NextSpring

Marrying a Slovak Skips Temporary Residence Altogether and Costs Nothing - but a Slovak Is Not a Union Citizen Here, and the Marriage Has to Last Five Years

Answer

The general rule applies to you

No exception is recorded for citizens of Suriname on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.

154 exceptions recorded across 56 countries · none match Suriname to Slovakia · Residency through marriage

Who you married decides which half of the Act you are in, and in Slovakia the halves are not the ones a reader of Czech law would expect. Section 27(1)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z. gives family reunification to the family member of a third-country national with temporary or permanent residence - and only of a third-country national. The spouse of a Slovak citizen is not in that provision at all. They are in section 43(1)(a), which grants permanent residence for five years, straight away, to the spouse of a Slovak citizen with permanent residence here. Item 24 of the schedule to Act No. 145/1995 Z. z. then exempts exactly that applicant from the 250 EUR fee for a permanent residence application. What they do not get is Union law. Section 2(3) defines a citizen of the Union, for the purposes of this Act, as someone who is not a Slovak citizen, so a Slovak's third-country spouse falls outside the free-movement chapter - unless section 2(5)(h) applies, which it does only where the couple are returning to Slovakia from another member state where both had residence rights. The price of the shortcut is a long tail. Section 50(1)(e) cancels the permanent residence where the marriage ends within five years of it being granted, and section 50(1)(d) cancels it where the spouses do not lead a common family life. Employment needs no permit either way: section 23a(1)(d) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. covers the family member of a Slovak citizen and of a Union citizen alike.

Verified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-10

At a glance

Spouse of a Slovak citizen
Permanent residence for 5 years, at the first grant

Section 43(1)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., where the Slovak citizen has permanent residence here.

Fee for that application
Nothing, by exemption 5 to item 24 of the schedule to Act No. 145/1995 Z. z.

The same item charges 250 EUR for a permanent residence application by anyone else.

Spouse of a resident third-country national
Temporary residence for family reunification

Section 27(1)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; both spouses must be at least 18 under section 27(2)(a).

Is a Slovak citizen a Union citizen here
No

Section 2(3) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z. defines a citizen of the Union as someone who is not a citizen of the Slovak Republic, so the free-movement chapter does not reach a Slovak's spouse.

Unless
You are returning together from another member state

Section 2(5)(h) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., which requires the third-country national to have had residence rights in the same member state as the Slovak citizen.

Cancellation window
5 years

Section 50(1)(e) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.: the permanent residence is cancelled where the marriage ends within five years of the grant.

Decision
90 days

Section 45(7) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z. for permanent residence for five years.

Working
No permit and no confirmation

Section 23a(1)(d) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z., which covers the family member of a Slovak citizen and of a Union citizen on the same terms.

Requirements

  • A Slovak spouse who is registered for permanent residence here, for the section 43(1)(a) route
  • A marriage that lasts, because it is cancellable for five years
  • A resident third-country spouse instead, for the section 27 family reunification route

Country-level policy

Half the Year, Every Year: Slovakia Measures Presence as a Quota and Absence as a Hundred and Eighty Days

Most countries that police absence do it one way. Slovakia does it four, and the four are not variants of one rule. Section 111(1)(t) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z. makes a temporary residence holder stay on the territory for more than half the time of the granted residence in the calendar year, which is a presence quota: two absences of four months each breach it even though neither is continuous. Section 36(1)(d) makes breaching it a ground to cancel the residence, and exempts a researcher under section 26, a Slovak living abroad under section 29, a long-term resident of another member state under section 30, and anyone whose residence began less than 90 days before the year ended. Section 111(1)(a) separately requires written notice to the police before a continuous absence of more than 180 days. Section 50(1)(c) cancels permanent residence where the holder is continuously abroad for more than 180 days without having given that notice. And sections 35(a) and 49(a) end a residence - temporary or permanent - that was granted and never used: the holder who does not enter Slovakia within 180 days of the grant loses it. Underneath all of them sits the definition in section 2(1)(k): continuous residence runs from the day of entry, and a continuous absence of more than 180 days does not count towards it, which is what a five-year clock for long-term residence is actually measuring.

Slovakia's A2 Slovak Examination Guards the Union Long-Term Status, Not Permanent Residence, and It Has No Upper Age Exemption

Both halves of the former Czechoslovakia ask for A2, and they attach it to different documents. In Czechia the examination guards permanent residence after five years and section 70(5)(f) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. excuses anyone over 60. In Slovakia permanent residence is a family status - section 43 grants it to the spouse or dependent relative of a Slovak citizen with no language test at all - and the five-year, time-based route is the EU long-term resident status in section 52 of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z. That is where the language sits. Section 52(7) grants the long-term residence only where the applicant proves command of Slovak under section 54(4), and section 54(4) sets the level: an examination at a language school or a public university whose linguistic difficulty corresponds to at least A2 of the Common European Framework. The exemptions are four and none of them is an age ceiling: under 14 at the application, a holder of temporary residence as a Slovak living abroad under section 29, a person who completed lower secondary education at a Slovak-language school, and a person who studied at least two school years at a Slovak-language primary or secondary school or two academic years in a Slovak-language university programme, within the last five years. Section 52(8) lets the Ministry of the Interior waive it for permanent ill health.

