Employee Card – Change of Employment
If you hold an employee card and you want to change your employer, work position or start another position with your current employer or another employer, you must report the change to the Ministry of the Interior. The procedure differs based on whether you have free access to the labour market or not, or whether you were issued a work permit.
GENERAL INFO
FREE ACCESS TO THE LABOUR MARKET
WITHOUT FREE ACCESS
How do I find out if I have free access to the labour market?
Most frequently, students, pedagogical and academic workers, and scientists have free access to the labour market in the Czech Republic. You can find a comprehensive definition on the website focused on free access to the labour market.
If you have free access to the labour market:
You can report the change after you have started the new employment.This also applies if you work under a work permit issued by the Labour Office. For more information please click here.
If you do not have free access to the labour market:
You must report the change before starting the new employment.You can start new employment or a new work position:
- After you or your employer have received a written Notification of Compliance. The Ministry will inform you this way whether you have met or not the requirements stipulated by law.
- At the earliest on the date stated in your form. Even in the case that the Notification of Compliance has been received sooner.
For more information please click here.
What changes related to employment do you have to report to the Ministry of the Interior?
- Change of employer.
- Change of work position with the same employer.
- Another work position with the same or another employer.
- When you have terminated your employment and then you want to return to the same position with the same employer. By having terminated the employment, the vacancy ceased to exist and you must report a change of employer.
- Change of place of work if the new place of work is situated in another municipality. Examples:
- A change of place of work from Prague 3 to Prague 7: this is not a change which needs to be reported to the Ministry of the Interior.
- A change of place of work from Prague 3 to Mladá Boleslav: this is a change of work position and as such it needs to be reported to the Ministry of the Interior.
What changes related to employment do you not have to report to the Ministry of the Interior?
- Change of employer’s name. It is recommended to report such a change to the Ministry of the Interior, although it is not assessed whether you meet requirements or not.
- The so-called business succession: If the rights and obligations of one employer were transferred to another one (e.g. as a result of the sale of the company or of its part) but the nature of the work positions has not changed. It is not a change of employer or work position if the type and the place of your work are the same and only the name of the employer has changed.
- Business trips: You can go on a business trip if it is in line with the nature of the work for which your employee card has been issued.
- Home office: An agreement to work from outside the employer’s workplace if the nature of the work allows it.
- Rise in salary if the nature of work remains the same.
- Change of the number of working hours (e.g. from 40 to 20 hours a week) if you work at least 15 hours a week.
- If, besides your current work, you also lead a group of other workers now.
- Pregnancy: If you are a pregnant employee assigned different work under Section 41(1)(b) of Act No. 262/2006 Sb. (the Labour Code).
If you have free access to the labour market, you can start new employment at any time. You do not have to wait to receive the Notification of Compliance from the Ministry of the Interior. You must report the change within 3 days from the date you started the new employment.
The same procedure applies if you work under a work permit issued by the Labour Office. In such case, you can only start if a work permit was issued for the new work position.
How and where can you report the change?
- Use a specific form, or
- write a notification of change in a free form in Czech – state the name of the employer, the main office’s address and your place of work’s address, or
- present a work contract.
You can report the change in person at a Ministry of the Interior office, or you can send the notification of change by post, Data Box or by e-mail with a recognised electronic signature, or you can submit it through an authorised representative.
What is the administrative fee?
There is no administrative fee for reporting a change of employment.
If you do not have free access to the labour market, you must report the change before starting the new employment. You need to use the form Notification by an employee card holder of a change of employer, work position or employment in another work position with the same or another employer. You can start the new employment or the new work position only after you have received the written Notification of Compliance from the Ministry of the Interior.
Who can report the change?
Only employee card holders – you can report the change only after you have collected the employee card in person.
How and where can you report the change?
You can report the change in person at a Ministry of the Interior office, or you can send the notification of change by post, Data Box or by e-mail with a recognised electronic signature, or you can submit it through an authorised representative.
When do you have to report the change?
- At the latest within 90 days from the date your previous employment ended.
- You have 90 days from the date your employment ended to find new employment and to report it to the Ministry of the Interior, or to apply for a new long-term residence permit for another purpose. If you fail to do so in the given time limit, your employee card will expire.
- The Ministry must actually receive the notification on the 90th day at the latest. Therefore, it is not sufficient, for example, to send the notification by post on the 90th day from the date your previous employment ended.
- You can be looking for new employment and report the change even when you are still working at your old employment. It is not necessary to terminate your previous employment to report a change of employer.
When can you start new employment?
- At the earliest 6 months from the date you collected your first employee card.
