How would you summarize the situation that brought you to the Czech Republic?

I was working for a company in India and they offered me an opportunity to establish a new office here in the Czech republic. I took it, even though I was slightly apprehensive at the time, because I didn’t know much about this country or even about Prague. But good support from European Company Formation on all stage make my process more easy and more safty. Most of the people who are moving out of India are probably looking for jobs in the United States or Western Europe, not many people move towards Eastern Europe. But I took the opportunity to move to this place to establish a new office, that’s the whole story.

Was it difficult to get your family here? How did they feel about moving?

To be honest, during the initial six or seven month, I did not like this place at all, I thought it was to dark and there was the problem of different language. It was also difficult because when we came here, my wife wasn’t allowed to work and she did not have anything to do, the television was just in Czech and we did not know anybody. It is also quite difficult to keep your family’s living standard with just one person working. It would be very helpful if the spouse of somebody who moved here for work would be given a work permit as well. But my wife finally started working a year ago as a sales representative and generally, we really like it here. Last year, we went to India for a month and towards the end of our stay, we couldn’t wait to come back to Prague.

Did you have to do a lot of paper work before you could work here?

To be honest, there is a lot of bureaucracy involved in getting your visa and work permit done. I have never moved out of India before, so I do not know how much bureaucracy is involved when you move to some other country, but I presume it must be pretty much the same. After I got here in November 2005, I had to fly back to India at least three times to get mine and my family’s visa done. I had to first look for an apartment, because the foreign police requires a lease agreement before they can give you a long term visa, then I went back to apply for the long term visa for me and my family, after that I came here on a short term visa again, then had to go back after three month to get my long term visa stamped. Since that there is every year the process of getting my long term visa extended. I would appreciate it, if it could be every two years. I heard there might be a change like that next year, which would be good.

But thanks to the pilot project of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs you will get your permanent residency and these changes will not be necessary for you.

Yes, thanks to the project my whole family will get permanent residency in just a year from now instead of standard five years. So hopefully, I won’t need that. When I’m thinking from the perspective of other people who will be coming over, it might become slightly easier for them.

Did you have assistance from your company?

The company I came here with has already outsourced all the immigration work to another company, which specializes in this. They arranged all the papers for me, but it was very expensive. Since my company was paying for it, that wasn’t a problem for me. After one year, I started to work for the company I’m currently working for and they helped me as well, so I had no problems with the transition. I will have to extend my long term visa in person at the foreign police once more in August, but it will probably be the last time, which is nice.

How did you actually find out about this project which will help you get a permanent residency in a drastically shortened period of time?

One of my friends from India applied for this project and simultaneously, I got an email from a friend who did his education here in the Czech republic, so he’s been living here for like seven or eight years and he told me that there is this programme and I should check out its website, so I had a look, found it interesting and applied for the whole family.

What will the permanent residency mean for you and your family?

I’m looking at this from a few different angles. First of all, I will not have to go through the process of renewing my and my family’s long term visa every year anymore. Other advantage is I believe in buying an apartment. Right now I would have to establish a company and then buy an apartment for that company, which is a very complicated process. Hopefully, when we get a permanent residency, I will be able to get my family our own place here in Prague.

Do you intend to stay here permanently or have you already thought about coming back or moving somewhere else?

I haven’t really thought about that, I’m just taking everything as it comes.

Do you have any children?

I have a four year old son.

Does he go to a Czech kindergarten or to one of the English language ones?

He goes to an English kindergarten, but now, when I think about it, we should have given him into a Czech kindergarten in the first place, but he has already settled in the English one and isn’t very keen on moving.

Do you speak English at home as well, or would Czech be a second foreign language for your son?

We speak English at home. My son speaks only a bit of broken Hindi, even though he can understand his grandparents for example, English is his perfect language. Kids can pick up languages very easily, so I think he will manage to learn Czech. Now he finds it quite difficult to interact with children in the parks or playgrounds. Last weekend, we took him to this park at Vyšehrad and there were all the Czech speaking children and they wouldn’t give him his turn on the roundabout. He tried to tell them in English, but they couldn’t understand. So when I asked him if he wants to learn Czech, he said yes, I want to learn Czech.

Are you thinking about putting him into a Czech elementary school in a few years? Because there aren’t many English speaking ones here.

Honestly, that’s one of the concerns we have about staying here permanently, education for my child. English education is extremely expensive. Czech schools are, however, still underfunded, which is a problem this state should take more seriously. Anyway, I hope we will at the end of the day find an institution which can provide affordable education in English as well.

You mentioned some initial difficulties after coming here, how do you see Czech society now?

