Croatia Conducting Strict Checks on All Long-Stay Schengen Visa Applicants

The Ministry of Interior of Croatia has clarified that the country’s authorities are conducting strict and in-depth checks on all foreign nationals applying for long-stay Schengen visas (D visas) before granting them a residence and work permit.

Through this move, the Ministry said that the main aim is to determine whether the main purpose of the foreign nationals is to enter Croatia for work purposes and not to abuse the system by fleeing to another member state, Schengen.News reports.

Such a clarification from the Ministry comes after it was reportedly said that Croatia would suspend work visas for nationals of Bangladesh following a series of abuses. 

Data show that Croatia has been granting a large number of work visas and permits to Bangladeshis, but only a small proportion of them are within the country, as they have already fled to another EU country. This has raised concerns led to the authorities wanting to tighten the measures. 

Stringent Controls to Apply Especially to Those Identified as “High-Risk Migration Groups” 
Taking into account the severity of this issue, the Ministry highlighted that additional checks will now be conducted on all applicants, especially those identified as “high-risk migration groups”, Danas explains.

According to the Ministry, abuse of work visas and permits has been recorded among nationals of India, Nepal, the Philippines, and Egypt, in addition to nationals of Bangladesh. 

This means that nationals of these countries will now face even stricter controls when wanting to reach Croatia for work purposes. 

As the Ministry noted, in case there is evidence indicating that a foreign national who has applied for a long-stay visa will abuse the document, the application will be rejected immediately. 

Since Croatia is dealing with labour shortages in different sectors throughout its territory, it is yet to be seen if the measures will be tightened for those who meet all the rules and have not been involved in any work visa or work permit abuse.

Source: https://schengen.news/croatia-conducting-strict-checks-on-all-long-stay-schengen-visa-applicants-ministry-clarifies/