Moving to the Czech Republic is for sure more complicated than moving to some other countries, as the Czech Republic has relatively strict visa regulations. That being said, some ways of moving to the Czech Republic are easier than others. Also, moving to the Czech Republic is easier for some nationalities than for some others. Let’s delve a little bit deeper into the topic in this article.
For whom is moving to the Czech Republic easy?
Let’s kick this article off with those for whom should moving to the Czech Republic be relatively easy and straightforward.
This category mainly includes EU citizens and their family members.
EU citizens can execute their free-movement right and relocate to the Czech Republic without much of a hassle. We go deeper into this topic in this article: EU Citizen Moving to Czech Republic.
Non-EU family members of EU citizens (i.e. US spouse of a German citizen) split into two groups:
- close family members (generally spouses and children),
- distant family members (generally just people dating).
The first group, close family members, are in the best possible position and moving to the Czech Republic should generally be pretty straightforward for them. It might be more complicated for certain nationalities such as most African and Asian countries (generally for those who need a visa even for short-term stays, who do not enjoy the 90 days visa-free stay) but in general, it should still work out 🙂
We describe the process of moving to the Czech Republic as a close family member of an EU citizen here.
Distant family members are still in better position than if they tried to move to the Czech Republic without having an EU partner. There is an option of getting a “Partnership Visa” for them. The ease or difficulty of making this happen though very much depends on your nationality.
The main complication here is that you have not shown an official commitment to your partner (getting married) so the MOI can potentially see your application as an “easy way of getting a Czech residence permit”. They will then ask you to prove without any doubts that you have been in a serious committed relationship similar to a marriage.
Although for certain nationalities, the “partnership visa” process is generally pretty straightforward (usually countries that have the 90 day visa-free exception such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK etc.) with not many questions asked, for other nationalities (primarily African, Eastern European and Asian countries) this can prove to be almost impossible to reach.
The thing is that the “partnership visa” application must be submitted inside of the Czech Republic so you must first get here somehow. And that might be pretty complicated for those nationalities who need a visa to enter the Czech Republic.
For whom is moving to the Czech Republic a little bit more complicated but still pretty much doable?
This next part talks about the scenarios where getting a visa or a residence permit in the Czech Republic is a bit more complicated but still doable. This is generally a category of non-EU citizens not related to EU citizens.
The difficulty here can significantly vary based on two factors – your nationality and your intended purpose of stay.
Let’s divide this part into two sections – nationality-wise and purpose of stay-wise.
Moving to the Czech Republic based on your nationality
Generally speaking, the nationalities that enjoy the 90 days visa-free stay (find the full list here: https://movetoprague.com/countries-whose-citizens-do-not-need-a-visa-to-enter-the-czech-republic/) are considered safe by the Czech Republic, and so obtaining any type of visa or residence permit is easier for them than for the rest of the world.
It does not necessarily mean that obtaining any visa is 100% guaranteed for them, it certainly is not. Even for those nationalities, the purpose of stay can play a significant role.
Let’s go through the most accepted purposes of stay together now.
Moving to the Czech Republic based on your purpose of stay
As we explained above, your nationality can influence your chances of moving to the Czech Republic significantly. The other factor though is your intended purpose of your stay. We list the easiest visa and residence permits to obtain below along with some notes related to your nationality.
Student Visa – generally the easiest type of visa to get for all nationalities. The difference between the “easy nationalities” (those with the 90 days visa-free stay) and the “complicated nationalities” (without the visa-free stay) is primarily in how detailed will the immigration interview be. While it can be 20 mins for Americans etc., it can be 1 hour or more for other nationalities. The main reason for the interview is to evaluate if you really want to study in the Czech Republic or if you are applying for the student visa just because you read it is the easiest way of moving to the Czech Republic.
Family Reunification Visa – this visa is meant for spouses and/or children of a non-EU citizen who is already legally residing in the Czech Republic (under some long-term visa or long-term residence permit). The difference between the “easy” and “complicated” nationalities is again primarily in the interview. It is also directly related to your circumstances – for example, if you have been married for 5 years but you have lived in the Czech Republic for 5 years without your spouse (and you have only seen each other twice during the 4 yers), it might complicate your situation as well. The MOI could then question if your marriage is real or if you are using it just as a simple way of getting someone to CZE. Potentially the same could apply if your marriage is super-recent (i.e. you get married today and two weeks later your spouse applies for their visa.
Freelancer/Business Visa – this one is only easy for native English speakers applying for the visa as English teachers. Any other scenario gets complicated even for the “easy” nationalities.
Blue Card – Blue Card is the only employment related residence permit that can be obtained by all nationalities relatively easily. The reason for that is that the Blue Card requires you to have at least Bachelor’s Degree and your salary to be above 1.5 of a Czech national average (around 66 000 CZK a month until 4/2025). This means it it only meant for highly qualified individuals, so the nationality does not matter.
Employee Card – employee card is another employment related way of moving to the Czech Republic. Unlike the Blue Card, the employee card is only “easy” to get for the “easy” nationalities, especially for those that enjoy the free access to Czech labour market. For the rest of the world (most Asian countries, all African countries) getting an employee card is basically impossible, primarily due to the quotas at relevant Czech Embassies.
For whom is moving to the Czech Republic basically impossible?
We went through the “doable options” in the above section. What remains is the most complicated combinations. If you are one of these, we honestly recommend focusing on another country to move into since moving to the Czech Republic might take years with no clear positive outcome at the end.
Still doable
One exception from what me mentioned above is the Freelance/Business Visa for the “easy nationalities”. So say, if you are an American or a British citizen willing to move to the Czech Republic as a freelancer, just not as an English teacher, it is still doable. You will just need to tie your business to the Czech Republic. You can not really get the business visa here if you work primarily online (except for the Digital Nomad visa if you are in IT and from one of the 7 chosen nationalities) or if you have international clients (not Czech ones).
If you are in this situation – have the 90 days visa-free option and a business owner willing to move to Czech Republic – get in touch with us for a consultation so we can find a way for you to make it happen.
Very little to no chance at all
Freelance/Business Visa – any African country and most Asian countries (besides Japan and South Korea) have a close to zero chances of getting their business visa approved for two main reasons. First is quotas where at some Embassies the quota is 8 people a year who can submit a business visa application or lower. Second is that even if you could get one of the 8 spots and apply for the visa, unless you run a big business (couple million EUR), the visa will most likely be denied anyway.
Employee Card – similar situation as with the business visa. In basically all African countries and most Asian countries, there are super-low quotas on how many people can apply for an employee card yearly. In many places the quota is as low as zero people a year and if this is your case, you can try as much as you wish but you will never even get a chance to apply. This is where plenty of people (especially from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and others) get scammed. They often pay thousands of EUR to “agent” to get a “work permit” (say an employment contract) which they will never be able to use since there are simply no spots available at the Czech Embassy in New Delhi and/or Islamabad.
Hopefully this article gave you an idea about the difficulty or ease of your moving to the Czech Republic. Reach out to us if you have any questions and/or just want to discuss your situation.
Move To Prague relocation experts – your experts on moving to the Czech Republic
