Foreigners in the Czech Republic

This chapter relies on four data sources. It primarily deals with data by the Directorate of Alien and Border Police, Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. The Alien Police collect data about all foreigners residing in the CR, based on current residence permits. (Foreigners with short-term stays, who are not in the targeted group designated for integration into the Czech society, were removed from processing.) This source of information was used for compilation of Tables 1-1 to 1-3. Before 1 October 1992, the residence of foreigners in the CR was governed by Act No. 68/1965 Coll., on the Residence of Foreigners on the Territory of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, which was replaced on 1 October 2992 by Act No. 123/1992 Coll., on the Residence of Foreigners on the Territory of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic. The Act was incorporated into the Czech Collection of Laws, following the disintegration of the federation, and as of 1 January 2000 it was superseded by new Act No. 326/1999 Coll., on the Residence of Foreigners on the Territory of the Czech Republic.

Since it became effective, the latter Act has been amended several times already. In 2002, the so-called Euro-amendment was passed (Act No. 217/2002 Coll.), effective as of 1 January 2003 except for provisions on the free movement of persons which will become effective the moment the treaty on the accession to the EU takes effect. At present a process of approving another amendment is underway. The amendment should bring the visa and stay regimes of foreigners in the CR closer together as it reflects the UN Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration (introduction of the long-term stay of foreigners from 1 year up). Act No. 326/1999 Coll. alters the time span of the residence permit of foreigners. While the previous act distinguished between a short-term stay (180 days and under) and a long-term one (over 180 days to one year, which could be extended), the Act in force as of 31 December 2002 now does not provide for this division explicitly and distinguishes between permanent residence and residence on the basis of visas up to 90 days and under and over 90 days (except for special cases). If we take the long-term residence since 2000 for visas over 90 days, we should bear in mind when making comparisons that previous years’ data are governed by a different definition. This is why a double line is always drawn in Tables 1-1 to 1-3 before the year 2000 to remind the reader of this fact.

There are two rows in Table 1-2 showing data on foreigners and Czech citizens. The first („Citizens and foreigners“) refers to all persons with „long-term“ and „permanent“ residences and Czech citizens as well. The last row of the table („Population of the CR“) refers to permanent residents only, respecting the definition of population (persons permanently residing on the territory concerned) valid by the end of 2000. The figure in the last row thus corresponds to the official end-of-year population, as published by the Czech Statistical Office. The shares of foreigners in total („% of total“) are calculated from the first column. Due to the changed definition, the figures for 2001and 2002 in the first row (compared to the last row) contain, in addition and compared to the last row, only foreigners staying in the CR for less than one year.

Data on stateless persons (persons with no citizenship) in Tables 1-1 and 1-3 were kept separately before 1999, except for the category of long-term and permanent residences. Since 1999, they have been classified correctly in terms of methodology to the individual categories (of permanent or long-term residences).

The second data source is identical to the first. Only the database is reduced to respect (i) the borderline recommended internationally for distinguishing between short-term stays and long-term residences (one-year) and (ii) the Council of Europe’s recommendation as to the integration of foreigners. This implies that Tables 1-4 and 1-6 to 1-10 only cover foreigners residing in the CR as at 31 December 2001 for one year or more. Tables 1-6 to 1-8, which describe age distribution, are a partial exception. For the purpose of completeness these tables also include children zero year old (who, understandably, cannot fulfil the one-year-stay condition); however they are not included in the totals in the tables.

Table 1-4, which for the sake of clarity only lists selected, most frequent of citizenships, is a kind of bridge between data on foreigners residing in the CR for more than one year (Table 1-4) and all foreigners (Table 1-3).

Table 1-7 shows the age structure of foreigners by selected citizenship.

Table 1-8 shows the age structure of foreigners by region.

Tables 1-9 and 1-10 demonstrate a conversion of purposes of residence in the CR into the international purpose-of-residence taxonomy, breaking down in rather a detail the category of economic activity (purpose-of-residence codes 3 to 6).

The third source is common demographic statistics published by the Czech Statistical Office. Statistics on foreigners for 1996-2001 are pooled in Table 1-5 (which is included for orientation only, as it mostly refers to a different group of foreigners than the other tables include). Discrepancies in the coverage of persons, which the individual tables would refer to, are also a reason why detailed data on the migration of foreigners contained in the CZSO sources were not included in the publication.

