Ten years ago, the only qualification you needed to teach English in the Czech Republic was to be a native speaker. The times have changed and you need to prove yourself a bit more now but teaching English is still one of the easiest ways to settle down in the Czech Republic and to get a visa. Read on to find out more.
What qualification is needed to teach English in Prague (Czech Republic) now?
Since there is way higher competition among schools now, they need to provide better value to their clients. that means they need better qualified teachers. Better qualified usually means that you have either experience with teaching already, you have education in education or you own a TEFL, TOEFL, CELTA or similar certificate.
If you have one or more of the above mentioned things, schools usually invite you to a demo lesson and if they like it, they offer you a job. If you need any help with your visa, they are usually happy to provide support there as well. Not that much in terms of taking care of the process, but they for example provide a letter of interest which you can use for your visa application.
If you do not own any certificate, there is nothing easier then go through some TEFL course in the Czech Republic. There are many of those in Prague and most of them are pretty good (get in touch if you need recommendations)! You go through a four week long course where they teach you how to teach English and if you pass the final certification, they will even connect you with some schools for job interviews.
Got a job in Prague as an English teacher? How to get visa now?
If you get some job offers, getting a visa to teach English in Prague (Czech Republic) gets a lot easier. How does the visa process for English teacher work?
1. You need to collect documents required for a business (zivno) visa – you will be applying for a business visa since schools usually do not employ you, they hire you as a freelance teacher. We describe all the documents required for the business visa in our article here: https://movetoprague.com/zivno-visa-czech-republic/.
2. You take the documents to some Czech Embassy and pass the immigration interview – if you came to Czech Republic using your 90 visa-free days, you can most likely apply for the visa through any Czech Embassy in the World (i.e. Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, Warsaw etc.). If you came here under a standard short-term (Schengen) visa, you will most likely apply for the business visa through the Czech Embassy in the country of your origin.
Get in touch using the below form if you need any help with your application or even if you just have some questions, we’ll be happy to help 🙂
3. Wait and stay low – what usually happens if you apply for your visa in Europe is that you overstay your 90 days. You should officially not let that happen and you should leave the Schengen space before your 90 days run out but honestly speaking, no one really does that. it is illegal to overstay the 90 days but no one really checks that as long as you stay low and do not travel.
4. Collect the visa from the same Embassy where you applied for it. Yes, you need to go to the same Embassy where you applied for the visa to collect it. Sometimes it is possible just to mail your passport in but that is becoming rarer and rarer now.
5. Get registered with the Foreign Police and activate your trade license – you should have registered within three days after your first arrival but if you did that, the trade license office would not be able to activate your trade license now since the registration stamp can not be older than three days.
6. Get registered for paying the income tax, social security (and health care) – all freelancers in the Czech Republic (including English teachers) must get registered with the Tax Office and Social Security office and need to pay contributions there. Some freelancers (i.e. EU citizens, US citizens, Japanese citizens) have to get registered with the Public Health Care system as well and pay those contributions too. If you have no idea how to do this, get in touch and we’ll do it on your behalf 🙂
Once you get registered everywhere and start paying the monthly contributions, your are good for some time 🙂 The maximum validity of your visa is one year but it can be shortened based on your lease for example.
If you want to extend your stay, make sure you start early enough so prevent yourself from a lot of unnecessary stress. We describe 3 simple rules of extensions in our article here: https://movetoprague.com/3-tips-to-extend-your-visa-smoothly and the specifics of the business visa extension in another article here: https://movetoprague.com/long-term-visa-extension-vs-long-term-residence-permit/.
Or get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to guide you or take care of the whole process on your behalf 🙂
