October the 24th, 2019 – Who would ever have thought that possessing a Croatian passport would be a desire placed high on the list of a British citizen? A look at how the shock referendum result of 2016 changed minds and hearts.
Brexit is slowly becoming one of those words that drains the life and joy out of you when you say it. This process has now been going on for more than three years with yet another potential extension until the end of January 2020 on the horizon (we’ll hopefully know more tomorrow about that).
After Donald Tusk warned the UK not to simply keep kicking the can down the road after the EU granted the last extension (from March to October this year), it seems that Britain is still no closer to sorting out the mess it has created.
With that being said, many Brits have sought out second citizenships following the referendum result of June 2016, in which the British public narrowly voted to leave the economic bloc. The mixing of the Brits and the Irish over many years made it easy for some who have an Irish parent or grandparent to get their hands on Irish citizenship and as such remain citizens of the EU.
Many Brits who have lived abroad in the rest of Europe for several years decided to apply to naturalise in their adopted countries, and countries like Germany even kindly went as far as to alter their laws, albeit temporarily, to allow Brits who apply for German nationality to be able to keep their British citizenship too.
While citizens rights has been decided across the bloc, deal or no deal, some Brits still will simply not feel secure unless they have a new passport, and that’s more than understandable given the fact that after Britain ends its 40 year membership of what is now the EU (formerly the European Community), people fear being left in the dark with no EU laws to turn to for help.
However, not all of those seeking a second passport are living in another EU country. Some are resident in Britain and simply feel the need to take advantage of having a foreign parent now more than ever. One such person is British TV presenter Adrian Chiles, known for presenting the popular ”The One Show” and who currently works as a radio presenter for BBC Radio 5 Live.
Chiles took to The Guardian on October the 24th, 2019 to discuss his longing for a Croatian passport, what with his mother being Croatian, and how he now values the idea more than ever given the utterly dire situation with Brexit.
Chiles cites how he has spent a lot of time in Croatia over the years, both before and after its independence from Yugoslavia. He talks about how ”one of his favourite things to do was to leave his British passport lying around when with friends over there”, before going on to talk about how dramatically that tide has now turned.
”How things have changed” states Chiles when recalling his friend, Tomislav, tossing his Croatian passport on the floor and being irritated with the fact that such a document would never get him anywhere. Chiles claims that because he once had a Yugoslav passport, he thought obtaining a Croatian one would be simple, but of course, with all things Croatian as we who live here know well – it is anything but that.
Read Adrian’s opinion piece in the link to The Guardian provided above.
Are you a foreigner with legal residence living in Croatia? Would you like to try your hand at naturalisation as a foreigner? Click here. Married to a Croat and want that little blue passport? Click here.
If you’re worried about Brexit and are a British resident in Croatia, follow our extensive reporting on all things Brexit on our dedicated politics page.