The last data source is data on granted citizenships of the CR taken from registries of the General Administration Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the CR. These data are listed in Table 1-11, along with information on frequent previous citizenships. For 2000 and 2001 the table distinguishes between refugees and other foreigners.

Definition of the foreigner’s residence in the CR

The issue of the foreigner’s entry, residence and exit from the CR is dealt with by the Police, the Ministry of the Interior of the CR, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR. The foreigner may reside in the CR temporarily or permanently. On the grounds stipulated by the law, the Police can refuse to grant the foreigner a residence visa (temporary or permanent).

Temporary residence

Temporary residence visas are granted at the foreigner’s request by representations abroad. The foreigner is allowed to reside temporarily on the territory of the CR without visa provided that it is stipulated so by an international agreement on cancellation of visa duty, a government regulation or in other special cases laid down by the law If in custody or serving a sentence, placed in police cell, or if younger than 15 years and hospitalized, and arrived with another foreigner in whose documents he/she is recorded.

. In other cases, different types of residence visas regulate the temporary residence of foreigners. Essentially, the law distinguishes between short-term of long-term visas:

― “Short-term” visas up to and including ninety days are granted by a representation abroad at the foreigner’s request. Depending on the purpose of residence, they are of single or multiple types and entitle for residence over the period specified in them. They are in force for 180 days and the total length of residence shall not be in excess of the specified ninety days. They can be extended at the foreigner’s request, provided the application is filed while the visa is valid and essentials requested by the law are submitted. However, the total period (original and extended) shall not exceed the circumscribed period of the short-term visa, i.e. ninety days.
― In extraordinary cases defined by the law (such as making appearance at state authority proceedings, participating in a funeral of close persons, dealing with aftermaths of a natural disaster, stays in the public interest of the CR), a visa up to ninety days, whose maximum validity does not exceed five days, can be granted at a border crossing by the Alien Police.
― “Long-term” visas over ninety days are granted by the Police and issued by representations abroad at the foreigner’s request for the purpose that calls for staying in the CR for more than ninety days, unless sufferance or temporary protection is involved. The purpose of residence is stated by the representation abroad concerned. The foreigner having this kind of visa is entitled to reside on the territory of the CR for the period specified by the visa. The period for which the visa is valid is fixed according to the period of time needed for fulfilling the purpose of residence (study, business, employment, etc.) and shall not exceed one year. It is possible to prolong it repeatedly by 365 days, as long as the purpose of residence is the same. The Police extends the validity of visa with regard to the purpose (e.g. to the period for which repeatedly permitted employment is to be executed and the extension of work permit is involved). If the purpose of residence is changed, the foreigner shall leave the country and ask any CR representation abroad for issuing a residence visa outside the territory of the CR. The current legislation allows for more purposes of residence.
― Citizens of the Slovak Republic are subject to a special treatment stipulated by CR Government Regulation No. 77/2000 Coll., of 3 March 2000, on the Issuing of Temporary Residence Certificates to Citizens of the Slovak Republic. The Certificate is issued to a Slovak citizen residing on the territory of the Czech Republic for a period of not more than 365 days. Attached to the application for the Certificate, which shall give the name, date of birth and passport number of the applicant, shall be a document confirming the purpose of residence. The Certificate is issued by the authority of the Alien and Border Police concerned.

Permanent residence

Permanent residence permits granted are valid for 15 years. Those not conditional on any preceding non-interrupted stays on the territory are granted in accordance with international documents on human rights, especially for the purpose of reunification of the family, provided that the spouse, a direct generation relative or a sibling of the foreigner holds a permit for permanent residence on the territory of the CR and is a Czech citizen or a refugee. The reasons for granting the permits are stipulated by the residence law as amended and also include humanitarian reasons and the possibility to grant permanent residence on grounds of political interests of the CR abroad.

A foreigner applying for the permanent residency permit on grounds of his/her intention to cohabitate with another foreigner already holding such a permit may do so, after he/she has resided on the territory of the CR uninterruptedly for eight years holding a 90plus-day visa or a visa granted for the purpose of temporary protection. Again, the reasons are laid down by the law and pertain to unification of the family. Following ten years of continuous residence on the territory of the CR, each foreigner is entitled to apply for the permit.

Czech citizenship

Acquisition and loss of Czech citizenship is regulated by Act No. 40/1993 Coll., on the Acquisition and Loss of Czech Citizenship as last amended by Act No. 194/1999 Coll., and Act No. 193/1999 Coll., on the Citizenship of Certain Former Czechoslovak Citizens.