Czechs are very nice people, very easy to get along with. It depends, however, on the group of people you are dealing with. The company where I worked during the first year here had mostly Czech employees who wouldn’t bother to talk in English during a societal event. So foreigners like me felt estranged. But Czech people at my current company are very nice and open to talk in English even outside of business meetings. I would say that the working environment is more relaxed than in India, which I believe to be beneficial for everybody, because people are not so stressed. But as far as the service industry is concerned, Czech Republic has still a long way to go. I don’t think that people in Czech restaurants or shops are not nice to me, because I am a foreigner. They behave like this towards everybody. They are sometimes even quite rude. But with people in our building, it’s very different. We never had any problems with anybody there. I really like the place where we live, it’s quiet and near to the centre, we never intend to move from there.

Do you know your neighbours?

No, we greet each other, but I don’t really know them. I and my wife try to spend as much free time as possible with our son. We only see him for a couple of hours during weekdays, because we both work full time. So we try to make a lot of family trips during weekends to compensate. One of the great things about Prague is that there are a lot of parks, a lot of places to go with children to.

Do you also travel outside of Prague?

Yes, we went to Paris last year, but this year, because the Czech Republic is a part of the Schengen zone now, we plan to travel a lot more. I don’t need a visa any more to go to other Schngen zone countries. We have already been to Krakow in Poland, which is a very nice city, full of history. In this sense, I would say, it’s quite similar to Prague. In May I’m going to Barcelona, then maybe to Germany, Austria and Hungary.. It is very easy to go somewhere just for a weekend now. But I prefer living here to many places I have been to. When I was in Paris on London, I felt like I was suffocating. Prague is not that crowded, you still have a space to breath.

Where are you from?

From the North of India, a town Lucknow with about 4 000 000 inhabitants.

When did you come to the Czech Republic?

In November 2010. I have been here for already one and a half year. Before that I studied in Bulgaria, in the electric engineering faculty.

Did you spent the whole period of your university studies in Bulgaria?

At first I had studied in India for one and a half year.

Why did you decide to study abroad?

Because of war, and also that I like to get to know the world, and I am interested in it. After four semesters in a school in India I had the possibility either to continue in studies  or to go to Bulgaria. So I used the opportunity. It was also effected by the fact that studies in Bulgaria were cheaper than the studies in India.

How is it possible?

I need not pay school fee and living expenditures were higher in India at that time.

Why didn’t you stay in Bulgaria?

After four years of studies I wanted to go back home. I spent a lot of time in India  I decided to leave.

Why?

India is very huge rich and same time pore country.  In the Czech Republic, the one who knows something, who is the best, gets a job. Something like that was not usual thing in India, at least in the past. You could gat a job thanks to your contacts or thanks to your membership in an appropriate political party. I am not interested in politics. I read only sport in newspapers.

Was that a coincidence that you came to Brno or did you have the job arranged there in advance?

I had the contacted with manager first from European Company formation. Next steps was my open work permit. After two weeks European Company Formation  had arranged all necessary documents for me to live and to work here. I needn’t to hunt for any documents myself, I could concentrate on work.

Have you stayed with your first employer?

I have been working for IBM since the beginning, and it still seems to be interesting for me.

What documents were needed?

Besides the usual ones as working papers, residence permit and similar, I needed documents confirming my education and language knowledge.

The whole interview is taken in English. Can you speak Czech?

I understand Czech quite well but I speak just a little bit. When I came to Brno I passed two month course of the Czech language paid by my company. I would like to learn more but I do not have time and in my work I use mostly English. If I worked in the company where people speak only Czech, I would learn it much faster, sure.

Was not the lack of Czech an obstacle for being accepted?

No, it was not. People I spoke to explained me everything in Czech, They spoke slowly. To be accepted I needed to obtain some reqiremets and I did so.

Can you speak any other language except English?

I studied German one year at the university, but I have forgotten a lot. I can speak very well Bulgarian, of course.

Why have you decided to get open work permit instead company formation?

Mainly because of easier and faster way to permanent residence in the Czech Republic, which I consider the greatest plus of it. Obtaining the permanent residence I will have a chance, for instance, to take a mortgage for a flat.

What do you know about the job market, in general?

Generally I know only that the Czech Republic needs experts from other countries as Czechs are leaving to work in other countries. At the same time, there is the need for foreigners who would work here in the future as there have not so many children been born recently.

Do you think the open work permits is help to find works?

I do not know how many people are involved in it but I think it is a good idea.

Do you know anybody who is also use same way from your surroundings?

Two colleagues of mine from the company. Some my friends from India to, they in process right now with European Company Formation.

