The time has come for our temporary residency for Croatia. I had an easy peasy way, as an inhabitant of the European Union the Dalmatians let me get my temporary residency on Vis in almost a heartbeat.
But for my husband from a so called third country (no, haha, not third world country!) they made it a bit more difficult by now. Till end of last year you just needed a reason, a health insurance and a proof of both. Now you need to show them your impunity. They had so many people seeking for residency in Croatia, that they had to build obstacles. So called “Digital Workers” flooded the peaceful Balkan state.
In Germany you get the “criminal record certificate” quite easy…but in the US you need to refer directly to the FBI to issue you a “identity history summery check”. Most difficult is the way of application – you must submit your fingerprints! If they receive the paper with your inky data they run it through their servers and criminal files – and if no crime or misdemeanor popps up you have proven a white west and they issue you the certificate.
This has to be authenticated for out-of-state-use with an Apostille – which makes everything super difficult because you have to receive the document first to send it back to an authority that gives you the special international stamp. Not to mention, that the whole procedure will take weeks if not month. We have from now still 80 days. This would be probably enough to travel around the world, but by far not sufficient to meet all requirements.
And here’s the fun fact. The police stations in Croatia don’t do fingerprints. The embassy of the Unites States here doesn’t do fingerprints. The Croatian Department of Interior is not doing Fingerprint. Hey, there is one guy who has the license to certify fingerprinting in whole Croatia. Or wait, did I say is? Was! He is not doing that anymore!
So we did imprints ourselves to not travel to Slovenia or Bosnia, as was recommended to us. And we hope that the Federal Bureau of Investigation either except the Prints as they are and of course don’t find one of the funny prints in their criminal files…
