Czech Republic – 2017 Immigration Updates
The Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic has amended the Act on Stay of Foreigners in the Czech Republic, which is expected to go into effect as of June 2017. Changes to go in effect are in regards to the employee card, ICT card, submission of visa and residency permit applications, among others.
Employee cards
Statutory Representatives of Czech companies are able to apply for a non-dual Employee Card based on a Work Permit for Statutory Representative, rather than a Business type of Long Term Visa or Residency Permit.
Historically, the Business type of Long Term visas or residency permits are the most scrutinized by the Ministry since they are the most abused type of category applied for. Applying for the Employee Card is a way around the scrutiny of the Business type of visa. The Ministry would like to avoid this though the new change will not affect current Statutory Representative holding the Employee Card.
Intra Company Transfer Card
Currently, foreign nationals working in the Czech Republic must apply for a non-dual Employee Card based on a Work Permit for the purpose of the assignment.
The Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic has introduced the ICT Card, to corroborate with the ICT Directive. The criteria for the card is below as follows:
- Issued to employee who is employed by an employer outside the Czech Republic for at least 6 months and is being to transferred to the Czech Republic as
- Manager;
- Specialist; or
- Trainee.
- Duration of assignment is limited to 3 years for Mangers and Specialists;
- Duration of assignment is limited to 1 year for Trainees;
- Processing time of 90 days;
- Employees must return to sending entity at the end of the assignment.
The advantages of the current system are as follows:
- Duration of assignment is not limited to only 3 years;
- Processing time of 60 days;
- No requirement for the employee to have been employed by the sending company for any minimum time.
Submission of Visa and Residency Permit Applications
Employers that are members of an approved immigration program, such as the Fast Track, Welcome Package, or Project Ukraine, will now be able to submit a residence permit application (Employee Card, Blue Card, or ICT Cards) on behalf of the employee in the Czech Republic. Typically, all first visa and resident permit applications must be lodged at the foreign nationals Czech Embassy in their country.
There has also been a high demand of submissions of long term visas and residency permit applications at some Czech Republic Embassy locations. Many of the embassies have outsourced applications for short term visas, however, current legislation does not allow this. The Ministry is amending the law to allow this change in an effort to improve the number of appointments available and processing times of applications.