What applies to you

Nothing changes for a citizen of Suriname

We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 43 ods. 1 písm. a) · consolidated to 2026-10-01
«Policajný útvar udelí trvalý pobyt na päť rokov, ak nie sú dôvody na zamietnutie žiadosti podľa § 48 ods. 2, štátnemu príslušníkovi tretej krajiny, a) ktorý je manželom štátneho občana Slovenskej republiky s trvalým pobytom na území Slovenskej republiky alebo závislým príbuzným v priamom rade štátneho občana Slovenskej republiky s trvalým pobytom na území Slovenskej republiky,»

Our translation - not official

The police department shall grant permanent residence for five years, where there are no grounds to refuse the application under section 48(2), to a third-country national a) who is the spouse of a citizen of the Slovak Republic with permanent residence on the territory of the Slovak Republic or a dependent relative in the direct line of a citizen of the Slovak Republic with permanent residence on the territory of the Slovak Republic,

Permanent residence at the first grant, with no preceding temporary residence. The Slovak spouse must themselves be registered for permanent residence here.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 27 ods. 1 · consolidated to 2026-10-01
«zamietnutie žiadosti podľa § 33 ods. 6, štátnemu príslušníkovi tretej krajiny, ktorý je a) rodinným príslušníkom štátneho príslušníka tretej krajiny s prechodným pobytom alebo s trvalým pobytom, b) príbuzným v priamom vzostupnom rade azylanta mladšieho ako 18 rokov, alebo c) závislou osobou podľa medzinárodnej zmluvy.55)»

Our translation - not official

...refusal of the application under section 33(6), to a third-country national who is a) a family member of a third-country national with temporary or permanent residence, b) a relative in the direct ascending line of an asylum holder younger than 18, or c) a dependent person under an international treaty.

The opening words are separated from the rest by a footnote block in the publisher's PDF. The provision reaches a resident third-country national's family and no one else's.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 2 ods. 3 · consolidated to 2026-10-01
«Občanom Únie je každý, kto nie je štátnym občanom Slovenskej republiky a je štátnym občanom niektorého členského štátu.»

Our translation - not official

A citizen of the Union is anyone who is not a citizen of the Slovak Republic and is a citizen of some member state.

One sentence, and it is what keeps a Slovak's third-country spouse out of the free-movement chapter. Czech law goes the other way: section 15a(2) of Act No. 326/1999 Sb. treats the spouse of a Czech citizen as the family member of a Union citizen.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 2 ods. 5 písm. h) · consolidated to 2026-10-01
«h) štátny príslušník tretej krajiny s právom pobytu v rovnakom členskom štáte, v ktorom má občan Únie právo pobytu a občanom Únie je štátny občan Slovenskej republiky, s ktorým sa štátny príslušník tretej krajiny navráti na pobyt alebo sa k nemu pripája na pobyt späť na územie Slovenskej republiky a spĺňa niektorú z podmienok uvedených v písmenách a) až g) vo vzťahu k štátnemu občanovi Slovenskej republiky.»

Our translation - not official

h) a third-country national with a right of residence in the same member state in which a citizen of the Union has a right of residence, where the citizen of the Union is a citizen of the Slovak Republic with whom the third-country national returns to reside or joins to reside back on the territory of the Slovak Republic and meets one of the conditions in points (a) to (g) in relation to the citizen of the Slovak Republic.

The single doorway back into Union law for a Slovak's spouse, and it is only open to a couple who lived together in another member state first.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 50 ods. 1 písm. e) · consolidated to 2026-10-01
«e) štátnemu príslušníkovi tretej krajiny bol udelený trvalý pobyt podľa § 43 ods. 1 písm. a) alebo § 46 ods. 1 písm. a) a jeho manželstvo zaniklo do piatich rokov od udelenia trvalého pobytu na päť rokov,»

Our translation - not official

e) the third-country national was granted permanent residence under section 43(1)(a) or section 46(1)(a) and their marriage ended within five years of the grant of permanent residence for five years,

The cost of getting permanent residence on the first day: it is revocable for as long as it lasts.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 45 ods. 7 · consolidated to 2026-10-01
«Policajný útvar rozhodne o žiadosti o udelenie trvalého pobytu na päť rokov do 90 dní»

Our translation - not official

The police department shall decide on an application for permanent residence for five years within 90 days

The sentence continues from delivery of the application to the police department, and adds a thirty-day rule for applicants connected with a significant foreign investor.

