Your first weeks in Czechia: one thirty-day clock, and a chain that hangs on one voluntary paper

The first weeks in Czechia have fewer legal clocks than in most EU countries. There is really only one: whoever stays longer than thirty days reports to the Foreign Police within thirty days of entry, on pain of a fine of up to 3,000 crowns. But behind that one report sits a chain that hangs on a voluntary paper. The registration certificate from the Ministry of the Interior is not an obligation, but it is the route to the rodné číslo that bank, school, insurer and doctor ask for, and to the proof of residence the office wants to see for your car. Whoever postpones the voluntary paper then gets stuck everywhere at once.

Which clocks run?

Clock	Deadline	Starts at	Where
Report to the Foreign Police	within 30 days	the day you enter Czechia	Foreign Police of your place of residence
Compulsory schooling of your child	after 90 days of residence	the day of arrival	the school of your district
Registration certificate (voluntary)	apply for a stay of more than 3 months; decision within 30 days	your application	Ministry of the Interior
Rodné číslo	as a rule assigned within 30 days	your application for the registration certificate	same
Documents with the application	no older than 180 days	the date of the document	—
Collecting the registration certificate	within 30 days	the approval	same

Why is the voluntary paper the key?

Because with the application for the registration certificate the ministry requests your rodné číslo ex officio. The report to the police doesn't do that. The ministry names schools, banks, insurers and doctors as institutions that ask for the number, and without a rodné číslo you can't close some contracts or get a mortgage. How that works exactly is in rodné číslo and the reporting duty in Czechia.

The ministry doesn't tell you automatically that your number is there. You check at the counter or via the helpline, and you only get the number itself at the counter.

What do you do in weeks one and two?

The report to the Foreign Police, with the police's own form, at the counter or by post. If you stay in a hotel or guesthouse for the first weeks, the operator reports you.

If you have an S1 from the CAK, you hand it in at a Czech health insurer of your choice. It registers you as supplementarily insured and gives you a registration certificate or insurance card; with it you are entitled to full healthcare (see healthcare in Czechia). The proof of that registration is at once your proof of health insurance for the registration certificate, if you live on your own means or a pension.

What do you do after that?

The registration certificate, as soon as you have proof of accommodation. Watch the hundred and eighty days: no attached document may be older, except your passport, your certificates and your photo. The application can't be made from abroad.

The car waits for the six months' residence. The office that registers your car asks an EU citizen for proof of temporary residence of at least six months in the calendar year. The registration certificate is the obvious paper for that. So plan the car after the registration certificate, and on the Dutch side keep in mind the thirteen weeks for the bpm refund (see your household goods to Czechia).

With the registration certificate and the rodné číslo in hand you open your account (see banking and paying in Czechia), and preferably choose a bank with Bank iD, with which you log in to the government.

And the children?

A foreign child is of compulsory school age as soon as it has lived in Czechia for more than ninety days, and you can also enrol it in the middle of the school year. Basic education at a state school is free, regardless of your residence status and regardless of whether your child speaks Czech (see school in Czechia).

Which step falls on your date, and which you can skip, is in the step-by-step plan for Czechia.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Czechia or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.