Long Term Residence Visa – Methodical instruction

Methodological instruction to ensure temporary residence of international students in the Czech Republic – long term residence visa

For the purposes of administration of the Law No. 326/1999 of collection of laws, the following instruction has been issued:
 
I. Submission of the application for the residence visa:
It is possible exclusively at the relevant Czech Embassy/Consulate in the student's home country (according to the information from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is possible to file the application at any Czech Consulate or Embassy of the country, which represents the Czech Republic, nevertheless submission of the application in the third country is controlled by the interval regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it is necessary to get the information about the situation in the country in question). The application will be submitted personally. In well-founded cases it is permissible to send the application by mail, it is however necessary to discuss the matter always with the relevant Consulate.
 
I. 1 The form of the application
It is available in five main European languages only at the Czech Consulates. It can neither be copied or faxed (some parts of the form are printed in red colour). The form will be filled by the student in presence of and with the help the Consulate officials.
 
I. 2 Requirements of the application
 
Visa up to 90 days
 

1. Confirmation of the purpose of the stay, i.e. confirmation of being accepted to study at Charles University. It will be issued by the accepting institution (Faculty, European Office of the Foreign Relations Department of the Rector's Office of Charles University, further referred to as EO FRD RCU, in case of government-sponsored scholarships by the Czech Ministry of Education).
    
2. Confirmation of guaranteed accommodation. It will be issued by the accepting institution, i.e. the same as 1).
    
3. Confirmation of sufficient financial means to fund the period of study In case of direct agreements – it is issued by the relevant faculty through mediation of the FDR RCU.
   Socrates/Erasmus – by the delegating institution (CO provides tlie partner institution with the Czech version of the declaration) or the student proves the sufficient financial means by presenting the personal bank statement.
    
4. Valid travelling document, i.e. passport (it is not permitted to use any other identity card), with time of expiry exceeding the intended period of stay by at least 5 months.
    
5. Certificate of insurance valid in the Czech Republic. In general the students of partner universities are regularly insured and this insurance is recognized all over Europe.
    
6. 3 passport format photographs for the frontier pass. This does not apply to the EU, USA and Canada nationals, nevertheless it is expected to be extended also for them.
    

Visa over 90 days
 
The above mentioned documents plus
 

7. Confirmation of absence of criminal record, i.e. report from criminal register at the student's home country, translated into Czech and certified by a notary public, equipped with an apostile. More details are available in English and German on http://www.cuni.cz/erasmus/ under the title ‘Incoming Students’.
    
8. Application for report from Czech criminal record register – a simple form which can be filled in either directly at the Czech Consulate or it can be sent to students in advance (it is available in the EO FDR RCU).
    
9. Original of birth certificate – does not have to be translated, after the control it is returned back to the student.

Attention!
The above mentioned documents must not be, at the time of submission, older than 180 days, with the exception of passport and photographs.
 
I. 3 Processing of the application
The Consulate will send the application equipped with required enclosures to the Czech Immigration Police in Prague, which will process and check it and in the positive case it will notify within 30 days the relevant Consulate that they can issue the visa (when applying for the visa, it is necessary to calculate delay due to postal delivery). The visa is issued in a form of a sticker placed in the travelling document (passport), exclusively at the Czech Consulate, the applicant has to come personally, the fees are paid directly at the Consulate.
 
Starting from January 1, 2000, it is no longer possible to pick up the visa in the office of the Czech Immigration Police.