Leaving the Czech Republic: what to cancel and claim

✓ Checked against the law · 12 October 2026

Moving away? The most important steps:

• Hand in your residence card at least 3 days before you leave.
• Stop your health insurance properly, or the premiums keep running.
• Keep a record of your pension years. Czech pension contributions are not refunded, but the years can count towards a pension later.

Sources: Act 326/1999 (residence), Act 48/1997 (health insurance), Income Tax Act, Civil Code, and the pages of the Ministry of the Interior, VZP and ČSSZ, linked in each section.

Checklist

• Give notice on your flat (usually 3 months)
• Give notice on electricity, gas, internet and phone
• Close or deregister your trade licence (self-employed)
• Tell your health insurer, and return your insurance card
• Get your employment certificate and wage certificate from your employer
• Download your pension insurance record
• Close your bank account, or keep it for tax refunds
• Hand in your residence card at least 3 days before you leave
• File your tax return the following spring, if you need to

Residence card: hand it in 3 days before you leave

Every foreigner must hand in their residence document at least 3 days before ending their stay (§103(i)).

• From outside the EU: take your biometric card to a Ministry of the Interior office. You get a departure order (výjezdní příkaz), which lets you leave legally. You can also send the card by registered or insured post to the office for your registered address (ministry).
• EU citizens: hand in your registration certificate, residence card or permanent residence document at any ministry office, or send it by registered post with a note that you’re ending your stay (ministry).

Thinking of coming back? Watch the time limits

Permanent residence isn’t cancelled just because you leave, but it can be:

• Non-EU citizens: after more than 12 months in a row outside the EU without a serious reason, or more than 6 years outside the Czech Republic (§77).
• EU citizens: after more than 2 years in a row away (§87l).

Health insurance

If you’re insured through a job

Your public insurance ends the day your job ends, if you don’t have permanent residence (§3(2)). Your employer must report it within 8 days. Return your insurance card within 8 days.

If you have permanent residence

You stay in the system, and the premiums keep running, even after you leave. To stop paying, VZP requires all three of these (VZP):

1. You’ll be abroad for at least 6 months in a row.
2. You’re insured abroad for the whole time.
3. You deliver a written declaration of long-term stay abroad (prohlášení o dlouhodobém pobytu v cizině) before you leave. It can’t be backdated.

Return your card within 8 days. If you come back early, you pay all the premiums as if you’d never left.

Moving to work in another EU country, or in the USA, Japan, Turkey or Serbia, for example? You must leave Czech insurance however long you stay. Tell your insurer within 8 days of starting work there (VZP).

Having trouble with VZP debts? See health insurance: fixing common problems.

Pension and social security

• No refund. Czech law doesn’t allow pension contributions to be paid back or transferred to another country (ČSSZ, question 10).
• Your years still count.
  • EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the UK: each country where you were insured for at least a year pays its own part of your pension, and the years are added together to qualify.
  • Countries with a treaty: the Czech Republic has treaties with many countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Turkey and Serbia (full list).
  • Countries without a treaty: a Czech pension usually needs 35 years of insurance, or 20 years if you claim at least 2 years after retirement age (Act 155/1995 §29).
• Keep a record. Download your insurance record from the ČSSZ ePortal (Moje konto) before you leave; you’ll need a Czech digital login. From abroad you can request a paper copy in writing (ČSSZ).
• Ask your employer for an employment certificate (potvrzení o zaměstnání) when the job ends. They must give you one (Labour Code §313).
• Moving within the EU and might need unemployment benefit? A U1 form confirms your Czech insurance years for the new country. Ask the Czech Labour Office (Úřad práce) (up.gov.cz).

Tax

• You may still be a Czech tax resident for the whole year, if you spent at least 183 days here or had your home here (§2).
• Only had a job? You can ask your last employer to do your annual tax settlement by 15 February the following year, if you signed the tax declaration (prohlášení) with every employer (§38ch). Ask each employer for a wage and tax certificate; they must issue it within 10 days (§38j).
• Otherwise, file a tax return the following spring. For 2026, the deadlines are 1 April 2027 on paper, 3 May 2027 online, or 1 July 2027 through a tax adviser. Refunds of CZK 200 or more are paid to the account you name. See the tax return guide.
• Non-residents: most tax credits, such as for children or a spouse, apply only if you live in the EU or EEA and at least 90% of your income came from the Czech Republic.

Your flat

• Open-ended lease: give notice in writing. The notice period is 3 months, starting on the 1st of the month after the landlord receives your notice (Civil Code §2231, §2286).
• Fixed-term lease: you can end it early only if your circumstances have changed so much that you can’t reasonably be expected to continue (§2287). Moving abroad for a new job may qualify, but it isn’t guaranteed; try to agree an early end with your landlord.
• Your deposit comes back at the end of the lease, with interest, minus anything you owe. See getting your deposit back.
• Your final utility settlement arrives after the billing year ends, so leave the landlord an address or account for it. See utility bills.

Contracts

• Phone and internet: you can leave at any time. If you’re more than 3 months into the contract, early termination costs at most 1/20 of the remaining monthly fees. After an automatic renewal, leaving is free (Act 127/2005 §63b).
• Electricity and gas: an open-ended contract can be ended with 3 months’ notice (Energy Act §11c). Many suppliers also offer to end supply when you move out; ask yours.
• Bank account: you can close it at any time, with at most 1 month’s notice. Closing it in person before you leave is easiest. See bank accounts.

Self-employed (trade licence)

1. Cancel or pause your trade licence at the trade licensing office. It can be cancelled from the date you choose, but not earlier than the day your request arrives (Trade Act §58).
2. Tell your health insurer within 8 days that you’ve stopped. Telling the trade office counts as telling the insurer.
3. Tell ČSSZ within 15 days, using their form for ending self-employment (ČSSZ). Telling the trade office doesn’t cover this.
4. File your tax return and annual overviews for the last year as usual. People on the flat-rate tax don’t need the overviews. See freelancing on a trade licence.

Other things

• Data box (datová schránka): it stays open after you leave, and official letters count as delivered 10 days after they arrive, even if you never log in. Keep checking it, or ask for it to be switched off (Act 300/2008 §11, §17).
• Czech driving licence: you don’t have to return it.
• Car on Czech plates: to take it abroad permanently, get export plates at the municipal office, handing in your plates and registration certificate (Act 56/2001 §14).