Renewal of temporary residence permit Slovakia

We are two persons and have a s.r.o. company in Slovakia, our resident permit will expire in mid May 2019, so I have a few question to ask: 1. As our company didn’t have any income in past year (because of some problems with people who managed our company), can we still renew our resident permits ? 2. Do we need to be present in Slovakia and have a real resident address to renew our resident permits? Thank you in advance.

The application for the renewal of your residence permit has to be submitted to the foreign police in Slovakia before the residence permit expires. You will have to submit the application personally, you can hire a lawyer to represent you in the whole process but still your personal presence when submitting the application is required. 

As you are both directors of the Slovak LLC (s.r.o.), you have to prove a net profit (after taxes) for the past year in the amount of at least sixty times the subsistence minimum – which is currently at least the amount of around 12.400 EUR. If you are both representatives at the same company, this amount remains the same for both of you. 

The main reason when you applied for a residence permit for the purpose of doing business was running real business activities. If you had no income, that means that you did not run the business in Slovakia, which means for the foreign police and according the law that the residence permit renewal may be declined. 

Also the residential address has to be real. The foreign police officer can go (and mostly they do) personally check the accommodation before they decide about your application. Accommodation can be proved either by letter of ownership as well as by the rental agreement. 

The foreign police officers when dealing with your application will also investigate whether you were living in Slovakia for at least half of the year. If not, they can again decide to reject your application.

I have a residence permit for the purpose of business as a director of a Slovak LLC. What is the required profit amount to be demonstrated when renewing the temporary residence permit?

In accordance with § 34 paragraph 7 of the Act on the Residence of Foreigners: “A third-country national is required to demonstrate, in the application for the renewal of a temporary residence permit under § 22 paragraph 1 letter b), a net profit of the business company or cooperative, on behalf of which they act, for the previous tax period of at least sixty times the subsistence minimum. If it concerns a third-country national whose business plan has been assessed by the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic as an innovative project, the required net profit is at least twenty times the subsistence minimum; if they did not conduct business for the entire previous tax period, they must demonstrate a net profit of five times the subsistence minimum for each month of residence in the previous tax period. If a third-country national acts on behalf of several business companies or cooperatives, the net profit requirement from the previous sentence must be met by at least one of the companies or cooperatives on behalf of which they act. If the third-country national was not authorized to act on behalf of a company or cooperative in the previous tax period, they are required to demonstrate financial security for the business activity amounting to thirty times the subsistence minimum by submitting a bank statement according to § 32 paragraph 7.”

As of July 1, 2024, in the Slovak Republic, the subsistence minimum is 273.99 EUR. The net profit after tax of the company must be at least 16,439.40 EUR.

Renewal of temporary residence for the purpose of employment if the foreigner studied at a university in Slovakia

I studied at a Slovak university, which I successfully graduated from, found employment, and now, after two years, I would like to renew my residence permit for the purpose of employment. Do I have to apply for a work permit from the Labour Office?

According to Section 23(2) of the Act on the Residence of Foreigners, “The police department shall grant temporary residence for the purpose of employment, provided that there are no grounds for rejecting the application under Section 33(6), also to a third-country national based on a work permit or to a third-country national for whom a work permit (§22 of Act No. 5/2004 Coll.) or a confirmation of the possibility to fill a vacant job position is not required.”

Pursuant to Section 23a(1)(t) of the Employment Services Act, “An employer may employ a third-country national who has successfully completed secondary school or university studies in the territory of the Slovak Republic…” According to this paragraph, a third-country national is not required to provide a confirmation of the possibility to fill a vacant job position that corresponds to a highly qualified job, nor a confirmation of the possibility to fill a job vacancy, nor a work permit.

In practice, however, we have encountered instances where the Foreign Police have required submission of a statement from the employer confirming that a work permit is not required, pursuant to the aforementioned Section 23(2) of the Act on the Residence of Foreigners.