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What's up everybody? Welcome back to the All Things Croatia podcast. I'm your host,
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Stanko Zovak, and I'm bringing you the best of Croatia from around the globe.
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information, go to www.adriatictours.com or click the link in the description. Now,
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either modalia and let's get started. Welcome back to the podcast everyone. Today we have
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special guest, Rene Peja. Rene is the Consul General of Croatia in Los Angeles, and in this
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episode we're going to learn about her and her role in helping Croatians abroad connect back
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with the homeland. Rene, thanks for coming on the podcast. Of course, thank you for having me.
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And I appreciate bearing with me on a little bit of technical difficulties we had there.
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But why don't you start us off if you can, just tell us a little bit about your early life growing
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up. So as I understand you were born and raised in Croatia? Yes, exactly. Yes, I was born in
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Zagreb, as were my parents. However, my family on my father's side, they come from Slavonia,
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from Valpo, which is a small village close to Vukovar. But I grew up in Zagreb. I just visited
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my relatives in Slavonia every once in a while. I grew up in the city center and then later at
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Djarun, which is close to the lake, which was really nice. I went to elementary and high school
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there. And then I came to the States to finish my last year of high school in New Hampshire. There
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was a little town called Hudson, New Hampshire. And that's where I did my last year of high school.
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Is that some sort of exchange type program in high school? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I was an
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exchange student. Okay. Yeah. And at that time, nobody knew about Croatia except, you know, for
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the war. So all they knew was that there was a war there. And it's such a difference from then to
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now. Whenever I say that I'm from Croatia, everybody says, oh, Croatia, beautiful, you know,
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wonderful sea, wonderful beaches, I really want to go or they tell me, oh, I've been. So, you know,
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it's, it's really nice to hear that for a change. What year was that when you were in your last
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year of high school? That was 94. So that was in the middle of the war just before it ended. And I
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was supposed to study in the States, but actually decided to go back because I felt bad about not
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being at home while there was a war going on. So I went back, the studied in Zagreb at law school
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of Zagreb, Pravni fakultet. And then later did my MA, which is a master's degree in European law
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in Bruges in Belgium. So that's about it about my schooling. I heard that that's like one of those
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little fairy tale type looking towns. Is that right? Or am I thinking of another place over there?
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No, no, you're very right. It's beautiful there. It's gorgeous. But as long as it's, you know,
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the summer and you're there for a couple of days, and then it's beautiful. But during the winter,
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it can get a little bit, you know, I would call it medievally dark. There was a movie called in
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Bruges, and it's quite depressing. And that can be also the atmosphere there. So just be careful
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when you're going to go in the right months. Well, you mentioned you were living by, you were
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living by your own. I want to ask you, did you ever go swimming there? Because I went swimming,
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and I've heard mixed results from locals here that if you should go in the water or not.
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Well, I did go swimming, you know, maybe once or twice. So not that much. I think, you know,
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it's so much nicer swimming in the sea. So I prefer going to our seaside to swim rather than to
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Yerun. I do know some people were swimming there, but that never was really that exciting for me.
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So we would go out sometimes in Yerun. You know, there were quite a few places like restaurants
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and clubs. So we would go there for parties rather than for swimming. Yeah, I would tend to agree
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with that. And definitely you can't be swimming in the sea. So then how did you end up going to
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Los Angeles? Well, I'm a career diplomat. So I've been working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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for basically the last 20 years. And this is my third posting. I've been posted to Chicago before
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for five years, then to Brussels for four. And now I'm here. And in the meantime, I was working in
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Zagreb at the Ministry, and also I was working for the office of the President of Croatia,
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which was at the time, Colin the Grabber-Kitarović. Now, when you say posted in these other cities,
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that's also as a Consul General? So no, it's always something else. So when I was in Chicago,
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I was the Deputy Consul General and then the Acting Consul General, because we didn't have a
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Consul General for a while. So I was, you know, doing, I was in that role for about three years.
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So it's a very similar job as to what I'm doing now. And in Brussels, it was completely different.
