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Country-wide policy

A Course on Czech Values Inside Twelve Months, Paid For by the Holder, and Not Asked of Students, Investors or Transferees

Section 155b(2) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. requires a foreign national who has been issued a long-term residence permit, or permanent residence under section 66, to complete an adaptation and integration course organised by a centre for the support of the integration of foreigners within one year of the decision becoming final; the same duty attaches again where a new long-term permit is issued because the purpose of the stay has changed. The course acquaints the holder with their rights and duties, with the basic values of the Czech Republic, with local conditions and with the prevailing cultural customs. The exemptions are specific rather than general: holders of study permits, protection permits, both intra-corporate transfer cards, the investment permit and permits issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, anyone under 15 or over 61 on the day the decision becomes final, and anyone who has done the course already. The holder pays a flat charge, which Decree No. 520/2020 Sb. sets at 1,500 CZK for a course open to the public.

Verified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-10

Topics it changes

What it requires

  • Attend the course within one year of the decision granting the permit becoming final
  • Attend it again where a new long-term permit is issued because your purpose of stay changed
  • Pay the flat charge of 1,500 CZK for a public course

At a glance

Deadline
1 year from the decision becoming final

Section 155b(2) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb.

Charge
1,500 CZK for a course open to the public

Section 8(a) of Decree No. 520/2020 Sb., made under section 182a(1)(h) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb.

Age exemptions
Under 15, or 61 and over

Section 155b(3)(b) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb., measured on the day the decision becomes final.

Permits that are exempt
Study, protection, both transfer cards, investment, and permits from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Section 155b(3)(a) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb.

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 326/1999 Sb., o pobytu cizinců na území České republiky a o změně některých zákonů · § 155b odst. 2 · consolidated to 2026-06-12
«Cizinec, kterému bylo vydáno povolení k dlouhodobému pobytu nebo k trvalému pobytu podle § 66, je povinen do 1 roku ode dne nabytí právní moci rozhodnutí o vydání tohoto povolení»

Our translation - not official

A foreign national who has been issued a long-term residence permit or permanent residence under section 66 is obliged, within 1 year of the day the decision issuing that permit becomes final

The sentence continues to complete an adaptation and integration course organised by a centre for the support of the integration of foreigners.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Czech state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of the Interior and in service since 1 January 2024, which publishes the Sbírka zákonů a mezinárodních smluv and maintains every Act as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same material and they behave differently. e-sbirka.gov.cz (to which www.e-sbirka.cz redirects with HTTP 308) is an Angular single-page application: every address answers with the same 1,040-byte shell, and the text only appears once JavaScript has run, so it is readable by the extraction service and by nothing else. e-sbirka.gov.cz/sbr-externi is the JSON API the application calls; /dokumenty-sbirky/{staleUrl}/obsah returns the table of contents for a version, where staleUrl is the URL-encoded /sb/{year}/{number}/{YYYY-MM-DD}, and /dokumenty-sbirky/{dokumentId}/detail-zneni returns the version's title, its citation and the dates it is in force between. opendata.eselpoint.gov.cz/esel-esb serves the same corpus as linked data under ELIs of the form /eli/cz/sb/{year}/{number}, where the act's page lists every version it has ever had, which is how the version in force on a given day is found rather than guessed. Each version is also generated as a clean PDF and DOCX: POST-free GET to /sbr-externi/stahni/informativni-zneni/{dokumentId}/PDF returns a JSON body carrying a file id that is stable across calls, and /souborove-sluzby/soubory/{id} then serves the document itself.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The PDF and the web page are two manifestations of one document and neither is quotable throughout.** The generated PDF is typeset with soft hyphens at every line break - 2,055 of them in the 781,000 characters of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. - so a sentence that crosses a line comes out as 'na úze[soft hyphen] mí', and a quotation spanning one is unreadable even though it verifies. The web page has no hyphenation but doubles every term the CzechVoc dictionary links: 3,200 occurrences in the same Act, where 'cizince' renders as 'cizincecizince' and 'zaměstnanecké karty' as 'zaměstnanecké kartyzaměstnanecké karty'. A quotation therefore has to be taken from whichever manifestation the sentence survives in, and some sentences survive in neither, so the quotation is cut short rather than tidied. The versions it serves are **informativní znění**, informative consolidations: the Collection as promulgated is what has legal force. A version carries no cut-off date inside the document - the date is in the file name, in the address and on the page that serves it, and that is where the consolidation dates recorded here come from. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the central register of vacancies open to employee-card holders is kept administratively, the government-approved migration programmes that Government Regulation No. 220/2019 Sb. relies on by name - the qualified employee programme, the highly qualified employee programme, the key and scientific personnel programme and a digital nomad programme - are approved by the government and published nowhere in it, and the per-embassy allowance actually remaining is published by each embassy under section 181b(3) rather than here. Section headings for repealed sections are omitted from a version entirely, so a gap in the numbering is a repeal and not a dropped page.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 326/1999 Sb., o pobytu cizinců na území České republiky a o změně některých zákonů · § 155b odst. 1 · consolidated to 2026-06-12
«Centrum na podporu integrace cizinců v adaptačně-integračním kurzu seznámí cizince s jejich»

