Country guide · Croatia

Does Croatia allow dual citizenship with the USA?

Citizenship-by-Descent.com·Last reviewed November 2026

Educational information only — not legal advice. Always verify with the relevant authority, consulate or registry office.

Yes for nearly everyone with Croatian roots. You can be Croatian and American, and people claiming by descent as an emigrant’s descendant don’t give up US citizenship. A Croatian citizen who takes US citizenship stays Croatian, because the law has no rule ending citizenship on that ground. But the permission isn’t universal. On the ordinary route to naturalisation, a foreigner must be released from their old citizenship. The exemptions in Articles 11 and 16 are what protect emigrants’ descendants and members of the Croatian people abroad. So the real question is which article your claim rests on.

The short answer

  • Croatian who becomes a US citizen: stays Croatian.
  • Child of Croatian citizens who was registered in time: Croatian by origin, and holds both citizenships from birth.
  • American descendant of an emigrant (Article 11): keeps US citizenship. No language test, no residence, no generational limit.
  • American of Croatian ethnicity with no emigrant ancestor (Article 16): keeps US citizenship.
  • American with no Croatian link, naturalising after eight years in Croatia: must be released from US citizenship, or show they will be.

What the law says

  • Article 17: Croatian citizenship ends by release, by renunciation, or under international treaties. Acquiring a foreign citizenship isn’t on the list.
  • Article 2: a citizen who also holds a foreign citizenship counts solely as a Croatian citizen before Croatia’s state authorities. Dual citizenship is tolerated, not given any special standing.
  • Article 9 of the Constitution: citizenship and how it’s gained and ended are set by law, and a citizen can’t be exiled or deprived of citizenship.

Articles 2 and 17 read the same in the 1991 Act. Croatia also has no rule like the ones in the Nordic countries or Switzerland that end citizenship at a set age for people born abroad.

Who has to give up another citizenship

Article 8(1) sets the ordinary conditions for naturalisation. Point 2 requires release from your foreign citizenship, or proof you will get it if you’re accepted. The other conditions are being 18, eight years’ continuous registered residence with permanent stay, Croatian language, Latin script, culture and social order, and respect for the legal order with public debts paid and no security obstacle. Which of these fall away depends on the article you use:

  • Article 11, emigrants and their descendants: exempt from release, residence and language. The same goes for a foreign spouse of such a person.
  • Article 16, members of the Croatian people without residence in Croatia: only point 5, on the legal order and security, applies.
  • Article 10, foreign spouse of a Croatian citizen: exempt from points 1 to 4, but must have permanent stay and live in Croatia.
  • Article 12, where admission is in Croatia’s interest: exempt from points 1 to 4.
  • Article 9, born in Croatia and living there with permanent stay: exempt from residence and language only, so release still applies.
  • Article 8, everyone else: release applies.

The release requirement has its own limits:

  • It counts as met if you’re stateless, or if your own country’s law ends your citizenship on naturalisation.
  • If the other state doesn’t allow release, or sets conditions that can’t be met, a statement that you renounce that citizenship on acquiring Croatian citizenship is enough.
  • Under Article 8a, an applicant who meets everything else can get a guarantee of admission, valid for two years, while arranging the release.

Giving up US citizenship is a serious, separate legal step. Don’t take it on the strength of a guarantee without advice on the US side.

How the rules for emigrants changed

  • 8 October 1991. The Citizenship Act, passed on 26 June 1991, took effect on publication in Narodne novine 53/91. The original Article 11 let an emigrant and their descendants naturalise despite points 1 to 4 of Article 8, and the original Article 2 already treated dual citizens solely as Croatian.
  • 1 January 2012. The 2011 amendments limited Article 11 to descendants up to the third degree in the direct line and their spouses, and exempted only points 1 to 3, so language came into play. Ordinary residence went to eight years. Article 16 was rewritten so only point 5 applies.
  • 1 January 2020. The 2019 amendments removed the generational limit and exempted emigrants and descendants from points 2 to 4, including language. They defined an emigrant by the cut-off of 8 October 1991, added the rule for Croats who left other parts of the former states, added the oath, and made adult renunciation final.
  • 1 January 2022. The 2021 amendment extended two temporary application windows from two years to three. It’s the last change listed in the consolidated text we read, which was updated to 5 November 2026.

