Croatian passport holders have needed a UK ETA since April 2025. Two years of validity, multiple entries, up to six months in Britain per visit — applied for online in minutes.
6 months
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
ETA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
3 working days
Typical decision time
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Croatia's relationship with Britain is dominated by tourism running southward — the Dalmatian coast has become one of the most popular British summer destinations of the past two decades — but the northbound flow has grown substantially since EU accession in 2013. Croatian workers, students and families travel to Britain in significant numbers, and Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik all have direct links.
Since April 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Croatia remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Croatian citizens may do in Britain has changed — the ETA is a digital pre-travel permission applied for online and attached to the passport number. It simply has to be obtained before departure.
The mechanics are quick and undramatic. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives against your passport number. Croatia Airlines, British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI all check it before boarding, and a passenger without one is refused at the gate.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Croatia is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Croatian citizens travel to Britain as visitors for tourism, family visits, business, conferences or short courses without any consular application. The ETA precedes that permission and does not reduce it — the six months Croatian visitors have always been allowed is unchanged.
Every traveller needs their own, at any age. Children and infants need an ETA linked to their own passport and cannot be added to a parent's application. Croatian families visiting relatives in Britain need a separate authorisation for each person travelling.
The exemptions apply as elsewhere in Europe. Croatian citizens holding a UK visa, settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or indefinite leave to remain do not need an ETA, since their existing status carries the permission. Croatians who moved to Britain between 2013 and Brexit may well hold EUSS status — check before paying.
The Croatian osobna iskaznica no longer works for travel to Britain. It stopped being accepted in October 2021 for most travellers, so a passport is required and the ETA attaches to its number. Croatian citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status are the exception and may still use an identity card.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Croatian passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For Croatians who travel to Britain several times a year, one application covering two years removes a recurring step.
The passport-expiry rule is the one to check first. The ETA is bound to the passport number you enter and ends when that document does. Croatian passports are issued for ten years for adults, five for those aged twenty-one to twenty-seven and shorter periods for children, so families applying together should check each expiry date individually. Renewal voids the ETA with no transfer and no refund.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Croatian travellers are used to the Schengen rule for third-country nationals and sometimes assume symmetry, but for a trip to Britain only the British requirement applies.
Six months per visit is the maximum for a single entry rather than an annual allowance. It matters most for Croatians going to Britain for seasonal or hospitality work — an ETA confers no right to work whatsoever, and that route needs an appropriate work visa. It also matters for students, whose courses must finish within six months or require a Student visa instead.
Pricing
Live fees for Croatian passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Croatia
Requirements
Everything Croatian passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent digital photograph — full face visible against a plain background, taken within the last six months, with no headwear other than for religious or medical reasons
A valid email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should keep accessible while travelling
A credit or debit card to pay the Home Office ETA fee and our service fee together
Your travel and accommodation details — Border Force can ask about the purpose of your visit and where you are staying
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Home Office.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, answer the suitability questions and upload your photograph. Most applicants finish in under ten minutes.
Our team checks your photo, passport number, name spelling and declarations against Home Office requirements before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to UK Visas and Immigration with the government fee paid, and we track its status until a decision is issued.
There is no sticker, label or document to print. The authorisation is held digitally against your passport number, and we explain exactly what to show at check-in.
Applications from Croatia are decided automatically in the great majority of cases, and most applicants receive approval within minutes. The Home Office asks travellers to allow up to three working days, and a small proportion are referred for manual review, usually where a photograph fails the automated check.
Apply at least a week before travelling. The buffer exists so that a mistyped passport number or a rejected photograph can be corrected without a second payment, not because the decision itself is slow.
Coastal travellers should allow longer outside the summer season. Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar have extensive direct services to Britain from May to October and very few in winter, when most journeys connect through Zagreb or a foreign hub. A problem discovered at check-in in Dubrovnik in January may cost a day rather than a few hours.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land — and your nationality is one of those that can use the automated gates.
Your nationality is eligible to use the automated gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, alongside British and Irish citizens. The gate reads your biometric passport chip and checks your ETA against it electronically.
Children aged 10 or 11 can use the gates when accompanied by an adult using them at the same time. Younger children must be seen at a staffed desk, so families with under-tens should join the officer queue together.
The gates do not stamp passports. Your arrival is recorded digitally, and your six-month permission runs from that date. Keep your boarding pass and booking confirmations if you need to evidence your arrival date later.
The gates refer a proportion of passengers to Border Force at random or where the chip does not read cleanly. This is routine, is not a sign of a problem with your ETA, and usually adds only a few minutes.
Getting there
Croatia has a wide British network in summer, reflecting two decades of British tourism to the Dalmatian coast, and a much thinner one in winter. Zagreb maintains year-round services to London, while Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar and Pula are heavily seasonal.
Best time to go
Croatian visitors arrive from a Mediterranean or continental climate depending on where they start, and in either case Britain will feel cooler and wetter. A British summer is closer to a Croatian spring in temperature, and the compensating novelty is the northern evening — daylight in Scotland in June runs past ten at night.
May, June and September are the strongest months for a British trip, sitting below the July and August peak in price while offering the best weather. September is particularly good value, with the British school holidays over and the weather in the south often holding into October.
