Every Croatian permit file starts with one question: is the occupation on the HZZ list or not. If it is, the file goes straight to the police; if it is not, HZZ has 15 days to look for a domestic candidate first. Here is how the test runs, what the list is, and why the answer also changes your headcount ratio.
The employer submits the vacancy to the HZZ regional office with the job description, pay and conditions. HZZ checks its register of unemployed persons and publishes the vacancy; within 15 days it issues its finding. If suitable domestic candidates are referred, the employer interviews them; if none is suitable or none applies, HZZ confirms that the labour market has been tested and the employer may file the permit application at MUP. Since June 2026 the same test may cover several police-administration areas, and a result is reused for further permits in the same occupation for 90 days.
Article 101 of the Foreigners Act lets the HZZ Administrative Board adopt a list of occupations for which no test is needed, and it has expanded the list several times since 2021 — by sector (construction, hospitality, shipbuilding, metal, transport, care) and by county for roles where shortages are regional: chambermaids, cleaners, kitchen and bar assistants in the coastal counties, bus drivers in eight counties and the City of Zagreb, seasonal sales staff in Istria and Dubrovnik-Neretva. The list is a living document; we hold the current version and check each role against it, county by county, because a chambermaid exempt in Split-Dalmatia may be tested in Osijek-Baranja.
An exempt occupation does more than save 15 days: it halves the domestic-staff ratio the employer must show, from 20 % to 10 % of third-country headcount.
A test that finds domestic candidates is not a refusal; it is an obligation to interview them. Employers who write the vacancy honestly — the real shift pattern, the real pay, the real location — rarely receive referrals for the trades and hospitality roles Filipinos fill. Vacancies written below the collective agreement or without accommodation are the ones that stall.
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.
Send us the occupation and the county; we check the current HZZ list and confirm in writing, with the ratio that applies.
By up to 15 days. It runs before the MUP application, in parallel with our sourcing, so it rarely extends the total timeline.
HZZ refers; you interview. You are not obliged to hire an unsuitable candidate, and you document why.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.