What is a blue card?

The blue card is a permit for long-term residence for employment purposes in the Czech Republic under special circumstances. A foreigner who has a blue card is entitled to:

• reside in the Czech Republic and
• work in a job for which the blue card was issued, and change that job under the conditions specified.

The blue card combines a residence permit and a work permit in one document

The blue card is issued to workers with higher professional or university education who have an employment contract for at least one year, for the statutory weekly work hours, and who have an agreed upon gross monthly or annual salary amounting to at least a 1.5 multiple of the gross annual salary in the Czech Republic announced in a Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs communication. 

Work permit, blue card, or green card?

A work permit and a green card are issued for a specific job with a specific employer. In terms of employment arrangements they are equivalent to each other. The law does not state that for doing some jobs a work permit is necessary and for other jobs a green card. It depends only on what the employer decides. A blue card is also tied to a specific position with a specific employer, but within the statutorily defined restrictions, a request for a permit for changing a job or employer may not be required. For blue cards, the statute defines the conditions for the specific job for the performance of which the blue card is intended.

The main differences between the work permit, blue card, and green card, from the employer's perspective, are as follows:

What is the green card?

The green card is a permit for long-term residence for employment purposes in the Czech Republic under special circumstances. A foreigner who has a green card issued for a specific job is entitled to:

• reside in the Czech Republic and
• work in a job for which the green card was issued.

The green card combines the residence permit and the work permit in one document.

The green card is issued:

type A: for qualified workers with university education and key personnel

type B: for workers in jobs with a minimum educational requirement

type C: for other workers

The validity of the green card is for 2-3 years. 
For green card types A and B it is possible to extend their validity under certain circumstances for up to 3 years.

India and Czech Republic on Monday agreed to liberalise the business visa regime and set a $2-billion target for bilateral trade by 2012 to enhance their economic cooperation and widen the exchange at various levels.

This was decided at a bilateral meeting between Commerce and Industry MinisterAnand Sharma and Czech Republic Minister of Trade and Industry Martin Kocourek. Mr. Kocourek is leading a 50-member high-level business delegation.

What does the Permanent residence within 2 year program for Qualified Foreign Workers offer?

• Selected qualified workers are given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence within a shorter period, after one and a half year (highly qualified workers category) or two and a half years (standard category of qualified workers) of uninterrupted stay and work (as compared to the current standard period of 5 years). Starting from July 1st 2007, highly qualified workers category includes the project participants with university level education who are working on the positions requiring university level education and corresponding to their qualification (education or practice).
• Together with project participants, their family members will also be allowed to settle in the Czech Republic and to obtain permanent residence there.
• Participants who in the first year of the project lose their job through no fault of their own are entitled to a 60 day grace period during which they do not lose their visa and their residence permit is not revoked. The above mentioned grace period should serve as time during which participants search for another job in the CR. In the course of following years of the project the participants are given the grace period also if they lose their job for other reasons.
• When looking for employment applicants may use the our database or this web site, where Czech employers advertise free positions.