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I was working for the Croatian permanent representation to the EU. So basically, we were
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negotiating a lot of documents and things regarding Croatia, the EU and EU's foreign
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and security policy. Okay. And so now you've been, what is it, four years in Los Angeles as
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Consul General? No, I moved here two years ago. So it was summer of 2020. So I've been here for
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two years and it's going to be another two years. So our postings are four years altogether.
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I see. Okay. And now for those that don't know exactly, I mean, I know everyone sort of hears
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these terms, but maybe they don't know what they mean, including myself. But what exactly is a Consul
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General? And what is your role? So Consul General is basically the head of the consulate, the Consulate
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General. And what the consulate does, we're a diplomatic representation of Croatia in different
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countries. But in order to explain that, it will be easier to start from the beginning. So basically,
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in a foreign country, you have an embassy, and then you can also have consulates. In the US,
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we have the embassy in Washington DC. And we have three other consulates in New York, in Chicago,
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and here in LA. So the embassy basically covers the whole country, and they cover it politically,
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which means that they usually, you know, discuss certain policy issues, also trade,
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everything that is on a state level they discuss with the United States. What we do is we're in
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charge of a certain part of the country. So for instance, here in LA, the Consulate General would
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be in charge of 19 states. So everything from North Dakota down to Texas, everything to the West
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of that is the territory that we cover as the Consulate General of LA. And what we do is basically
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everything. So we represent Croatia here. We meet, you know, governors, other politicians, mayors.
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We do trade policy, investment policy. But mostly, we're here for our diaspora and for
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and for Croat's abroad. And we take care of them. And we usually issue documents. That's something
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called consular affairs. So for consular affairs, we do any type of document you might need. So your
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birth certificate, you're the Movinica, your citizenship for foreigners, we issue visas and such.
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So it's any type of documents that Croats or other people might need for whatever it is that
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they're doing or want to pursue. And you're dealing with all these different types of
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documents and paperwork. Are you seeing some sort of trend right now? I mean, I know this,
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it's been two years, I guess it's hard to sort of compare. But I mean... Yeah, absolutely. It's not
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difficult to compare actually. We've seen a huge uptake arise in the request for Croatian citizenship
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and for Croatian passports. There's been a 200% uptake in the request for Croatian citizenship.
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So it's very significant. We've seen a lot of people wanting citizenship and like I said,
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passports and wanting to travel there for the last two summers. Because Croatia was, you know,
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one of the few countries that was open during the pandemic, but also for the American tourists.
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We saw a lot of American tourists wanting to go there. And we were giving them information and
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issuing some documents, especially for Croatian Americans who didn't have their Croatian passport
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made. So they needed some documents from us to be able to go there. And we were issuing those.
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So it was a very, very busy time. Do you have any guesses as to why it's been such an,
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I mean, you mentioned a 200% increase in citizenship request. Do you have any idea why that might be?
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Well, I think that the answer to that is, you know, let's say threefold, let's say. I would think
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that it's because Croatia is now a member of the EU. So there's a lot of more possibilities of going
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to the European Union and working there, studying there. So it opens up a lot of options. But I
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believe that during the pandemic, it happened because people realized that they would like to
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have another option of maybe, you know, moving somewhere else, going to another country, living
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there. And since Croatia was quite open, they really enjoy living there. I think they just
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wanted to be able to go there and stay for longer, perhaps sometimes, you know, even retire, stay for
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a year or two. So I just think that people just wanted more options, different options.
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And now in working with, you know, of course, the Croatian government in sort of trying to,
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I mean, make that happen. What exactly is the process for you? I mean, you're processing all
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these documents and making sure they have all the correct documents for citizenship and then sending
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that to Croatia and someone there is putting it together? Or are you actually in your division,
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are they, you know, saying yes, you got it or no, you didn't? No, we don't do that. So basically,
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you were correct the first time. So what we do is we usually give out information and advice as to
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how to obtain citizenship. So sometimes I give out lectures as well. But basically, when somebody
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calls us or emails us, we have, you know, something like a little write up a brochure about Croatian
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citizenship, and we send that out. And we explain to them what they need to do. So we would, you
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know, then make an appointment for them, they need to come in, because you have to do it in person,
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we would have a little interview with them. However, they don't need to fill out a test or
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anything like that up until now, you had to have a language test and a little history test.
