Czech Partnership Visa for Czech - British Couples - 2026/2027 Guide

Quick summary: So called "Partnership Visa" is one of the best residence permit options that Czech Republic offers to British citizens. Immigration experts from MOVE TO PRAGUE explain the qualification criteria, required documentation and the whole partnership visa process in this article specifically aimed at British citizens moving to the Czech Republic. 

The article is divided into the following sections:

1. Who is the partnership visa for
2. What relationships qualify for the partnership visa
3. Documentation required from British citizens
4. Step by step process 
5. British citizens who already moved to Prague under the partnership visa
6. How Move To Prague assists British citizens applying for the partnership visa
7. Frequently asked questions

1. Who is the partnership visa for 

"Partnership visa" is an unofficial name for a Temporary Residence Permit for Distant Family Members of EU citizens. In context of this article, the partnership visa is meant for British citizens who have been in a long-term serious relationship with a Czech (or other EU, or pre-Brexit British) citizen and who want to live together in the Czech Republic. 

Note: the "partnership visa" is only intended for unmarried couples. If you are married to a Czech (EU) citizen, you are in a significantly stronger position - please refer to our British Citizen Married to a Czech Citizen guide.   

2. What relationships qualify for the partnership visa

The "partnership visa" is one of the strongest types of residence permit that the Czech Republic offers, with many benefits fot its holders. Among others: 

• ability to submit the application inside of the Czech Republic - most other visa or residence permit applications can only be submitted through a Czech Embassy outside of the Czech Republic,
• ability to stay in the Czech Republic during the whole processing - if you apply for a visa or a residence permit through a Czech Embassy, the fact that you submitted your application does not allow you to overstay your 90 days visa-free allowance - partnership visa application does,
• free access to Czech labor market - as of 2026, British citizens have free access to Czech labor market granted by the Government Regulation No. 158/2024 Coll.. Before the regulation became effective (or if it is ever discontinued), partnership visa provided this benefit regardless,
• validity of up to three years - long-term visas (student, business etc.) have maximum validity of one year, most long-term residence permits two years,
• no need to pass Czech language exam for permanent residency - as a family member of an EU citizen, you do not have to pass the Czech language for Czech Permanent Residence Permit 🎉

 All these benefits, however, mean that Czech government does not grant the partnership visa to everyone. Based on handling hundreds of cases in the last 15 years, we came up with a list of the basic requirements your relationship should meet if you want to have a realistic change to get the partnership visa approved as a British citizen. 

1. You should be in a relationship for at least about a year. The Act on the Residence of Foreigners on the Territory of the Czech Republic does not specifically set a limit. It although states in Article 15a that only these applicants qualify: "has a duly documented permanent partnership with a European Union citizen or a citizen of the Czech Republic registered for permanent residence in the territory". We have successfully done partnership visa with couples who had not been together for a year but if the time is missing, the seriousness of the relationship must stronger. 
2. Significant portion of your relationship should be in person. If you have been a couple for three years but you have only seen each other in person twice during that time, that will likely not be enough. Living together prior submission is not officially required but it helps a lot. If you had not lived together, extensive visit and/or traveling together make the application stronger. 
3. You must live together in the Czech Republic. While living together before moving to the Czech Republic is not an official requirement, living together in the Czech Republic is. 
4. Other factors that make your application stronger. Having children together, owning assets together, sharing finances (i.e. joint bank account) can help a bunch. 

We have worked a few hundred of successful partnership visa applications, from which around 70 couples involved a British citizen. Contact us and schedule a free consultation where we take a look at your case and assess your chances of approval. 

3. What documents do British citizens need to apply for Czech partnership visa

If you meet the basic relationship requirements and you want to submit the partnership visa application as a British citizen, the following documents will be needed. 

