Are you dating a Czech (or another EU) citizen and you want to move to the Czech Republic together? If so, the Czech Partnership Visa might be the best option for you since it offers a lot of benefits compared to other visa types in the Czech Republic. There are two main requirements though – you must be able to prove that you have been in a serious long-term relationship, and that you have required financial stability. What does it mean exactly? Read below!
Is Czech Partnership Visa Suitable for People Just Dating?
Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that you do not have to be married to apply. No in the sense that it will not work for everyone. We have been helping international couples obtain the Partnership Visa in the Czech Republic since 2012. We have seen higher hundreds of couples willing to apply for the partnership visa. And we only accept to work with couples that have at least somewhat realistic chance of getting approved. How do we determine that? Let’s dive into that now. If you prefer speaking with someone about your situation, book a free assessment consultation here.
Qualification criteria for Partnership Visa in the Czech Republic – relationship
The Czech immigration law does not specifically say how serious must the relationship be to qualify for the “partnership visa”, nor how you prove it. It only says this in § 15a of the Immigration Act:
- has a duly documented permanent partnership with a citizen of the European Union or a citizen of the Czech Republic registered for permanent residence in the territory.
Although there is no further specification of what a “duly documented permanent relationship” means, dealing with hundreds of partnership visa cases since 2012, we have determined these rules as the basics:
- at least a year of relationship is advised – we have successfully got a 6 months relationship approved as well as 9 months but it will only work in very specific cases (i.e. where you have been living together since day one of your relationship, share finances etc.), for most couple a year is a minimum,
- purely “online” relationships do not work – as uncomfortable as this might be for some of you to hear, “dating” 100% online does not really show any real commitment, nor stability of the relationship.
- you must be able to prove the duration and seriousness of your relationship – every single couple we have worked with says they love each other and their relationship is serious. Often they also think that it should be enough for the immigration. Your word does not mean anything to the MOI though, since you can lie. They need proves that could not be faked and that show the duration and seriousness of your relationship – either on it’s own or in combination with other proves. More about this below.
Not being able to prove your relationship in the way the MOI wants to see it and understands it, is the single most common reason for denials of couples who try to go through this process on their own, without help of a professional. This is especially true for couples where one of of the partners is a Czech or a Slovak citizen.
Often Czechs and Slovaks think that because they speak the language, the process will be easy for their partners. We (Czech and Slovaks) are generally pretty over-confident 😀 Imagine being this the other way around – moving your Czech/Slovak partner to your home country. Would you confidently say, yeah, I speak the language, you’ll be fine?
Another thing is that Czechs or Slovaks usually do not feel/understand the pressure. They can not be deported, they can not be banned from coming back to the EU for 6-12 months, they are usually not the ones abandoning their whole life to move somewhere.
We are not writing this to mock Czechs/Slovaks or to say that it is 100% not possible to do it on your own. There are couples who make it work with no external help. Speaking Czech also helps a lot in the practical daily life – i.e. calling the MOI, booking appointments, speaking with the officer etc.
The thing just is that if you do not have the knowledge and experience of what “duly documented permanent partnership” means, and/or what the “amount stipulated by law” is for your income and what a “requirement of regularity and stability” means, you are just guessing and risking your partner’s residence permit.
We have seen it work in many cases. We have also seen to many cases of people getting into situations that were difficult to fix but that would have been pretty easy to avoid.
Hopefully this article will help you understand the partnership visa better if you want to try applying on your own. If you prefer having your case handled professionally and with our “Approved or Free” guarantee, contact us anytime for a free assessment call.
Qualification criteria for Partnership Visa in the Czech Republic – Income
If couples get the proof of relationship right, proving their income is the second most common reason for trouble or even denials.
First thing to understand is that the requirement of immigration is “regular monthly income”, not having enough money in your bank account.
One example here from a client we worked with in 2024/2025. He is a British citizen with a total net worth of about 6,5 million British pounds which was back then around 200 000 000 CZK. The MOI did not care since 200 000 000 CZK in assets is not “regular monthly income”. We eventually made it work but it was way harder that it should have been for someone with 200 million in a bank.
Proving high enough monthly income is specifically difficult for people in these situations:
- people who live off of their savings – however high the savings, it is not “monthly income” in the eyes of Czech immigration,
- couples who move to the Czech Republic at the same time – let’s says you lived together in the US and now want to move to the Czech Republic together. You ave probably left the jobs in the US but do not have any jobs secured in the Czech Republic. When submitting your partnership visa application, you will still need to prove “regular monthly income”,
- Digital Nomads or generally people who do not have local Czech employer – while having a foreign job is better than having no job at all, if your income is not coming from the Czech Republic, it might complicate the process a lot, especially if you are a freelancer and not an employee. The problems here generally are that all your proves of income are in some other language than Czech which means you will have to translate everything. On top of that, taxes work differently in different countries and the MOI does not know much about that. So proving what is your actual net income, who, when and how pays taxes for you etc. might get pretty difficult.