The Croatian tourist season creates a natural rhythm. From May to October the coast is at its busiest and many residents are least free to travel — and it is also when Britain is most expensive. The obvious window for a British trip is November through March, when Croatia is quiet, British prices are at their lowest, and the direct flights from Zagreb still run.
One practical note. Britain is one hour behind Croatia year-round, with both changing clocks on the same dates. If you are travelling from the coast outside the summer, plan the routing carefully — most winter journeys involve a connection through Zagreb, Vienna or Frankfurt rather than a direct flight.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Croatia — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The Croatian identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021. You need a passport, and the ETA is linked to that passport number. The exception is for Croatian citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may still use an identity card and need no ETA at all.
The ETA must match the machine-readable zone of the passport, where č, ć, đ, š and ž are stripped to plain Latin letters. Entering the accented characters, or guessing at a substitution, creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the passport that the airline check can flag.
Croatians taking hospitality or seasonal work in Britain need an appropriate work visa. The ETA is a visitor permission and confers no right to work whatsoever. Arriving as a visitor intending to find a job is grounds for refusal at the border rather than a technicality.
Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar have extensive direct services to Britain in summer and very few in winter. A journey that took one flight in August may take two connections in January, and a problem discovered at check-in may cost a day rather than an hour. Apply earlier outside the season.
Croatians who moved to Britain between accession in 2013 and Brexit may hold settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. That status already carries permission to travel and an ETA is neither required nor useful. Check before applying.
The ETA permits study of up to six months. A Croatian student on an academic year, a full degree or an exchange running beyond six months needs a Student visa applied for from Croatia before travel. It cannot be arranged from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Passport number mistyped
By far the most common problem. The authorisation attaches to the number you enter, so a single wrong character produces an ETA that does not exist as far as the airline's check is concerned.
An undeclared conviction or refusal
The Home Office asks about criminal convictions and previous immigration refusals or removals. History found later is treated far more seriously than the original matter would have been if declared.
A photograph that fails the check
Shadows across the face, glasses, a patterned background or a cropped chin all cause the automated check to reject an image, which turns a routine approval into a manual review.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the UK Home Office and do not vary by nationality. The passport-linking rule in particular catches out a great many otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held digitally against the passport number you enter. There is nothing placed in your passport and nothing to print for the border. If you renew or replace that passport, the ETA does not transfer — you must apply for a new one on the new document.
Every person travelling needs their own ETA, including babies and children. A child cannot be added to a parent's application, and each traveller needs their own valid passport to apply against.
An approved ETA lasts two years from the date it is granted, or until the expiry date of the passport it is linked to, whichever comes first. This is the single most misunderstood rule in the scheme — a passport with eight months left produces an ETA with eight months left.
Within its validity you can travel to the UK as many times as you like. Each individual visit can be up to six months. There is no formal annual cap, but repeated long stays that add up to the majority of the year will attract questions at the border.
One ETA covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is also accepted for travel to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. You do not need a separate authorisation for the Crown Dependencies.
An ETA lets you board your flight, train or ship. The decision to admit you is made by Border Force on arrival, who can ask about your funds, your accommodation, your onward plans and the purpose of your visit.
Consular services
The United Kingdom maintains an embassy in Zagreb, but it plays no part in issuing an ETA. The application is completed online and decided digitally — there is no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. The embassy handles consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Croatian passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Croatian citizens do not need a visa for tourism, business visits, short study or transit in the United Kingdom. Since April 2025 they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital permission linked to the passport rather than a visa. It is applied for online in about ten minutes and usually approved the same day.
In most cases no. The Croatian identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and you need a passport. The exception is for Croatian citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may continue to use an identity card — and who do not need an ETA at all.
No. The ETA is a visitor permission and confers no right to work in the UK labour market, including seasonal and hospitality work. Working requires an appropriate work visa. Arriving as a visitor with the intention of finding a job is grounds for refusal at the border.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Croatian passport expires if that is sooner, and permits unlimited entries within that period. Six months is a per-visit maximum rather than an annual allowance.
Exactly as it appears in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page, where č, ć, đ, š and ž are stripped to plain Latin letters. Do not use the accented characters themselves and do not guess at a substitution, as either creates a mismatch with the passport.
No. Croatian citizens with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, indefinite leave to remain, or a valid UK visa do not need an ETA. Your existing status already carries permission to travel, so applying would be money spent unnecessarily.
Not for the ETA requirement, which is identical whatever the route. What changes is the practical margin: Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar have extensive direct services to Britain in summer and very few in winter, so most off-season journeys involve a connection. Apply earlier, since a problem found at check-in may cost a day rather than an hour.
Yes. Croatian citizens, like all EU nationals, are eligible for the automated ePassport gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, provided the passport is biometric and the traveller is aged 10 or over. Children aged 10 and 11 must be accompanied by an adult using the gates at the same time.
Only for courses lasting up to six months, such as a summer school or a short language programme. An academic year, a full degree or an exchange running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for from Croatia before travel. You cannot switch from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Yes. A single ETA covers the entire United Kingdom and is also accepted for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. There are no internal immigration checks between the four nations, so a trip combining London and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Croatia. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Home Office.
Other nationalities
Requirements, routes and border formalities differ by passport. Here are the guides for other eligible nationalities.