• application form,
• valid passport,
• 2 passport sized photos,
• proof of accommodation - this might be your lease agreement or a proof of accommodation form, there are also quite a few things you should keep in mind when signing a lease (i.e. if the flat is label as flat in the Cadaster, if the lease is signed directly by the owner of the property, how much is your rent - see the importance of that below),
• documents on the purpose of your stay - these are all the proves of your relationship. The complicated part here is that the Czech Immigration Act does not specifically list what documents you need to submit - it is up to you to convince the Ministry of the Interior that you are, indeed, in a serious long-term relationship. Based our 15 years of experience with partnership visas, we usually use a combination of these documents:
  • detailed description of your relationship, 
  • statements of family members and friends, 
  • proves of traveling/living together,
  • any finance related proves - i.e. join bank account, 
  • photos,
  • there might be more and the exact structure of the documentation varies case to case - contact us for a free assessment of your case.
• documents proving high enough monthly income - this is where most couple applying on their own (without professional assistance) make the most mistakes and also where most denials happen. We realise this sounds like a bad sales technique trying to convince you to hire our services 😅 It honestly is not - let us elaborate (and see for example Robert's situation in one of the below sections). 
  • first part where people are often unclear is how much you must actually be making. While this is not a fixed number that applies to everyone, a simple way to get a rough number is to add 5 000 CZK per person to your total housing cost. Let's say you are just a couple (no kids) and your rent is 25 000 CZK a month including all utilities. The rough number you are looking for is 25 000 + 5 000 + 5 000 = 35 000 CZK a month. This must be after taxes, social security, health care etc. 
  • the second (and potentially more complicated) part is how you actually prove your income. The easiest scenario is when the Czech citizen is employed in the Czech Republic and their income alone is high enough. In this case, you only need their employment contract and last three salary slips. Second best is if the British citizen is employed (in the UK or elsewhere). You also need to provide an employment contract and last three salary slips, they just need to be officially translated into Czech. If you are freelancers or have not work at all (i.e. live off of savings or investments), proving your income can get significantly more complicated or even impossible. This part is one of the most important ones to assess before you commit to the partnership visa application. 
  • important note: monthly income can not be substituted by any amount of balance in your bank account, savings or investments (see Robert's case below). 
• health insurance - the maximum validity of the "partnership visa" is 3 years, if you want to get it for three years though, you must provide health insurance covering the full three years,
• administrative fee - 200 CZK paid at the MOI when submitting your application,
• Power of Attorney - if you work with us, we handle all communication with the MOI, we just need to have a Power of Attorney from you. 

 All the above documents must be originals or notarised copies (no scans, no pdfs or printouts), they all must be in Czech and within some legal validity. 

4. Czech Partnership Visa - step by step process for British citizens

Getting all the above mentioned documents ready is one of many steps you have to take to submit you application. Let's go through them all now. 

Planning

Planning is one of the most important parts. The application must be submitted in person to the Ministry of the Interior responsible for the city or part of Prague where you live. It must also be submitted while you are staying in the Czech Republic legally which usually means within your 90 days visa-free allowance. 

Finding a place to rent, getting all the documents proving your relationship is strong, finding a local job or getting your income proves sorted, that all takes time. You should also bring some documents from the UK (i.e. statements of your family members). 

This is why we usually start working with our clients about a month prior their expected arrival. If you decide to apply on your own, you should also have everything planned in advance to not lose precious days when already here. 

Collection of documents, booking appointments 

We always recommend submitting your application prepared perfectly. Incomplete or incorrect application can cause complications, delays and potentially even denials. 

You should spend enough time making a convincing file. At the same time, different branches of the MOI have different appointment times. Some branches can see you as early as "tomorrow". Some branches might have a few weeks waiting time for an appointment. 

Schedule the appointment enough in advance so you have enough time to prepare a perfect application, at the same time, not too close to the end of your 90 days. 

Submitting the application

When the Day comes, both you and your partner should go to the MOI. Do not come late since your appointment disappears from the ticket system 10-15 mins after the scheduled time.

If you application is submitted properly (within the 90 days and with all required documentation), you can request the bridge visa. The clerk can issue it on the spot if they see your partnership as strong enough. If they do not see the partnership strong enough (i.e. you did not provide enough evidence), they can still let you submit the application but they might refuse to give you the bridge visa. That would mean that your application will be processed, but you can not stay in the country during that time.  

Waiting and "in process" matters

If the application is submitted properly, there is nothing else to do than wait. The decision maker will send the Foreign Police to your apartment to check if you really live together and if the apartment looks like it. Some decision makers do this as one of the first steps, some as one of the last steps. There is no general rule like "the Foreign Police will come a month after submitting your application". In some cases it can be as early as in two weeks, in some case three or more months. 