As for how much is the “amount stipulated by law” that you must be making. That is also a bit complicated since that is not one number for everyone. The actual number depends on the city where you live, on your housing cost, number of people in your household and other factors. Check section number 5 of this article for more details: Czech Taxes 2026 (For Freelancers): What You Need to Know (and Why It Matters for Your Residence Permit).
Partnership Visa in the Czech Republic – Step by Step Process
If you are not discouraged by the above parts of the article (which was not our intention – our intention is to provide a realistic overview), these are the steps you should take for your partnership visa to work.
Step 1 – Verify if you Qualify for the Partnership Visa
The most important in any immigration processes in the Czech Republic is to have realistic expectation and realistic chances before you commit to the process. Even if you plan on going through the partnership visa on your own, we strongly recommend speaking with a professional who has been through this process at least 50 times.
While facebook groups are great to give you some general idea, you can not take any advise there too seriously. The ting is that people only share their own one experience. The process though is different for different nationalities (i.e. what was “easy” for an American, will certainly not be easy for an Egyptian, Filipino or and Indian).
The process is different if you apply now and if you applied two years ago since the immigration law changes regularly. It is different for an employee and for a freelancer. It is different if you have been living together in another country for three years and if you have known each other for a year and only visited each other twice during that time.
A quality consultation can give you a realistic view of how strong is your case, where might be potential complications in your case and what would be the best approach (when to apply, where and how, if at all).
We usually do a 45-60 min consultation where we go through everything together and tell you everything you need to know. We also turn down a lot of potential clients. In most cases it makes no sense to accept a case where we only see 30, 40% chance of approval. It is usually better to come up with a plan that will get you to 80% (i.e. gain a bit more time together, travel together) and submit your application then.
Contact us for an initial consultation.
Step 2 – Plan your Partnership Visa Application in Advance
Having worked with hundreds of cases, we understand every case is different and not everyone is in the position where they can plan everything ahead. If you can though, certainly do so. Main considerations are usually:
- is one of you or both of you already living in the Czech Republic? – if so, when does your visa or residence permit expire?
- if not, are you from a country that needs a short-term visa to enter the Czech Republic or can you come using your 90 days visa free stay? – if you can use the 90 days visa free stay, that is great! How many do you have left? If you need a visa even for a short stay, the process will be significantly more complicated.
- do you have all the documents from abroad ready? – if not, how long will it take you to get those ready?
- do you already have accommodation and employment situations in the Czech Republic sorted?
If you both have already been living in the Czech Republic, you live together in an apartment, you have stable jobs … the preparation phase can be as fast as a month.
If you need a short-term visa to enter the Czech Republic, the whole application might not even ever happen since you’d need to get one specific type of short-term visa to be able to apply for the partnership visa. And a lot of Embassies do not want to issue this specific visa.
Again, we have dealt with almost every imaginable scenario from people having just a few days to submit their applications to people planning a year in advance. There is almost always some solution, you just need to have a realistic expectation of what the solution might be.
Step 3 – Collect all the Required Documents, Book an Appointment at the MOI
Once you have verified you qualify for the partnership visa and once you have set a realistic timeline, it is time to start gathering all the required documents:
- application form – if you work with us, we usually fill it in together before we go to the MOI, nothing too complicated here,
- passport + valid visa or residence permit – you can only apply for the partnership visa is you are legally staying in the Czech Republic – that can mean your 90 days visa-free stay, the special type of a short-term visa or any long-term visa or residence permit.
- 2 passport sized photos – 3,5 x 4,5 cm, no teeth visible, white or light grey background.
- proof of accommodation – this can be either a lease agreement or a proof of accommodation form signed by your landlord, there are many factors here to consider and be careful about – i.e. make sure your flat is actually a flat (not an “atelier” for example), make sure all the documents are signed by the actual owner (careful with “družstvo” or any subleases), in some cases it might be better to use the lease agreement, in some case it might be better to go for the proof of accommodation instead.
- proves of your relationship – this is the most crucial part of the whole documentation, we have crafted the list of required documents to perfection over the hundreds of case and years of experience since 2012! We always asses cases on individual basis and advise on the best list of documents to submit based on your specific situation and relationship history. Get in touch for a free assessment consultation.
