Language of the administrative procedure and interpreting
In accordance with the Administrative Procedure Code, administrative procedures are conducted and documents are prepared in the Czech language1.
Documents submitted in a foreign language must be presented in the original together with an officially certified translation into Czech.
If you do not speak the language of the administrative procedure, you have the right to arrange an interpreter listed in the register of court translators and interpreters2. Applicants arrange the interpreter themselves and at their own expense.
If no interpreter for a given language is listed in the register, or if a listed interpreter cannot perform the act, or if performing the act through a listed interpreter would involve disproportionate difficulties or costs, it is possible—at the applicant’s expense—to admit as an interpreter a person not listed in the register who has sufficient professional qualifications for such activity. Disproportionate difficulties and costs must be proven by the applicants.
The Ministry appoints the interpreter by a resolution, for the specific act in the administrative procedure.
The above conditions do not apply to persons who facilitate communication with the Ministry in routine acts of representation (they act as a legal representative). If the act has the nature of an act under § 34(2) of the Administrative Procedure Code that applicants are obliged to perform in person (e.g., an interview), a person referred to in the previous sentence cannot be admitted as an interpreter (that person acts as a legal representative); interpreting must be provided by a person who meets the requirements of the Act on Court Interpreters and Court Translators.
If applicants arrange, at their own expense, an interpreter who does not meet the requirements, the Ministry will not admit this person as an interpreter and will not perform the act.
If, in the administrative procedure, the Ministry of the Interior performs an act with a person who is not the applicant (for example, an interview of another participant in the procedure, a witness, etc.) and that person does not speak Czech, the Ministry will procure an interpreter and appoint them by a resolution. In the case of the applicant concerned by the ongoing administrative procedure, however, it is always necessary to arrange an interpreter at your own expense as described above.
1§ 16(1) of the Administrative Procedure Code.