That brings us to another topic. Although the Act No. 326/1999 Coll. - Act on the Residence of Foreigners on the Territory of the Czech Republic and on Amendments to Certain Acts states that the decision must be made within 60 days, do not expect that to really happen. It does, in some cases. In most cases the decision takes 3-4 months. If you are waiting longer than that, you might potentially want to take some steps (contact us for more details). 

The MOI can also request additional documentation during the approval process and/or invite you for a detailed interview where they question you and your partner separately to see if you provide the same answer to the same questions. 

After approval

Once the approval comes, you need to call the MOI and schedule your biometrics appointment (fingerprints, photos, signature). Depending on the specific branch of the MOI, the waiting time for an appointment can be 4-8 weeks. When you go for the biometrics appointment, you will also schedule the collection appointment. That usually comes 2-4 weeks after the biometrics. 

The Temporary Residence Permit actually comes in a form of a plastic biometric card similar to UK driving license. 

5. British citizens who already moved to Prague under the partnership visa

As mentioned earlier, MOVE TO PRAGUE has successfully handled hundreds of partnership visa applications, tens of them involving British citizens. We have chosen a few interesting cases below. Stories are real from our daily practice, just names have been changed for privacy. 

Robert - when 6,000,000 GBP is not enough

Robert and his partner were moving together from the UK to Prague. We started working with them a long time before their move to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. They rented a place in Prague 1 for about 120 000 CZK a month a few months prior the move, so this was sorted. They have been together for about 20 years so we have also compiled a solid file documenting their relationship in advance. The couple had a combined worth of about £6,000,000, not including properties and other assets.

We thought this was gonna be a piece of cake. 

The MOI decided to complicate matters though saying that having £6M in your bank and investments is not "a regular monthly income". Long story short, it took some time but eventually we were able to convince the MOI that Richard and his partner are not gonna abuse the Czech social security system 😅 and his application was approved. 

The moral of the story is that regardless of how solid you think your application is, that means nothing when your file gets to the MOI.  

Harry and Aoife

While this is not a typical Czech + British citizen example, we wanted to share this story as well. Harry is British and Aoife an Irish citizen. They lived together in the UK, worked as freelancers and decide to move to the Czech Republic together for lower taxes. 

Since proving your income can be difficult as a freelancer, we came up with a strategy where Aoife came a little before Harry so we could get her a trade license. This allowed her to start building a provable local income from day 1. 

Because her income alone was right around the minimum threshold, we helped Harry get a trade license as well after submitting his partnership visa application and obtaining the bridging visa. This approach also allowed Harry to get into the Czech public health insurance system which later on allowed him to get the partnership visa for full three years without the need of buying three years worth of private health insurance. 

Harry and Aoife are still in the Czech Republic and have already extended their partnership visa with us once. The next step will be obtaining their permanent residence permits and we are looking forward to helping them with the process again as well!   

6. How Move To Prague assists British citizens applying for the partnership visa

In the last 15 years, MOVE TO PRAGUE have helped hundreds of couples move to the Czech Republic together. Around 70 out of these were couples involving British citizens. We have seen all the different variations of relationships - straight, gay and trans couples, shorter but intense relationship as well as longer, mainly long distance relationships.

We have also seen all the mistakes people make when they apply on their own and only come for our help when they are denied or facing serious complications. Let us explain below where we can help and why it matters.

Timing

Timing your application is one of the crucial parts of the process since it influences everything else. Things you should consider are for example:

• how many of the 90 days you still have left, 
• are you able to get all the documents ready within the 90 days - these first two points are actually connected. Where possible, we always prefer submitting a 100% perfectly prepared application (even if it means submitting it 90 days later), rather than rushing to submit an incomplete application. This is where the 90 days often come in play. Sometimes couples move together directly from the UK and have full 90 days available. More commonly though, they have already used some of the 90 days visiting each other or traveling so we have to take this into account when planning the submission process. 
• do you need to travel during the approval process - extensive travels during the approval process are certainly not recommended due to the mandatory Foreign Police visit to your apartment, as well as the potential interview you can be invited to. If you know you need to travel during the approval process, that should be taking into consideration in the planning phase.    

