Apartment Visa

Every once in a while, I think about spending a year or so living in another country — think of it like an adult version of study abroad. I would plant myself in one town and just… live life. Go to the grocery store, write blog posts, go to work, and read books. Just in another place.

I have places I would like to do this, but those places aren’t keen to have people just plop down and rent a cottage for a year. So I always bookmark articles that I find that talk about this concept for a place I may not have considered.

Enter Croatia.

I have not given a lot of thought to Croatia as a place to live for a year.(Visit, yes. live, no.) But Croatia has a program where if you pre-pay your rent for a year, you can stay for a year.

Croatia offers a little-known “apartment visa” that allows foreigners, including Americans, to establish residency simply by showing they own residential property or hold a long-term rental lease. Applicants also need to demonstrate sufficient funds and health insurance. The visa is generally valid for a year.

It doesn’t say it in this article, but more poking around turned up multiple spaces that said you need to pre-pay the rent for the year. There are likely other rules, but it was an interesting idea.