r/CRbydescent

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.

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

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.

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.

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’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?

Hi all,

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