Nineteen thousand seasonal permits in 2025, twenty-three thousand in the first seven months of 2026 — Croatia's coast runs on seasonal labour, and Filipinos are the fastest-growing part of it. Since June 2026 a returning seasonal worker can hold a three-year permit. This is how to build a crew that comes back.
Croatia issues a seasonal residence-and-work permit for tourism and agriculture for up to 90 days or up to nine months in a calendar year, on the employer's application, without the labour-market test for the roles on the HZZ list in the tourist counties. The June 2026 amendment added what seasonal employers had asked for: a permit valid for up to three years for the same worker and the same employer, with work limited to 90 days or nine months in each year, provided the contract states the intention to re-employ or is indefinite with seasonal periods. The worker leaves Croatia after each season unless another legal basis applies, and returns the next spring on the same permit.
A first-year seasonal hire from Manila carries the full recruitment and onboarding effort; a returning worker carries none of it and arrives knowing the property, the systems and the guests. Under the old one-year seasonal permit the whole file was refiled every winter; under the multi-year permit it is filed once. Employers who treat the first season as an investment — pay at or above the hospitality collective agreement, decent staff housing, a supervisor who speaks English — get the second and third seasons at a fraction of the cost.
Seasonal workers are also exempt from the Croatian A1.1 requirement introduced in 2026, which applies at the first renewal of standard permits.
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.
Seasonal staff housing is inspected in practice more than any other accommodation in Croatia; the 2025 rules against overcrowding and automatic rent deductions were written with the coast in mind. Properties that house workers properly retain them; the ones that do not lose them after six months to the employer next door.
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.
Only on another legal basis — a standard residence-and-work permit for a year-round role, for example, which we can prepare during the season if the employer wants to keep the worker.
Both exist within the seasonal permit; hotels and campsites use the nine-month version (roughly March–November), event and harvest employers the 90-day one.
A brief in February can still make June; a brief in April makes the following season. October is the right month.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.