Authorisation to Stay

EU nationals

Nationals of EU/EEA countries and Switzerland have the same legal status in the Czech Republic as Czech nationals. There is no need to get any residence permit or work permit.

If you come from an EU/EEA country or Switzerland, you are obliged to comply with the “Reporting duty” if you intend to stay in the Czech Republic for over 30 days. For more details, see section Legal necessities after arrival.

Nationals of EU/EEA countries and Switzerland can temporarily stay in the Czech Republic without any special permit, solely on the basis of a travel document or an identity card. If they intend to stay in the Czech Republic for longer than 3 months, they can apply for:

Certificate of temporary residence

Certificate of temporary residence is issued at request of an EU national who intends to stay in the Czech Republic for more than 3 months. The certificate is not required, but it may be practical to have it with regard to negotiations with some authorities (Municipality - vehicle registration, etc.) or service provider (mobile operator, bank etc.).

Permanent residence permit

EU nationals can apply for permanent residence permit after 5 years of continuous residence in the Czech Republic.

Nationals of non-EU countries

Short-term stay – Schengen visa (not longer than 90 days)

A short-term stay is a stay not exceeding 90 days within any of 180 consecutive days (note: the length of stay is calculated according to the entry and exit stamps into the relevant travel document made at the border-crossing point). For the purposes of such short-term stays, European legislation divides third countries into those whose citizens must hold a visa, and those whose citizens are exempt from such conditions for entry and short-term stay in the members states where the common visa policy applies.

We recommend using the "Schengen calculator", a useful tool for checking that you are not breaking this rule. To redirect to the European Commission website, please click on this link:
https://ec.europa.eu/assets/home/visa-calculator/calculator.htm?lang=en

The visa application must be submitted personally at a Czech embassy and all documents must be completed in Czech or officially translated into Czech. For more details, see section Legal necessities before arrival.

Long-term stay (more than 90 days)

The visa application needs to be submitted at a Czech embassy in the country of origin of the relevant person or in the country where he/she resides, and the deadline for evaluation of the application is 60 days from the date of submission.

All documents submitted must be originals or official copies and must be in the Czech language or officially translated into Czech. Moreover, an apostille or legalisation must be attached to any documents issued by foreign public authorities. Official translations can usually be obtained at the embassy.