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But that doesn't exist anymore. So you just, you know, come to an appointment, you have a small
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interview, you sign some documents here in front of us. And then we make sure that you have all
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the documents and we send it back to Croatia. And the institution in charge of citizenship
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is actually the Ministry of Interior of Croatia. So they are the ones who go through the process,
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and then decide whether, you know, you are eligible for citizenship or not. That takes about a year
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up to two years. This has been a little bit longer lately, just because, you know, we have such,
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like I said, such an uptake and increase in requests, but also because, you know, the pandemic,
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and then we had two major earthquakes in Croatia. So all of that has made the process a little bit
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slower, but generally takes about, like I said, from about a year up to two years.
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Do you think that that process might be expedited in the future, in the near future,
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I should say, with, I don't know, technology or, you know, maybe they're, they have plans to switch
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softwares or something or?
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I really don't know what they're planning. I know that a lot has actually been done to put
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a lot of those documents you can actually get online. So there's something called
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e-grajani in the Croatian system. That's something that has been put on by the Ministry of
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Justice and also the other ministries are being involved, and they have more or less
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all the documents online now. And most recently, you can get your passport and your ID online as
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well, as long as you have applied for one of those documents within a year of applying again now.
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However, citizenship are a little bit of a different story. So I'm not sure that is going
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to be possible, but, you know, we'll see, maybe, maybe we'll be able to do it online or do a Zoom
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interview or something. But for now, you know, that's the case. You still have to come in and
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go through the process. And like I said, since there was a huge increase, that's why it's taking
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a little bit longer. And at this point, I'm not sure it's going to go down much.
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Well, the e-grajani at least sounds like it's a step in the right direction as far as, you know,
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utilizing technology to make things easier and quicker. Especially, you know, Croatia is sort
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of known for its bureaucracy. So that's always good to hear. What are some of the, like, most
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common issues that you have, or that people, I should say, have in obtaining their Croatian
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citizenship? Any specific documents or, you know, a certain part of it that causes the most trouble?
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Well, most of them have the most trouble with finding the old documents, meaning that if,
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let's say, they have a grandfather or a great grandfather who they're getting the citizenship
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through, you know, who was born in Croatia, they need to get their birth certificate or some kind
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of a document that would show that they were born in Croatia, and they were Croatian. And that can,
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you know, cause some issues because not all the books of citizenship you can find, not all of them
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are there. Some of them were burned during the war or throughout history. So some of them, you
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know, have a hard time of finding those documents. Also, what gets a little bit complicated is,
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you know, getting, let's say, your birth certificate that has to be stamped with something called an
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apostille seal. Apostle seal is something that you can get at the Secretary of State, and every
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legal document has to have that apostille seal in order to be valid in Croatia. So sometimes people
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are a little bit confused by that. And then another thing is what they need to get is something called
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a record search. They get that either from the Justice Department in their own state or from the
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FBI in the States. And for that, you have to give your fingerprints, and then it takes a while to
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get that. So, you know, sometimes they're waiting on those documents to get here. But other than that,
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there are really no major issues. I applied recently for citizenship maybe five, six months ago
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through the program here, Kuretikam that I'm doing, which is allowing me to, you know, study here in
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Zagreb. And so they helped with all of that. And from what I understood, I mean, it was tough to,
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you know, make sense of it all. And I was just sort of following their instructions. But it almost
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seemed like they were, it's almost seemed like it's a guessing game at some point, in figuring
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which route to go with the application. Because it seems to me there's a couple different routes,
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but you can go, I forget exactly how it went. But in my case, I could have gone, like through just
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my dad, because he has citizenship, or I could have gone, you know, through my grandmother,
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through my baka. And it was like two different directions of like two different ways to go with
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it. And it almost seems like it's just sort of a guessing game. I don't know, is that, is that true at
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all? Or I wouldn't call it that. I think it's more about giving people more options. So basically,
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what they're trying to do, or what we are trying to do as a country, we want, you know,
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Croats, who feel like they're Croats, and who would like to get their creation citizenship,
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who would like to give them as many options as possible. So basically, this is made in such a
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way that you have more options to apply. So if you can, let's say, if you have a father and he has
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his documents, who are in order, then you can apply through him. If not, then you can apply
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through a grandmother. If not even that, then maybe you can apply because you are Croatian,
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you are a person who likes to, you know, go to Croatian events, who is a member of a Croatian
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club, who is active in those clubs in church, etc. And you can prove your Croatian identity
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through that. So it's basically giving you more options. So it's just up to you. And up to us to
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see what would be maybe the best route. So we could advise you on that, you know. But I think
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it's more about giving you guys or Croats abroad more options. I see. So then it's more going
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through the side that has perhaps the easier to obtain documents or already has those documents.