Our translation - not official

In the adaptation and integration course the centre for the support of the integration of foreigners acquaints foreign nationals with their

The sentence continues rights and duties connected with residence on the territory, with the basic values of the Czech Republic, with local conditions and with the cultural customs prevailing in the Czech Republic.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Czech state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of the Interior and in service since 1 January 2024, which publishes the Sbírka zákonů a mezinárodních smluv and maintains every Act as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same material and they behave differently. e-sbirka.gov.cz (to which www.e-sbirka.cz redirects with HTTP 308) is an Angular single-page application: every address answers with the same 1,040-byte shell, and the text only appears once JavaScript has run, so it is readable by the extraction service and by nothing else. e-sbirka.gov.cz/sbr-externi is the JSON API the application calls; /dokumenty-sbirky/{staleUrl}/obsah returns the table of contents for a version, where staleUrl is the URL-encoded /sb/{year}/{number}/{YYYY-MM-DD}, and /dokumenty-sbirky/{dokumentId}/detail-zneni returns the version's title, its citation and the dates it is in force between. opendata.eselpoint.gov.cz/esel-esb serves the same corpus as linked data under ELIs of the form /eli/cz/sb/{year}/{number}, where the act's page lists every version it has ever had, which is how the version in force on a given day is found rather than guessed. Each version is also generated as a clean PDF and DOCX: POST-free GET to /sbr-externi/stahni/informativni-zneni/{dokumentId}/PDF returns a JSON body carrying a file id that is stable across calls, and /souborove-sluzby/soubory/{id} then serves the document itself.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The PDF and the web page are two manifestations of one document and neither is quotable throughout.** The generated PDF is typeset with soft hyphens at every line break - 2,055 of them in the 781,000 characters of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. - so a sentence that crosses a line comes out as 'na úze[soft hyphen] mí', and a quotation spanning one is unreadable even though it verifies. The web page has no hyphenation but doubles every term the CzechVoc dictionary links: 3,200 occurrences in the same Act, where 'cizince' renders as 'cizincecizince' and 'zaměstnanecké karty' as 'zaměstnanecké kartyzaměstnanecké karty'. A quotation therefore has to be taken from whichever manifestation the sentence survives in, and some sentences survive in neither, so the quotation is cut short rather than tidied. The versions it serves are **informativní znění**, informative consolidations: the Collection as promulgated is what has legal force. A version carries no cut-off date inside the document - the date is in the file name, in the address and on the page that serves it, and that is where the consolidation dates recorded here come from. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the central register of vacancies open to employee-card holders is kept administratively, the government-approved migration programmes that Government Regulation No. 220/2019 Sb. relies on by name - the qualified employee programme, the highly qualified employee programme, the key and scientific personnel programme and a digital nomad programme - are approved by the government and published nowhere in it, and the per-embassy allowance actually remaining is published by each embassy under section 181b(3) rather than here. Section headings for repealed sections are omitted from a version entirely, so a gap in the numbering is a repeal and not a dropped page.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 326/1999 Sb., o pobytu cizinců na území České republiky a o změně některých zákonů · § 155b odst. 3 písm. a) · consolidated to 2026-06-12
«pobývá na území na základě povolení k dlouhodobému pobytu za účelem studia na území,»

Our translation - not official

is staying on the territory on the basis of a long-term residence permit for the purpose of study on the territory,

