Student visa is generally one of the easiest visas to get for the Czech Republic. It has some rules you need to follow though if you want to be successful with your student visa application. Let’s go through the rules now.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT CHANGE IN FUNDS REQUIREMENT EFFECTIVE FROM 1.4.2022 BELOW!
Czech Republic Student Visa – who qualifies
Student visa in the Czech Republic can be pretty confusing since the definition of studies has changed recently. There are also plenty of different sub-options and exceptions such as paid/unpaid internships, Fullbright program, Erasmus programs etc. Let’s keep it simple here and only focus on the most common situations.
In general, there are two types of visas related to education in the Czech Republic – “Student visa” and “Other visa”. There are some major differences in between these two but we’ll not go there now. Let’s focus on the proper “Student visa”.
If you want to qualify for the student visa, you need to fall under one of the below definitions of studies given by the Czech Ministry of the Interior (we are only listing the most common ones – 95% of students fall under these):
- Studies in accredited study programmes at a higher educational establishment in accordance with the Higher Education Act,
- Participation in language and professional preparation for studies under an accredited study programme of a higher education establishment organised by a public higher education establishment,
- Secondary education and higher professional education in the fields of education in a secondary school, conservatory or higher vocational school entered in the Registered of Schools and Schools Facilities in accordance with the Education Act.
If the programme you chose does not fall under any of the categories above, you will most likely not qualify for the “Student visa” but for the “Other visa”. Good thing is that most schools know if the programme you chose falls under studies or other and they tell you that either in advance or at some point during the admission process.
Student visa – required documents
So, if you fall under the “Studies” purpose of stay and hence you’ll be applying for the student visa, you will need to collect the following documents:
- application form,
- passport,
- 2 passport sized photos,
- proof of accommodation,
- proof of funds – the minimum required from 1.1.2023 is at least 115 810 CZK,
- admission letter from the university,
- criminal check from the country of your origin,
- consent of your parents with you moving here (if you are below 18).
All the documents must be in Czech or officially translated into Czech (besides your passport), they can not be older than 180 days (the proof of funds should ideally not be older than 2 months) and if they are some official documents issued outside of the Czech Republic (i.e. the criminal check), they also might need to be apostilled/superlegalized before you can use them for the student visa process.
Where and how to submit your Czech Student Visa application
Once you have all the documents listed above, you need to go submit them to a Czech Embassy. In general, it should be the Czech Embassy in the country of your origin or responsible for the country of your origin if there is no Czech Embassy in your home country. Some nationalities such as Americans, Australians, Canadians, Mexicans etc. have the exception that they can submit their visa applications (not only student visa) through any Czech Embassy in the world. So, if you are for example an American living in South Korea, you can submit your student visa application in there. Or you can come to Europe before your school starts and submit the application here.
Whatever Embassy you choose for submitting your student visa application, you always need to book an appointment in advance. Usually couple weeks in advance but that depends on the particular Embassy. Some Embassies in the US also allow just mailing the application in (without your personal presence).
Part of the submission process (or even later on as a part of the approval process), you can also need to go through an immigration interview. That is usually done to determine, if you are really invested in studying in the Czech Republic or if you are just trying to get a visa for the Czech Republic without a real intention to study. If you go through the interview, they ask you questions like why you chose this particular programme, what subjects you will be studying, what you will do after you finish your studies etc.
Approval process of the Czech Student Visa
After you submitted the application, the Ministry of the Interior (not the Embassy!) officially has 60-90 days to make the decision. In real life though, it can be as fast as one month and as long as half a year depending on the Embassy you applied at (since all the documents must be physically delivered to the Czech Republic for the approval process and it takes way longer to deliver them from Los Angeles or New Delhi than from Vienna for example), the month you submitted the application (generally closer to September, longer the approval time since there are more and more people applying) and some other factors such as your nationality or how well the application was prepared.
Once the decision was made (either approval or denial), the Embassy will contact you with further instructions (collecting the visa, getting health insurance – which you can do through us by the way etc.).
Even though getting the Student Visa for the Czech Republic is generally the easiest type of visa to get, you still need to make sure that you have all the documents and in the correct form (originals, apostilled, translated etc.). We have done thousands of visa application (big part of that student visas as well) so we’ll be happy to help you with everything.
We are easy to reach (phone, e-mail, contact forms everywhere, chat on the right, Instagram, Facebook etc.) and we reply fast. So get in touch and let’s discuss your case 🙂
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