American gaining citizenship through deceased grandfather

[jordan]

Hello,

I've wanted Croatian citizenship for a few years, as it'd make living and working in Croatia (as well as the rest of Europe) much easier. My grandfather was from Splitーand while I've never actually been to Croatia, it's somewhere we always talked about visiting together. 

Unfortunately, he passed a little more than two years ago; and ever since then, I've felt my drive to pursue citizenship become so much bigger.

What I'm trying to figure out is, do I have a chance at citizenship? And if so, how would I go about obtaining my grandfather's documents from Croatia, considering he left before Yugoslavia was dissolved...?

I hope I'm not being a bother. Thank you for your help. :-)

[capo]

Yes you can got citizenship.. call the croatian embassy in usa for your grandfather papers

[ckb]

I am in the same situation! My grandparents migrated to australia in the 60s, both have passed and any documents they had are gone.
I don't know how to access their birth certificates! Which basically stops me from starting the whole process.
Someone help us out!

[Ribaric]

I don't think you can do it on the cheap ckb. I'd suggest a lawyer who knows about this stuff and would ask you the right questions in order to find whatever records exist and whether your grandparents' link is enough. I do know there's usually a difficulty if deciding the 'nationality' of the person being searched, apparently "Jugoslav" doesn't cut it and that's all it says on old documents. It shouldn't be this way in the 21st century, but it is.

Good luck
Paul

www.ruralpropertycroatia.com

[ckb]

Hey jordan,
So yesterday i contacted the croatian consulate and they said in order to track down the birth certificates i would need:
Birth place of both grandparents
Birth dates of both
Grandmothers maiden name
And marriage date.
They then said i would need to set an appointment to meet with them.
I don't know if it would be the same in america but it would probably help you track them down.

[emm4]

Does anyone know a good lawyer for this process? Thank you in advance

[lulu]

jordan I'm a half Croat from the US now living in Split—I've been working on my citizenship papers for over one year now and it's a character-building exercise for sure. My Bosnian husband tried to convince me to go to the Croatian embassy in Sarajevo while we were living there but I was convinced Split was the place to do this. (He might have been right.)

My late father was from Herzegovina but lived in Slavonia before leaving for Canada after WW2. To address whether "Yugoslav" cuts it just make sure you have any church-related documents if available identifying your grandfather as Catholic or Croatian. My birth certificate lists my father as "Yugoslav" but I have his baptismal certificate and his school grades from Slavonia that identified him as Catholic and Croatian. (And apparently he thought his little village in Western Herzegovina was in Croatia, haha.) Make sure all names match on all birth certificates and show proof of any name changes. I know this the hard way.

I was told I'd need to prove my relationship to the Croatian culture in the US, which was somewhat easy to do, and I had to study for a test of 15 questions out of 100, all in Croatian. Apparently people my age no longer need this test.

Croatia also requires your criminal record, which needs to be no older than six months, and your wedding certificate if you've married.

It's possible communities with a high concentration of Croatians such as San Pedro, Pittsburg, cities in Ohio, Queens could have lawyers specializing in Croatian immigration law.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask questions.

[jpaschich]

Hi all! Not sure if any of the original "poster" to this thread will see this but if so, can you give any updates?

I was born and raised in the Unites States. All four of my grandparents (now deceased) were from Yugoslavia. I know for sure my maternal grandpa was born in Molat and my maternal grandma was from in Split. I'm not sure about my paternal grandparents. Long story short, I'm now 50 yrs old and recently retired and thinking about moving to Croatia. I'm still very early on in this process but I found myself to this thread and it seems like as good a place as any to start asking questions and begin my journey.

Thank you to all who took the time to read my post.

Jason