When the Government sent the bill to Parliament, its summary said citizenship could be lost if obtained through a marriage for gain or by fraud. No such ground appears in the Act as passed in October 2019, and Article 17 stayed as it was.

What descendants claiming by descent need to know

  1. Were both your parents Croatian citizens at your birth? Then you are Croatian by origin under Article 4, wherever you were born.
  2. Was one parent Croatian and you were born abroad? Article 5 requires registration with a Croatian mission or a registry office before you turn 21. Without it you aren’t Croatian by origin unless you’d otherwise be stateless. The temporary route for over-21s ran for three years from 1 January 2020 and has passed.
  3. Was your ancestor an emigrant? Article 11 counts a person who left the territory of Croatia before 8 October 1991 intending to live abroad permanently. It also counts, as an exception, a member of the Croatian people who left the wider area of the former states that included Croatia at the time. The Ministry of the Interior says that if the ancestor left from a former state, you must prove the time of emigration and that they belonged to the Croatian people.
  4. Could your ancestor be excluded? Article 11(5) rules out someone who left under an international treaty, who renounced Croatian citizenship, who moved to another state within the same union as Croatia, or who left Croatia without former Croatian republic citizenship or domicile there. See our Article 11 guide for the evidence.
  5. Is your claim about ethnicity rather than emigration? Article 16 looks at earlier declarations of belonging in legal dealings, public documents, and active work in Croatian organisations abroad. Under Article 16(3), that proof isn’t needed if your parents’ belonging to the Croatian people is undisputed.
  6. Was an ancestor already a citizen under earlier law? Article 30 keeps the status of those who held it under the rules before the Act. The Ministry has a separate procedure for determining citizenship for people not in the registers, decided by the rules in force when the applicant was born.

Citizenship under Articles 11 and 16 starts when the decision is delivered, not at birth, and you take an oath (Articles 24a and 24b). A minor child can be included if one parent acquires citizenship under Article 11(1) or Article 16, with the other parent’s written consent unless an exception applies. Adult children apply in their own right. More is in the Croatian citizenship by descent guide.

Leaving Croatian citizenship

Because nothing ends citizenship automatically, leaving takes a deliberate step, and the two procedures have different results.

  • Release (Article 18). You apply, and must be 18, have no military obstacle, have settled taxes and enforceable debts, have arranged family property duties, and hold or be promised a foreign citizenship. It takes effect when the decision is delivered. If you don’t get the foreign citizenship within three years, the decision can be cancelled on request, as long as you notify within the following three years (Article 19). The Ministry lists a fee of EUR 334.46 on a positive decision in Croatia, with a consular fee charged at missions abroad.
  • Renunciation (Article 21). An adult with residence abroad and a foreign citizenship can renounce by statement, and it takes effect on the day of the statement. Since 2020 this can’t be undone. A person who renounced as an adult can’t acquire Croatian citizenship again.
  • Children. Citizenship can end with a parent’s (Articles 20 and 22). A person this happened to can regain it by living in Croatia without a break for at least a year and stating in writing that they consider themselves Croatian (Article 23).

The US side

The US lets you hold both. The Foreign Affairs Manual says Americans who naturalise abroad don’t automatically lose US citizenship and that the State Department presumes they mean to keep it. Under 8 U.S.C. 1481, loss needs a voluntary act done with the intention of relinquishing US nationality. You must enter and leave the US on a US passport.

