Government Agrees to Extend Temporary Protection

At its regular meeting on Wednesday last week (13 September 2023), the Czech Government again addressed the topic of refugees from Ukraine. The reason for this is that the war in Ukraine is unlikely to end any time soon, which leads in particular to the need to adjust or extend the residency status of refugees on Czech territory.

According to the current wording of Act No. 65/2022 Coll., the validity of temporary protection and of the visa for the purpose of toleration is limited until 31 March 2024. Since a decision on the extension of temporary protection should be taken at the level of the European Union by the end of October, which is a prerequisite for the extension of temporary protection in the Czech Republic as well, work has already started on the relevant amendment.

Its main objective will thus be to extend both temporary protection and the tolerance visa until 31 March 2025, in much the same way as was applied this year in the first wave of extensions. The following procedure should thus apply:

– Holders of temporary protection will be required to register via an electronic form (available on the Ministry of the Interior’s website) for extension by 15 March 2024 in order for their stay to be considered extended until 30 September 2024. They will then be required to present themselves at a Ministry of the Interior office by 30 September 2024 to have their visa sticker affixed in order for their stay to be considered extended until 31 March 2025. Both of these steps must therefore be completed in order to achieve the maximum extension.

– Holders of a tolerance visa will not be required to do the above in order to endure. Their toleration visa will be extended automatically and will be considered valid until 31.3.2025 without them having to do anything. However, if they wish, it will also be possible for them to be issued with an extended visa sticker if they make an appointment with the Home Office for this purpose.

ATTENTION: Holders of a tolerance visa issued from 24 February 2022 to 20 March 2022 inclusive are considered to be in temporary protection. These aliens are therefore required to complete the registration and visa tagging process as outlined above for temporary protection holders.