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Exactly, exactly. That's what it is, you know. Yeah. I see that makes sense. I want to pivot a
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little bit from citizenship. And I don't know if you mentioned this already, but do you deal with
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trade at all in your role between Croatia and the US? Yes, of course. I deal with trade and
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investment. So, you know, when they're Croatian companies who would like to come and do business
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here or find business partners, we can help them. They get in touch and we try to connect them with,
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you know, their either partners or whoever or whatever they need to do to be able to do business
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here or sell their products here. And we also try to find, you know, investment for Croatia. So
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if somebody's interested in investing in Croatia, we also do, you know, presentations of what's
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out there or what are the possibilities. We connect them to, you know, the certain offices,
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institutions in Croatia who can also help. So, yes, that's one of our roles as well.
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So that's both sides, both Croatian companies wanting to do business in the US as well as,
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you know, US investments into Croatia? Yes, exactly. It's both. And have you seen any trends
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within those two areas? Well, actually, yes, there's a lot of Croatian companies, especially
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when it comes to IT. So it's tech, IT robotics, gaming, also film industry. So there's a lot of
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Croatian companies who want to come here and work here and find partners here. So there's also been
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an increase in those kind of, you know, questions. And also, as you probably know, we have a lot of,
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you know, productions, film productions who want to film Croatia. So there's been an uptake in that
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as well. So there has been a lot going on. Yeah, there's always something happening.
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Would you mind talking a little bit about the, I mean, I guess this is not trade so much, but the
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no visa policy that recently, I mean, that allows Croatians, basically, I can sum it up and maybe
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you can correct me or, and then go into a little more detail. But basically, from what I understand,
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Croatians can go to the US without a visa, but I'm not sure how long can they stay, can they
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work there? How does that work exactly? So it's actually called a visa waiver program.
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So that's a program that the United States has with, you know, their friends and partners
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that allows their citizens to enter the country for tourist purposes and business purposes
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for three months, up to three months. And they can do so without a visa. So you don't have to go to
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the American Embassy anymore, you know, pay, I don't know, 100 bucks or more, and then wait for
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your visa. Not sure if you if it's going to be granted. All you have to do is go online, fill
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out an application called ESTA, it's E-A-S-T-A. And basically, that allows you to enter DUS without
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a visa. We've been working on that for a very long time, and we were very happy that it came to
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fruition. And that really has helped a lot with, you know, Croatians coming to the US.
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They don't really have to go through this whole long and complicated process. So we're very grateful
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to our American friends for that, for, you know, making this possible.
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And how long ago was that implemented?
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I believe it was last year, end of last year, November of last year. So yeah, about what is it
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now, 10 months, a little bit more, almost a year.
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And are you seeing now an increase in, I mean, tourism or I mean, Croatians going to the US
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utilizing that? You know, yes and no. At the same time, you still have the pandemic that is
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still impeding travel a little bit. And I still feel like there's more Americans who want to
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travel to Croatia rather than vice versa. It's just a matter of making it easier for Croatians.
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But I don't think there's been a huge increase because of that, just because, you know, of the
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circumstances right now. But otherwise, I think it's very helpful also for businesses.
