This article speaks about the family reunification visa for the Czech Republic. It explains who qualifies for the visa, what documents are needed, where and how to apply for the visa and many other topics.
If you are already living in the Czech Republic under your Family Reunification Visa and you want to extend your stay, you better read the Family Reunification – Long-Term Residence Permit article.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT CHANGE IN FUNDS REQUIREMENT EFFECTIVE FROM 1.4.2022 BELOW! AND AGAIN FROM 1.7.2022. AND AGAIN FROM 1.1.2023!
Who qualifies for the family reunification visa
First of all, it is important to understand what is the family reunification visa and who qualifies for it. The family reunification visa is meant couples/families whose all members are non-EU citizens (if one of you is an EU citizen and one is not, there is much better type of visa to apply for – Partnership visa – Temporary Residence Permit for family members of EU citizens). In particular, the family reunification visa is mainly meant for:
- spouses
- children
So, simply said, if for example a husband of a family (all from Serbia or Ukraine or India or Bangladesh, etc.) gets a job offer and he gets the employee card, his wife and children can apply for this family reunification visa and get it pretty easily. The same, of course, if the main applicant is the wife (she gets a job here or starts her own business here for example) – then the husband and children can get the family reunification visa.
Unfortunately, the family reunification visa does not really apply to parents of the main applicant. It could, but only under some very specific circumstances which are hard to meet (i.e. you would need to prove that your parents are not able to take care of themselves and that you have been taking care of them before and you have to continue with that even after you move here. You would then need to submit reports from various doctors, etc.).
When and where to apply for the Family reunification visa
Family members can apply for the family reunification either along with the main applicant (i.e. if the husband goes to apply for the employee card) or later on, once the application of the main applicant is approved. The best way to do that depends on several factors (nationality, how busy is the Embassy where you apply, how well prepared is the main application, what is the salary of the main applicant, etc.) but we generally recommend to wait until the main applicant’ visa/residence permit is approved. It is safer for everyone and less confusing for the Ministry of the Interior.
The family reunification visa must be submitted through a Czech Embassy in the country of your origin (i.e. Indians must submit their applications at the Czech Embassy in India) or in the country where you hold a long-term or permanent residence permit (i.e. you are Indian living in UAE – then you can submit your application either in India in UAE).
There are about 40 countries whose citizens have exception from the above mentioned rule and can apply through any Czech Embassy in the world as long as the Embassy accepts long-term visa applications. The list of such countries is to be found at the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (only in Czech). The main nationalities are for example Americans, Australians, Brazilians, Canadians, Koreans or Serbians.
What documents are needed for the Family reunification visa
The following documents will be needed for the Family reunification visa application – that means you need to have all of them ready before you go to the Czech Embassy to apply for the visa.
- application form – to be found and downloaded here
- passport – not older than 10 years, at least 2 blank pages, valid for say 1,5 more years
- 2 passport photos
- proof of accommodation – it should be the same as the main applicant’ accommodation, it should be for at least a year
- proof of funds – adults (say wife) must prove availability of at least 115 810 CZK (as of 1.1.2023) in their bank account, children usually half of that amount
- documents on the purpose of your stay – since the purpose of your stay is “family reunification”, you need to prove that you are related to the main applicant. Usually a marriage certificate is enough for spouses and birth certificates for children.
- criminal check – even though it is officially a “document needed upon request only”, the MOI basically requests it all the time so it is better to have it ready for everyone older than 15 years.
- Czech medical insurance – once the visa is approved, you will need to get a Czech medical insurance valid for the same time as your visa (so in most cases a year. Read more about the Czech health insurance here.
- Consent of the other parent – if for example only one parent and a kid are moving to the Czech Republic and the other parent stays abroad, a consent of the other parent with the child moving here might be needed.
All the above mentioned documents must be submitted in originals or notarized copies (no simple copies or scans, etc.), they must be younger than 180 days (with some exceptions such as the marriage certificate, etc.) and they must be in Czech or officially translated into Czech.
Most Embassies also require an application fee in amount of 200 EUR (half for the kids).
What to do after approval of the family reunification visa
Once you have applied for the family reunification visa, you just have to wait for the approval. If the main applicant has already been approved and you submitted all the required documents, your visa should be approved as well. There still might be complications but Czech Republic in general honors family so you should be fine 🙂
The MOI officially has 60-90 days to approve the family reunification visa but do not be worried if that takes longer to you. The MOI does not really care about any official deadlines so the approval might take much longer sometimes.
