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Well, not many countries have such a lax attitude about overstays as they have here in Brazil. Here you pay a small fine roughly US $4 per day capped at a 100 day limit.

But even so, and I can't stress this firmly enough. Regardless of what the penalties are in the country where you are, you shouldn't even think about an overstay. That is not likely where you're going to feel the full force of the consequences.

Think about this scenario:

You overstay your visa, somewhere where it's no big deal and think you've dodged a bullet. Wow, great!

You're back home Scot free..... then 2 years down the road you get a job offer in Dubai with a salary and benefits package that would make Bill Gates sit up and take notice. Perfect, then when you apply for your visa it gets refused because THEY take overstays very seriously and used that big fat ugly overstay stamp that you got in your passport as the perfect excuse to deny your visa application.

It's not rocket science folks! Nobody should play fast and loose with immigrations rules and regulations anywhere; doing so will ALWAYS have consequences. It's just that those consequences may not always happen when or where you expect them to.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, ²ÝÁñÉçÇø-blog Experts Team

Hi William,

Could you answer my questions? I moved to HR in 2009 with my family having bought a property there. As a property owner our visa did not allow us to work and would have cost too much to change to a work visa which had different sets of criteria. This was the first issue, as I had a job invitation and also had a property here. Anyway, we have  waited the five years for the visa to come to an end and in January 2015 we are looking forward to gaining full citizenship and thus being able to get our names on the land classed as 'agricultural' which we originally bought but could not have our names assigned to it because we were 'stranica' (strangers). First hurdle, we paid in full for our property and assumed that putting it through the courts to have our names on would be it, however, a lady put her name on our property deeds through the land registry after we bought it and during the five years we have tried to have her name removed. Unfortunately, as 'stranicas' we could not do it and had three appeals rejected and in the meantime she died and the deeds now have her sons name on it. SO thats one thing we are battling with. The other is that our solicitor informs us that even after five years it seems that we might only get permanent residency and not citizenship which would entitle us to own our land!!! The law changes so frequently here that we can't get a proper answer from anyone even after some very costly discussions with him and other legal advisors, no-one can give us a straight answer and that includes MUP. I am now considering making an EU complaint as our move to HR was done with enthusiasm and sincerity to make a new life for us and our children and has through the bureaucracy has become an untenable and costly experience. I still love HR and have spent a considerable part of my life there and would hate to have to give up something that we have invested so heavily in terms of cost, time and emotions.

This isn't going to be good news I'm afraid. You have been very badly advised.
You paid for property which was registered as being owned by someone else? Now that person has died and her inheritors are about to take your property from you ... have I got this right?

You appear to have avoided buying via a Croatian d.o.o. which, despite the irritations, would have secured everything for you. As I see it, your only hope is if you have some clear documentation which shows this lady held your property on your behalf. I'm guessing you don't have it?  Even if you do, it is hardly an accepted legal instrument recognised by anyone.

You are in a difficult position and I see no way out. The EU courts will not seek to override anything a a domestic court has ruled unless a clear breach of EU regulation has occurred - and it hasn't.

Sorry.