Criminal Record Validity for Slovak Residency

If a foreign national has been registered as a managing director of a commercial company, it is only a matter of time before the Trade Licensing Office requests the submission of a criminal record extract. If the foreign national has held temporary residence in Slovakia for at least 6 months, it is sufficient to request a Slovak criminal record extract, for example, at a post office. Please note that most post office branches require the submission of the foreign national’s birth certificate for the purpose of requesting a criminal record extract. However, we have encountered branches that repeatedly did not require said birth certificate.

The second option is to submit a criminal record extract from the country of origin, in your case, Iran. However, in the case of Iranian nationals, the Trade Licensing Office requires a superlegalized criminal record extract. This document must therefore be certified by the Ministry of Justice of Iran, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, as well as the Slovak Embassy in Iran, and subsequently officially translated into Slovak (we recommend having the official translation prepared in Slovakia).

Regarding certification by our diplomatic mission in Iran, the personal presence of the foreign national at the embassy is not required; it is sufficient to send the document for superlegalization by mail. According to information from the embassy, it is preferred to send a scan of the criminal record extract by email so that the embassy can verify the signature specimens of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran official. Subsequently, the extract may be sent by mail along with the fee; however, you must ensure the collection of the documents and their subsequent transport to the Slovak Republic.

If a foreign national was granted residence and subsequently registered in the Commercial Register, it takes several months before the Trade Licensing Office issues a request to submit a criminal record extract. However, since the superlegalization process is time-consuming and will also require obtaining a new criminal record extract (which must not be older than 90 days), we recommend addressing this matter as soon as possible after being registered as a new managing director in the Commercial Register.