In addition to the general changes concerning the orientation in the Act, the recodified Act should also contain changes that will partly shift the responsibility not only to the foreigners but also to other entities that have anything to do with the foreigners’ stay in the territory, such as employers or authorised representatives.

The draft introduces the role of a so-called guarantor in the residence procedure. In this case, the guarantor is an entity that enables the third-country national to fulfil the purpose of their stay (e.g. the employer or a scientific institution) and that will inform the Department of Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior (OAMP of the Ministry of the Interior) about any ongoing changes with regard to its foreign employees. In return, the guarantor will have insight into the ongoing residence procedure with the possibility to learn the actual outcome of the procedure for his/her foreign employee.

A long-awaited and also very challenging change should be the launch of an electronic system for foreigners and the digitalisation of the administrative procedure for the residence and other related agendas. The reason for this proposal is the current low level of computerisation of residence procedures, in which most documents cannot be provided electronically, and the high administrative burden on both the authorities and foreigners. Repeated visits and provision of physical documents also significantly increase the length of the procedure. The proposals concern the sending of documents for the administrative residence procedure electronically directly to the embassy, which will also send the file for processing electronically, rather than in physical form, as is the case now. This would at least partially speed up the procedure by eliminating the handling and sending of applications within the territory of the Czech Republic.

The foreigner’s electronic account should also become an integral part of the digitalisation, which would be divided into several levels to which both the foreigner and the guarantor would have access. The electronic account would be part of the Integrated Foreigner Agenda System ICAS, which is also scheduled to be launched in January 2026, as well as the effective date of the new version of the Act. For example, one of the many options could then be to prove the foreigner’s identity in a similar way to the vaccination certificates, i.e. only electronically.

Another proposal, which arose from the lack of satisfactory data on foreigners from EU countries on the territory of the Czech Republic, envisages making the registration of EU citizens mandatory for stays exceeding 90 days. This would be a change from the current situation where EU citizens are not obliged to register for stays exceeding 90 days. Under the new rules, citizens would also be registered in the population registry. The problem of the lack of data became fully apparent during the recent covid-19 pandemic.

One of the proposals that has attracted well-deserved attention is the regulation of the representation of foreigners in administrative residence procedures. Under the new Act, only attorneys or non-profit organisations offering free legal services should provide repeated representation to foreigners. The regulation should lead to the elimination of errors, delays and abuse of tools in the proceedings and also exclude incompetent agents from the proceedings.

The proposed changes are sure to undergo further amendments, so let us wait to see how they are going to be reflected in the law. We will monitor the situation and keep you informed of further developments.