When working with MOVE TO PRAGUE, you have one of our Immigration Specialists assigned to your case. This Immigration Specialist creates the road plan with you and makes sure both parties stick to it. 

Documentation

While incorrect planning and timing can lead to a denial of your application, it is not that common. More frequently, couples get denied (or generally into trouble) based on problems with one of these four documents:

1. Proof of Accommodation - proof of accommodation sounds like one of the easiest documents to get, and in 90% of cases it is. There are still situations where this part of the process can get complicated. There are generally two most important points you need to check in any lease agreement before you sign it. The first one is checking if the flat is actually a flat. That might sound weird but there are apartments that look like apartments but are not listed as apartments in the official registry. It can have many reasons including the flat being an ex-cellar or ex-attic space turned into an apartment. Some parts of the city also have rules saying that every new built must have for example have 70% of apartments, 20% of office spaces and 10% of shops. Developers then build 90% of apartments but label 20% of them as offices. Second thing to check in the lease agreement is who is the owner of the property and if you are signing the lease with the actual owner or someone else. This can have various different dimensions to it so we can not go into too much details here. If you are interested though, check out our 3 Mistakes People Make When Renting an Apartment in Prague guide.
2. Documents proving your relationship - this part is often underestimated by couples. If you ask ChatGPT, Claude or in some Facebook groups, you usually hear something like - no problem, you just need three photos of you together and you'll be good. Then you go submit your application and the clerk behind the counter accepts your application but refuses to give you the bridge visa since they do not believe your relationship is real. With 5 days left on your 90 days visa-free stay, this might be a pretty disturbing news. Yes, it used to be relatively easy to prove your relationship 15 years ago when we handled our first cases. Unfortunately, during last years, as the partnership visa became better knows, people have been faking their relationships just to get all the benefits the partnership visa offers. The MOI had to react and they started checking relationships in more details. 
3. Proof of income - if your Czech partner is an employee of a Czech company and their monthly salary is high enough to cover the requirement, this part is easy. They just submit their employment contract and last three salary slips and that's it. The completely opposite scenario is none of you works or you are both freelancers. Proving your income the way the MOI accepts it as a Czech freelancer is doable but can get tricky based on couple factors. If you are a freelancer in some country outside of the Czech Republic, proving your monthly income can get close to impossible. 
4. Health insurance - the main problem here is usually not that your application would be denied because of having an incorrect insurance documentation. The more common scenario is that you only got your residence permit for a year (instead of full three years) because you only submitted one year of health insurance coverage. One year is certainly better than a denial 😊, you will just kind of unnecessarily need to go through the exact same process again in a year which could have been avoided.

 We have worked hundreds of cases of partnership visa applications and over 24,000 applications in total in the last 15 years. Whatever situation you are in (accommodation wise, income wise, relationship wise), chances are we have already handled a case like that. We'll make sure you'll have a as strong application as humanly possible. 

Appointments and Assistance during approval

The whole approval process includes at least three interactions with the MOI - submission, biometrics and card collection. You have to schedule all these, they must be done in person and mostly handled in Czech language (although the MOI is getting better in this regard!). On top of that, one visit to your apartment from the Foreign Police. And potentially the interview where the MOI questions you about your relationship. 

We handle all the booking and talking. We accompany you to all the appointments (applies in Prague). We also prepare you for the Foreign Police visit and can even do a mock interview with you if you are invited to a real one. 

Assistance after approval

Yes, when you get approved, you can start breathing a little lighter. The process does not end with the good news though. You still have a few tasks to accomplish. You need to book and attend at least two more appointments with the MOI - one for the biometrics and one for collection of the card. 

We accompany you to both to make sure everything is completely finished. We also tell you everything you need to know about the residence permit - what changes you have to report, when and how to apply for extension, what to do if you want to move out of the Czech Republic etc.  

7. Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of the Partnership Visa?

There are many benefits of the Czech partnership visa. The main ones include the ability to submit your application inside of the Czech Republic (not through a Czech Embassy), the ability to stay in the Czech Republic during the whole processing, gaining free access to Czech labor market, or validity of up to three years (compared to a year os long-term visas or two years of long-term residence permits). 

Can Czech Partnership Visa be extended?

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