This article is an extract of a LiveStream of one of Move To Prague Co-Founders and Co-Owners which can be found here:
Why does my visa approval take so long?
The fact that your application has been taking too long to get approved, can have some general reasons and some case specific reasons.
General reasons might be:
- The MOI is just slow, could be because they are under staff so they don’t have time to deal with all the applications. It depends on the person who’s dealing with your case, some of them are efficient and some of them are slower. They have some legal deadlines: 60 to 90 days to get approved, sometimes 120 days in case for example the business visa. Once they exceed the legal deadline you can send some official complaint against the inactivity. It usually helps but you need to make sure you have everything 100% perfect or you could have some problems, as they could try to put any kind of complication to your approval.
- It depends on the seasons. For example: the end of august to first of september is a really busy season, as all the students are applying for their visas, moving here, etc.
- Type of visa you applied for. Some visa applications for example business visa has longer official deadlines, 90 to 120 days to get approved. We also have the employee card (blue card), which is more complicated to get approved.
Specific reasons:
1) How well prepared was your application:
- If it’s the first time you apply and you don’t have all the documents you need, they will probably deny your application.
- But if you are already in the Czech Republic and you just need your extension application, it is kind of easier. If you miss some documents you have more chances to get a letter saying you have a certain number of days to submit the documents you are missing. But until you give those documents, they won’t be dealing with your process, so it will delay a lot of time. Try to submit the missing documents as soon as possible.
- If you submit all the documents but during the process they see there is a mistake, it will also delay the process.
2) Some people move and don’t report to the ministry. You are supposed to report all the changes in your life: if you get a new passport, change your marital status, get a new name… You need to do it during the given deadlines. For example if you change your address but don’t report to the ministry, they could send an important letter to the old address and you would never notice. It could bring a delay or even a denial, if you don’t submit the things they ask you for in the letter you didn’t read.
