Why You Can't Enter Croatia & Stay at Your Croatian Partner's Home Without Paid Accomm Before June 15

May 30, 2020 – There is still much confusion about current entry requirements to Croatia. Why you cannot come and stay at your Croatian partner’s home until June 15.

One of the many recurring questions I am seeing regarding travel to Croatia right now is whether or not a foreigner can come and stay with their Croatian partner in their partner’s home. If Croatia is open for tourism and tourists of EU countries can cross the border and stay in hotels and Airbnb private accommodation, it would make sense that you could enter Croatia and stay at your partner’s place.

Except you can’t.

At least until June 15, when the EU plans to open.

Because technically Croatia is NOT open for tourism until June 15, apart from 10 countries named on May 28. To explain more, here is an answer I provided in the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

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George is a regular visitor to Croatia and wants to be with his unmarried Croatian partner and family, staying in their family home where he is a regular and popular guest. He is a UK citizen. I will get the ministry to confirm when they join the community, but this is my opinion (please note it is only my opinion). George is a regular visitor to Croatia and wants to be with his unmarried Croatian partner and family, staying in their family home where he is a regular and popular guest. He is a UK citizen. I will get the ministry to confirm when they join the community, but this is my opinion (please note it is only my opinion).

George wants to travel on June 7. Currently, he will not be allowed to do so because he does not have proof of paid accommodation, documentation saying he is a family member by marriage, or a business invitation. Here is the important distinction which confused me for a while.

While Croatia is saying it is open for tourism, technically it isn’t until after June 15, apart from the 10 countries mentioned yesterday – Citizens of Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, and Germany can now enter Croatia without restriction.

Other EU nationals (inc UK) can enter IF they have an economic reason to come to – business meeting or paid tourism accommodation. The paid accomm is a technical workaround so that tourism can start, but it MUST come with the paid accommodation to justify the economic criteria.

So in George’s case, he could come if he had paid accommodation proven, but not if he doesn’t, as he has no legal family ties, and staying with his partner’s family is not an economic activity.

Could he book one night Airbnb? That would bring him entry, and then move to his partner’s place and wait until June 15 and all borders open? Possibly, but not sure how the authorities would react. And then there is the added complication that UK might go into lockdown due to bad corona situation.

So what’s the answer to George’s question. The short answer is I don’t know, but I hope the long explanation as to how I still don’t know gives a little more clarity to others.

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FYI: The situation does differ though for foreign nationals who cohabitate with a Croatian national outside of Croatia (like in my case, Canada).

As per the reply from UZG COVID: “your unmarried spouse must present a Canadian document on cohabitation” to be allowed entry into the country prior to June 15.