The residence rights of UK citizens and their family members in Czech Republic after the Brexit.
As we wrote previously in our article at: http://rutlandandpartners.com/en/the-impact-of-brexit-on-british-citizens-living-in-the-czech-republic/ the two year period for UK to exit the EU is about to expire. The British Parliament did not accept the Withdrawal Agreement which was negotiated by the Prime Minister Theresa May. In relation to this situation the Czech Government prepared the “Lex Brexit” which will be used for the case of hard Brexit. The bill provides a regulation of certain aspects of residence matters for the British citizens residing in the Czech Republic.
The Czech bill provides British citizens and their family members with some possibilities of preservation of their residential permit. Basically, the British citizens with a temporary residence will be allowed to stay in the Czech Republic during the validity of their residential permits. The family members of a British citizen will be allowed to stay under the same legal regime for the period of the validity of their permits, however, their permits will be terminated on December 31, 2020. All applications for the temporary residence filed by the British citizens before Brexit, will be assessed in accordance with the law which was in effective at the time of the application.
British citizens and their family members are authorized to apply, under the conditions provided by the Act on the Residence of Foreign Nationals, for a long-term residence permit, or if their residential stay in the Czech Republic was longer than the five years, to apply for a permanent residence. The Czech Government Bill established the exception for the British citizens and their family members which authorizes these two groups to submit the applications for the permanent residence without a document proving the knowledge of the Czech language.
In case of a submission of an application to receive the Czech citizenship prior to Brexit (for the purpose of assessing the condition of permanent residence) a British citizen will be considered as an EU citizen.
In case of general approval by the competent authorities inside the Czech legislature procedure, the Brexit law will become effective from 30 March 2019.
The acceptance of the Withdrawal Agreement and the approval of the Czech law in the meantime are unpredictable and therefore our general advice to the British citizens is to apply for a temporary residence, or for the Czech citizenship before Brexit occurs. All applications submitted before Brexit should be decided in accordance with the law existing at the time of the submission.
rutland & partners law office is highly specialized in the Czech permit matters and we are always prepared to help you with your residency in CR.
For more information please contact:
Monika Rutland, partner
rutland & partners, advokátní kancelář s.r.o.
tel: +420 226 226 026
email: monika.rutland@rutlands.cz
