The Czech Republic remains a popular destination for U.S. citizens looking to relocate. With U.S. citizens now granted free access to the Czech labor market, the visa process has become even easier for many Americans. In this article, let’s explore the various visa options available for U.S. citizens in the Czech Republic.
Visa-free stay vs a long-term visa vs a long-term residence permit in the Czech Republic
Before we dive deeper into the topic of what exact visa options are available to Americans willing to move to the Czech Republic, let’s take a short side trip and look into how the visas work in general.
Visa-free stay
Americans who just want to visit the Czech Republic as tourists, can come here with no visa required for up to 90 days. That means you do not need to obtain any visa, you basically just show your passport, it gets stamped and that’s all you need. Be careful when counting your 90 days so you do not overstay accidentally. Also keep an eye on the ETIAS system which should be introduced at some point (it’s been postponed about 10 times already though) which will change this whole system.
Short-term visa
Short-term visa is a type of visa which allows it’s holder to stay in the Czech Republic for up to 90 days. Since Americans can use the visa-free stay for stay below 90 days, it is not very common for an American citizen to apply for a short-term visa. To explain it a bit more, the visa-free stay is technically meant only for “tourism”. So, if you come to the Czech Republic for a short business trip or a short course as a student, you should apply for a short-term visa and not use the visa-free stay. In real life though, no one really cares.
Long-term visa
This is where it becomes serious 🙂 Long-term visa is meant for people who plan on staying in the Czech Republic for more than 90 days and less than a year. Long-term visa is a sticker in your passport, in most cases issued by some Czech Embassy.
Long-term residence permit
Long-term residence permit is basically a piece of ID. It is not attached to your passport, it is a separate plastic card (in the size of a US driver’s license) with your biometric data such as your digital photo, fingerprints or digitalized signature. The long-term residence permit either comes as the next step after the long-term visa (in case of business visa, student visa, family reunification visa) or as your first form of residence in the Czech Republic (most employment related types). The maximum validity of the long-term residence permit is
Permanent Residence Permit
Permanent Residence Permit is the highest immigration status in the Czech Republic. There is nothing above that, other than obtaining a Czech citizenship. Even though there are a few exceptions, you can generally apply for the Permanent Residence Permit after five years of legally residing in the Czech Republic (under a long-term visa and long-term residence permit) for more than 5 years.
Let’s now explore the actual Czech visa options available to U.S. citizens.
What is the purpose of your stay in the Czech Republic?
The Czech Republic in general, is not the easiest country to get a visa for. We do not really have any “easy options” such as a golden visa, investment visa or retirement visa. The digital nomad visa the Czech Republic offers is also very limited (only to a few nationalities in the world and only to IT field).
If you want to move to the Czech Republic, you must have a solid reason to be here, some ties to the Czech Republic. Officially we can call it a strong and believable purpose of stay. Below we list the main purposes of stay accepted by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic (MOI).
Business/Freelancing purpose of stay
This visa is mostly used for freelance English teachers since teaching English is the most believable story for the MOI. It can work for other business plans as well (we have done massage therapists, hostel operators, clothes’ store owners and more) but if you are not an English teacher your business plan must be way more solid.
Just to give you an idea, if you apply for a business visa as a freelancer teacher, your “business plan” can be easily proved only by two or three letters of interest to hire you from two or three local schools (easy to get). If you for example want to open a restaurant though, you must have the space rented, menu ready, suppliers contracted etc. before you even apply for the visa.
We describe this type of visa in this article: https://movetoprague.com/zivno-visa-czech-republic/.
Employment purpose of stay
Employing U.S. citizens has recently become easier as we described in this article. Even though the changes are not a game changer, it might be easier to land a job here now.
If that happens, you generally have two options:
Employee Card – meant for any type of jobs, any education level, any salary level.
Blue Card – meant for positions that require at least Bachelor’s Degree and that have a salary of at least 66 000 CZK a month.
Family (Reunification) purpose of stay
This option is meant for those Americans who move to the Czech Republic with their partners or spouses or who’s partners or spouses already live in CZE.
The best case scenario for an American citizen is to have a Czech/EU partner or spouse. In this case, you can apply for a great type of residence permit called either a “Partnership Visa” (for unmarried couples) or a Temporary Residence Permit for Close Family Members of EU citizens (for spouses).
If you are moving here with your spouse, but you are both non-EU citizens (i.e. an American married to another American – or Canadian, Vietnamese etc.), you can apply either for a family reunification visa or a family reunification residence permit, depending on what the main applicant applies for.
If you are both non-EU citizens but you are not married, there is no official option for you. You can try applying for so called “other visa” but the chances of approval are not 100%.
Studies as purpose of stay
If you want to study a local Czech university, you can apply for a student visa. The important part to mention here is that you can only qualify for the student visa if your program is accredited and you study “physically”. If you study online and/or if your course is not accredited, the student visa does not apply to you.
You could again try to apply for the “other” visa in this case though. The “other visa” is there in case you officially do not fall under any other category but you still think you should get a visa 🙂
Cultural purpose of stay
Even though we have done a few cultural visa applications (for an Opera singer, for an Actor), it is not too common type of vise we deal with since there are pretty specific requirements to qualify for this visa.
Digital Nomads in the Czech Republic
As mentioned above, the digital nomad program exists in the Czech Republic, it is not really broad though. As an American, you basically only qualify for this visa if you work in IT and you either do it as a freelancer with one main client who will sign a statement for you, or as an IT employee whose employer is above certain size and will sign a statement saying you can work from the Czech Republic.
If you are not in IT, or even if you are but work with multiple clients, this program is most likely not for you.
Czech Republic visa for US citizens – conclusion
The most important part of the relocation process is to decide what exactly you want to do here and for how long you would like to stay. Once you are clear about this, we can find some visa solution for you 🙂 We have dealt with around 19 000 clients so we have seen almost everything and will be happy to make your move to the Czech Republic happen! Contact us through the general contact or through any of the contact forms here (on the right and below) and we’ll be happy to set up a call to see where you’re at what can be done 🙂