Once your visa is approved, you have to go to the same Embassy as where you applied for it, show the medical insurance and the Embassy will issue the visa into your passport. You can then come to the Czech Republic.
Once you arrive, you have to go register with the Foreign Police within 3 days after your arrival. Once this is done, you are all good 🙂
We hope this article about the Family reunification visa was helpful to you. If you want to make sure you have all the required documents in order, if you do not feel confident about doing it on your own or if you simply want someone to make sure your application will be successful – contact us through the form on the right or through some of the general contacts and we’ll be happy to help you 🙂
Move To Prague relocation services – your specialist in Family reunification visas.
hello;
Excuse me, I have a question!
Are we allowed to work with this visa?
Hi Nina,
Thank you very much for your question.
If you have just the long-term visa (a sticker in your passport), you are not allowed to work. You can get a trade license though and freelance if you wish.
You can only be allowed to work with the long-term residence permit (the next step – a biometric card).
Please get in touch if you need more information about the trade license or residence permit.
Thank you and have a great day!
Jan on behalf of the whole Move To Prague team
Hello,
Thank you for this nice article. I’m from Tunisia and i’m working in the Czech Republic since 3 years with a valid work permit.
My Wife just came to the Czech Republic (family reunification) and she applied for a biometric card. Could she work using it when it’s ready ?
Thank you for help,
ABH
Hi Amir,
Thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately, she can not work until she gets the card itself. The Labour Code says that only family members holding a long-term residence permit have the free entry to the Labour Market. So until she is holding it, she will need to wait.
Have a great day!
Jan on behalf of the whole team 🙂
Is there any timeline post which only family reunification visa can be applied ?
For eg. if wife has gone for higher studies and have obtained this permit card. Can long term residence permit be filled in 6 months timelines after relocation of wife ?
Hi Maxy,
Thank you very much for your comment.
There are couple rules about that, let us list the main ones:
Long-term visa – family reunification
– can be applied for anytime, even at the same time as the main applicant – no time limits here
Long-term Residence Permit
– can be applied for directly with the main applicant in case of a Blue Card applicant,
– can be applied for after 6 months if the main applicant is an Employee Card holder – at the same time, it can be applied for earliest 120 days before the long-term visa expires (if you are not applying directly for the residence permit,
– can be granted after 15 months in most other cases (main applicant is a student, main applicant is business residence permit holder, etc.).
We hope this helps but please feel free to get in touch if something is not clear 🙂
Move To Prague team 🙂
I would ask is that meat that when a non-EU member gets a blue card for employment in the Czech republic than his/her spouse immediately gets long term residence permit and can immediately work in Czech?
Hi Milan,
Thank you for your comment.
I can confirm that your spouse can immediately apply for her/his residence permit if you applied for the Blue Card. You can actually even apply together.
As for working, it depends on the residence permit the spouse gets but in some cases, yes, that is possible as well.
I hope this helps and wish you a great day!
Jan on behalf of the whole team
Hello, Can my fiance apply for this Family Reunification visa? We don’t have marriage certificate. Is there any way to apply to this visa without marriage certificate?
Hi Kamil,
Thank you very much for your comment.
We unfortunately can not properly answer your question without knowing you nationalities. So, in general:
1. If one of you is an EU citizen and the other is not, you will not be applying for the family reunification visa. You must apply for the Temporary Residence Permit for a family member of an EU citizen – the “partnership visa”. In that case, you do NOT need to be married, you just need to be able to prove that you are in a serious relationship. Please read more about that type of residence here.
2. If both of you are non-EU citizens, you unfortunately need to be married officially to qualify for the family reunification visa. If you are not married, you can try applying for the “other visa” but we can not promise it will work out. We have had approved cases like that but it always depends on what proves you can provide about your relationship and on the mood of the person making the decision. Officially only married couples can apply for the Family Reunification.
Please get in touch to discuss your specific case 🙂
Have a great day!
Jan on behalf of the whole team
My husband applied for the family reunification visa since November 2019, they took 3 months to call him for the interview which was in end of February 2020, and until now we don’t have any decision!. I am not sure if this related to his nationality!. I am a scientific researcher and we did not expect that it will take this time!!.
Hey Hanadi,
Thank you very much for your comment.