Is it difficult to find a job here if you are in India?

I don’t think so. European Company Formation providing full job search service for reasonable price. Furthermore, big companies are accepting even people who do not speak Czech.

However, if you do not get a job offer from an international company?

Then it is more complicated, for instance, because of visa. But it is not impossible.

How was it in your case?

The tender was organized by an European Company Formation  in Bulgaria. A person from the employing company came just for the last round, and he took the decision who would get the job and who not. The offer for jobs came to the university I studied.

Is anybody else from your family living also abroad, outside of India?

My family has lived in one place for already several generations. I am the only one who left for work somewhere else.

Have you been already dealing with the foreigners´ department of the Czech police?

To deal with the foreigners´ police is really a little bit more difficult. I think Czech newspapers were writing about ten-hour queues in the offices of the foreigners´ police in Prague. Here in Brno it is different. I have been there three times or four times, and the longest time I spent there were two hours. I think officials of the foreigners´ police are trying to be helpful as well as officials of the pilot project. The problem is they cannot satisfy a lot of people. Maybe that will change with time.

Have you already faced any problems due to the fact that you are foreigner?

Maybe only during the first weeks. Probably that was caused by the fact that people were not used to foreigners. There were not many foreigners in Brno at that time. People are very friendly there.

Has the situation changed in one year?

Just in our company, there are about thousand foreigners working, and a great wave of foreigners came to the city just the last year.

Where are they from?

Many of them are from India, Pakistan, but there are also people from Iran, Marocco or South Africa working in our company. From all over the world. Thank you to European Company Formation to help them comes dream to true.

Would you like to stay here for ever? To have family here?

I do not want to go home, yet. That may be done at any moment. I would like to get to know world, still. I have a lot of friends here in Brno now. I am not here only to earn money. I like it here. I like the style of life here.

Do you know anything about Czech history?

That is another thing I prefer not to be interested in. If you are from Balkans as I do, then you know that there are at least four absolutely different versions of each historic event. Serbians see it in one way, Croatians in a different one, and Bulgarians in another one etc. That why I prefer mathematics. In a way, that is the reason why I am here.

When did you arrive to the Czech Republic for the first time and what were your reasons for coming over?

I arrived with my brother in law who had been working here already. I arrived just to look around. I had tourist visa. At that time lot of people from Ukraine came here, I wanted to try as well. I was quite young then, I did not have a family and nothing was holding me back home. Thanks to an agency I found a job quickly – it was in a company in Dobříš, where I stayed for another five years.

Did you have to pay to that agency?

No, it was our acquaintance and he also helped me to find a place to stay.

Who had arranged a work permit for you?

My employers, because more people from Ukraine worked already in that company, so it was not a big problem for them.

What did you do?

I worked as a sewer for a company which was producing dress padding. I was promoted gradually, a little bit. I worked only on model products, which required more diligence. I also checked quality of material and such things. I was quite happy, I earned a decent wage and we had a good working team.

Did you earn much more then in Ukraine?

Sure, at least in comparison with what I could have bought for the salary.

How high was your salary? As high as your Czech co-workers?

Six years ago I received eight thousand CZK per month. I worked eight hours a day and had a lunch break, same as my Czech colleagues.

Did you have trouble with the Czech language?

At the beginning certainly so, although it is also a Slavic language I understood just basics. But watching TV helped me a lot and I have also always kept trying to speak. Nowadays I have already passed state language school exam and obtained a certificate proving my fluency.

After five years of living here you decided to go back to Ukraine.

I thought that I wanted to spend rest of my life there anyway, have family, and raise children. I canceled my visa and work permit. I secured work placement as an accountant in Ukraine, near Kiev. After three month of working there I decided to return to the Czech Republic, though it meant to start from a scratch again.

For instance it meant that previous five years had not been valid as a required time for granting permanent residence by the Czech authorities.

Exactly that. I am terribly sorry for it. Friends who stayed here have already obtained it. However condition for obtaining it stipulates uninterrupted five years stay (earlier ten years) on the territory of the Czech Republic.

Why did you come back then, despite of such condition?

I can hardly answer that to myself. It is not because of much harder life in Ukraine. Nowadays, young Ukrainians have quite a descent chance for a good job, especially if they know languages and if they are smart. If I had the same kind of work here as I used to have in Ukraine, I would be immensely happy, but I did not like things around me there.

What do you mean by that?

General mentality, economic state of the country, which is not at the same level as here, overcrowded buses, also the state of hospitals and medical care in general. Simply, I started to be used to a different lifestyle.

To a different quality of life?