Article 2 is the practical catch. Inside Croatia you are Croatian, and the US Foreign Affairs Manual warns that dual nationality may limit consular protection. See European citizenship by descent for Americans. If you hold a third citizenship, check that country’s law as well, since Croatian law can’t decide it.

Practical steps

  1. Work out your article first. Origin under Articles 4 or 5, emigrant under Article 11, belonging under Article 16, or the ordinary route. Everything about keeping US citizenship follows from that.
  2. If a parent is Croatian and you are under 21, register now through a mission or registry office.
  3. Gather proof of departure and link. The Ministry asks for documents proving emigration, and for descendants proof of the family relationship. Our document chain guide covers the paperwork and the apostille guide covers legalisation.
  4. Apply in person. Without stay in Croatia, you file at a Croatian mission or consular post. The Ministry lists a fee of EUR 139.36 on a positive decision in Croatia; missions charge a consular fee.
  5. Don’t renounce casually. For an adult it’s final.

To check whether you have a claim at all, use our free citizenship by descent checker. For other countries, see dual citizenship by descent, country by country, including Bosnian dual citizenship.

Frequently asked questions

Does Croatia allow dual citizenship with the USA?

Yes, for most people with Croatian roots. A Croatian citizen who becomes American stays Croatian, because taking a foreign citizenship isn’t one of the ways citizenship ends under Article 17. Emigrants, their descendants and members of the Croatian people abroad don’t have to give up US citizenship. The exception is ordinary naturalisation: an American with no such link must be released from US citizenship, or show they will be.

Do I have to give up US citizenship to claim Croatian citizenship by descent?

No. If you are Croatian by origin through a parent, you hold both from birth. If you apply under Article 11 as an emigrant’s descendant, that article exempts you from the release requirement in Article 8(1)(2), along with the residence and language requirements. Article 16 does the same for members of the Croatian people who don’t live in Croatia.

Is there any way a Croatian citizen loses citizenship automatically?

Not by taking another citizenship and not by living abroad. Article 17 lists only release, renunciation and international treaties, and the first two start with your own application or statement. Article 9 of the Constitution says a citizen can’t be deprived of citizenship. There’s no age deadline for keeping it either.

I was born abroad to one Croatian parent and never registered. Am I Croatian?

Not by origin, unless you would otherwise be stateless. Article 5 requires registration with a Croatian mission or registry office before you turn 21. A temporary route for people over 21 ran for three years from 1 January 2020 and has passed. If your Croatian parent or an earlier ancestor was an emigrant, Article 11 may still be open to you, and it also lets you keep US citizenship.

Will Croatia treat me as American when I’m there?

No. Article 2 says a Croatian citizen who also holds a foreign citizenship counts solely as a Croatian citizen before Croatian state authorities. The US Foreign Affairs Manual makes the same point from the other side, saying the other country of a dual national has a predominant claim on them while they’re there.

If I renounce Croatian citizenship, can I get it back?

Not as an adult. Since 1 January 2020, Article 21 says a person who renounced as an adult can’t acquire Croatian citizenship again. Article 11 also says someone who renounced doesn’t count as an emigrant. Release is a separate procedure and can be cancelled on request if no foreign citizenship was acquired within three years. A person whose citizenship ended as a child has a way back under Article 23.

Can Croatia refuse my Article 11 application even if I meet the conditions?

Yes. Article 11 removes three conditions, not all of them. You must still respect the legal order, have paid public debts and raise no security concern under Article 8(1)(5), and be an adult unless you’re included as a child. Under Article 26, the Ministry of the Interior may refuse an application that meets the conditions if it finds reasons in Croatia’s interest to do so.

Official sources

Checked against these sources on 6 November 2026. The gazette texts were read in Croatian and the summaries are ours. We found no bill to amend the Citizenship Act then before Parliament, but that’s the result of a search, not an official confirmation. Only the Ministry of the Interior can decide your case; confirm with it or a Croatian mission before you act.