Move To Prague relocation experts were the first ones to introduce so called “Partnership Visa” to the public about 10 years ago. We also wrote a super-popular article about this topic here: Partnership visa – Temporary Residence Permit for family members of EU citizens back in 2019. The article you are currently reading sums up all the important partnership visa changes from between 2019 and 2025.
What is a Partnership Visa
Before we dulge into the actual updates and changes, let’s briefly cover what the partnership visa is and who it is intended for.
First of all, “Partnership Visa” is a not an official immigration term. It is neither a visa 🙂 What is commonly known as the “Partnership Visa” is officially called a Temporary Residence Permit for distant family members of EU citizens.
Simply said, it is a type of residence permit (residence card, plastic piece of ID) meant for non-EU citizens who are in a “long-term serious relationship similar to a marriage” with an EU citizen officially residing in the Czech Republic.
Examples of who qualifies for the Partnership Visa
Since the definition might be a bit confusing, let us provide you with a few examples:
1. An American citizen dating a Czech citizen for 2 years, they travel together, know each other’s families, have a joint bank account, and now want to live together in the Czech Republic.
This would most likely qualify for the Partnership Visa since two years of relationship is generally considered “long-term”, the “serious” part might be proven by the joint bank account, traveling together and other proves.
2. A British citizen dating a French citizen for 2 years, they travel together, know each other’s families, have a joint bank account.
This could work for a Partnership Visa IF the couple want to live together in Czech Republic and if the French citizen holds a Registration Certificate in the Czech Republic. One of the requirements of the Partnership Visa is that you live together in the Czech Republic.
So, for example, if the French citizen wanted to live in France and the British citizen wanted to live in CZE, that would not be possible. Also, if the French citizen did not have the Registration Certificate in CZE, there would be no official record of them living in CZE which might also complicate the Partnership Visa application.
3. An Australian citizen dating a German citizen (with Registration Certificate in CZE) online for 5 years. They want to meet in Prague for the first time in real life and live here together.
Even though the requirement of living together in CZE is met, as well as the EU citizen holding the Registration Certificate, this would most likely not work for the Partnership Visa.
If you have “been together” for five years but basically the whole relationship has been online, this will hardly qualify as a “serious” relationship from the perspective of the Czech Immigration authorities.
4. A New Zealand citizen dating a German citizen (with Registration Certificate in CZE) for 5 months, they travel together, know each other’s families, have a joint bank account, and now want to live together in the Czech Republic.
Even though most of the parts of the case look well (Registration Certificate, living together in CZE, having a joint bank account etc.), 5 months would most likely not qualify as “long-term” relationship.
5. An Indian citizen dating a Filipino citizen for 5 years, they travel together, have lived together for 3 out of the 5 years, have a child together, a joint bank account. The Filipino citizen is now moving to the Czech Republic for work and wants to bring their partner and child with them.
Even through the relationship part is solid, the Partnership Visa only applies to couples where one is an EU citizen. Since both India and Philippines are non-EU countries, the Partnership Visa does not apply here.
In this case, it might be best to get married and apply for a Family Reunification Visa or Family Reunification Residence Permit for non-EU citizens.
If you are not sure you and your partner qualify for the Partnership Visa, fill in the form below, let us know a bit more about you and your relationship and we’ll be happy to advise (article continues below the form).
Changes in the approach of the MOI to the Partnership Visa
The Partnership Visa has plenty of advantages compared to standard visa or residence permit types (such as extended validity, free access to Czech labor market, availability of a bridge visa etc. – see more here) which unfortunately also attracts fraud.
Since we popularized the Partnership Visa ten years ago, too many people started applying for the Partnership Visa with their flat-mates or generally someone they were not really dating.
That has unfortunately drawn the attention of the MOI which then had to react accordingly. The reaction consists of couple things which all make the process of getting the Partnership Visa way more complicated.
First of all, the MOI now checks relationships in more details, they also more often invite couples interviews/interrogations about their relationship to determine if the relationship is real or not.
Secondly, and more importantly, this also brought some significant legislation changes.
Changes in legislation in regards to the Partnership Visa
The famous article we listed above is fully updated and reflects the changes in legislation so you can always refer to it for more details but to sum up the most important changes:
- People just dating (unmarried couples) are now in a different category with less rights and more complicated approval process.Before this change, there was no difference between married and unmarried couples. The application process and benefits stemming from the status of a family member of an EU citizen were exactly the same. Unmarried couples are now within the “Distant family member” category which brought a lot of limitations as show below.
- The maximum validity of the Partnership Visa is 3 years.Since unmarried couples now fall under the “Distant family member” category, the maximum validity of the Temporary Residence Permit is 3 years. It is still more than for other visa and residence permit types (mostly 1 or 2 years) but significantly less than 5 years given to “Close family members” (married couples).Another thing is that the 3 years of validity require 3 years of private insurance paid upfront. That can be around 50 000 CZK for younger couples, or above 300 000 CZK for older couples.If you do not provide insurance for full three years, the validity of your Partnership Visa will be shorten accordingly.
- Unmarried couples must prove their monthly income is high enough.This change has the highest potential of getting your application denied. The actual number (of required income) might not be that high, what is usually a problem is proving it.If both of you (or at least one of you) have been living in CZE and are employed locally, proving your income can be as simple as showing your employment contract and the last three salary slips.If both of you (or at least one of you) work as a freelancer locally, it might already get a lot tricky. The thing is that it does not really matter what is your real income. What matters are the numbers in your tax return. Often people use all possible tax discounts (i.e. the 60/40 method) so they do not have to pay much taxes which unfortunately also means their income might not be high enough on paper and hence no high enough for the Partnership Visa.
Things get even more complicated if you are are both moving here together and have no local income. You still have to prove that your monthly income is high enough. And similarly as in the above paragraph, the fact that you make enough money online and/or in your home country, does not mean it will be easy to prove. Different countries use different tax laws so you might need to translate a lot of documents explaining that.
One crazy example for you – we worked with a British citizen who had around 7 000 000 GBP (around 220 000 000 CZK) in his investment account. Having however high amount in your bank account though does not qualify as “monthly income” in the eyes of the MOI so we had to get really creative to convince the MOI he’ll be good here 😀
If you have any questions and/or would appreciate some guidance with your Partnership Visa application, fill in any of the forms on this page or Contact Us in some other way and we’ll get in touch with you right away 🙂
