Croatia's foreign and tourism ministries made thorough preparations and held meetings with Russian travel agencies to acquaint them with the new visa regime, and several presentations were held for Croatian travel agencies and business people as well as Russian tourist agencies in Moscow, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Given that Ukrainian and Russian citizens needs visas for Croatia as of April 1, the two Croatian ministries made preparations with travel agencies, visa centres are being opened in Russia and visas are issued within five days, the ministry said.
Russians and Ukrainians always needed visas for Croatia, but the regime was suspended between April and November. However, three months before joining the European Union, Croatia had to align the visa regime with European regulations.
Visas are being issued in Croatian and EU countries' embassies in Russia and Ukraine, urgent ones within three days.
Since Croatia is not in the Schengen area, it cannot issue Schengen visas.
Croatian diplomatic offices have been instructed to issue multiple visas so that tourists can pass through Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and take trips to Montenegro and Bosnia.
From April 1 to June 18, the Croatian Embassy in Moscow issued more than 24,000 visas. The Croatian Embassy in Kiev issued more than 1,700 visas on June 10-18.
