Rules for Using the Information Portal for Foreigners and Booking Online Appointments
Generally
1. The appointment booking service via the Information Portal for Foreigners (hereinafter “the service“) is established by the Ministry of the Interior in accordance with § 1 par. 2 of law no. 326/1999 Coll.
2. Foreigners granted Temporary Protection status are permitted to make a reservation, only in connection with an extension of their Temporary Protection status.
3. The service is accessible to persons older than 15 years of age in connection with § 178 of Law no. 326/1999 Coll. It is the legal representative, who acts for a person younger than 15 years of age.
4. The service is accessible via the web link on the website of the Ministry of the Interior (www.mvcr.cz).
5. The service cannot be used without a valid e-mail address. Every user must have his/her own unique e-mail address. E-mail addresses cannot be shared between users.
6. Each user can only use one unique validated account.
7. The service processes and saves personal data of the users, within the scope of the authority of the administrative body specified by the law. Further, the service processes and saves contact information of the users, in the form of an e-mail, and eventually a phone number, which the users themselves voluntarily impart.
8. In case of extraordinary functioning/ operating / incidents (events) (for example a technical accident / emergency), the service administrator reserves the right to cancel the date of an appointment, which the foreigner will be notified of, and potentially, block access to the service.
9. Further, the service administrator reserves the right to block access to the service, or halt its functioning in case of any threat to the security of the service, or to the personal data of users.
10. On the above grounds, certain IP addresses, from which the users log in, can also be blocked.
Creating a user account (registration in the Information Portal for Foreigners)
11. The applicant must create a user account in order to use the service. Within the first phase, the user fills in his/her e-mail address, personal password and citizenship. Third-country nationals may choose the classification of student or family member of an EU citizen. At further stages, the user sets out further personal data limited to family name, surname, date of birth, number of travel document, date of expiry of the travel document, address of his/her registered residence in the Czech Republic and telephone number in the country. If the user wishes to use all functions, s/he must fill in all personal data, and have his/her account validated.
12. By creating an account, the user is deemed to give his/her consent to the service administrator and to the Ministry of the Interior, to process and save his/her personal data for the purposes of this service. This consent is based on the free will of the user, who has decided to use this service. Personal data provided will be used solely for the purposes connected to the usage of this service, and in furtherance of the potential notification to the user within the scope of the information service of the Ministry of the Interior. Furthermore, usage of personal data is restricted by the scope of legal authorisation of the Ministry of the Interior, conferred under the law no. 326/1999 Coll. The administrator of the service is obliged, under the rules of administration of personal data, to follow the law no. 110/2019 Coll. on the Processing of Personal Data.
13. User´s personal data fed in shall be validated and compared with / to the data registered in the Foreigners Information System. To validate the user, it is necessary to feed in all personal data and s/he must be registered in the Foreigners Information System. When stating one´s name and surname, it is necessary to omit all diacritic. You can follow the form stated /given in the machine-readable zone of your travel document. If the account is not verified, the foreigner can use the service within certain limits.
14. After the validation of the account, it is not possible to change the personal data. Exemptions are a change of place of registered residence in the Czech Republic, password, travel document, telephone number and classification under the category of a family member of an EU citizen (according to § 15a of law no. 326/1999 Coll.), or category Student (residence permit for the purpose of study under § 64 of law no. 326/1999 Coll. of an accredited field of study at a university in the Czech Republic). By filling in one´s personal data, the user is deemed to proclaim, that all the data are correct. If it be to the contrary / Failing that, the user can be restricted to use / in using the service.
15. By the registration, the user is acting only for himself. It is not permissible to create an account on behalf of another person. Registration while giving and misusing personal data of another person, can be considered a breach of the law. In case of discovering such a method, there will be indictment filed with the responsible authorities, or with the Police of the CR.
16. In case of suspicion of misuse of registration data by a third party, the user can approach the administrator of the service, or by the Ministry of the Interior, either personally, or in writing.
17. In case of an unsuccessful validation of the filled-in data (see point 13), the data provided is stored in the memory of the service administrator. A validation of such data can be accomplished only by a manual filing into the Foreigners Information System, which carried out by an employee at the counter of the Ministry of the Interior. This can be done of the employee or the user himself, in his personal profile. Until then, use of the service by a registered foreigner is somewhat limited. To make an appointment at a counter of the Asylum and Migration Policy Department, foreign nationals can use the telephone reservation line. The earliest appointment day that can be reserved through the information hotline is for the day after the day of the telephone reservation.
18. A registered user obtains his/her own unique account, through which s/he can utilize various services, carry out permitted administration, and overview reservations and actions which s/he has taken.
