Thinking about working in the Czech Republic? For non-EU citizens, the Employee Card is one of the main ways to live and work here legally. In this guide, we’ll explain who needs an Employee Card, how to apply, and what to expect during the process.
Important: This is an overview only. Czech immigration law is complex, and every case has unique details. If you want to make sure your application is successful, it’s best to work with an expert who understands all the rules.
What is an Employee Card?
The Employee Card is a long-term residence permit that allows non-EU citizens to work and live in the Czech Republic. It’s usually issued for up to 2 years and is tied to one specific employer and job position. There are two types of the Employee Card:
- Standard employee card – also called dual employee card. Dual means that the employee card combines two things – permission to work in the Czech Republic and permission to live in the Czech Republic.
- Non-dual employee card – non-dual employee card is issued in cases that for some reason a non-EU citizen does not require a permission to work in the Czech Republic. This for example applies to non-EU citizens who graduated from a Czech accredited university program and hold a Czech university degree. The degree grants them the right to work freely in the Czech Republic. Since they are non-EU citizens, they still need a permission to live in the Czech Republic. The non-dual employee card then serves as this permission.
Who needs an Employee Card?
The employee card is meant for Non-EU citizens whose primary intention is to stay and work in the Czech Republic for more than 3 months for a local employer. Although there are some other options as well (i.e. deployed employees), those are not really common and we’ll not cover them in this article.
The employee card can be your first application (meaning you are not yet in the Czech Republic), or you can switch to an employee card from another type of residence permit or a long-term visa (while already living in the Czech Republic).
EU citizens do not need an Employee Card – they can live and work in the Czech Republic freely.
Can all nationalities apply for a Czech Employee Card?
Although officially the same immigration law applies to all nationalities, there are significant differences among nationalities from the perspective of how high chances of approval (or even chances of submission) of the employee card application.
Highest chances of approval of the employee card
The highest chances of approval of the employee card have the nationalities that have recently been granted free access to Czech labor market such as Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, British, Japanese or South Koreans.
Still very high chances have the nationalities that are considered safe by the Czech Republic. You can easily check if you are among these countries by checking if you can stay in the Schengen area visa-free for 90 days. If you do, your nationality is considered safe and your chances of getting the employee card approved are high. Typically, this would be Argentinians, Brazilians, Mexicans, Malaysians or Peruvians.
Lowest chances of approval of the employee card
The lowest chances of approval of the employee card generally apply to all African countries and most Asian countries (except the above mentioned safe countries).
The main limiting factor in the most African countries and most Asian countries is the yearly quota for employee card applications. This means that only certain amount of people can apply for the employee card yearly. For a perspective, in Abuja, the quota is 80 people a year, same in Accra or Islamabad.
This quota usually also only applies to specific employers enrolled in one of the governmental programs of economic migration. If your employer is not part of the program, you usually do not even have a chance to submit your application.
What are some alternative options for the low-chances nationalities?
Honestly speaking, if you are in the basket of countries with a quota, getting any type of Czech visa or residence permit will be difficult. The only viable option for you would be applying for a Blue Card. Blue Card is similar to an employee card but only applies to employees with at least Bachelor’s Degree and to jobs paying at least 1,5 of Czech national average salary (approx. 70 000 CZK a month in 2025). Most common example would be a Software Developer.
If you meet these requirement, a Blue Card might be a viable option for you. There are no quotas for the Blue Card and the MOI treats it as their pet project so they like approving Blue Card applications.
Read more about the Blue Card in our Czech Republic – Blue Card – salary requirements 2025/2026 article.
Employee Card application process – step by step
- Find a job – finding an employer willing to support you in the employee card process is certainly the first step since you can not apply for an employee card without a job secured.
- Get the vacancy number – unless you are one of the nationalities with free access to Czech labor market (see above), your employer will have to advertise the position you will be hired for to the Labor Office and get a special vacancy number. If your employer does not have experience with that, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to take care of it. This is actually one of the most crucial steps that significantly influences your chances of approval or chances of unnecessary complications during the process. A lot of first-time employers make mistakes in the job advertisement and make the employee card process more complicated for both you and them. For example, if your employer includes a salary range into the job advertisement (say 45 – 50k CZK a month), they will never be able to increase your salary above 50k a month even if you work for them for 10 years.
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Collect all required documents – generally this would be the vacancy number, an application form, passport, 2 passport-sized photos, proof of accommodation in the Czech Republic, employment contract, documents proving your education and or experience, criminal check from the country of origin and all countries where you have lived for more than 6 months in the last three years. There are plenty different rules for all these documents so if this is your first application, we strongly recommend hiring an experienced immigration lawyer or immigration adviser such as us to help you with your application. For example all the documents you will be submitting must be originals (no scans, no copies, no electronic signatures etc.), they all must be in Czech (or translated into Czech by a court-approved translator) and documents that are not Czech might need to get apostilled or superlegalized first. There are tens of rules like this so it is easy to make mistakes if you do not know them.
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Submit your application – if the employee card is your first application (meaning you are not already holding a Czech long-term visa or long-term residence permit) it must be submitted through a Czech Embassy. Which Embassy depends primarily on your nationality, and also on your timelines (i.e. if you are running out of your 90 visa-free days).
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Wait for the approval – the official approval time for an employee card is 60-90 days. One thing you should know about Czech immigration though is that they do not really care about any official approval times. Most of our clients get approved within 60-90 days but we have had clients approved in 10 days as well as in five months. There are a lot of factors in play. Preparing your application 100% correctly always helps though.
