State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior Irena Petrijevčanin presented the new Ordinance on the Residence of Third-Country Nationals in the Republic of Croatia.

This extensive document regulates employers' obligations in detail and introduces stricter residence conditions for foreigners. The main goal of the new regulations is to ensure appropriate living conditions for foreign workers, prevent their exploitation, and stop the creation of isolated workers' settlements. The Ordinance fills all previous legal gaps that allowed inadequate accommodation and a lack of care for the health of imported workers.

Guaranteed housing space and prescribed humane conditions

According to the new provisions, the employer must ensure precisely defined housing conditions. For just one foreign worker, a minimum of 14 square meters is prescribed, and for each additional person, that space must be increased by another 6 square meters. The legislator has also prescribed maximum capacity limits. In a house measuring 150 square meters, a maximum of 10 workers may legally reside, while in an apartment with an area of 56 square meters, no more than 8 people may be accommodated. Every facility intended for accommodation must have a separate sleeping area, a functional sanitary unit, and a place for food preparation. The ceiling height must allow upright movement, and the electrical and plumbing installations must be fully functional and safe.

Ban on forced charges and financial protection

The Ordinance strictly limits the rental price in order to prevent financial manipulation. If accommodation is provided by the employer or their intermediary, the rent must not amount to more than 30 percent of the worker's net salary. This amount is expressly prohibited from being automatically deducted from wages without clear documentation. The employer is obliged to provide the worker with a certified rental agreement clearly stating the amount and the area of the space. To prove these conditions, employers will have to complete form 17a, by which, under full criminal and material liability, they guarantee the truthfulness of the stated data about the living space.

Strict medical examinations before starting work

The new regulations also introduce mandatory health checks. When submitting the first application for a work permit, foreign workers must attach a certificate of general health status and vaccination status. This obligation applies even to those who plan to stay in Croatia for less than 3 years. All medical examinations will be carried out exclusively at county public health institutes or at the Croatian Institute of Public Health. The competent authorities will issue health certificates on the new form 18a. These measures are being introduced to ensure a high level of health protection and prevent any epidemiological risks for the entire population.

Hundreds of thousands of workers and multimillion fines

Official data show that 105231 foreign workers with valid permits are currently registered in Croatia. Recent legislative amendments have enabled the issuance of permits for 3 years, within which foreigners have the right to work for 9 months continuously or 90 days without approval from the Employment Service. During 2026, the highest number of work permits, exactly 10208, was issued to workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are followed by nationals of the Philippines, Nepal, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Regular inspection supervision uncovered 10765 irregularities and 1328 violations, with 47 percent of violations relating to hospitality and 22 percent to construction. Due to non-compliance with occupational safety, 1.2 million euros in fines were collected, while fines for illegal employment reached a high 3.2 million euros.

The Ordinance, which enters into force 8 days after publication in Narodne novine, represents a serious step in regulating the domestic labor market. With these measures, the state seeks to create a clear legal framework that protects the fundamental human rights of foreign workers, while at the same time preventing unfair competition among domestic employers. Although the headline theses may suggest that this creates privileged conditions for foreign nationals amid the domestic housing crisis, the legislator's real intention is to introduce strict order into a system that has so far been susceptible to various manipulations. The real test for the competent state institutions will be the consistent application and rigorous control of these regulations in practice, because only high fines and regular inspections will ensure that the new standards do not remain merely dead letter on paper.