Under the Act No. 40/1993 Coll., Czech citizenship is acquired by birth (Section 3), adoption (Section 3a), determination of paternity (Section 4), finding on the territory of the CR (Section 5), declaration (Section 6 or 18a), and granting (Sections 7 to 12).

A child acquires Czech citizenship, if one or both parents are Czech citizens or, if both parents are stateless persons (hereinafter referred to as “the homeless” too), at least one of them holds a permit for permanent residence on the territory of the CR and the child is born thereon.

A child whose one or both adoptive parents are Czech citizens acquires Czech citizenship on the day the decision on adoption comes into force.

A child born outside marriage, whose mother is a foreign citizen or a homeless person and whose father is a Czech citizen, acquires Czech citizenship on the day of affirmative declaration of paternity determination by both parents, or on the day the decision on paternity determination comes into force.

A person under 15 years of age found on the territory of the CR is a Czech citizen, unless he/she is proven to have acquired citizenship of another state by birth.

A person, who was a citizen of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic as at 31 December 1992 and was neither a Czech citizen nor a Slovak one, is allowed to choose Czech citizenship by declaration.

Czech citizenship can be granted to a person at his/her request, provided he/she fulfils all of the following conditions at the same time:

a) the person has had her permanent residence on the territory of the CR permitted for a minimum of five years as at the day his/her application is filed and has mostly been staying thereon over this period;
b) the person will prove that by acquiring Czech citizenship he/she will lose or has lost his/her original citizenship, unless he/she is a homeless person or a person who were granted asylum;
c) the person was not lawfully convicted of a deliberate criminal offence during last five years;
d) the person will demonstrate the command of Czech language.

The citizenship structure of the foreign population does not change very much in time, at least as far as the main groups are concerned. Recently, Ukraine citizens increased in number considerably.

Slovak nationals constituted the most numerous group of foreigners in the CR at the end of 2002 (over 61 thousand), followed by Ukrainian nationals (59 thousand). The order of these nationalities is reversed, if the condition of the stay over one year is applied. Evidently, Slovak nationals rotate more in the CR (also probably due to almost non-existing barriers which would make their position difficult, e.g. in the Czech labour market, and, in consequence, limit the circle of potential migrants to the CR, as we see in Ukrainian nationals). No changes occurred in the list of the first ten nationalities most represented in the CR (Slovakia, the Ukraine, Viet Nam, Poland, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, China, the USA), only China and Yugoslavia changed the order. Of the first ten nationalities the number of rather stable foreigners (stay over one year) decreased in the case of Poles (by 500 persons), Chinese (by 250 persons) and Yugoslavs (by 22 persons only). As for the regional distribution of nationals of the most represented countries (except for Poles), the capital city of Prague takes up a dominating position. In the other regions, a higher or lower representation is rather logical - citizens of the Slovak Republic live more frequently in central Moravia and the area of Ostrava, citizens of Viet Nam can be mostly found in Bohemian-Saxony border districts, and citizens of Poland are mostly settled in the Poland-CR border districts and in the District of Mladá Boleslav, too.

Age distribution of foreigners (see the graph on page 27) differs in principle from that of the Czech population. Over 60% of foreigners in the CR are males and the age distribution of the foreign population corresponds to the prevailing purpose of their residence in the CR, which is the economic activity. 87% of all foreigners living in the CR are aged 18 to 64, of which 83.5% (72% of the total population) are 20 to 49 years old. Despite the very low percentage of children in this population, the average age of foreigners (36.4) is 4 years down on the average of the whole Czech population.

The purpose of residence of 51% of all foreigners is of economic nature (the figure is free of family members who can also work in the CR in one way or another and of persons holding permanent residence permits for which the purpose of residence of this type cannot be identified).

Besides the capital city of Prague (over 56 thousand foreigners) most foreigners are found in the Středočeský Region (the catchment area of Prague – over 20 thousand foreigners) and the Moravskoslezský Region (over 15.5 thousand foreigners), and the Ústecký Region (over 13.5 thousand foreigners). The fewest of them reside in the Vysočina Region, which is not surprising with regard to the relative “poverty” and a lack of jobs for foreigners in the Region.

The Czech citizenship has been granted most to Slovak citizens lately, probably as a result of mostly different conditions for acquisition of Czech citizenship and the possibility to have double citizenship.