Visa extension is an important and demanding process that, depending on how successful it turns out to be, can determine whether or not you are going to be able to continue your studies in the Czech Republic. This article will provide you with a list of necessary documents.

The most important thing is to meet the deadlines set by law. You can submit documents for a visa extension no earlier than 90 days and no later than 14 days before the expiration date of the current permit. You do not have to leave the Czech Republic to do so, and thanks to this practice, the application is considered in a much shorter time. The package of documents required to apply for the visa extension includes quite a lot of items.

The package of documents

Application form

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The main document is the application form. The student is obliged to fill it out, besides, you do not need to go to the Ministry of the Interior office to get the form, just download it from the website. The website contains several types of application forms, which differ in color. If the visa is extended for a year, you will need the green one, if you need a permit to stay in the country for only six months — the black one.

Proof of accommodation The proof of accommodation (Czech. potvrzení o zajištění ubytování) is the second item in the list of required documents. This document must be valid for the same period of time as the medical insurance and confirmation of study.

"Students living in a dormitory provide the agreement which they received upon registration. In case you lose your copy of the agreement, it can be re-issued by the administrator. Proof of accommodation must specify your dormitory address as well as the duration of your stay.

Those living in an apartment can provide a temporary certificate of occupancy and an extract from the Cadastre of Real Estate with an indication of the apartment owner. If the certificate is not signed directly by the owner, then the power of attorney that the owner issued to the landlord has to be provided as well. A proof of accommodation of a standard form (Czech. potvrzení o zajištění ubytování, fyzická osoba) filled in by the owner is also accepted."

Confirmation of study In Czech, this document is called potvrzení o studiu and it is issued by the Student Affairs Department (Czech. studijní oddělení). When contacting the department administrative aide, it is important to mention that the requested confirmation is going to be submitted for a visa application (as sometimes employers ask for this type of confirmation as well). The confirmation must clearly specify the terms of study — one semester or an academic year. Student experience suggests that the package of documents can be submitted without this confirmation; however, the officer of the Ministry of the Interior should be notified that you will provide the conformation immediately after it gets issued. In recent years, some of the Czech universities have started issuing the confirmation of study online: to receive it, you just need to make a corresponding request in the university electronic system, and the confirmation will be issued automatically. All that remains to do is to print it out.

Medical insurance "A certificate of insurance is required for any type of visa: for visiting the country for tourism purposes and for the student visa as well. Failure to provide this certificate is a violation of legal norms and is prosecuted administratively.

The certificate of insurance with coverage of at least 1.5 million CZK must cover the entire validity period of the Czech Republic student visa — 12 or 6 months. Since August 2021, only certificates of comprehensive health insurance are accepted, which come with a confirmation for a visa application enclosed to the package of documents. You should also provide the Ministry of the Interior with a payment receipt for your certificate of insurance, failure to provide such receipt, even if the certificate itself is available, will mean that there is no confirmation of the fact of insurance. The average cost of an annual insurance for a student is currently about 12-15 thousand CZK (about 480-600 euros)."

Proof of funds "A bank account statement acts as proof of sufficient funds. When applying for the visa extension for a year, the amount of money in your bank account must be equivalent to 110 thousand CZK; when applying for the visa extension for 6 months — 55 thousand CZK. If the account containing the required amount of money is set up in a foreign bank, the Ministry of the Interior will request a notarized translation of this foreign bank statement performed by a court translator holding the official stamp. The bank account statement should clearly indicate that the student is entitled to use the money stored in the account: ideally, the account should be opened in the student`s name. A copy of a valid bank card must be enclosed to the statement.

Note that it is not advisable to withdraw money from the Czech bank account immediately after the statement is issued. The Ministry of the Interior has the right to submit a request to the bank, which will provide the authorities with the applicant's bank account statement. If this new statement shows that a small amount of money is missing from the account, this won`t necessarily hinder the process of visa issuance, but if the account turns out to be completely empty, then questions may arise for the student."

A parental consent to the student's stay in the Czech Republic (for minors) If the applicant is under 18 years old, they must provide the parental consent to the student's residence in the Czech Republic. Signatures must be notarized and the consent itself translated into Czech.

A valid foreign passport and two 35 x 45 mm photos It is recommended that you have two standard document size photos on you when applying. You can either take those photos in a photo studio or in the photo booths installed at many of the Prague metro stations as well as in the shopping malls.

An application fee in the form of stamps Stamps (Czech. kolky) confirming payment of the fee can be purchased at a post office. The fee is 2.5 thousand CZK for an adult and 1 thousand CZK for a child under 15 years old. Some documents can be brought in later, but the application form and the stamps are required in order for the visa extension application to be taken into processing. The stamps can be purchased at any Czech Post office.

Important: all documents are valid for 180 days from the date of their issuance by the competent authorities. If more time has passed since the issuance date, then the documents will have to be re-issued.

"In most cases, if any difficulties arise in the visa extension process, that happens due to the lack of attention or careless attitude on the student`s part. Meanwhile, the visa issue should be as high on the priority list as the university studies are.

Firstly, you should not wait until the last possible minute to make an appointment to submit your documents: there are a lot of applicants, and you might end up with no vacant appointments being available for the date that you need. It is illegal to stay in the Czech Republic holding an expired document and without a valid temporary visa; this is grounds for deportation, despite the student status.

Secondly, if you submitted your application on time, but did not manage to collect a full package of documents, then you must bring the missing ones in without fail and the sooner the better. It is often the case that a student forgets to provide one single document (for example, a bank statement), and they are denied a visa as a result. In this case, you can file an appeal, bring in the missing paperwork, but why make this process so difficult for yourself?

Finally, a ""clean"" visa record will make it easier for you to obtain permanent residence or citizenship of the Czech Republic in the future, if you do not plan on returning home after graduation."

Scheduling an appointment to submit your documents

"Documents are submitted to the designated offices of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic at the applicant's place of residence. In 2016, a designated office was set up in Prague exclusively for students, which is the one students are strongly encouraged to apply to for the entire period of their studies.

The appointments are scheduled over the phone or via this website - frs.gov.cz. Making an appointment online is the easiest option. To do so, you need to register on the website, specify your passport and contact details and confirm your email address. After that, you can choose the purpose and the most suitable day for submitting the application. To make an appointment at the ""student"" office of the Ministry of the Interior, you need to tick the ""I am a student"" box.

Making an appointment over the phone requires patience: sometimes you have to wait on the line for the operator's response for 5 to 10 minutes or more. However, these efforts will spare you from the subsequent tedious wait in a ""live queue"" — all clients who made this kind of appointment are served quickly and on time."

Visa processing terms

"A period for processing a visa extension application is 30 to 60 days. In case if this process is delayed, and the current visa has already expired, you can get a temporary visa (Czech. překlenovací štítek) from the Ministry of the Interior. On this visa, you can legally stay in the Czech Republic and travel outside of the European Union. It also makes sense to forward an official letter with a request to speed up the application processing.

You can check the status of your visa on this website - frs.gov.cz - with the help of a tracking code that is issued after the documents are submitted. Upon receiving the information that the visa is approved, an appointment is made for biometric data collection. On the day of the data collection, the time and date when you can pick up the issued biometric card will be appointed.

It is necessary to extend the student permanent residence permit every year. After graduation, you can apply for a permanent residence permit in order to find a job or start a business."