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About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky č. 145/1995 Z. z. o správnych poplatkoch · Položka 24, Oslobodenie 5 · consolidated to 2026-09-01
«5. Od poplatku podľa písmena c) tejto položky sú oslobodené osoby podľa § 43 ods. 1 písm. a) zákona č. 404/2011 Z. z.»

Our translation - not official

5. Exempt from the fee under point (c) of this item are persons under section 43(1)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.

Point (c) is the 250 EUR permanent residence application, so the spouse of a Slovak citizen pays nothing for it.

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About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Text layer - verbatim verifiedZákon č. 5/2004 Z. z. o službách zamestnanosti a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov · § 23a ods. 1 písm. d) · consolidated to 2026-08-01
«d) ktorý je rodinným príslušníkom občana členského štátu Európskej únie alebo rodinným príslušníkom občana Slovenskej republiky a ktorý má oprávnený pobyt na území Slovenskej republiky,»

Our translation - not official

d) who is a family member of a citizen of a member state of the European Union or a family member of a citizen of the Slovak Republic and who has lawful residence on the territory of the Slovak Republic,

The employment statute treats the two the same even though the residence Act does not.

Read it at the source
About this source

The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

Practical notes

Getting permanent residence on day one is not the same as getting security. For five years the status depends on the marriage continuing and on the spouses leading a common family life, which section 50(1)(d) makes a ground of cancellation in its own right.

Section 48(2)(d) and (e) let the police refuse where the marriage was one of convenience, which section 2(1)(r) defines, or where it was not contracted under the family law instrument the Act points to.

A couple who have lived together in another member state have a choice of route, and the free-movement one under section 2(5)(h) has no five-year cancellation attached. Which is better depends on facts this record does not reach.

Sources2 · all accessed 2026-10-10
  • consolidates
    Zákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov

    Slov-lex, Ministerstvo spravodlivosti Slovenskej republiky · consolidated to 2026-10-01

    About this source

    The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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

  • consolidates
    Zákon Národnej rady Slovenskej republiky č. 145/1995 Z. z. o správnych poplatkoch

    Slov-lex, Ministerstvo spravodlivosti Slovenskej republiky · consolidated to 2026-09-01

    About this source

    The Slovak state's own legal information system, run by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the Zbierka zákonov Slovenskej republiky and keeps every instrument as a series of point-in-time versions. Three addresses serve the same corpus and they behave differently. www.slov-lex.sk is the live portal: a legacy address such as /pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/ answers HTTP 301 to redir.slov-lex.sk and again to /ezbierky/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2011/404/, which is an application page. static.slov-lex.sk is a complete static mirror at predictable addresses and is the one to read: /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ is the version history, /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.html is the version in force from that date, and /static/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/{YYYYMMDD}.print.html is the same text without the navigation. The third is the PDF, at /pdf/SK/ZZ/{year}/{number}/ZZ_{year}_{number}_{YYYYMMDD}.pdf, and for an instrument of any age it is the one with legal force: each version's header prints either Obsah dokumentu je právne záväzný or, for older instruments, Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter, and the HTML page says in terms that its content is informative and that the legally binding content is in the PDF. Version dates are the date the version took effect, so finding the text in force on a given day means reading the history page rather than guessing an address.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: **The HTML and the PDF are two manifestations of one document and only one of them can be quoted at length.** The static HTML is captured with the portal's own copy-to-clipboard icons between every block, which survive extraction as image markdown; a quotation that crosses a paragraph boundary therefore carries exclamation marks the publisher never wrote, and in the residence Act that is every lettered list. The PDF has no such furniture and extracts as clean single-column text, but it breaks a sentence wherever a footnote block or a running header falls: section 20(2) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z., section 27(1) of the same Act and section 7(3) of Act No. 40/1993 Z. z. are each cut in half by a footnote, and section 23a(1)(e) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. is cut by a page break with the forty-hour limit on one page and the eighty-hour limit on the next. A quotation has to be taken from whichever side of the break its sentence survives on and cut short rather than stitched. **The informative-versus-binding line is not where its age suggests.** The PDF of Vyhláška No. 499/2011 Z. z. prints Obsah tohto dokumentu má informatívny charakter on its own first page, so for that instrument neither manifestation is the promulgated text. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the register of occupations with a labour shortage by region, kept under section 12(ad) of Act No. 5/2004 Z. z. by the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family; the annexes to Government Regulation No. 521/2021 Z. z., which the portal serves as separate downloads rather than as part of the text; how much of that regulation's ceiling of 3,000 national visas remains at any moment, which nothing requires anyone to publish; the business plan template the Ministry of Economy publishes under section 32(5)(a) of Act No. 404/2011 Z. z.; and the practice of the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad in assessing national consciousness under Act No. 474/2005 Z. z. It is also not the place to read a figure that an opatrenie moves: Act No. 601/2003 Z. z. still prints 178.92 EUR in its own section 2(a), and the amount in force is in the ministerial measure, which is a separate instrument with its own address.

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