visa information
US citizens are allowed to send us their application form and all required documents by mail. We will return a visa application that shows submission defects or, in the case of minor defects, we will ask the applicant to remove the defects before we accept the application. If the application is submitted without defects, we will send the applicant a link to the payment gateway to the email address provided in the application, where he/she/they can pay the visa fee by credit card. Our office will verify that the visa fee has been paid. Then we enter the application into the visa system. At that point, the application will be deemed accepted.
Non-US citizens or those US citizens who wish to submit their application in person pay the visa fee by card when submitting the application in person.
All in-person visits to the Visa Section of the Consulate General are strictly by previous appointment only. No walk-in visitors are attended.
Please visit our Visa Section only after you have obtained from us a confirmation of your appointment. The confirmation e-mail received from the Consulate General (printed on paper or displayed on your mobile device) must be shown to gain access to the premises of the Consulate.
Visa Section is open to clients with confirmed appointments Mondays through Thursdays, with the exception of Czech and U.S. national holidays and extraordinary closure dates specified below.
For operational reasons (most notably during peaks in the volume of long-term student visa applications), the Visa Section will be CLOSED on the following dates:
--- (no extraordinary closure date currently envisaged)
We encourage all visa applicants to read carefully all the information posted on our website and contact us in case of doubt before submitting the visa application to avoid any misunderstandings.
All visa enquiries with our Consulate shall be in writing, directed to our dedicated e-mail address losangeles.visa@mzv.gov.cz
(!) The Consulate will not act upon e-mail appointment requests sent to any other address and/or not containing all of the required information below.
HOW TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT
A) If you apply for a Czech LONG-TERM VISA or RESIDENCE PERMIT
Long-term visa/residence permit applicants need a previously scheduled appointment in order to submit their application. Up to 7 applicants can be attended each week.
To make an appointment for submitting a long-term visa/residence permit application please send an e-mail with the obligatory attachment to losangeles.visa@mzv.gov.cz .
Your e-mail appointment request must include all of the following information:
- your name and surname,
- name of the country which issued your passport,
- passport number and expiration date,
- date (mm/yyyy) since resident in the USA (non-US citizens only)
- type of visa/permit you are applying for (long-term visa, residence permit, employee card, etc.),
- purpose of your stay (study, scientific research, employment, business, family reunification, etc.),
- obligatory attachments, which is a scan (attachment in PDF or JPG format only, combined maximum size of all attachments is 5MB) of the document written in the Czech language and confirming the purpose of your stay (for study: confirmation of enrollment, for scientific research: signed hosting agreement, for employment: signed contract of employment, for business: statement from the Czech Trade Register or from the Czech Commercial Register, for family reunification: certified Czech translation of the certificate of vital records demonstrating dependent applicant's relationship to the principal applicant),
- intended date of arrival to the Czech Republic,
- preferred date for the appointment at the Consulate.
If your e-mail contains all of the requested information above, we will respond by e-mail and assign you the earliest available appointment. The appointment e-mail confirmation from the Consulate usually takes about 3 business days but may take longer during the visa high season.
After the receipt of e-mail from the Consulate you must re-confirm, by the end of the following business day, your assigned appointment by sending an e-mail to the Consulate (just reply "I confirm this appointment" and add your name and surname), or your appointment will be cancelled and offered to another applicant.
PLEASE NOTE:
(!) We suggest you plan ahead and request your appointment as soon in advance as possible. During visa high season the earliest available date for you to submit the application may be more than 30 days from the date of your initial e-mail.
B) If you apply for a SCHENGEN VISA
When your itinerary spans across several Schengen countries, make sure that you apply for visa at the Embassy or Consulate of the country which is your main destination, which constitutes your main purpose of stay, or where you intend to spend the longest time. We cannot accept applications that do not meet this condition.
All of our Schengen visa applicants over the age of 12 need a previously scheduled appointment for an in-person visa interview in order to submit their application. The appointments are assigned on a first-come-first-served basis. Up to 15 applicants can be attended each week.
It is not possible to apply electronically/online for a Schengen visa at our Consulate General. Applications for Schengen visa submitted by mail are not accepted by our mission.
To make an appointment for submitting a Schengen visa application at our Consulate General, please send an e-mail with the Subject line "SCHENGEN VISA appointment request: [SURNAME(S) OF APPLICANT(S)]" to losangeles.visa@mzv.gov.cz .
Your e-mail appointment request must include all of the following information:
- your SURNAME and given name(s) + "Mr"(M) OR "Ms"(F) (exactly as recorded in the passport),
- the country which issued your passport (name of country or 3-letter country code as recorded in the passport),
- passport expiration date (dd.mm.yyyy),
- your current place of residence (city and state) in the USA/U.S. unincorporated territories,
- your legal status in the USA: specify the type of your US visa (F1, H1B, etc.) OR enter "permanent resident" (green card holder),
- main purpose of the journey (record only one of the following): Tourism, Business, Visiting family/friends, Cultural, Sports, Official visit, Medical, Study, Employment, Airport transit,
- starting date of the travel to the Schengen Area (dd.mm.yyyy),
- preferred first and second date for the in-person visa appointment at the Consulate General.
Within one e-mail, provide the same scope of information for each member of the traveling group who prefer to apply for the visa with you. We are unable to guarantee that everyone in the group will be seen on the same date. Each visa applicant must have a confirmed appointment in their own name.
If your e-mail contains all of the requested information above, we will respond by e-mail and assign the earliest available appointment. The appointment e-mail confirmation from the Consulate usually takes about 3 business days but may take longer during the visa high season.
After the receipt of e-mail from the Consulate you must re-confirm, by the end of the following business day, your assigned appointment by sending an e-mail to the Consulate (just reply "I confirm this appointment" and add your name and surname), or your appointment will be cancelled and offered to another applicant.
PLEASE NOTE:
(!) A Schengen visa application may not be lodged more than 180 days, and cannot be lodged less than 15 days ahead of the travel.
(!) Contact our Consulate General only if you can document your residence within our jurisdiction (see WHERE TO APPLY below).
(!) We suggest you plan ahead and request your appointment as soon in advance as possible. During visa high season the earliest available date for your visa interview may be more than 14 days from the date of your initial e-mail.
(!) Due to a high volume of visa applications, the Schengen visa process at our Consulate often takes up to 15 days. When more supporting documents are requested, the process may take up to 45 days.
C) If you apply for a SCHENGEN VISA and you are a FAMILY MEMBER of EU CITIZEN
If you are an eligible family member of a Czech or an EU citizen, we suggest you contact us by e-mail sent to losangeles.visa@mzv.gov.cz and attach a scanned proof of your Czech/EU family member status (see the list of eligibility conditions). The Consulate will contact you as soon as possible and offer you the earliest available appointment.
WHERE TO APPLY
Visa applications must be submitted according to the U.S. residence address of the applicant (your residence address = address on your driver's licence) at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington (see the jurisdiction area in green in the map below) or at the Consulates General in Chicago (blue), Los Angeles (yellow) or New York (red).
Honorary Consulates cannot accept visa applications.
The Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles has jurisdiction over the following U.S. states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as well as U.S. unincorporated territories of American Samoa, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands.
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