Formal Requirements (EU Citizens)

The documents attached to an application of EU citizens must meet the following requirements:

  • The submitted documents must be either originals or certified copies.
    • The Ministry of the Interior employees will only make copies of travel documents and civil registry documents at their office. You must provide originals of these documents, which will be returned to you.
    • A document proving the purpose of your residence must be provided in its original version and the Ministry of the Interior will keep it. You may provide the Ministry with a certified copy of the original document, but you have to take the original with you.
    • As for other documents (e.g. a lease agreement), the Ministry employees will keep the original documents and will not make any copies of them. You may provide the Ministry with a certified copy of the original whereby you do not need to have the original with you.
  • The documents cannot be older than 180 days. This does not apply to travel documents, civil registry office documents or your photograph if it shows your current appearance.
  • Documents in other than Czech or Slovak languages need to be provided in their original versions together with sworn translations into Czech language. As EU citizens you may replace some documents with a single standardised form which does not need to be translated. The Czech Republic accepts standardised forms for the certification of:
    • birth,
    • death,
    • marriage,
    • legal capacity to marry,
    • registered partnership,
    • legal capacity to enter into a registered partnership,
    • adoption of a child,
    • affidavit of integrity,
    • extract from the criminal record register without any record, 
    • address.

Public documents issued by the EU Member States are accepted by the Ministry of the Interior by default without the need of any further verification. Documents issued by other countries (including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) have to be certified with an apostille or a certification clause issued by a higher-level authority (so-called superlegalisation). Please see more information about the requirements for certification of foreign public documents by a higher-level authority.