- This requirement does not apply if the validity of your employee card has been extended at least once, or if you only want to change a work position with the same employer.
- This requirement neither applies if you have terminated your employment:
- for reasons stipulated in Section 56 and Section 52 (a–e) of Act No. 262/2006 Sb., the Labour Code, as amended,
- by agreement for reasons stipulated in Section 52 (a–e) of Act No. 262/2006 Sb., the Labour Code, as amended,
- because the employer terminated your employment during the probationary period.
- At the earliest 30 days from the date you have reported the change of employment.
- You can start the new employment only after you have received the written Notification of Compliance from the Ministry of the Interior. At the earliest, however, on the date stated in your form. Make sure that the Ministry have received the notification of change at least 30 days before this date.
What are the restrictions related to the change of employer?
You cannot change your employer or start another work position with another employer if the employer is an employment agency. Anouncement of changes regarding your employment is possible only within one employment agency. If you terminate your employment with one employment agency, you may not report a change of employer if the job is provided by another employment agency.
You can check whether the employer is an employment agency in the database of the Czech Labour Office.
Can you change your employer if you work under a government-approved programme?
Yes, if the conditions of the programme allow that. For more information see this page.
What if I report a change but I do not meet one of the requirements?
The notification will be deemed ineffective – the result will be the same as if you had not reported anything.
What is the administrative fee?
There is no administrative fee for reporting a change of employment.
What is the time limit to process the notification?
30 days.
STEPS TO FOLLOW IN ORDER TO REPORT A CHANGE OF EMPLOYMENT:
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In order to report a change you will need:
- Application form:
- Document certifying that you are still employed in your previous employment or that the previous employment ended and the date to which it ended.
- Work contract, agreement on performing work, preliminary work contract or preliminary agreement on performing work for the new employment. It must be evident from the contract or agreement that they are closed for a work position registered in the Central Database of Job Vacancies for which employee card holders can be hired.
- Documents certifying a professional qualification to perform the job (e.g. a diploma or a certificate), or a written statement from the employer confirming the professional qualification – if required so by the employer, nature of the job or the law.
Attention: when reporting a change, you must provide all the required documents and these documents must credibly prove the facts stated in them. If you fail to do so, the notification of change is deemed ineffective and the validity of your employee card may expire.
In the course of the proceedings, you cannot add documents or remedy errors in the notification. You cannot appeal against the notification of not meeting the requirements.
Please review the formal requirements that the documents must meet.
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You can fill in the application form online. Then print out the filled-in form and sign it.
You can also download a blank application form, print it out and fill it in by hand – it must be filled in legibly, in block capitals, in Latin characters, and in Czech. You can also collect the form free of charge at one of the offices of the Ministry of the Interior.
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You can report a change of employer, work position or employment in another work position with the same or another employer in person at a Ministry of the Interior office, or you can send the notification by post, Data Box or by e-mail with a recognised electronic signature, or you can submit it through an authorised representative.
If you wish to report the change of employment in person, please make an appointment online or by phone beforehand. Attention: a lack of free appointment slots will not be considered as a reason for a late notification. If you do not report the change of employer within 90 days from the date your previous employment ended, the validity of your employee card may expire. Report the change of employer, work position or employment in another work position with the same or another employer as soon as possible.
If the offered appointment slots do not suit you, send the notification by post, Data Box or by e-mail with a recognised electronic signature, or visit a Ministry of the Interior office during opening hours without an appointment – with no appointment reservation you have to wait for your turn.
If you do not report the change in person, the date on which the Ministry of the Interior receives the notification is important. Therefore, if you send the notification by post, you also need to count in the time for shipping. Send the notification sufficiently in advance.
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The Ministry of the Interior will send you a notification on whether you meet or not the requirements for reporting the change within 30 days.
On the website under Application submitted you can see the following states:
- Being processed: The Ministry have not taken a decision yet on whether you meet the requirements or not.
- Granted: The requirements for notification have been met.
- Rejected: The requirements for notification have not been met.
- Your notification is deemed ineffective. If you do not report the change of employment within 90 days from the date your previous employment ended and if you do not meet the requirements for making this change, the validity of your employee card may expire.
- You can report a change of employment repeatedly, even if you have not met the requirements – the reasons for which the Ministry of the Interior concluded that you have not met the requirements are included in the notification. If you need help, you can turn to the Integration centre or other NGOs that provide counselling to foreigners in the Czech Republic.
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You can start the new employment only after you or your employer have received the Notification of Compliance. At the earliest, however, on the date stated in your form.