Every Filipino who works abroad legally leaves through a DMW-licensed agency or a government-to-government programme — the Philippine ban on direct hiring sees to that. Croatia adds its own rules on intermediaries. This page explains both, and what our agency does between your brief and the worker's first shift.
On the Philippine side, overseas recruitment is a licensed activity: only a DMW-licensed agency may advertise, screen and process Filipino workers for foreign employers, and the Migrant Workers Office with jurisdiction for the destination verifies the employer and the contract before departure. For Croatia that office has been MWO Vienna since October 2024; before that, Milan. Our agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc., holds licence DMW-027-LB-11182024 and runs its own testing facilities in Makati.
On the Croatian side, the Foreigners Act issues the residence-and-work permit to the employer, and the 2025 and 2026 amendments closed the gap that some intermediaries used: an agency cannot obtain permits for an employer that does not itself meet the turnover, headcount-ratio, arrears and accommodation conditions, and a temporary-work agency that moves a worker to a different occupation needs a new test and permit. In practice this means the employer is you, the file is yours, and our job is to make that file complete and the worker in it right.
On 14 October 2025 DMW Undersecretary Jainal Rasul Jr. and Croatian State Secretary Ivan Vidiš agreed the framework for Filipino workers in Croatia: the employer-pays principle, a government-to-government pilot for 435 hospitality positions, streamlined work permits and residence cards, cooperation on pre-departure and post-arrival orientation, and better documentation for workers who enter through third countries. The DMW put the Filipino population of Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia at about 12,000 at the time; MUP's permit figures suggest Croatia alone is well above that now.
For an employer the practical consequence is simple: recruitment is the employer's cost, in Croatia as in every market we serve, and the DMW checks that it is when it verifies the contract.
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.
Not lawfully — Philippine law requires a DMW-licensed Philippine agency for overseas recruitment, and the Croatian permit still has to be in the employer's name. We are the licensed Philippine side; you are the employer.
Recruitment is the employer's cost — the principle the DMW and the Croatian Ministry of Labour confirmed in October 2025, and one MWO Vienna checks when it verifies the contract. It is how we have always worked.
We recruit for the company that will employ the worker. Where a Croatian agency is the legal employer, it must meet the employer conditions itself, and the worker's occupation is fixed by the permit.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.