Yes. I used to say to myself that I am still young and I can achieve something even in the Czech Republic, although now I have much worse job than before. Yet, I would like to study and I am looking for a better job.

How did you come back?

Fortunately I have kept in touch with people in the Czech Republic. My friend has arranged a work for me at the same company in which I used to work before and where people know me well. With my power of attorney she arranged all the necessary documents, so thanks to her I could apply for the visa. If she did not help me out I would have not been able to arrange it out of Ukraine.

What all did you need?

First I had to obtain a work contract and with that it was possible to approach a labor office. At the labor office, the post first had to be offered to Czech applicants, and if nobody was interested, then a work permit could finally be issued for me and also sent to the Czech embassy in Ukraine. In such a way I could obtain Czech visa and thanks to it I could arrive to the Czech Republic. Here I had to contact foreign police and ask for a temporary residence permit.

After another two years your employer had transferred production to Bulgaria. Was it difficult to find a new job?

The production was squeezed down gradually, so I had known three months in advance that I had to find a new job. As a foreigner I have to have a new job immediately - a second day after being released, otherwise I could have lost my work permit as well as temporary residence. I was very nervous because of that, since I had not been successful in finding a new job. There were more released people; therefore we were approached by employers from neighborhood as a group. In such a way I ended up in Zdice where I assembly various components in cars.

At the beginning of this year you have been included into the governmental pilot project Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers. Have you known about this project before?

I have heard about it from friends of mine from Kazakhstan. I have immediately called the ministry and asked whether there is an interest in Ukrainian citizens as well, although I knew that those days Ukrainian citizens had not been included yet. Afterwards I regularly checked the Internet for information about inclusion of Ukrainians and when it happened, I have immediately registered.

Also via the Internet?

I think it is the only possible way. I filled in a questioner and after some time I received a letter to submit originals of all the necessary documents which proved data, which I had written into the register form.

Which advantages do you have from participating in the project?

I have experience of losing a job and the project gives me advantage of one month protection period for finding a new one in condition it has not happened due to my own fault.

Is 30 days long enough?

It is short, but it is a kind of security. Nowadays I am not so fearful that the factory will be closed down again. And it can easily happen, because there is a new factory under construction at home in Ukraine. I know that I will have at least some time for searching for a new job.

Can you imagine that you are able to find a job in the Czech Republic and register yourself into the project out of Ukraine?

I think it is not so hard to find a work now as it used to be before. There are numbers of job-placement agencies.

Those are usually manual professions.

Probably yes.

There must be quite a fee for an agent.

I do not know.

What does a chance to obtain permanent residence thanks to the project mean to you?

I would like to take a mortgage and pay just for my own apartment. There would be different rules while searching for a job. The work I would find could not be offered firstly to Czech applicants, so there would be no risk I loose it because I am a foreigner. Also people would not be so fearful to hire me as they are nowadays.

Do you think that such a pilot project makes sense?

Certainly, because there is a need for qualified people here. Also Czechs leave the Czech Republic for work in the European Union, but you have it easier, because you need not go through so much paperwork. You just set yourself on a way and you go.

How do Czechs treat you?

I feel distance sometimes and it happens that somebody tells me that I steal work from people here. But I have also very good friends among Czechs.

I am an expatriate. I am Indian, and I am now living in Czech Republic. I am currently in Prague.

About me

I am from South India , u may have lots of worries, entertainment whatever it may be share it we all fight it in Prague my friends do not leave your hope v are Indians "Born To Win The World"

I can speak TAMIL,ENGLISH, LITTLE BIT KANNADA

My birthday is on 15 March, I was born in 1989

Interests

to unite with friends

I am Indian, and I am now living in Czech Republic. I am currently in Prague. Thanx European Company Formation for help in s.r.o. and restaurant formation.

Recently came back from UK...... doing Restaurant Business in Prague!!!!!! Visit my restaurant www.thepind.cz

I can speak English,Hindi,Bengali

About me:

I am coming from New Delhi India . I am here for 2.5 months till July. I am working as an intern in the Department of Distributed and Dependable Systems, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University. Had great support from European Company Formation with job search. Than you guys for helping me!

I can speak English, Bengali, Hindi

My birthday is on 19 April, I was born in 1991

I am Pakistani, and I am now living in Czech Republic. I am currently in Prague. Very thank you to  European Company Formation and Mr. Martin Zak exactly 

I can speak Pashto, Urdu-Hindi, English, Persian, Punjabi, Arabic

My birthday is on 15 April, I was born in 1982

I am Pakistani, and I am now living in Czech Republic. I am currently in Prague. Thank you for help. 

My birthday is on 5 November, I was born in 1981