CZECH REPUBLIC – Amendment to the Act on Employment
As of August 17, 2015, a significant amendment to the Act on Employment was inaugurated in the Czech Republic. The “Fiction of a Work Permit” concerning employed non-EU nationals who are extending their Employee Cards in the Czech Republic is among one of the major changes.
The “Fiction of a Work Permit” means that if the Ministry has not issued a decision for a residency permit extension application prior to the expiration date of the current permit, granted the application for extension was submitted on time, the stay of the applicant in the Czech Republic would still be considered legal until a decision is made. Therefore, the applicant will have implied status in the Czech Republic during the processing of his/her extension request.
The previous guidelines risked the chance of illegal employment in cases where Employee Card extension processes were delayed beyond the validity of current residency permits due to applicants losing the right to work upon expiration of their current permit. This means that employment agreements would cease validity once a permit was expired causing foreign employees to not legally be able to work. Significant delays in application processing times was also a factor in this issue. With the EU Single Permit initiative, the residency and work permits are processed and extended as one permit reducing the risk of illegal employment and processing delays.