Croatia Issues 3,320 Residence Permits – 2nd Lowest in the EU

Croatia issued 3,320 first residence permits in 2013, the second lowest in the EU behind Estonia (2.496), according to latest statistics from Eurostat…

In a detailed report, outlining reasons for the residence permits, Croatia lead the EU in percentage issued for family reasons, with 64.9%. Other reasons included employment (18%), education (5.6%) and other (11.5%). Only Greece (59.3%), Spain (54.8), Belgium (52.4%) and Luxembourg (51.6%) came close to Croatia. Citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina received the greatest number of first residence permits in Croatia last year with 1,284, followed by Serbia (430) and Macedonia (229).

In 2013 2.36 million first residence permits were issued in the EU 28 to non-EU citizens, up by 12.5% compared with 2012 but down by 7.0% compared with 2008. The United Kingdom issued the most permits last year, issuing 724,248, of which a quarter were for education reasons. The decrease recorded from 2008 is mainly due to the fall in the number of first permits issued for employment reasons. In the EU in 2013, 28.5% of first residence permits were issued for family reasons, 19.7% for education, 22.7% for employment reasons and 29.1% for other reasons.