UPDATED: October 2026
Holding a Croatian passport, known locally as a putovnica, confirms both your identity and your Croatian citizenship. It offers visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to destinations around the world. As a member of the European Union, Croatia also gives its citizens the right to live, work, and study across the EU, with additional mobility rights in the European Economic Area (EEA).
It does not matter where you live. You can apply whether you have lived in Croatia your entire life and simply never gotten around to it, or whether you recently obtained Croatian citizenship through descent and are applying for the first time from abroad.
This guide covers each application route in turn: from abroad through a consulate, in Croatia in person, and online through the e-Citizens (e-Građani) platform, along with fees, renewal rules, and a few accommodations for applicants with disabilities.
If you have not yet confirmed your Croatian citizenship, that step comes first. Most clients begin the passport process only after their citizenship by descent has been established and recorded in the Register of Citizens (knjiga državljana).
Applying for a passport from outside Croatia
For most people connected to Croatia through ancestry rather than residence, this is the route that applies to you. If you live abroad, you cannot mail in an application or submit it remotely; you must appear in person at the competent Croatian embassy or consulate. For minors, the application is generally submitted by the parents. Where both parents exercise parental responsibility jointly, both parents generally need to submit the application in person, although Croatian regulations provide for certain exceptions. A legal representative may act on behalf of a person who is unable to manage the application independently.
Because your paperwork has to pass through the consulate before reaching Croatian authorities, applications submitted from abroad may take several weeks to process, and processing times can vary depending on the consulate.
What to bring to your consular appointment:
- The passport application form (Zahtjev za izdavanje putovnice), filled in as required by the competent embassy or consulate
- Proof of citizenship: this could be a Domovnica, a certificate showing your entry in the Knjiga državljana (citizenship register), the formal decision (rješenje) granting you citizenship, an osobna iskaznica, or another accepted document
- A biometric-format photo, 35 x 45 mm
- A valid form of identification
- Your prior passport, if you are renewing or replacing an existing document
- A birth certificate issued within the last six months
- If you were born in Croatia and are registered in the Croatian birth register and the Croatian citizenship register, you generally do not need to provide an extract from the birth register or a birth certificate when applying for a passport
- If you were born outside Croatia and you are not registered in the Croatian birth register, you may need to provide a foreign birth certificate or an extract from the foreign birth register when applying for your first Croatian passport
- If your supporting paperwork originates outside Croatia, it needs to satisfy the relevant international agreements Croatia has with that country
- A marriage certificate or birth record excerpt if you have married or legally changed your name
- Confirmation of your current address
- Payment of the fee set by that particular embassy or consulate, which is not uniform across locations
Applying for a passport in Croatia
Whether you live in Croatia or are simply visiting, you can apply at any administrative police station, regardless of your registered address. The applicant must appear in person, except in the case of minors (handled by a parent) or incapacitated adults (handled by an authorized representative).
Documents to bring:
- Your osobna iskaznica or an equivalent identity document
- A completed passport request form from the police
- Proof of citizenship (same set of accepted documents as listed above)
- A 35 x 45 mm biometric photo
- Your previous passport, if you have one
- For a minor’s application: a birth certificate plus proof of citizenship
- Confirmation that the application fee has already been paid
Children over 12 must be physically present so their fingerprints can be captured for the biometric chip.
A standard in-person application is typically ready within one to four weeks, and some offices process it even faster. If your situation is urgent, expedited service is available exclusively in person, never online, and takes about 48 hours in Zagreb Police Department (PU Zagrebačka) and three days elsewhere in the country.
Applying for a passport through e-Građani portal
If you already hold a Croatian electronic ID card, the e-Građani portal lets you file the request without visiting a police station at all, and you do not need Croatian residence to use it. The tradeoff is that expedited processing is not offered through this channel.
The required documents and processing times are otherwise the same as for an in-person application through MUP (Croatia’s Ministry of the Interior). This comes with one convenience: you will not need to attach a scanned photo, since your existing photo, fingerprints, and signature are already on file with MUP.
To complete the request, you sign it using your e-ID card’s digital signature. Once your passport is ready, you can either collect it in person at a police station or, if you maintain a residence in Croatia, have it delivered there. Without a Croatian address, you will need to designate a station for pick-up in advance.
Through this portal you can request:
- An e-passport if you have previously held a Croatian passport
- A replacement for a passport you already hold
- A duplicate passport of the same type, typically for consular representatives who need two valid documents at once
If you are requesting a second passport of the same type, be prepared to provide documentation supporting the reason for your request. A second passport of the same type may be issued when it is needed for business, cultural, or sporting activities abroad, including circumstances where your existing passport is temporarily unavailable because it has been submitted for a visa application.
Depending on the circumstances, supporting documentation may include:
- A written explanation of why a second passport is necessary
- Evidence documenting the nature of the business, cultural, or sporting activity requiring additional international travel
- Confirmation that your current passport is being held by another country’s authorities as part of a visa process
- A letter from your employer explaining why your role requires two passports
- Evidence that stamps or notations in your existing passport are blocking entry to certain destinations (Israel and some Arab nations are common examples)
- Any other documentation relevant to your particular case
Paying the passport application fee
An application without proof of payment will be rejected outright, so this is not a step to skip or delay. You have a few payment options: in person at a bank or post office, through Croatian online banking, or, at some MUP offices, by card at the counter when you submit your paperwork.
If you pay in advance rather than by card at the counter, the payment instructions will include a placeholder marked [YOUR OIB]. Replace that with your personal OIB number so the transaction is correctly matched to your application. If you have previously held a Croatian passport and are applying through e-Građani, you can also pay the fee electronically through the e-Pristojbe service.
Applying for a new passport after expiry
Croatian passports cannot be renewed; when yours expires, you must apply for a new one. Once your passport expires, you are effectively starting a fresh application, using the same process and document list as a first-time applicant, whether you go through a police station, a consulate, or e-Građani. However, some documents may already be available in MUP’s records (evidencija) and may not need to be submitted again.
For this new application, you will need:
- Your osobna iskaznica or another identity-verifying document
- The passport request form, obtained from wherever you are applying (embassy, consulate, or police station)
- A biometric photo, 35 x 45 mm
- Your expired passport
- Proof of your current address (prebivalište)
- Payment of the applicable fee, unless you are paying in person when submitting the application at the counter
Understanding accessibility accommodations
Croatian passport procedures include a few built-in exceptions for applicants with disabilities.
For fingerprinting, if someone is missing a forefinger, or it is injured, staff will take a print from the middle finger or another available finger instead. The same substitution applies if someone is missing an arm entirely.
For the required photo, blind applicants are not asked to remove dark glasses. Anyone wearing headgear for a medical reason may keep it on, as long as the forehead, cheekbones, and chin remain visible in the image.
If you are applying for a Croatian passport as part of establishing citizenship by descent, the passport itself is usually the final step after your citizenship case has been confirmed.
