Three Times More Foreigners Denied Since the Implementation of the New Law Compared to 2024

In the first two months of this year, three times more requests for residence and work permits for foreign workers were denied than during the entire year of 2024. According to official data, 5,674 requests were denied in 2024, while Minister Davor Božinović recently stated that since the amendments to the Foreigners Act came into force, as many as 18,000 requests have been denied in just two months. Compared to the same period last year, nearly seven thousand fewer permits were issued.

Data from the Ministry of the Interior shows that in March and April 2024, 40,147 residence and work permits were issued, while in the same period this year, 33,773 were issued – a decrease of 6,374. However, the situation was different before the new Law came into force: in January and February 2025, 34,440 permits were issued, which is 1,715 more than in the same period in 2024.

According to Minister Božinović, the number of requests from temporary employment agencies has decreased by 70 percent in the first two months of the law’s implementation. During this period, 63 licenses for taxi transport were permanently revoked, and digital platforms were ordered to terminate cooperation with 24 aggregators. The police checked more than 15,000 vehicles and 33,500 foreign workers in two months, over five thousand documents were reviewed for authenticity verification, and nearly five thousand irregularities and 2,885 violations were identified. 270 employers are under increased supervision, and 115 are on the so-called blacklist.

Employers, however, express dissatisfaction with the amendments to the law, particularly due to the lengthy permit issuance process. On the other hand, the Ministry of the Interior claims that the average processing time for requests is about two months. They also state that about 66 percent of denied requests result from employers not meeting the conditions for a positive opinion in accordance with Article 99 of the Foreigners Act.

The amendments to the Foreigners Act came into force on March 15, aiming to systematically regulate the employment of foreign workers and introduce more order in the area of their residence and work. The law introduces stricter conditions for the accommodation of workers and a financial guarantee that the employer must pay to the state if they withdraw from a worker for whom they previously obtained a permit – in the amount of one average gross monthly salary per worker.

An employer who has been definitively convicted of criminal offenses in the area of labor relations, social security, or general safety can no longer employ a foreign worker, nor can one who has debts to the state. A condition of minimum turnover in the last six months has also been introduced – ten thousand euros per month for legal entities, or 15 thousand euros in total for natural persons. It is also prohibited to conduct activities through digital platforms if the employer has previously illegally employed foreign workers. According to the new rules, residence and work permits can be issued for a period of up to three years, and for seasonal work up to nine months (previously six). Additionally, foreign workers can no longer receive a salary lower than that received by Croatian citizens in comparable jobs.