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And now that's the same. Now going both ways is equal, right? Because I think it's the same
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coming from the US to Croatia is the same three months, no visa at that.
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Well, it is three months. But yes, there was no visa requirement for Americans anyway,
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for Croatia. So it was just for, you know, Croatians coming to the US, for Americans going
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to Croatia, there was no visas at any point.
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I see. Okay. And do you see or I mean, maybe have you heard of Croatia working on similar
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or the same policies with any other countries?
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Well, there's not that I know at the moment, but you know, I'm not really in charge of
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those things. So I'm not really aware. But there was there's not a lot of countries that require
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visas for Croatians anyway, because now as a member of the EU and NATO, you know, those
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requirements have gone down. The only country that I know of that you actually now do require a visa
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where whereas you didn't before is, for example, Turkey, because, you know, we had to impose visas
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on Turkish citizens when we entered the EU. So they did the same to us. But other than that,
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you know, there's not that many countries that you would need a visa for anyway.
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And that was an EU policy, you said, for to impose visas on Turkey?
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Yes, exactly. That's yes. That was interesting. Yeah.
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Now, Renee, I sort of want to, you know, pivot from these areas. And but, you know,
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still ask about your role. Is there any sort of I mean, I know you're dealing with documents with
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citizenship with the trade. Is there any sort of local way that you're supporting the diaspora?
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Well, of course, you know, we are with and around diaspora, you know, constantly.
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We go to all of their events. We're present here. We're here for any type of need that they might
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need. But mostly it's, you know, about being in touch, supporting them when they're organizing
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their cultural events, being theirs, you know, being active in the community, being present.
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That's that's most most of it right now. And there's a lot going on. There's, as you know,
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a very big diaspora here. And we cover a lot of states. So, you know, only here in LA and in San
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Pedro, we have about 30 to 40,000 croats. And in other parts of California as well, such as,
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you know, San Jose and San Francisco, Watsonville, a huge Croatian community, but then also in
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Washington state, Arizona, Texas. So, you know, we're quite active. We're visiting them. We're
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showing them that we're here if they need us. And that we're, you know, involved in their work
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and their accomplishments as well. We also, you know, are here to offer any type of aid and support
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that they might need. And there's also a very big support system when it comes to the state office
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for Croats Abroad. They have issued two calls for projects. So they're financing projects for
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Croatian diaspora. So they have been two calls. One has just finished the other one just opened.
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So it would be great if, you know, Croats Abroad, who have their organizations who want to
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do some projects, it would be good for them to apply. So that's something that, you know,
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goes through us as well. And now people who are, you know, looking to contact you and contact the
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consulate, is there a website that you can shout out or an email or something? Yeah, the website
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is actually the website of our embassy in Washington, DC, which is us.mfa.hr. And the email,
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which is a more direct way to reach us, is losangeles.atmvep.hr. So that would be the
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Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. So, ministarstvo, vanskih i europeuskih poslova.hr.
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Mvep.hr. Well, thank you for that, Renee. And thank you for coming on the podcast. I want to ask
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you just one last quick thing here before we go. But now you've been in Los Angeles two years.
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Can you compare and contrast a little bit, life in LA versus life in Zagreb?
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Well, it's, you know, it's very different. LA is a huge city. What we think of LA is basically
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LA County. So it's LA and then in between you have, you know, many smaller cities. There's a
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actually 88 of them in LA County. So there's 10 million people here. It's huge by its,
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you know, just the surface of it. It's amazing. So it takes a long time to get from one part
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to the other. So, you know, being stuck in traffic is kind of a way of life here.
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So that took some getting used to. But other than that, it's a beautiful city and the weather,
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you know, it's just gorgeous. You can't beat that. But it is quite different. You know,
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Zagreb is quite centralized, easy to get to. The public transportation is amazing in Zagreb.
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So you can get everywhere in a matter of, you know, half an hour from one part to the other.
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So, you know, I kind of miss that. I miss sitting, you know, in, I don't know,
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it's getting, again, sipping coffee and being relaxed and just people watching. That's, you
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know, one of the best things. And especially getting to the seaside that takes about, you know,
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an hour to an hour at the seaside, which is the same here. But the beaches are very different.
