Construction was Croatia's largest importer of labour until 2024; it issued 27,000 permits in the first seven months of 2026, down from 44,000 two years earlier as public works cooled, and the contractors still building are choosing their crews more carefully. Filipino trades with Gulf project experience and TESDA certificates are the careful choice.
Zagreb's police administration issued a quarter of all Croatian permits in 2025, and construction — the post-earthquake reconstruction of Zagreb and Banovina, EU-funded infrastructure, energy and housing — was the reason. The cycle has turned: 44,000 construction permits in January–July 2024, 33,000 in 2025, 27,000 in 2026. Contractors are no longer hiring anyone who can hold a trowel; they are replacing crews that did not perform with crews that do, and asking for trades with certificates and drawing literacy. That is the Filipino construction profile.
Filipino construction workers built the Gulf: towers, metro lines, refineries, stadiums — on sites run to British and American standards, with method statements, permits to work and toolbox talks in English. TESDA certifies the trades (Masonry, Carpentry, Tile Setting, Reinforcing Steel Works, Plumbing, Electrical Installation and Maintenance at NC II and III), and the industry's foremen and chargehands run mixed crews in English. For Croatia we source by trade and test by trade: blockwork, formwork from a drawing, a rebar cage from a schedule, tiling to a fall, a pipe run with pressure test.
Helpers and labourers are also on the exemption list in several counties; unlike Flanders or Austria, Croatia has not closed labour migration to low-skilled roles. We recommend crews built around certified trades with a proportion of helpers, which is how the crews are structured at home.
Pay must be at least the statutory minimum — €1,050 gross a month in 2026 — or the extended sector collective agreement where one applies (construction, hospitality), and accommodation must meet the legal standard for the whole stay; we put both in the offer before the interview so nothing is renegotiated at the police counter.
Construction pay follows the extended collective agreement's wage groups; accommodation on or near site must meet the legal standard, and the 2025 rules on overcrowding and deductions are enforced on construction housing first. Permits run for up to three years; workers can change employer after six months, so the contractor who houses and pays properly keeps the crew.
The route is Croatia's combined residence-and-work permit: you file one application online through the joint HZZ/MUP platform, HZZ runs the labour-market test unless the occupation is on its exemption list and gives its opinion on your eligibility, MUP decides within 90 days, and the permit runs for the contract period — up to three years, depending on the route. Before anything is filed we check the 2026 employer conditions — €100,000 turnover over the last twelve months, at least one Croatian or EEA employee for the previous year, Croatian/EEA staff at 20 % of third-country headcount (10 % for exempt occupations), no arrears, adequate accommodation.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office in Vienna, which has jurisdiction for Croatia, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. The Philippine ban on direct hiring applies; the employer is always your company, directly — the Croatian permit is issued to you, not to an agency.
Everything here is subject to the Foreigners Act as amended (NN 40/2025, NN 55/2026), the HZZ exemption list in force and MUP practice.
Both. A typical brief is a mixed crew — bricklayers, formworkers, rebar, two electricians, a plumber, helpers — with a foreman; we test each trade separately.
Yes; Gulf sites work to British and American conventions, and the drawing-reading test is part of every trade test.
Standard permits run year-round; contractors plan indoor phases for January–February as they do with any crew.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.