The first of the exempt permits. The list continues with protection, both intra-corporate transfer cards, the investment permit and permits issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Czech state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of the Interior and in service since 1 January 2024, which publishes the Sbírka zákonů a mezinárodních smluv and maintains every Act as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same material and they behave differently. e-sbirka.gov.cz (to which www.e-sbirka.cz redirects with HTTP 308) is an Angular single-page application: every address answers with the same 1,040-byte shell, and the text only appears once JavaScript has run, so it is readable by the extraction service and by nothing else. e-sbirka.gov.cz/sbr-externi is the JSON API the application calls; /dokumenty-sbirky/{staleUrl}/obsah returns the table of contents for a version, where staleUrl is the URL-encoded /sb/{year}/{number}/{YYYY-MM-DD}, and /dokumenty-sbirky/{dokumentId}/detail-zneni returns the version's title, its citation and the dates it is in force between. opendata.eselpoint.gov.cz/esel-esb serves the same corpus as linked data under ELIs of the form /eli/cz/sb/{year}/{number}, where the act's page lists every version it has ever had, which is how the version in force on a given day is found rather than guessed. Each version is also generated as a clean PDF and DOCX: POST-free GET to /sbr-externi/stahni/informativni-zneni/{dokumentId}/PDF returns a JSON body carrying a file id that is stable across calls, and /souborove-sluzby/soubory/{id} then serves the document itself.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The PDF and the web page are two manifestations of one document and neither is quotable throughout.** The generated PDF is typeset with soft hyphens at every line break - 2,055 of them in the 781,000 characters of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. - so a sentence that crosses a line comes out as 'na úze[soft hyphen] mí', and a quotation spanning one is unreadable even though it verifies. The web page has no hyphenation but doubles every term the CzechVoc dictionary links: 3,200 occurrences in the same Act, where 'cizince' renders as 'cizincecizince' and 'zaměstnanecké karty' as 'zaměstnanecké kartyzaměstnanecké karty'. A quotation therefore has to be taken from whichever manifestation the sentence survives in, and some sentences survive in neither, so the quotation is cut short rather than tidied. The versions it serves are **informativní znění**, informative consolidations: the Collection as promulgated is what has legal force. A version carries no cut-off date inside the document - the date is in the file name, in the address and on the page that serves it, and that is where the consolidation dates recorded here come from. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the central register of vacancies open to employee-card holders is kept administratively, the government-approved migration programmes that Government Regulation No. 220/2019 Sb. relies on by name - the qualified employee programme, the highly qualified employee programme, the key and scientific personnel programme and a digital nomad programme - are approved by the government and published nowhere in it, and the per-embassy allowance actually remaining is published by each embassy under section 181b(3) rather than here. Section headings for repealed sections are omitted from a version entirely, so a gap in the numbering is a repeal and not a dropped page.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 326/1999 Sb., o pobytu cizinců na území České republiky a o změně některých zákonů · § 155b odst. 3 písm. b) bod 2 · consolidated to 2026-06-12
«dovršil věk 61 let, nebo»

Our translation - not official

has reached the age of 61, or

The upper age exemption, which sits oddly beside the 60 that exempts a permanent-residence applicant from the language examination and the 65 and 60 that appear in the family and nationality provisions.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Czech state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of the Interior and in service since 1 January 2024, which publishes the Sbírka zákonů a mezinárodních smluv and maintains every Act as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same material and they behave differently. e-sbirka.gov.cz (to which www.e-sbirka.cz redirects with HTTP 308) is an Angular single-page application: every address answers with the same 1,040-byte shell, and the text only appears once JavaScript has run, so it is readable by the extraction service and by nothing else. e-sbirka.gov.cz/sbr-externi is the JSON API the application calls; /dokumenty-sbirky/{staleUrl}/obsah returns the table of contents for a version, where staleUrl is the URL-encoded /sb/{year}/{number}/{YYYY-MM-DD}, and /dokumenty-sbirky/{dokumentId}/detail-zneni returns the version's title, its citation and the dates it is in force between. opendata.eselpoint.gov.cz/esel-esb serves the same corpus as linked data under ELIs of the form /eli/cz/sb/{year}/{number}, where the act's page lists every version it has ever had, which is how the version in force on a given day is found rather than guessed. Each version is also generated as a clean PDF and DOCX: POST-free GET to /sbr-externi/stahni/informativni-zneni/{dokumentId}/PDF returns a JSON body carrying a file id that is stable across calls, and /souborove-sluzby/soubory/{id} then serves the document itself.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The PDF and the web page are two manifestations of one document and neither is quotable throughout.** The generated PDF is typeset with soft hyphens at every line break - 2,055 of them in the 781,000 characters of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. - so a sentence that crosses a line comes out as 'na úze[soft hyphen] mí', and a quotation spanning one is unreadable even though it verifies. The web page has no hyphenation but doubles every term the CzechVoc dictionary links: 3,200 occurrences in the same Act, where 'cizince' renders as 'cizincecizince' and 'zaměstnanecké karty' as 'zaměstnanecké kartyzaměstnanecké karty'. A quotation therefore has to be taken from whichever manifestation the sentence survives in, and some sentences survive in neither, so the quotation is cut short rather than tidied. The versions it serves are **informativní znění**, informative consolidations: the Collection as promulgated is what has legal force. A version carries no cut-off date inside the document - the date is in the file name, in the address and on the page that serves it, and that is where the consolidation dates recorded here come from. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the central register of vacancies open to employee-card holders is kept administratively, the government-approved migration programmes that Government Regulation No. 220/2019 Sb. relies on by name - the qualified employee programme, the highly qualified employee programme, the key and scientific personnel programme and a digital nomad programme - are approved by the government and published nowhere in it, and the per-embassy allowance actually remaining is published by each embassy under section 181b(3) rather than here. Section headings for repealed sections are omitted from a version entirely, so a gap in the numbering is a repeal and not a dropped page.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedVyhláška č. 520/2020 Sb., o provádění adaptačně-integračních kurzů · § 8 písm. a) · consolidated to 2021-01-01
«Výše úhrady za účast cizince na kurzu Výše úhrady za účast cizince na kurzu a) určeném pro veřejnost činí 1 500 Kč,»