- proves of your income – another crucial part of the process. There are two main parts to focus on – that you are making enough and that you can reasonably prove that. We describe how the MOI calculates the income and how you prove it in different scenarios in section 5 of this article: Czech Taxes 2026 (For Freelancers): What You Need to Know (and Why It Matters for Your Residence Permit).
- health insurance – a bit tricky part. General rule is that if you want to get the partnership visa for full three years, you must get private Czech Health Insurance for at least 3 years as well. If you already have a job though or have one guaranteed right after you submit your application, you can potentially buy just 6 months or a year of the private insurance and once you start working, you will submit the public health insurance card provided by your employer to the MOI.
- 200 CZK admin fee – that is paid at the MOI by card.
- Power of Attorney – this is only needed if you work with us so we can represent you in front of the MOI and deal with them on your behalf.
The partnership visa application must be submitted to the Ministry of the Interior responsible for the location where you actually live with your partner. If you live in Brno, there is only one MOI branch where you can go. If you live in Prague, there are four different branches. If you live in some smaller cities, the MOI is usually in a bigger city or even in the regional city.
For most branches, it is best to book an appointment in advance. How much in advance depends on the branch. It can be from a few days to a few weeks. This is why you should not wait too much to book the appointment. There is usually an option of waiting in the line but you can spend hours waiting there and/or you have to come at 5-6 a.m. to have a realistic chance to get seen.
Step 4 – Submit your Partnership Visa Application
The actual submission can go in different ways and using our services also brings additional value. Although it is getting gradually better and you can find really nice people at the MOI nowadays, there are still people working at the MOI who are not trained/knowledgable enough. More importantly, they can be pretty rude. Some MOI branches (such as the one in Prague 4 – Cigankova) are famous for treating foreigners badly.
That goes from simply being unpleasant to deal with, through them wanting you to speak Czech with them “because the official language is Czech”, to them actually making your life unnecessarily complicated – i.e. not being willing to accept your application at all.
In some cases simply speaking Czech can help, in many cases though you must know the law better than them to have a fighting chance (i.e. when they refuse to give you the bridge visa).
If everything goes well, you should get a confirmation that you submitted your application, your application number and a bridge visa.
Step 5 – Wait, Survive Foreign Police Visit and a Detailed Interview
While the first steps can be stressful, for most people the main stress starts after submitting the application. Although, the MOI has (by the law) 60 days to make the decision about the partnership visa, they basically never do. More realistic timeline for most couples is 4-6 months with cases that can go on for over a year.
Preparing your application perfectly and having someone on your side who can follow up with the MOI and potentially write some polite or compliant letters to them, can be very helpful. These are integral parts of our services. We have you covered from the day we meet for the first time, until you hold the residence card in your hands 🙂 Get in touch and find out more.
What happens in 99% cases is that two Foreign Police officers come visit your place. They come unannounced since the whole point is to see if you really live together or not. As long as they find you at home, this part is usually not too complicated – it usually only takes about 15 mins, they inspect the flat briefly and ask you couple of questions.
If your initial application was not strong enough (you did not provide the proves of your relationship that the MOI accepts) and/or if there is something suspicious about your relationship, the MOI will invite you for a detailed interview/interrogation. Simply explained, you and your partner sit in different rooms, they ask you the same 50 questions and they check if you give the same answers.
While the questions are a bit different for every couple, the general topics and the purpose of the interview are the same. If you get invited to an interview, we get you prepared for it.
The interviews are in Czech so if you do not speak fluent Czech, you are required to bring an official translator.
Step 6 – Go do your Biometrics, Get the Partnership Visa
When you get approved, it is still not the end of the process. You have to go to the MOI at least two more times within the span of two months:
- to provide your biometric details – this is where the MOI takes your fingerprints, photo and digitalize your signature. Appointments for the biometrics are often booked up for weeks in advance.
- to collect the actual residence card – the actual residence card looks like a US drivers license for example. It is a small plastic ID with your personal details printed on it. The collection usually happens 2-3 weeks after the biometrics.
The residence permit you get (officially named a Temporary Residence Permit for Distant Family Members of EE Citizens) can be valid for up to three years.
If you are still together after these three years, you can apply for extension of the residence permit which is basically exactly the same process as this first application. If you stay here for more than five years, you can then apply for a Czech Permanent Residence Permit for Family Members of EU Citizens. Later on also for Czech Citizenship.
If you break up with your partner, you must report it to the MOI. They will cancel your partnership visa and will give you 60 days to either leave the Czech Republic or to apply for some other type of residence permit (such as an employee card).
If you have any questions or would appreciate some assistance with your application, contact us. We have done higher hundreds of partnership visa applications since 2012 and will be happy to make sure yours is added to our 99% of successfull applications 🙂
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