Do I need a visa to Croatia for Russian citizens?

What is this bliss: stretch out on a warm sand under the rays of a gentle sun, putting your feet to the gentle waves of the sea! A delightful country, located in the eastern part of Europe, is Croatia. She is always happy to open her old doors to the tired tourists. Mentally already getting acquainted with the Croatian beaches, a person still needs to get to this fabulous country.

And the first question facing tourists planning to rest in the vastness of this fabulous European paradise is probably the most common: "Do I need a visa to Croatia?". Maybe there is a valid Schengen visa? In Croatia, from the beginning of April 2013, residents of the Russian Federation need to obtain a visa.

Actively preparing to join the European Union, this country has also taken a number of measures to stabilize and strengthen the visa regime. From the first day of the second month of spring, the embassies and consular departments started work on issuing visas. There may arise a reasonable question: "Since this country is going to join the European Union, is it necessary to have a visa to Croatia, if the passport is Schengen?".

At the moment, only a national Croatian visa is issued. However, Russians who have a valid Schengen visa have the opportunity to visit the country without a state visa. The Schengen visa for Croatia for Russian citizens will be valid for four months, starting April 1 this year. Among other things, the Croatian government is negotiating with the European Union's management apparatus in order to continue such an admission regime even after the end of the four-month period.

If the question of whether a visa is necessary to Croatia has two solutions (either obtaining a national visa or having an existing Schengen visa), how and how to obtain a state visa for visiting the country?

This can be done in the consular department of the Croatian Embassy, located in Moscow. In order for the innovation not to be perceived negatively, the department working on issuing visas will expand the staff and move to a more spacious room in order to speed up the process of issuing visas for residents of Russia. It is planned that the receipt of the national Croatian visa will be made within five days from the date of application. However, the embassy of the hospitable country goes towards tourists who want to get a stamp for entry urgently, but the traveler will have to pay for this service: if the receipt of a usual visa costs a Russian 35 euros, then the urgent treasured sticker on the passport will cost twice as much - 70 euros.

To facilitate the process of obtaining a visa, many Russian cities will open consular offices of the Croatian Republic. For registration through these departments will be charged an additional fee of 17-18 euros.

Now let's look at the question of whether a visa is necessary for Croatia citizens of Belarus and Ukraine? In order not to mislead anyone, we will explain: since Croatia is going to join the European Union, on the principle of all its members, it places a requirement for a visa for citizens of countries that are not members of the European Union. Residents of all other countries, which also include the CIS countries, must have a visa for crossing the border of Croatia.