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Collect (or not) your entry visa – once approved, you should generally go back to the Embassy where you applied for the employee card to collect a special 60 days visa that allows you to enter the Czech Republic and start working even if your card is still in process (see below). In some cases it is not necessary to go for the 60 days visa but this is usually discussed individually.
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Do the biometrics and get your card – once you get to the Czech Republic, you have to go to the MOI to get registered and do your biometrics (specific appointment rules apply here). Biometrics means that the MOI takes your fingerprints, photos and they digitalize your signature. Once the biometrics done you have to wait for about 2-4 weeks to receive the actual employee card (size of a drivers license).
Common mistakes during the employee card process
We list the most common mistakes we see in the employee card process in our daily practice below. The mistakes are usually made by applicants who try to deal with the employee card on their own, applicants working with unexperienced advisors or by companies that do not have much experience with hiring non-EU citizens. It way easier to avoid these mistakes by hiring us to help you with the whole process rather than hiring us to fix the mistakes when you already are in trouble (i.e. the MOI requested additional documents or your employee card has be denied).
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mistakes in the job advertisement – posting the job properly to the Labor Office is one of the most crucial parts of the employee card process since that can influence all the steps that come after. Any small mistake here can cause major problems in the future.
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submitting incomplete/incorrect documentation – sometimes people rush to submit the application as soon as possible even if they do not have all the documents ready or checked by a professional. If you do not have all your documents 100% correct and ready, if nothing else, it can significantly delay the decision (the exact opposite of what you were trying to accomplish by rushing the application). In some cases it can even lead to fail to submit the application at all, or to rejection later in the process.
- having unrealistic expectations, lack of planning – this is often connected to the previous point. Sometimes people read online that the approval of the employee card takes 60-90 days so they think that their 90 days visa free stay will be enough to get the whole process finished. They do not realize that this is just the approval time after you have submitted your application to the Embassy (and considering you had all the documents and they were 100% correct). The preparation phase usually takes 1-2 months depending on your situation. Getting an appointment at some Czech Embassy takes time as well – most Embassies are not walk-ins but require you to schedule an appointment 3-4 weeks in advance. Some Embassies (mainly in the US) do not even want you to go there in person but ask you to mail your documents in. Even after you get approved, there are many steps you have to take (go back to the Embassy to collect your 60 days visa, get registered with the MOI, get the biometrics done) so even after approval, it usually takes a few weeks before you can actually start working in CZE. This is good to count with in advance so you do not find yourself having 30 days left from your 90 days with no appointments available at the Embassy of your choosing.
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misunderstanding bridging visa rules – we go more into details of this topic in the below FAQs but simply said, applicants often think that the fact they submitted their employee card application to the Embassy allows them to overstay their 90 days visa-free stay (and or that they can get a bridging visa from the Embassy). That is not the case though and especially with the new EES (Entry Exit System) starting in October 2025 we strongly recommend not trying to overstay your 90 days since that can easily jeopardize the whole work you did before.
Need help with your Employee Card?
We’ve guided hundreds of foreigners through the process of getting and extending Employee Cards since 2012. From finding the right strategy to make sure your first employee card is approved smoothly, to handling change of employers or managing employee card renewals, we know the shortcuts and the pitfalls.
📩 Contact Move To Prague today and make your application stress-free.
FAQs about the employee card
Can I get a Bridging Visa when applying for an employee card?
It depends on where you apply for the Employee Card. If you apply through some Czech Embassy (your first application), you are not eligible for a bridge visa. That means that can not stay in the Czech Republic past your 90 visa-free days or your short-term visa. If you apply at the territory of the Czech Republic (i.e. you are changing the purpose of your stay), you might qualify for the bridging visa. Read more in our Bridging visa article.
Can an employee card lead to a Permanent Residency in Czech Republic?
In most cases yes, the employee card can lead to Czech Permanent Residence Permit. There are some types of the employee card which do not lead to the permanent residency (i.e. for deployed employees) but those are pretty rare in real life. Read more about the permanent residence permit in this Permanent Residence Czech Republic article.
Can I change employers under the employee card?
Yes, you can. Depending on your situation though, different rules apply. For example people holding the non-dual employee card (with free access to Czech labor market) only have to report the change of employer to the MOI within 3 days. Holders of the standard employee card must first get approval from the MOI before they can change their jobs. They also have to report the change at least 30 days in advance. They also can not change employers within the first 6 months of getting their first employee card. Check all the rules for changing employers under the employee card in this Change of Employer under Czech Republic Employee Card article.
Is the Czech employee card extendable?
Yes, it is. The maximum validity of an employee card is 2 years. If you still keep your job and wont to continue working in the Czech Republic, you can apply for an extension of your employee card. The extension must be submitted to the MOI before your current employee card expires. Read more about the process in this Extension of an Employee Card article.
What is the difference between an employee card and a blue card?
Czech employee card and Czech blue card are very similar in nature – both are residence permits based on local employment in the Czech Republic. Blue card applicants must meet higher requirements (the position must be highly qualified, the applicant must have at least Bachelor’s degree and their salary must be at least 1.5 of Czech national average) and in return get some benefits such as easier moving to other EU countries, faster ways of bringing family members or longer validity of the residence card. More details in our Blue Card Czech Republic – rules and updates.
