Author
A foreign national who intends to apply for international protection in the Czech Republic is required to appear in person and make the application primarily with the Police of the Czech Republic, or, in specific situations, with the MoI. The MoI, OAMP remains the authority responsible for examining and deciding on the application at first instance.
In particular, the application must be made with the police in the following situations:[1]
- at a border crossing point, unless the foreign national is being transferred under an international treaty or EU law;
- in a reception centre;
- at an Immigration Police Department of a Regional Police Directorate, provided the foreign national appears voluntarily; or
- in a facility for the detention of foreigners, if the person is detained or accommodated there (with statutory exceptions, notably in cases of transfer under the Dublin regulation).
In these cases, the police only receives the application. The registration is always done by the MoI, an authority that subsequently conducts the asylum procedure and takes the first-instance decision.
However, an application may be made directly with the MoI if the foreign national is:
- in custody, serving a sentence of imprisonment, in protective detention, or undergoing protective treatment; or
- placed in an educational institution for institutional or protective upbringing, or in a facility for children requiring immediate assistance.[2]
In such cases, the application may be made in writing to the MoI. If an application for international protection is (made) with the MoI, the MoI shall register the application within 3 working days. If an application is made with the police, the MoI shall register it within 6 working days. Registration of an application for international protection implies the entry of the application for international protection into the register of applicants for international protection.[3]
Upon registration of the application and before lodging of the application, an applicant is issued general information on the asylum procedure and on their rights and obligations.[4]
In practice, there have been recent problems with making the application from hospitals. While there used to be a specific measure in the Asylum Act specifically stating such applications can be made to the MoI directly (similarly to persons placed in prisons or educational institutions), the MoI amended the Asylum Act which now does not specify a mechanism to make applications from hospitals. There have been cases of hospitalised asylum seekers left in legal limbo.[5]
The law does not formally make a distinction between ‘making’ and ‘lodging’ an application for international protection. It does not define these terms and is generally using the term podání žádosti which corresponds with ‘making’ an application. ‘Lodging’ an application equals to the provision of information (poskytnutí údajů k žádosti) by an application for international protection to the asylum authority regarding their asylum claim,[6] which is always done before the MoI. There are no specific time limits laid down in law for asylum seekers to lodge their application after the application has been made. Lodging of the application (provision of information) happens a few days after the application is registered (usually on the same day of the asylum interview with the applicant).
A special asylum seekers ID is issued within 3 days from the date of lodging the application.[7]
- No possibility to apply for asylum at embassies, consulates or diplomatic missions abroad
Czech law does not allow asylum applications to be made at embassies, consulates, or other diplomatic missions abroad. An application for international protection may only be lodged on the territory of the Czech Republic, including at border crossing points or in transit areas of international airports.
- Asylum applications made at the border
At the border, the asylum application is first expressed (i.e., made) to the border police. They (if no push-back follows) guide the person to the reception centre at the airport, where the application is officially lodged at the MoI. The police should refer the person to the MoI at the border zone. However, in the past, there have been indications that this has not always worked well, although no reliable study on this has been conducted in recent years.[8] There is no time limit specified in the law or in practice for a person to make an application for international protection at the border or in transit zones.
The police at the airport transit zone, when examining the potential asylum seekers and the conditions based on Section 9 of the Immigration Act (i.e., reasons to deny the entrance to the territory) is not legally obliged to use interpreters or to hold a formal procedure. There is therefore no formal supervision of whether or not the person expressed their wish to apply for asylum. While the number of persons denied entrance into the territory or issued administrative expulsion decision is approximately 20-30 per month,[9] the number of actual asylum seekers at the airport transit zone remained around 1 – 2 per month in 2024 and 2025.[10]
- Asylum applications made in detention centres
In a detention centre, the police are responsible for registering asylum applications.[11] Usually, the person expresses the intention to seek asylum either to a social worker or to a lawyer providing legal counselling. The social worker or the lawyer informs the police about the person’s intention to seek asylum informally, typically in writing through email or by phone. The police receives the application and inform the MoI.
