New chance for temporary protection holders: conversion to long-term residence

Extension of temporary protection

Temporary protection is the specific residence title currently used by Ukrainian refugees. Its validity is limited to one year after which it can be extended always by one year.  For this purpose, the relevant law had to be amended on an annual basis, while the last amendment in fact only postponed (by one year) the deadlines and dates for the implementation of the individual steps of the process. Also, because of the length of the legislative process, extensions were usually enacted relatively close to the expiry of the current validity period, leaving both the protection holders and their employers in a state of uncertainty as to their future residence status and possibility to work.

EU member states have now agreed to continue to grant and extend temporary protection. The ministry has therefore prepared a practical amendment proposing to introduce general rules for renewing the temporary protection status every year. The amendment will remove specific dates from the law, leaving only deadlines for each step of the process. No changes are planned for these, and the extension of temporary protection would remain a two-step process requiring initial registration in the ministry's system and then a visit to the relevant office for a new visa sticker.

Conversion to long-term residence

Since the introduction of temporary protection, the impossibility for its holders to switch to standard long-term residence has been a highly debated topic. The amendment partially deals with this: while it does not allow for obtaining standard residence permits, it proposes introducing the possibility of converting to a new, special long-term residence title: "long-term residence in connection with the armed conflict in the territory of Ukraine caused by the invasion of the Russian Federation". This is not a protective residence permit, but a long-term residence permit under the Foreigners’ Residence Act that could be granted to holders of temporary protection who have been residing in the Czech Republic continuously for at least two years. Other conditions necessary to allow such a conversion are, e.g., sufficient income, a clean criminal record and registration with a health insurance company.

The authorities expect that many of the more than 300,000 current holders of Czech temporary protection will be interested in this permit. For capacity reasons, the granting of special long-term residence would not be preceded by a standard administrative procedure. The ministry plans to verify in the state administration’s information systems which temporary protection holders meet the conditions for conversion. As a next step, a process remarkably similar to the extension of temporary protection is proposed – registration in the FRS system, a visit to the authorities to take biometric data and possibly to provide the necessary documents, and then the issuance of a residence card. For capacity reasons, the validity of the card should be longer than that of the normal long-term residence, i.e., five years.

Specifics of special long-term residence

Foreigners with the special long-term residence permit should have free access to the labour market. They will neither be able to switch back to temporary protection, nor will they be allowed to change their purpose of stay to another type of long-term residence, and the granting of another residence permit will terminate the validity of the special long-term residence permit. The amendment also proposes an obligation for all family members to convert at the same time to avoid different residence statuses within the same household.

The amendment is now at the beginning of the legislative process, and the proposed regulation may still be subject to changes.