Employee Card - everything you need to know

What is "Employee Card", how to obtain it, what documents are needed for the employee card application, what are the timelines, and much more. Everything about the employee card at one place. Read further.

Employee Card is a type of a long-term residence permit for foreigners coming to the Czech Republic from outside of the EU. It allows it's holder to work at one position for one employer.

The employee card is issued in a form of a plastic biometric card (including your digitalized finger prints and photo), usually valid for two years, with the possibility of extension.

Employee Card is meant for all types of positions, all levels of salary and all levels of education. Employee card can be for example issued for a cleaning lady with the minimum salary, for and IT professional with salary of 50 thousand CZK a month or for a director of an international company getting 500 thousand CZK a month.

Where and how to apply for the Employee Card

First and one of the most important rule is that the position, the employee will be hired for, must advertised through the Labour Office for at least 30 days to prove that there is no better EU candidate.

If the position is not filled within the 30 days, it is given a special number which then can be used for the Employee Card application.

UPDATE - advertising the position is still mandatory (unless your employee comes from one of these nine countries with free access to Czech Labour market) BUT the position does not need to be advertised for 30 days. The position gets the vacancy number right away. This might be changed back anytime but as on now (9/2024) it is still active. Read more here: “Test of the Czech Labour Market” shortened from 30 days to 0 days!.

Applicants who do not hold a long-term visa or long-term residence permit in the Czech Republic must apply for the Employee Card through a Czech Embassy. In general, all candidates must apply through the Czech Embassy in the country of their origin or in the country where they hold a long-term or permanent residence permit. There is an exception for approximately 40 countries (see the list of those countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website).

Applicants who are holding a long-term visa or long-term residence permit in the Czech Republic apply for the employee card through a branch of the Ministry of the Interior.

What documents are needed for an Employee Card application

The following documents are needed for the employee card application:

- employee card application form
- long-term visa application form (only applies in some cases, contact us for further details)
- vacancy number (see above)
- passport
- 2 passport sized photos
- proof of accommodation (read more here)
- employment contract (or a contract about future contract)
- proof of education (usually the most relevant diploma)
- criminal check (from the country of your origin + all the countries where you have lived for more that 6 months in the last three years)

All the above mentioned documents must fulfill many conditions (i.e. must be originals, not older than 180 days, must be apostiled/superlegalized and translated into Czech, etc.) so we highly recommend you to contact us to make sure all your documents are correct.

 How long does it take to get the Employee Card approved

The official timeline for the Employee Card approval is 60 - 90 days. This number is just indicative though, in real live, it depends on many things. The main is your nationality, the Embassy you applied through, the quality of your documents, etc. Real life approval process an be from 3 weeks (Americans applying in Europe during a low season) to over a half a year (Indians applying in India during a high season).

 What after approval of the employee card

Once your employee card is approved, you need to come to a branch of MOI in the Czech Republic to give your biometric data (fingerprints, photo). If you applied outside of the Czech Republic, you will first need to go to the Embassy where you applied for the Employee Card and get a 60 day visa to come to the Czech Republic and finish the process.

You can officially start working from the day when you give your biometric data to the MOI in the Czech Republic. The actual Employee Card will be issued say three weeks after you submitted the biometric data.

We have successfully done hundreds of Employee Card applications so if you have any questions about the process, please feel free to contact us through the form on the right or through one of the Contacts.