Our translation - not official

The amount of the charge for a foreign national's participation in a course intended for the public is 1,500 CZK,

The heading is printed twice in this reading, which is how the publisher sets it.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Czech state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of the Interior and in service since 1 January 2024, which publishes the Sbírka zákonů a mezinárodních smluv and maintains every Act as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same material and they behave differently. e-sbirka.gov.cz (to which www.e-sbirka.cz redirects with HTTP 308) is an Angular single-page application: every address answers with the same 1,040-byte shell, and the text only appears once JavaScript has run, so it is readable by the extraction service and by nothing else. e-sbirka.gov.cz/sbr-externi is the JSON API the application calls; /dokumenty-sbirky/{staleUrl}/obsah returns the table of contents for a version, where staleUrl is the URL-encoded /sb/{year}/{number}/{YYYY-MM-DD}, and /dokumenty-sbirky/{dokumentId}/detail-zneni returns the version's title, its citation and the dates it is in force between. opendata.eselpoint.gov.cz/esel-esb serves the same corpus as linked data under ELIs of the form /eli/cz/sb/{year}/{number}, where the act's page lists every version it has ever had, which is how the version in force on a given day is found rather than guessed. Each version is also generated as a clean PDF and DOCX: POST-free GET to /sbr-externi/stahni/informativni-zneni/{dokumentId}/PDF returns a JSON body carrying a file id that is stable across calls, and /souborove-sluzby/soubory/{id} then serves the document itself.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The PDF and the web page are two manifestations of one document and neither is quotable throughout.** The generated PDF is typeset with soft hyphens at every line break - 2,055 of them in the 781,000 characters of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. - so a sentence that crosses a line comes out as 'na úze[soft hyphen] mí', and a quotation spanning one is unreadable even though it verifies. The web page has no hyphenation but doubles every term the CzechVoc dictionary links: 3,200 occurrences in the same Act, where 'cizince' renders as 'cizincecizince' and 'zaměstnanecké karty' as 'zaměstnanecké kartyzaměstnanecké karty'. A quotation therefore has to be taken from whichever manifestation the sentence survives in, and some sentences survive in neither, so the quotation is cut short rather than tidied. The versions it serves are **informativní znění**, informative consolidations: the Collection as promulgated is what has legal force. A version carries no cut-off date inside the document - the date is in the file name, in the address and on the page that serves it, and that is where the consolidation dates recorded here come from. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the central register of vacancies open to employee-card holders is kept administratively, the government-approved migration programmes that Government Regulation No. 220/2019 Sb. relies on by name - the qualified employee programme, the highly qualified employee programme, the key and scientific personnel programme and a digital nomad programme - are approved by the government and published nowhere in it, and the per-embassy allowance actually remaining is published by each embassy under section 181b(3) rather than here. Section headings for repealed sections are omitted from a version entirely, so a gap in the numbering is a repeal and not a dropped page.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Practical notes

The duty attaches to the permit, not to the person: a change of purpose that produces a new long-term permit brings the course round again, by the second sentence of section 155b(2).

Czech law uses four different ages across these records - 60 for the permanent-residence language examination, 61 for this course, 65 for the dependent-parent family route and for the naturalisation language exemption. They are not variants of one rule and should not be read as one.