General information

An employee card is a plastic card with biometric features.

An employee card is most often issued for the duration of the employer-employee relationship but not for more than 2 years, with an option to repeatedly extend its validity.

Which types of employment is an employee card intended for?

With regard to professional qualifications, an employee card is intended for all types of employment regardless of the level of required professional qualifications.

However, the job vacancy for which an application for an employee card can be filed must come from the central register of job vacancies that can be filled by holders of employee cards. Subject to the consent of the employer, these vacant jobs can be published on the Internet Integrated Portal of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs where you can find them.

Therefore, an employee card always relates to the specific job (there can also be more job positions at the same time) for which it was issued or, if applicable, to a job for which the Department for Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior granted its consent in connection with changing employer or job.

How to book an appointment

Based on the government regulation, the submission of applications for employee cards of low-skilled workers, respectively, applications for employment cards submitted out of the economic migration programs is stopped at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Delhi with effect from 1 January 2021.

More information

You must attach the following to an application for an employee card:

1. a valid travel document,

2. a document confirming availability of accommodation,

3. 1 photograph showing the current appearance of the foreign national,

4. a contract of employment, an agreement on work activity (or at least an agreement for a future contract where the parties agree to enter into a contract of employment or an agreement on work activity by an agreed deadline). The aforementioned documents must contain a stipulation which provides that regardless of the scope of work, the agreed monthly salary will not be lower than the basic monthly minimum wage and that weekly working hours will be at least 15 hours,

5. documents proving the professional qualifications for performance of the desired job, if this condition follows from the nature of the employment or an international agreement sets such a condition, particularly:

- a document proving the required education such as a diploma (including in cases when  only primary school education is requested); in justified cases, particularly if reasonable doubt exists as to whether you have the required education or whether your education is appropriate for the nature of employment, you will be obliged, at the request of an administrative authority, to prove and submit a document certifying that your foreign education has been recognised by the relevant authority of the CR,

- a document proving the required professional qualifications, if such qualifications are required according to other legal regulations (for example, a fork-lift truck operator licence or the appropriate driving license for a tram/bus driver, etc.),

- a document proving that you meet the requirements for performing an occupation referred to as “regulated occupation”, if your application concerns this kind of occupation; if you do not already hold such a document, you must apply to the relevant recognition authority of the CR for recognition of your professional qualifications, after filing the application for an employee card. Issuance of the employee card is contingent on your submission of an affirmative decision of the recognition authority,

6. identification number of the job vacancy in the Central Register of Job Vacancies

7. an extract from the Penal Register record issued by the state of which you are a citizen (issued by the Passport Office in case of India). You are also requested to submit an extract from the Penal Register record issued by the states in which you have had residence for over 6 months in its summary in the last 3 years. The extract from the Penal Register record may be replaced by an affidavit, if the given state does not issue such a document. The obligation to submit an extract from the Penal Register record does not relate to a foreign national under 15 years old.

8. visa fee.

You have to always submit originals or official copies of the documents. Travel document, document confirming the purpose of stay shall be submitted in original. Certified copy is not sufficient for this purpose.

All documents submitted in a foreign language must be in original and with an officially certified translation into the Czech language (the applicants are required to arrange the official translation via an official translator, the list is available here: https://seznat.justice.cz/). The required documents to be submitted with the application cannot be older than 180 days, except for the foreign national's travel document and photograph if it corresponds to his/her true and actual appearance.

Foreign public documents must be supported by a higher verification (Apostille in case of India, superlegalization in case of Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal or Sri Lanka). Superlegalization is provided by the Embassy of the Czech Republic.

Moreover, applicants shall submit copies of all above-mentioned documents.

It also applies that before a long term visa is issued for the purpose of collecting an employee card (D/VR), the foreign national is required to present medical travel insurance document and, upon request, proof of the payment of the insurance premium. The foreign national must present this document not to the Department for Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior but to the embassy, and such insurance must only be valid for the period from the date of entry into the territory of the CR until the time when public health insurance coverage will apply to him or her, pursuant to the Public Health Insurance Act – i.e., principally from the date on which the visa was issued, until commencement of employment (as stated in the submitted documents).

The requirement attachments to the application are also different if the employee card operates in the non-dual mode. You can find more information in the section titled Special Cases / Non-Dual Mode Employee Card.

Required Attachments to an Application for Issue of an Employee Card – an Employee Card with a Non-Dual Nature and Free Access to the Labour Market

Therefore, a foreign national with free access to the labour market is obliged to attach the following to an application for an employee card of non-dual nature:

1. a travel document,
2. a document confirming availability of accommodation,
3. 1 photograph,
4. a contract of employment, an agreement on work activity (or at least a contract on a future contract, in which the parties agree to enter into a contract of employment or an agreement on work activity by an agreed deadline). The aforementioned documents must contain a stipulation which provides that regardless of the scope of work, the agreed monthly salary will not be lower than the basic monthly minimum wage and that the amount of weekly working hours will be at least 15 hours,
5. a document proving that the foreign national comes under the definition in Section 98 of the Employment Act, that is, a document proving his or her right of free access to the labour market – the specific form of a document proving this fact depends on which provision of Section 98 of the Employment Act provides the foreign national with free access to the labour market; in some cases, this right can arise directly from a contract of employment, or else from the content of the employer-employee relationship, or it will be necessary to prove such right with some other separate document (such as a document on obtaining secondary or tertiary professional education or tertiary professional education at a conservatory or university education in the CR),
6. a document similar to an extract from the Penal Register,
7. visa fee.

Neither a document proving the professional qualifications to perform the given job nor a document on recognition of foreign education will be requested from the foreign national. The job is not required to appear among the jobs in the central register of job vacancies that can be filled by holders of employee cards.

Processing time of the employee card application

The deadline for making a decision on an application for an employee card is 60 days; or 90 days in especially complicated cases or if the Department for Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior has requested the Employment Agency of the CR – a regional branch office or the branch office for the Capital City of Prague – to issue a binding statement of opinion.

More information you can find on the webpage of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic.