Timing and outline of the process – in relation to the admission process for the study programme (bachelor or master)

When to apply for the visa: Ideally apply for the visa by 15 July. This should provide enough time to obtain the visa or the residence permit before the beginning of the academic year and, thus, make it possible to arrive in Prague in person for the beginning of your study programme (it starts with the Registration Day in the second half of September). You may apply for the visa at a later time, but there is a risk you will receive your visa late and you could miss the beginning of your study programme (see below “late arrivals”). Thus, apply to our study programme and finish your enrolment early enough to have enough time for the visa arrangements!

Visa process in relation to the admission procedures in the study programme:

• While waiting for your application to our study programme to be processed, read the information on our website as well as the suggested official government webpages to learn what you have to arrange for the visa process.
• If the electronic copies of the relevant documents that you provided us for the admission procedures demonstrate that you satisfy the admission requirements, you will receive by e-mail a conditional acceptance letter from the Student Affairs Department. You will be required to send verified hard copies of your educational documents to us (the form of verification depends on the country where the original documents have been issued). Please send the required documents by the end of May or the middle of June so that we can provide you with the official admission documents for the visa application. We can send these only after your educational documents have been physically received at the Student Affairs Department. This is a mandatory requirement for confirmation of your admission to the study programme and for issuing the official documents for the visa. There are no exceptions.
• If you need to authenticate (by an “Apostille or superlegalization”) your educational documents at the Czech Embassy/Consulate in your country, check ahead of time the terms for doing so and how to arrange an appointment. There may be a significant waiting time for such an appointment in certain countries.
• Inform the Student Affairs Department if you would like to be accommodated in a Charles University dormitory so that they can arrange a reservation for you and send you the accommodation contract for visa purposes together with the official admission documents. Please note that a deposit (of approximately CZK 6,000) will be required to confirm the reservation. You will receive an e-mail directly from the dormitory with instructions on how to pay the deposit. It is essential to pay by the given deadline (usually 7 days from receiving the instructions).
• Wait for the e-mail from the Student Affairs Department about your admission documents being ready for sending and for arranging with you the delivery of the documents.
• As soon as you receive the admission documents, make an appointment at the Embassy or Consulate and submit the visa application.
  
  Note: If the waiting time for the appointment at a particular embassy is very long, students sometimes opt to apply for the appointment date prior to having all of the documents ready. But there is a certain risk: When applying for a VISA, students need to provide ALL documents. If some documents are missing at the time of the appointment, students have to cancel the appointment and request a new date.
  When applying for a residence permit, the additional provision of documents is generally possible. However, usually the primary documents (such as admission to the study programme) are required for the first appointment. Students are advised to individually agree with the particular Embassy or Consulate on providing other documents at a later time.
• If your country is listed in the Student Facilitation Mode (see point 5) and you would like to make your appointment using this tool, you will need to contact our Student Affairs Department again and request to be put on the list. Please note that, even with this tool, the waiting time for the appointment may be several weeks (depends significantly on the country).
• From the date you apply for the visa/residence permit, it takes up to 60 days for the decision to be made (earlier decisions are rare). The decision is not made by the Embassy but by the Czech Ministry of the Interior. Please allow a few extra days for correspondence with the embassy after the decision is made, for health insurance arrangements, and time to have the visa placed in your passport at the embassy/consulate.
• Late arrivals: If you apply for the visa late, you might not be able to arrive in Prague before the start of the semester or during the first few weeks of the semester. In such cases, we recommend not enrolling in the study programme for that academic year, especially if you know you will not be able to come to Prague by the end of October, and apply again for the next academic year as soon as possible. It is our experience that the first semester of the first year of study is the most difficult part of the programme. Missing the opening weeks of the first semester is a significant hindrance to successfully passing the first year of studies.
• Early arrivals: The visa is typically granted from the date stated on your admission documents. Early arrivals are possible, mainly for those who have the option of arriving for a 90-day non-visa stay (assuming that they have already secured their long-term study visa). However, in such cases, students need to arrange for their own accommodation during the early period as the dormitory accommodation is typically available from the date of the official admission. Dormitories cannot accept early arrivals also because previous students are still present and gradually moving out (the capacity limits of the dormitories does not allow for this).
• Final note: Unfortunately, we cannot in any way speed up the visa process. We cannot contact the Embassy to arrange an earlier appointment date or contact the Ministry of the Interior to speed up their decision. We, as a university, are a third party that cannot in any way interfere with this process.