Welcome to the early April issue of Croats in London
Visa requirement dropped for Croatian citizens, Budget travel, New links between Croatia and London

Budget travel

New flights from London to Croatia have been announced by budget airlines Easyjet and Wizzair.
Routes include flights to Rijeka, Zagreb and Split.

Visa requirement dropped.

In a major announcement, the British foreign office has announced that visas will no longer be required for Croats to visit the UK. This took effect from 22 March 2006. For up to six months, visas will not be needed for the purposes of tourism, business, family and transit.

New links between Croatia and London

Croats in London’s editor takes a personal look at the new links between Croatia and the UK.

The relations between Croatia and the UK have often been rocky in the past. However, in the last month there has been news and developments that will see a deepening of relations between the two countries.

First of all, Britain has dropped the visa requirement for Croat citizens to visit the United Kingdom. The requirement had been in place for some years, and caused some resentment. After all, most Croatians are here to work (usually on a professional level) and study; Croats have never been linked to illegitimate activities. The visa requirement was originally imposed to prevent Croatian Serbs coming to London to claim asylum - claims the UK home office presumably felt were not substantive. However, the maintenance of the ban in recent years perhaps had more to do with political reasons, such as Croatia’s EU application, than any practical reason.

However, that is now behind us. There are very few Croats in the UK, and the dropping of the visa requirement can only result in more contact between Croatians and the British, which can only be a good thing.

Croats may be now be more inclined to visit to the UK, and those coming for longer stays may apply to stay for longer than six months. The Croat community could grow a little, particularly in London. Furthermore, traffic to and from Croatia will increase with the introduction of new budget airline routes. A lot of British people will discover Croatia for the first time.

With more guidebooks coming out soon, including one from Time Out, it looks like Croatia-British relations - amongst its peoples certainly - look set to enter a positive new era.

And of course, Croats in London will be here to report on it all.

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