The Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) of the European Commission published an extensive briefing on 30 June 2026 detailing the latest policy and research developments shaping migrant integration in the Czech Republic. At the centre of the update is Prague’s decision to introduce a completely new Act on the Entry and Residence of Migrants, scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2029. The forthcoming law is designed to consolidate more than a dozen disparate statutes and decrees, streamline application procedures and—crucially for employers—accelerate processing times for work-based permits such as the Employee Card and the highly-skilled EU Blue Card.
![Czech Government Charts New Course on Migrant Integration and Long-Term Residency]()
Companies and individual travellers looking for hands-on guidance on the Czech visa and residence landscape can turn to VisaHQ, whose Prague-focused portal (https://www.visahq.com/czech-republic/) tracks the latest rule changes and offers step-by-step application support for Employee Cards, Blue Cards and other permit types. Their digital interface lets HR teams monitor deadlines in real time and helps applicants avoid the paperwork pitfalls that the forthcoming Act aims to fix.
A headline measure announced in the same briefing is the government’s plan for another registration round (October–December 2026) of so-called “special long-term residence permits” for holders of temporary protection from Ukraine. Applicants will need at least two consecutive years of lawful stay, proof of economic self-sufficiency (currently set at CZK 440,000 per year), secured accommodation and a clean criminal record. The Interior Ministry expects demand to exceed the 80,000 expressions of interest lodged in the 2025 round, and is preparing fully-digitalised, queue-management tools to avoid last year’s bottlenecks. The paper also highlights a new inter-ministerial enforcement campaign dubbed “KOBRA 26”. Led jointly by the Finance, Labour & Social Affairs and Interior ministries, KOBRA 26 deploys data analytics and joint field inspections to combat illegal or disguised employment of foreign nationals. Agencies that place workers in food processing, logistics and light manufacturing will be priority targets, with sanctions ranging from stiff administrative penalties to criminal charges and a temporary ban on sponsoring new work visas. For compliant employers, officials stress that tighter policing will level the playing field and speed up legitimate quota allocations under the Qualified Employee Programme. Education features prominently in the DG HOME update as well. Fresh statistics show more than 81,000 Ukrainian children enrolled in Czech schools at the start of the 2025/26 academic year—roughly three percent of the entire student body. Because enrolment is uneven (the capital, Karlovy Vary and Plzeň regions together host almost half of all displaced pupils), the Education Ministry is funnelling additional language-support funding to those hotspots. Multinational companies that run Czech apprenticeship or dual-education schemes are being encouraged to partner with regional integration centres to tap this emerging talent pool. Finally, the Czech Statistical Office’s annual publication “Foreigners in the Czech Republic” confirms a record 1.09 million legally-resident migrants at the end of 2024—about 10 % of the population. Two-thirds hold temporary status, underlining the importance of the new long-term residence pathway and the planned consolidation of immigration legislation. In practical terms, mobility managers should start mapping how the 2029 Act could alter document check-lists, renewal calendars and family-reunification timelines well before the proposal reaches Parliament in early 2027.
Companies and individual travellers looking for hands-on guidance on the Czech visa and residence landscape can turn to VisaHQ, whose Prague-focused portal (https://www.visahq.com/czech-republic/) tracks the latest rule changes and offers step-by-step application support for Employee Cards, Blue Cards and other permit types. Their digital interface lets HR teams monitor deadlines in real time and helps applicants avoid the paperwork pitfalls that the forthcoming Act aims to fix.
A headline measure announced in the same briefing is the government’s plan for another registration round (October–December 2026) of so-called “special long-term residence permits” for holders of temporary protection from Ukraine. Applicants will need at least two consecutive years of lawful stay, proof of economic self-sufficiency (currently set at CZK 440,000 per year), secured accommodation and a clean criminal record. The Interior Ministry expects demand to exceed the 80,000 expressions of interest lodged in the 2025 round, and is preparing fully-digitalised, queue-management tools to avoid last year’s bottlenecks. The paper also highlights a new inter-ministerial enforcement campaign dubbed “KOBRA 26”. Led jointly by the Finance, Labour & Social Affairs and Interior ministries, KOBRA 26 deploys data analytics and joint field inspections to combat illegal or disguised employment of foreign nationals. Agencies that place workers in food processing, logistics and light manufacturing will be priority targets, with sanctions ranging from stiff administrative penalties to criminal charges and a temporary ban on sponsoring new work visas. For compliant employers, officials stress that tighter policing will level the playing field and speed up legitimate quota allocations under the Qualified Employee Programme. Education features prominently in the DG HOME update as well. Fresh statistics show more than 81,000 Ukrainian children enrolled in Czech schools at the start of the 2025/26 academic year—roughly three percent of the entire student body. Because enrolment is uneven (the capital, Karlovy Vary and Plzeň regions together host almost half of all displaced pupils), the Education Ministry is funnelling additional language-support funding to those hotspots. Multinational companies that run Czech apprenticeship or dual-education schemes are being encouraged to partner with regional integration centres to tap this emerging talent pool. Finally, the Czech Statistical Office’s annual publication “Foreigners in the Czech Republic” confirms a record 1.09 million legally-resident migrants at the end of 2024—about 10 % of the population. Two-thirds hold temporary status, underlining the importance of the new long-term residence pathway and the planned consolidation of immigration legislation. In practical terms, mobility managers should start mapping how the 2029 Act could alter document check-lists, renewal calendars and family-reunification timelines well before the proposal reaches Parliament in early 2027.
