Temporary residence confirmation

If an EU citizen intends to stay in the Czech Republic for a period exceeding three months and has not threatened safety of the state or gravely infringed public order, temporary residence confirmation can be issued by the Ministry of the Interior upon the EU citizen's request.

Temporary residence permit

An EU citizen's family member who is not an EU citizen and accompanies the EU citizen to the Czech Republic must apply for a temporary residence permit if they intend to stay in the Czech Republic for more than three months.

Long-term residence permit

This type of permit is issued to a foreign national (a non-EU citizen) that has a Czech long-term visa and intends to stay in the Czech Republic for a period longer than one year, based on the assumption that the purpose of the stay will be the same for the entire period of stay.

Such a permit may be issued for the purposes of study, scientific research, searching for employment (for foreign nationals completing their studies or scientific research in the Czech Republic), business, family reunification, and investment purposes within the Czech Republic. It cannot be issued for the purpose of employment. In contrast, an Employee Card, Blue Card or ICT Card can be issued for the purpose of employment and contain both a residence permit and a work permit.

Permanent residence permit

In general, this permit may be issued to a foreign national after five years of continuous, lawful stay in the Czech Republic.

Under special circumstances (e.g., humanitarian reasons or other reasons worthy of special consideration), a permanent residence permit may be issued to an applicant without fulfilling the requirement of previous continuous stay in the Czech Republic.

A foreign national must, subject to exceptional situations, submit evidence that their income is regular to prove funds for permanent residence.

Additional comments

All Czech immigration procedures are time-consuming and administratively demanding. The key steps and timeline of the typical immigration procedure applicable to a non-EU citizen intending to work in the territory of the Czech Republic based on an employment relationship with a local employer are as follows:

• Preparation stage: four to six weeks to obtain all necessary documentation (the documents issued by foreign authorities must be apostilled/legalized and translated by a court sworn translator into Czech)
• Notification of the job vacancy to the labor office by the Czech employer: up to 30 days to complete administrative proceedings
• Application of the non-EU citizen for an Employee Card or Blue Card shall be made at a Czech embassy or a consular post (in certain countries, the waiting period for the appointment to file the application exceeds one month. In addition, it is necessary to keep in mind that quotas for Employee Card applications might be reached in the relevant month, which would prolong the entire procedure by at least one additional month).
• The deadline for the authorities to decide on the application is 60 days for the Employee Card and 90 days for the Blue Card. However, it is not uncommon for the decision-making process to be prolonged to 90 and 120 or more days, respectively.

In light of these demanding immigration procedures, advanced planning is crucial.