POSTERN

Czechia

Long-term business visa (živno / trade licence route). The Czech Republic has no separate digital-nomad visa; freelancers instead take out a trade licence (živnostenský list) and apply for a long-term business visa, in practice the country's remote-worker route.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 27, 2026

Long-term business visa (živno / trade licence route)

A long-term visa (type D/VC/06) usually issued for up to 1 year, renewable, and convertible into a longer-term residence permit for business.

Who qualifies

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

1

It could fit.

The Czech Republic has no separate digital-nomad visa; freelancers instead take out a trade licence (živnostenský list) and apply for a long-term business visa, in practice the country's remote-worker route.

Every door that fits your family

Not legal advice.

2

What it takes.

Time
2–4 months for the trade licence and visa together; renewals typically take 60–90 days.
Cost
About $500–1,000: the CZK 5,000 (about $235) visa fee, the trade-licence fee, insurance, and translations.
The hard part
There is no fixed income bar, so the burden falls on documenting genuine, ongoing freelance income once resident, and the visa becomes tax residence after 183 days.
3

Citizens by 2038.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

  1. 2027
    First residence permit

    1 year, renewable for 2 years at a time.

  2. 2028
    Renew the permit

    Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 2 years.

  3. 2030
    Renew the permit

    Filed before the old one lapses; renews for 2 years.

  4. 2032
    Permanent residence

    Five years of continuous residence (long-term visas and permits count in full, study time at half), then a Czech exam at A2.

  5. 2037
    Apply for citizenship

    With a language test and a civics test.

  6. 2038
    Citizenship
Language
Czech at B1, by the state exam. Not needed after three school years taught in Czech, or under 15 or over 65.
Civics
A test on Czech society: the constitutional system, culture, history and geography.
Time away
You must actually live in Czechia for at least half of the qualifying period. Single trips of up to 2 months in a row, or 6 months for a serious reason, still count as time in the country.
Two passports
Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.
  • The business visa lasts at most a year; staying longer means switching to a long-term residence permit for business, issued for up to 2 years. Both count in full toward the 5 years.
  • The legal deadline for a decision is reported as 180 days; we did not confirm it on an official page, and real waits are often longer.
  • How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.
The law behind these dates
4

Living there.

Time you must spend there
No day-count to keep the visa itself, but continuity of residence for the later permanent-residence clock generally means not being outside the Czech Republic for more than 6 consecutive months at a time.
Tax
Becomes Czech tax residence after 183 days in a calendar year, triggering worldwide taxation and mandatory social and health contributions on trade income.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

5

Start today.

  1. Read the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' page on the long-term business visa.Open mzv.gov.cz ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • The business plan, and the endorsement or approval it needs
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health insurance that meets the program’s rules
6

Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

20 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 4 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →
7
ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

Cover