It is hard to say anything concrete if we have not taken care of your case and have limited amount of information about your case. So, I am just listing some general information below:
1. The MOI is always slow. They often do not stick to any deadlines so delays are unfortunately common.
2. The process depends on many things such as the nationality of your husband, the duration of your marriage (i.e. if you got married right before him moving here, it can be suspicious and the MOI can do deeper investigation), etc.
3. The COVID situation paused all visa processes so decisions are not being taken for applications submitted through Embassies.
So, I am afraid you will just need to give it some more time and hopefully everything will work out well 🙂
If not, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help!
Have a great day!
Jan on behalf of the whole team
Hi Admin,
As per your explanation above I have only read that if one of the family member gets a job offer and he/she gets the employee card, his wife/husband can apply for the family reunification visa. May I know does it apply to those who is studying in one of the universities of Czech Republic? To be exact can a spouse apply for a family reunification visa if one of them is a student in CR (we are from Kazakhstan and Iran). And what are the possibilities for a student to get work permit after finishing their studies. Thank you very much in advance for your reply. Looking forward 🙂
Hi Aina,
Thank you very much for your comment! 🙂
Yes, the family reunification applies to basically all types of visa/residence permit you can get. So even if one of you has the student visa, the other one can join under the family reunification.
The reason we mainly mention the employee card or business visa is that you need to prove that you have/are earning enough money for both of you which is sometimes difficult to do with students. If you can prove this though, there is no problem with the family reunification under the student visa 🙂
As for getting a work permit after finishing studies, there are two options:
1. Your spouse can apply for the employee card anytime even during his studies, he just needs to follow this employee card process.
2. If he finishes school, he can also apply for a 9 month “job seeker visa” which will give him additional 9 months after finishing studies to find a job and apply for the employee card. This only applies to “proper students” though, not to language classes or non-accredited programs.
I hope this helps but feel free to get in touch with us if you have further questions 🙂
Thank you and have a lovely day!
Jan on behalf of the whole Move To Prague family
Greetings
I hope this email finds you well. Please let me explain that I am a Ph.D. student from a Non-EU Country. We applied for a family reunification visa (for my husband and my daughter) around 2.5 months ago but still no outcome. Please, based on your experience, guide me on how long (on average) this kind of visa takes to approve (or receive the result). On the website of MOI, I found processing time of 270 days is disappointing for me. Please guide me because I am really worried. Thanks in advance.
I hope this email finds you well. Please let me explain that I am a first-year Ph.D. student from a Non-EU Country. We applied for a family reunification visa (for my husband and my daughter) around 2.5 months ago but still no outcome. Please, based on your experience, guide me on how long (on average) this kind of visa takes to approve (or receive the result). On the website of MOI, I found processing time of 270 days is disappointing for me. Please guide me because I am really worried.
Hi Maryam,
Thank you very much for your comment!
If your family applied for a family reunification VISA, the official approval time is 60-90. The 270 days only apply in case of the family reunification RESIDENCE PERMIT.
Either way, the MOI usually does not care about any legal deadlines so sometimes they decide applications within 2 weeks, sometimes it takes them three years.
What you can do is that once they exceed the official deadline, you send them a letter (either a polite letter or a strong letter of complaint) and that usually makes them make the decision soon. It can also piss them off so we do not really recommend sending the complaint letter unless you are 100% sure everything is 100% perfect with your application.
Hope this helps! Get in touch if you need any help with the letters or for example the health insurance once you are all approved 🙂
Have a great day!
Jan
I started living and working in the Czech Republic this April with a working visa. I applied for my family’s reunification visa this month, and was wondering if anybody with a similar experience can share how long the reunification visa took to be issued. I know it can take up to about 3 months, and that it will depend on the workload that the embassy/MOI has at the moment, but I’m wondering how long it has taken in actuality.
Hi Raymond!
Thank you very much for your comment 🙂
The MOI generally has 60-90 days to approved long-term visa (family reunification) and 270 days to approve long-term residence permit (family reunification).
It is almost impossible to say how long it will take in your case. We have had cases approved in 10 days and we have had cases which took many months. It very much depends on the season, the decision maker etc.
What you can do if it takes too long (longer than the legally given deadlines) is to send the MOI a letter requesting a speed up or even a complaint.
Fill in any of the forms on this page and get in touch, we’ll be happy to help 🙂
Have a great day!
Team of Move To Prague relocation experts