September the 10th, 2025 – The number of foreign workers in Croatia has been falling, particularly in the construction sector.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/VL/Dijana Jurasic writes, it seems as if Croatia finally reached its peak last year when it issued more than 206,000 residence and work permits to third-country nationals. The number of foreign workers in Croatia is now gradually falling, especially in construction.

From the beginning of the year to the end of August, according to the Ministry of the Interior (MUP), a total of 124,126 work permits were issued to foreign workers, that’s as many as 20,000 less than in the same period last year (144,074). During the first eight months of 2025, the largest number of residence and work permits issued to third-country nationals was in tourism and hospitality (43,629), construction (35,736), industry (16,126), transport and communications (8,957) and trade (6,239).

Hrvoje Jelavic/PIXSELL

Even after the amendments to the Law on Foreigners came into force, employers can still request work permits for workers for three years instead of for one year, as was the case in the past. With that being said, employers still mostly import new workers. 63,907 work permits were issued for new employment, 42,178 were extended, and 18,041 permits were issued for seasonal workers, mostly in tourism and hospitality.

It should be noted that when foreign workers are employed for the first time in Croatia, employers are exempted from paying healthcare contributions for them for one year. By the end of last year, they were granted exemptions from paying healthcare contributions for young people (both domestic and foreign) for a period of as long as five years, with this measure being abolished for new users.

By the end of August, the largest number of work permits had been issued to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (23,235), Nepal (22,808), Serbia (19,599), the Philippines (11,361), India (11,155), Macedonia (9,715), Kosovo (4,409), Egypt (3,833), Uzbekistan (3,712), and Bangladesh (2,288).

Sanjin Strukic/PIXSELL

For comparison, last year in the same period there were more work permits issued to citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Bangladesh, etc., while the number of work permits for Nepalese nationals remained at approximately the same level as last year. The number of work permits for Filipinos increased by almost 2,000 and decreased by about 2,400 for Indian citizens.

It’s noticeable from the data of the Ministry of Interior that this year, compared to the same period last year, fewer work permits were issued to foreign workers in Croatia in the construction sector, where about 13,000 were issued. It has already been pointed out that the number of foreign workers in Croatia employed in the construction sector will continue decline as extensive structural renovations near completion.

Sanjin Strukic/PIXSELL

In the tourism and hospitality industry, around 2,500 fewer work permits were issued in the first eight months of 2025, which can probably be attributed to stricter regulations introduced to avoid various abuses with work permits. For example, employers are obliged to provide a financial guarantee to the state in the amount of one Croatian average monthly gross salary if they give up on a worker for whom they have obtained a work permit. That amount is used to cover the costs of returning third-country nationals who are illegally residing in the country.

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