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This sea here, the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, you can't really swim in, not in the way that we're
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used to in Croatia. So all of that is quite different. Are the sand beaches growing on you,
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or you still miss the Croatian rock beaches? But it's nice laying on a sandy beach, but then you
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can't really enter the sea. So I don't know what to tell you. It's 50-50, you know. Yeah, exactly.
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And then you got sand all over your body when you're going home. Exactly. And in Croatia,
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you just kind of, you know, you go into that beautiful blue water. So that's really something
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to remember. And I go every summer to swim here, RC. Yeah, it is beautiful. Although the only thing
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about the rocks, I have to say, is every summer it does take a week or two for my feet to get used
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to walking on the rocks down to the water. And I won't wear the water shoes. I won't do that.
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Yeah, I'm sorry. I know that a lot of people are actually confused about that. They don't realize
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that we have, you know, little pebbles on our beaches. But I guess, you know, I grew up there,
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so I'm used to that. Yeah, well, and some are bigger than others. And some are, it's almost like sand,
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you know, and there are, of course, some sand beaches here too. Well, Renee, I really appreciate
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you coming on here on the podcast. Trying to think if there's anything else I need to ask you. I
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don't know. Is there anything else you want to say before we go? Well, not really. I think you were
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asking me about, you know, trade and there's a big agreement being worked on right now. And I want
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you to tell you about that because a lot of people are asking us about that. So we're working on a
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double taxation treaty. So people who are citizens of both countries don't have to pay taxes, both
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in Croatia and in the US. And I just wanted to let you know that it's almost finished. So technically,
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it has been completed, and it has been translated. And now we just have to go through the process of
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signing it and, you know, pushing it through both of the legislators, meaning that it has to be
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after signing has to be accepted or passed through Congress here in the States. And the same goes for
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the Croatian Sabur in Croatia. So once that is completed, we will have, you know, our double
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taxation treaty, which will be very important for all Croatians. Could you quickly explain how
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exactly that works? So that's if you are, say you have a job in the US or whatever, and then you
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retire and go to Croatia, or maybe retirement is too complex for me to understand.
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Well, basically, it just, you know, not to make it too complicated, but it would just allow you
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to pay taxes in one country. So either the states or in Croatia, you wouldn't have to pay taxes in
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both of them, which makes it much easier. Yeah. And for businesses as well. The country that you're
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working in is the country that you would pay taxes to? Yes, exactly. Okay. And what about even if
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you're, say, working remotely for a company in the US but living in Croatia, you pay US taxes?
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Well, yeah, that's, you know, a part of the agreement. So we will have to see how that is,
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you know, what's in the agreement. But basically, yes, you just pay the country that is paying you
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the money, basically. That's an easy way for me to understand. Thank you.
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Yeah, I know. But I know that has big implications for a lot of people. So basically, what I'm
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hearing from you is if you're looking to retire or get a job, you should maybe wait a few more weeks?
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Well, you know, right now, I don't think that Croatia is actually charging taxes. They just want
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people who are in this kind of a situation to fill out the tax forms and to report that they're
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working, let's say in both countries or they're having income in both countries, let's put that way.
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But in any case, it is going to be, you know, so much easier and people won't have to worry about it
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at all anymore. So and I don't think they would have to wait because it's imminent, you know,
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I think that should be finished, hopefully, end of this year, beginning of next year. So, you know,
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it's coming soon.
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Great. Well, Renee, thank you so much for explaining that to me because that's hard for me to wrap
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my mind around things like that policies. And thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I
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really appreciate it. All your very welcome and thank you for having me and hello and goodbye to
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all the listeners. That's it for today's episode of the All Things Croatia podcast. Thanks for
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tuning in and I hope you all enjoyed it. You can subscribe to the Patreon and check out the All
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Things Croatia Instagram page to stay updated. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions,
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tips or ideas and make sure to tune back into the next episode. Thanks again and
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see you most soon