19. An authorized user can cancel his/her account, using the application form for account cancellation. According to the provision of § 37 of law no. 500/2004 Coll., it can be delivered through the post service, personally at the counters of the offices of the Ministry of the Interior, or via a Data Box.
20. User account is automatically cancelled, if a user has not checked-in for 5 years.
21. A registered user can change the information relating to the place of residence in the Czech Republic and the current travel document once a day at most. S/he can change his/her answers to the questions stated in the registration once a month at most. They can influence the classification of the foreign national into the category of a family member of an EU citizen (according to the provision of § 15a of law no. 326/1999 Coll.), or the category Student (residence permit for the purpose of study according to the provision § 64 of law no. 326/1999 Coll. of an accredited field of study at a university in the Czech Republic). Changes of telephone numbers in the Czech Republic are not limited. By making any of these changes, the user is deemed to have declared that the newly given data is correct. If not, usage of the service can be limited to the user, or his/her appointment will be cancelled.
22. A registered user, who has been successfully validated in the Foreigners Information System, may utilise the online reservation system service for the appointments at the Asylum and Migration Policy Department counters. A user who has not been validated can use the service, but only within a limited ambit. Workplaces which provide this service, are listed in the Information Portal for Foreigners, which is continuously updated.
Online Appointment Reservation Service
23. Based on the stated data, every user is automatically allocated to his/her local (designated) workplace. An appointment reservation cannot be transferred to a different workplace. If a user is given an appointment at a certain workplace, s/he cannot be served at a different workplace.
24. A user can make a reservation only for himself/herself (exceptions are set out under point 26). An appointment reservation cannot be transferred to another person.
25. A user can book an appointment within one workplace and one request for himself/herself and his/her family members in the direct (ascending or descending) line, by selecting the number of accompanying persons. This exemption does not apply to other family members.
26. It is not possible to make an online reservation for another person by a person, who has been granted a power of attorney. In such a case, it is necessary to make an appointment per telephone. Such a reservation is limited up to four represented persons. For persons younger than 15 years of age, their legal representatives act for them.
27. Reservations made online are binding. An appointment can be cancelled or changed no later than 48 hours beforehand. A user can cancel his/her reservation up to ten times within 90 days; that time limit of 90 days is calculated retrospectively from the date of this cancelled reservation. If it is a tenth cancellation, the next possible appointment will be 90 days from the cancellation date of the tenth appointment. However, there are some agendas which do not permit either a cancellation or a change of appointment.
28. If you do not appear at your booked appointment, without having previously cancelled your reservation through the service, or if such an appointment could neither be cancelled, nor changed any more, your reservation expires.
29. If the number of your expired reservations within the 180 days since the previous expired reservation amounts to three in succession, your ability to make a reservation will be blocked for 180 days following the latest expired reservation.
30. A verified user can have up to 3 active (non-proceeded) reservations within 60 days. The time-limit of 60 days is always counted from the date of the first active reservation. Further reservations beyond this limited number are not possible. A non-verified user can have up to one reservation, provided the workplace enables it.
31. Within every successful online appointment reservation, a confirmatory notification and a unique PIN code are generated, and are sent to the user. It is a 4-digit combination, which must be entered into the terminal of the workplace call system, or reported at the workplace, no sooner than 30 minutes before the planned appointment, and 15 minutes after it at the latest. Thereafter, the reservation will expire (see point 28). Details of the online reservation appointment can be found in the profile of the user. If the appointment reservation is made through the workplace or the infoline, the PIN code is not generated, although it can be found in the terminal of the call system by forename and surname.
32. When making an appointment reservation, the user chooses the agenda, which s/he will be dealing with at the workplace. Selection of the agenda is obligatory and cannot be changed, once the reservation has been saved. In case a foreigner appears at the workplace with the aim to resolve a different agenda, other than the one s/he had reserved, his/her appointment for the appointment shall be refused, and s/he will have to take his/her place in the ordinary queue at the counter. His/her matter will be treated (or not), within the capacity and working hours of the workplace.
33. A user can choose just one agenda. However, if the nature of the matter allows it, other matters of his/her agenda may also be handled.
For example, a foreigner who has made an appointment for filing an application for a permanent residence permit, while dealing with this agenda, s/he can also report a change of address.
34. In case the reservation of an appointment is in conflict with the above rules, and especially in cases of untrue or incorrect information provided, or arranging an appointment reservation for another person, the reserved appointment will not be taken into consideration, and the reservation will be cancelled without any other date being substituted.
35. The time given in the reservation slot is only an approximation for the benefit of the service provider, as the complexity of some agendas and the variability of various situations and administrative proceedings is considerable, making it impractical to limit the length of handling each individual client. The handling can be carried out within 30-60 minutes from the provided time, i.e. 30-60 minutes from entering the PIN code or from collecting the ticket, at the workplace call system terminal.