Effective 1st of October 2018 applications for Employee cards and Blue cards for highly qualified workers from India are assessed under a Czech Government Program „Project India“. This Program offers a preferential approach for those Indian workers whose prospective Czech employer has fulfilled the conditions to be included in this Program. 

The requirements for a highly qualified worker to be assessed under the „Project India“ are following: an academic degree, salary in the minimum amount of CZK 45,000 gross and at least 1 year’s duration of the prospective employment contract. 

Under this scheme, the government has established an annual quota of 500 applications per year for accepting applications for Employee cards, and this quota will be evenly distributed over particular months and will not be exceeded. The participation with the program facilitates the arrangement of the appointment and submission of Employee card at Czech Embassy in New Delhi, India. The further process corresponds with the regular Employee card applications. There is a 60-day processing period once a complete application is submitted at the Embassy.

Applications for incorporation to the Regime will be decided by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the recommendation of the Czech Business Representation Institution or the CzechInvest Business and Investment Support Agency. As the „Project India“ is an extension of the Project Ukraine to citizens of India, individual applications from direct employers will be assessed on the basis of the same conditions as the applications for the Project Ukraine. In this sense, those employers that are already eligible of the Project Ukraine are part of the Project India as well.  

Another project for qualified workers was already launched in September 2018 – „Project Other Countries“. This covers Serbia (with 2,000 applications per year) and Mongolia and Philippines (1,000 applications for each country per year). 

Author: Tomáš Petyovský, Partner at Petyovský & Partners