of international protection for the child. The application must be submitted in writing at the Reception Centre for Applicants for International Protection and must contain a signed application of the parent requesting approval of international protection for the minor child in the Republic of Croatia, proof of acquired status (decision granting asylum or subsidiary protection) and the child’s birth certificate or other document showing the relationship with the requested child and full and accurate personal data, including personal name, date of birth and citizenship, and place and country of birth.[10]
In the case of family reunification of refugees or beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, for a person who is unable to obtain official documents to prove a specific family relationship, circumstances shall be taken into consideration on the basis of which it may be assessed whether or not such a relationship exists. A decision to refuse an application for family reunification cannot be based exclusively on the fact that no official document exists to prove a specific family relationship.[11]
Family reunification procedure
The family reunification procedure consists of two stages. First, an application for temporary stay is submitted; once temporary stay is granted, an application for the issuance of a long-term visa has to be submitted.
National legislation provides that in the case of reunification with an asylee or a foreigner under subsidiary protection, the procedure is initiated by a family member of the person who has been granted international protection in Croatia, by submitting an application to the competent Croatian diplomatic/consular representation. In practice, if some problems exist and family members cannot reach the competent Diplomatic Mission, some Diplomatic Missions or Consular Offices of the Republic of Croatia allow applications to be submitted at some other Croatian mission. The application for temporary stay based on family reunification may be submitted via secure postal mail (for example DHL).
The deadline from the Law on General Administrative Procedure is applicable in the procedure for granting temporary stay, which means that the deadline to make a decision and deliver it to the applicant is 30 days from the date of submission of the complete application. In cases of conducting an examination procedure, the deadline is 60 days from the date of submission of the complete application.[12] However, the deadline does not start to run when the application and documentation are received by competent embassy. Decision making on application for temporary stay for the purpose of family reunification is the competence of the police department or police station according to the place of residence or intended residence of the citizen of a third country. Therefore, the above-mentioned deadlines begin to run from the day the complete application is received in the competent police administration or police station.[13] Once temporary stay for the purpose of family reunification is granted, the person has to apply for a long-term visa to enter Croatia. The family member, if over 12 years of age, has to appear in person at the embassy or external service provider to make an application for a visa to enter Croatia and provide biometric data. The legal time limit for issuing the visa is 15 days from the date of submission of the admissible application for a long-term visa. However, this period can be extended up to a maximum of 45 days, if there are justified reasons to do so.[14]
In practice, the whole procedure lasts approximately at minimum six to nine months, and in some cases even a year or more from the date of submission of an application for temporary stay up until the family member come to Croatia.
All family members of asylees and foreigners under subsidiary protection shall regularise their residence pursuant to the provisions of the Law on Foreigners in order to be able to enter Croatia, which means that they should submit an application for temporary stay.
Family members of asylees and foreigners under subsidiary protection who regularise their stay pursuant to the provisions of the Law on Foreigners have to fulfil the following requirements:
- justify the purpose of temporary stay,
- hold a valid foreign travel document,
- when applying for temporary stay for the first time, provide a document proving that s/he has not been convicted of criminal offences by a final ruling, which has been issued by their home country or a country in which s/he has resided for more than a year immediately prior to arriving in the Republic of Croatia, however this proof does not need to be submitted for a third-country national until he/she is 14 years of age,
- has not been forbidden to enter into the Republic of Croatia and stay in the Republic of Croatia, or if no alert has been issued in SIS (Schengen Information System) for the purpose of forbidding his entry,
- does not pose threat to public policy, national security or public health.[15]
However, they do not have to provide proof of health insurance and proof of means of subsistence in order to be granted a temporary stay for the purpose of family reunification.[16] If, during the procedure for granting temporary stay, the close family member cannot provide proof of the existence of a certain familial relationship with a third-country national who has been granted international protection, other proof of the existence of such relationship can also be taken into account, which is assessed in line with the legislation governing the general administrative procedure.[17]
A temporary stay permit shall be issued with a period of validity of up to one year and the validity of the foreign travel document should be for three months beyond the period of validity of the temporary stay permit.[18] However, in practice, the validity of one year of temporary stay is running from the day of granting, meaning that a few months of one year validity can pass before a person actually arrives in Croatia.
According to the Ministry of Interior, there were 39 applications for family reunification in 2018. 29 applications were approved and 10 were still pending at the end of 2018.
In 2021, total of 60 applications for temporary stay were submitted for the purpose of family reunification with persons granted international protection.[19]
In 2022, a total of 64 requests for family reunification with beneficiaries of international protection were submitted, and by the end of 2022, 21 requests were being assessed, while 43 requests were approved. The largest number of requests were submitted by nationals of Syria, Iraq and Iran.[20]
In 2023, a total of 80 applications for temporary stay based on family reunification with beneficiaries of international protection were submitted, and by the end of 2023, 14 requests were pending, while 66 requests were approved. The largest number of applications were submitted by nationals of Syria (54), Iran (6), Turkey (3) and Iraq (3).[21]
[1] Article 66 LITP.
[2] Article 66(5) LITP.
[3] CLC, UNHCR, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign and European affairs, Family reunification in Croatia – Information for persons granted international protection, available in Croatian at: https://bit.ly/2RfNCgY; in Arabic at: https://bit.ly/2V7Prh5; in Farsi at: https://bit.ly/2whB6Ge; and in English at: https://bit.ly/2Xi6lwe.
[4] Information provided by IOM, 29 January 2024.
[5] Article 66(1) LITP.
[6] Article 4(1) point 18 LITP.
[7] Article 64 (2) Law on Foreigners.
[8] Article 9 (3)(2) Ordinance on the residence of third-country nationals in the
[9] Article 66 (2) LITP.
[10] Ministry of Interior: Frequently asked questions-International Protection, available in English at: https://bit.ly/3KOLbNy.
[11] Article 66(6) LITP.
[12] Article 101 Law on General Administrative Procedure.
[13] EMN, Ad-Hoc Query on 2023.26 Family reunification for beneficiaries of international protection, available in English at: https://bit.ly/3L9as5v.
[14] Article 37(6) Law on Foreigners.
[15] Article 59(1) Law on Foreigners.
[16] Article 66 (1) Law on Foreigners.
[17] Article 66 (2) Law on Foreigners.
[18] Article 61 (1),(2), (5) Law on Foreigners.
[19] Croatian Law Centre: The Croatian Asylum System In 2021 – National Report, The report was prepared as part of the project “Access to the territory and the asylum system in Croatia – legal support and capacity building” with the financial support of UNHCR; available in Croatian at: https://bit.ly/3NgBDfc and in English at: https://bit.ly/3NBvVpC.
[20] Croatian Law Centre, The Croatian Asylum System in 2022 – National Report. The report was prepared as part of the project “Legal Assistance and Capacity Building for Access to Territory and Asylum in Croatia”, with financial support of the UNHCR Croatia: available in English at: https://bit.ly/434T7RL.
[21] Information provided by the Ministry of Interior,8 March 2024.