Government of the Czech Republic approved partial release of entry to the Czech Republic for Third-country nationals with effectiveness from 11 May 2020.
1. From that term, entry to the Czech Republic will be enabled to foreign nationals to whom residence was allowed, but they did not take over residence permit (i.e. arrival will be enabled on a visa for the purpose of collecting a residence permit – D/VR).
2. Third-country nationals of selected professions and selected industries will be allowed to arrive:
a) seasonal workers especially in agriculture (foreign nationals to whom short-term visa for the purpose seasonal work was issued, long-term visa for the purpose of seasonal work, extraordinary work visa)
b) key workers and their family members (foreign nationals who submitted their application within government KEY AND RESEARCH STAFF PROGRAMME)
c) workers in healthcare and social services and their family members (foreign nationals with short-term visa for the purpose of employment issued after 11 May 2020; foreign nationals who submitted their application within government HIGHLY QUALIFIED WORKER PROGRAMME or QUALIFIED WORKER PROGRAMME)
In this context, application procedure of residence permits submitted within government programmes of economic migration, applications of long-term visa for the purpose of employment and extraordinary work visas will be restarted from 11 May 2020.
All written above applies under the condition, that the country enables opening (submitting applications and performing acts within procedure) embassy, in connection with measure implemented due to pandemic COVID-19.
Warning: All foreign nationals will be obliged to submit the medical certificate of negative completion of the RT-PCR test for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 upon entry into the territory of the Czech Republic supplemented by the certificate from the relevant laboratory, otherwise it is not possible to enter the territory. This does not apply to exceptions.
Situation of foreign nationals and the legality of their stay after the end of the state of emergency
In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic the state of emergency was declared in the Czech Republic from March 12th, 2020 and will probably end on May 17th, 2020.
1) Foreign nationals, who were in the Czech Republic legally at the time of the declaration of the state of emergency, were allowed to stay in the Czech Republic for the duration of the state of emergency, even if their residence permit expired.
After the end of the state of emergency, foreign nationals will not be sanctioned for staying in the Czech Republic without a valid residence permit for another 60 days. At this time, they do not even have to deal with the expired validity of the stay at the offices of the Ministry of the Interior or the Police of the Czech Republic. However, they are obliged to leave the Czech Republic during these 60 days!
In order to ensure a smooth return of foreign nationals to the country of origin, the legality of their stay will be certified during border control by the special stamp in the travel document at the time of departure from the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic informed all states about this procedure.
To facilitate smooth return this certificate of legality of stay in the form of the stamp in the travel document will be introduced from Monday, May 4th, 2020. The stamp does not ensure entry into the territory of other states.The possibilities of transit are always determined by their own measures.
2) If you work in the Czech Republic and you are holder of employee card, you can from March 19th, 2020 change your employer or your job position before the end of the state of emergency and you do not have to finish 6 months period. You are still obliged to report the change to the Ministry of the Interior according to the legal conditions.