🇨🇿 Prague · Paperwork
Registration, banking and utilities in Prague
A short, hard deadline with the foreign police, then a slower chain through the Interior Ministry that every other registration hangs off.
The thing people get wrongThe three-working-day foreign police registration is the one Czech deadline that catches almost everybody. Hotels and serviced flats report you automatically; a private landlord usually does not, and the clock does not care.
Reporting your address
Non-EU arrivals must report their place of stay to the cizinecká police within three working days of arrival unless the accommodation provider has already done it. EU arrivals have a longer window. This is a separate act from your residence permit and from any change of address later on — moving flat means telling the authorities again.
- Bring your passport, your entry stamp or visa, and the accommodation confirmation from the owner.
- Ask your landlord or hotel in writing whether they have registered you. Assume they have not.
- Report every subsequent change of address; the permit is tied to it.
The Interior Ministry, and what it asks to see
Residence matters sit with OAMP, the asylum and migration department of the Ministry of the Interior, and appointments are booked in advance and can be scarce. The rules on who qualifies for what change regularly and are not something to take from a forum. What is stable is the evidence file: identity, accommodation, purpose of stay, funds and health cover, usually with official Czech translations.
- Documents issued abroad are generally wanted with a court-certified translation (soudní překlad), and often apostilled.
- Biometrics are taken for the residence card, which is collected in person on a later appointment.
- Rules and thresholds move — confirm current requirements with the Ministry of the Interior or an immigration lawyer, not a Facebook group.
The rodné číslo and the paper trail
The birth number (rodné číslo) is the identifier Czech systems index people by, and it is assigned to foreign residents as part of the registration chain. Without it, health insurance, some bank products and most online government services either refuse you or fall back to a slower manual process. Where a system offers a datová schránka (data box), it is worth activating — official correspondence arrives there rather than by post.
Banking and utilities
The large domestic banks want a passport, proof of address and usually a residence document; several run accounts aimed at foreigners with English-language support. Electricity is contracted directly with a supplier in most flats, while heating and water normally run through the building's service charges. Confirm before signing which of the two arrangements applies, because it changes what you pay and what you control.
- Bring passport, residence document and proof of address to the branch appointment.
- Ask for the IBAN and set up the rent as a standing order (trvalý příkaz).
- Electricity is switched into your name with the meter reading from the handover protocol.
In order
- Register with the foreign police within three working days of arrival if nobody has done it for you.
- Book the OAMP appointment as early as the system allows.
- Get certified Czech translations of foreign documents before the appointment, not at it.
- Collect the residence card in person once biometrics are done.
- Open a Czech bank account and set up a standing order for the rent.
- Put electricity in your own name, and confirm what the service charges already cover.
- Report any change of address to the authorities within the deadline.
Rather have someone do this with you?
Your Insider has done paperwork in Prague many times over. On Premium they do it with you, in person, rather than sending you a checklist.
Get startedNot sure which plan is right for you? →