The right to make an application for international protection in a detention facility expires 7 days after the day on which the person was informed by the police about the possibility to apply for international protection and the consequences related to the expiry of this period.[12] After this deadline, the applications will not be considered to be made, without there being a formal decision issued on the inadmissibility of the application. The police are obliged to inform the foreigner of their right to submit an application for international protection within a 7 day time limit since the information provision by the police, in a language in which they are able to understand.[13] The police make a record of this act, which is signed by the foreigner and the police . If the foreigner refuses to sign or they are unable to write, this fact is noted down in the record.[14] In exceptional cases where there has been a substantial change in circumstances relating to the possible persecution or threat of serious harm in the country of origin, the application can be made at a later stage.[15]
This expression of interest will be treated as an asylum application only if its content shows that the person is seeking protection in the Czech Republic against persecution or a risk of serious harm and there are reasonable grounds to believe that there has been a significant change in circumstances relevant to that risk. The MoI shall inform the foreigner whether their expression of intent is considered as an application for international protection. If the MoI informs the foreigner their expression of intent is not considered as a valid application for international protection, the foreigner can lodge a lawsuit for protection against unlawful interference[16] (žaloba proti nezákonnému zásahu) with an administrative court.[17]
In practice, there were some cases where the detainees expressed their intent to apply for international protection towards the social workers of the Refugee Facilities Administration, the Immigration Police or the workers of the MoI Department of Voluntary Returns, who did not forward this information to the MoI Department for Asylum and Migration, and the application was not registered. While this action was later considered as unlawful interference by the courts, these court procedures lasted long and the detainees typically did not have access to the asylum procedure while detained.[18] OPU also noted cases where individuals missed out on the deadline as, among others, they did not have access to good quality (or any) legal counselling during the relevant 7-days period, due to language barriers between them and the social workers in the detention, or due to being placed in a health-related quarantine. In some of these cases, the MoI did not permit a later application to be registered, which resulted in the detainees having had no access to the asylum procedure. This action was later also considered as unlawful interference by the courts. The courts concluded that the 7-days deadline should not run while a detainee is placed in quarantine without access to the outside world.[19] However, these procedures lasted again for months, providing little to no immediate remedy to the detainees.
[1] Section 3a(1) of the Asylum Act.
[2] Section 3(1)(b) of the Asylum Act.
[3] Section 3(6) of the Asylum Act.
[4] Czech version of this information is available here.
[5] In a decision of the Minister of Interior (superior authority to the MoI), MV-57918-4/TP-2025, the Minister of Interior stated that the MoI is obliged to register an asylum application made from a hospital within 3 days. However, the MoI continued to be inactive in the case.
[6] Section 10 of the Asylum Act: An applicant for international protection is obliged, upon a written summons from the MoI delivered at least two working days in advance, to appear and provide information relating to the made application; the MoI issues such a summons without undue delay after the application is filed and at the same time informs the applicant in his or her mother tongue or in a language he or she understands of the applicant’s rights and obligations, including the consequences of an explicit or implicit withdrawal of the application, the right to seek assistance at any time from persons or organisations providing legal aid or protection of refugees’ interests and from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as of the possibility to request information concerning the course of the procedure relating to the applicant’s personal situation, with the proviso that if such information cannot be included in the summons it must be provided in writing within a reasonable time, at the latest within 15 days after the information has been provided; the applicant is required to supply in particular personal identification, family, nationality, residence and travel details, information on health condition and special needs, the reasons for the application, language abilities, any criminal prosecution or conviction, visas, stays and previous applications in other states, and must at the same time prove his or her identity by a valid travel document, another identity document or a public document with a photograph, or, failing that, by a sworn declaration.
[7] Section 57 of the Asylum Act.
[8] Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Pushed Back at the Door, 2017, available here, pages 8-11.
[9] Foreign Police Service Headquarters, Statistics on International Airports in the Czech Republic, 2024, available here.
[10] In 2025, only 40 applications for international protection have been submitted at the airport transit zone (see Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. Department for Asylum and Migration Policy, Applications for international protection in 2025 by place where application was lodged, available here), while in 2024, only 29 applications for international protection have been submitted at the airport transit zone (see Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. Department for Asylum and Migration Policy, Applications for international protection in 2024 by place where application was lodged, available here).
[11] Section 3a(1)(a)(4) of the Asylum Act.
[12] Section 3b(1) of the Asylum Act.
[13] Section 3b(2) of the Asylum Act.
[14] Section 3b(2) of the Asylum Act.
[15] Section 3b(3) of the Asylum Act.
[16] This is it is a special kind of lawsuit that can be filed when there is no decision interfering with the rights of a person but the interference comes from some other action of administrative authorities.
[17] Section 82 et seq. of the Administrative Procedure Code.
[18] SAC, judgement No 8 Azs 182/2016-51, 1 February 2017; available in Czech here; Municipal Court in Prague, judgement No 14 A 50/2022-97, 28 February 2024, available in Czech here; Municipal Court in Prague, judgement No 14 A 139/2023-162, 4 December 2023, available in Czech here.
[19] Municipal Court in Prague, judgement No, 18 A 6/2022-22, 23 March 2022, available in Czech here; Municipal Court in Prague, judgement No 17 A 8/2022-36, 29 November 2022, available in Czech here.