Policie České republiky – Služba cizinecké policie
Invitation
A letter of invitation must be certified by the police – Foreing Police Department within a Regional Directorate of the Police of the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as “Regional Police Directorate”), specifically Oddělení pobytových agend (Residence administration unit)– at the request of a natural person or a legal entity (corporation).
An authority having territorial competency to certify a letter of invitation is:
- Foreign Police Department within any Regional Police Directorate if the person issuing the invitation is a citizen of the Czech Republic or a corporation based in the territory of the Czech Republic;
- Foreign Police Department within Regional Police Directorate having territorial competency according to the reported place of residence if the person issuing the invitation is an alien.
If an invitation is to be certified for the needs of granting Uniform Schengen Visa, the person issuing the invitation can undertake to cover
- all financial costs connected with the invited alien's stay; or
- financial costs connected with the invited alien's accommodation only
The person issuing an invitation shall indicate the scope of assumed obligations on the official form.
An invitation shall be issued by means of an official form. This form cannot be downloaded from the internet, but it is available in Residence Administration Unit of Foreign Police Department within any Regional Police Directorate.
On the official form, a natural person issuing an invitation shall state his/her first name, surname, birth (certificate) number, date of birth (day, month, year) and the place of residence in the territory of the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as “the Territory”). A corporation issuing an invitation shall state its name, address of its registered seat and the corporate ID number and it shall affix its stamp as well as the first name, surname and signature of an authorized person (statutory body). The person issuing an invitation shall also state detailed information about the invited alien – first name, surname and other names, date of birth (day, month, year), nationality, place of residence in the foreign country, travel document number, purpose of visit and the expected duration of the invited alien's stay in the Territory.
On request of the police, the person issuing an invitation is obliged to prove the ability to fulfil the obligation assumed within the invitation; that means:
- to prove the availability of funds for the invited foreign's stay in the scope specified in Section 13 of the Act No. 326/1999 Coll., on the Residence of Foreign Nationals in the Territory of the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as “Aliens Act”), as amended;
(This ability shall be proved by presenting:
a) Financial resources amounting to at least
1. 0,5 times the existential minimum defined by the Act No. 110/2006 Coll., on Subsistence and Existential Minimum, as amended, (the sum of existential minimum for a person amounts to 2 490,- CZK monthly)(1) for 1 day of the stay if the total duration of the stay is not to exceed 30 days,
2. 15 times the existential minimum if the total duration of the stay is to exceed 30 days; and, for each whole month of the expected stay, this sum will be increased by double the existential minimum)
- to prove the availability of funds amounting to 0,25 times the existential minimum for each day of the stay in the Territory if the goreign's accommodation is not to be provided in the dwelling of the person issuing the invitation,
- to present proof of travel medical insurance assured in favour of the invited foreign; or to present a statutory declaration that he/she will assure such an insurance prior to the foreign's entry into the territory; or to present proof that, for a potential compensation for the costs in the scope specified in Section 180j,of the Aliens Act(2), he/she has available a sum of at least 60 000,- EUR,
- to prove the availability of funds to cover the costs connected with the invited alien's departure from the Territory in the amount equivalent to the price of a flight ticket for a flight to the country which has issued the foreign's travel document or to the country of the foreign's permanent residence.
Proving the ability to fulfil the obligation shall not exempt the person issuing an invitation from the obligation to cover the actual extent of possible costs in the scope of the obligation assumed within the invitation.
The police shall certify the letter of invitation within 7 working days from the date on which the application for this certification was submitted., A fee of 300,- CZK shall be charged for the certification of one letter of invitation; this shall be paid in form of a fee stamp for the police cannot receive it in cash.
A natural person issuing an invitation is obliged to arrive at the police on 7th working day from the date on which he/she submitted the application for certification, by prior consent with the police even earlier, to receive (collect) the certified letter of invitation. The same obligation applies to a representative of a corporation issuing an invitation.
The certified letter of invitation shall substitute a proof of travel health insurance for the period indicated in the invitation for which the foreign is invited if the person issuing the invitation has undertaken to cover the costs connected with the provision of healthcare to the foreign throughout his/her stay in the Territory until the time the foreign departs from the Territory as well as the costs connected with the transport of the foreign if he/she falls ill or the remains of the deceased alien.
If the letter of invitation is to be certified for the needs of granting a long-stay visa, the person issuing the invitation must undertake to cover the costs:
- connected with the foreign's subsistence throughout his/her stay in the Territory until the time the alien departs from the Territory;
- connected with the foreign's accommodation throughout his/her stay in the Territory until the time the foreign departs from the Territory;
- connected with the provision of healthcare to the foreign throughout his/her stay in the Territory until the time the foreign departs from the Territory as well as the costs connected with the transport of the alien if he/she falls ill or the remains of the deceased alien;
- connected with the foreign's stay in case he/she is detained in the Territory and his/her subsequent departure from the Territory.
The certified letter of invitation is valid maximum 180 days from the date of certification regardless of the number of visits to the Czech Republic.
[1] State on 11 February 2011
(2)For the purposes of the Aliens Act, a proof of Travel Medical Insurance for a stay longer than 90 days is understood to be a document by means of which an alien proves the insurance coverage of the costs connected with the provision of necessary and urgent health care in case of his/her illness throughout his/her stay in the Territory including the costs connected with his/her transport, or in case of his/her death, the costs connected with the transport of his/her remains, back to the state (country) which issued his/her travel document or to the state (country) for which he/she holds a residence permit. The amount of the arranged insurance benefit limit for one insurance event amounts to minimum 60 000 EUR without the insured person's excess on the above mentioned costs.