After 5 years of continuous residence in the Czech Republic, a foreign national can file an application for permanent residence. An application for permanent residence can also be filed by a foreign national that met the conditions at the time but now resides outside of the Czech Republic. If the foreign national’s long-term residency permit becomes invalid whilst he/she is not present in the Czech Republic, this application must be filed within 6 months of this permit becoming invalid, at the latest. In this case, the application is filed at a Czech Embassy.

Filing an application

You should file the application on the completed form along with all the necessary requirements. You should, however, always submit originals or notarized copies of the documents. All documents submitted must be made out in the Czech language or officially translated into Czech. Foreign public documents must further be provided with a higher verification (superlegalisation, or Apostille).

The application shall be filed in person.(The Czech Embassy can only waive this obligation in well-substantiated cases).  A legal representative files the application on behalf of a foreign national under 15 years.

Application procedure

The application procedure is governed by the Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals (pdf, 1.2 MB), the Administrative Procedure Code (pdf, 549 kB), and any other associated acts.

If the specified requirements were not submitted with the application or the application has other discrepancies, the MOI worker accepting the application will help you in removing these discrepancies or invite you back to remove the discrepancies giving an adequate deadline for this and informing you of the consequences of not removing the discrepancies within the deadline, at the same time the proceedings for such an application can be halted.

It is possible to submit any missing requirements in person, by means of your proxy or by post. The documents that you have been asked to submit should always be submitted within the set deadlines. Not providing the requirements is a reason for suspending the application procedure. Naturally, during the procedure you can submit any other documents that you consider important for your application. Remember that travel documents must be submitted in person.

The Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals (pdf, 1.2 MB) sets a deadline of 60 days from filing the application in the Czech Republic and 180 from filing the application at a Czech Embassy, during which the MOI is required to make a decision on your application. If the procedure is interrupted, the deadline for making a decision is also halted. This deadline is also halted or is extended in other legally set cases.

At any time during this procedure you can ask to inspect the documentary material and familiarise yourself with it. You can also be called upon by the Ministry to familiarise yourself with the documents before issuing a decision.

Decision on issuing a permanent residence permit

In the event of a positive settling of your application, which was filed at the MOI, this office will contact you by telephone and arrange a date for picking up the permanent residence permit and providing biometric data. If it is not possible to contact you by telephone, you will be asked to pick it up in writing at the contact address that you gave in the application.

In the case of a positive appraisal of an application submitted at a Czech Embassy abroad, the embassy will contact you and issue a visa for a stay of over 90 days for the purpose of receiving a residence permit. Within 3 days of entering the Czech Republic, you shall report to the MOI office where you will arrange a date for providing biometric data.

You must report in person by the set deadline, though no later than 60 days after providing the biometric data, to the MOI office to pick up you permanent residence card so that your identity can be checked, i.e. the veracity of the personal data entered on the card, that the data carrier is functional and the veracity of the biometric data it holds.

The MOI informs the Central Office of the General Health Insurance Provider of the Czech Republic of the day the decision on permanent residence permit came into legal effect and you will be automatically entered into the register of General Health Insurance Provider policyholders.

In the event your application, filed at the MOI, is rejected, the decision on rejecting the application will be sent by post to the contact address given in the application. You have the right to appeal against this decision, that being within 15 days of delivering the decision. The appeal can be filed in person or by post to the pertinent MOI office.

Useful link:

http://www.mvcr.cz/mvcren/article/third-country-nationals-permanent-residence.aspx?q=Y2hudW09Mg%3d%3d