Czechia knowledge base
Hiring Filipino workers in Czechia: the Qualified Employee Programme.
We recruit for Czech employers across construction, manufacturing, food processing, care, hospitality kitchens, horticulture, agriculture and logistics, on the Employee Card under the Qualified Employee Programme. This is a reference guide to how that route works, which occupations qualify and which are excluded outright, the wage and contract terms the programme imposes, and the Philippine-side chain behind every deployment. We are accepting Czech job orders now.
Regulatory figures current as of September 2026. Czech residence and employment rules change, and embassy capacity changes more often than the rules do — confirm the current position with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs before acting.
Accepting Czech job orders
We are taking on Czech employers as principals now. Send us the occupations, the headcount and the Czech level the work actually needs, and we will come back on whether the roles classify inside the programme and what the Philippine side requires from you.
The permit
One document covering residence and work.
A Filipino worker comes to Czechia on the Employee Card ( zaměstnanecká karta ) — a dual-purpose permit that carries both long-term residence and the right to work in one document. It is tied to a named employer, a named job and a named workplace, so it is not transferable between providers without notifying the Ministry of the Interior.
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Permit | Employee Card — residence and work in one |
| Validity | a maximum of two years |
| Tied to | A specific employer, role and workplace |
| Working time | Full statutory weekly working time. Part-time does not qualify under the programme |
| Contract term | An employment relationship of at least one year |
| Wage floor | 1.22× the monthly minimum wage, for the whole of the employment relationship |
| Where it is applied for | The Czech Embassy in Manila, in person |
| Decision period | 60 days, up to 90 in complex cases |
The wage floor, precisely
The programme requires at least 1.22× the monthly minimum wage. On the CZK 22,400 minimum wage for 2026 that puts the floor at CZK 27,328 a month, and it must hold for the entire duration of the employment relationship rather than being reached on average.
Only optional pay components count towards it. Statutory supplements under §111(1) of the Labour Code — overtime, holiday, night, weekend and difficult working environment — do not. An offer that reaches the floor only once shift premiums are counted does not reach it.
Labour market test
After arrival
Which occupations
Classification decides eligibility, not the job title.
The programme admits CZ-ISCO major classes 4 to 8 and nothing else. Class 9, the elementary occupations, is excluded outright and there is no appeal against it. Classes 1 to 3 — managers, professionals and technicians — belong to a different programme entirely. This is the single most common reason an application fails, and it fails on how the role classifies rather than on the person in it.
Two roles that look alike on a rota can sit either side of that line. Send us the occupations before the headcount and we will tell you which of them the programme can actually carry.
| Sector and CZ-ISCO class | What we recruit |
|---|---|
| Construction, main trades (711) | Bricklayer, mason, concrete worker, carpenter, construction joiner, prefabricated-structure erector, stonemason |
| Construction, finishing (712–713) | Roofer, floor layer, tiler, plasterer, insulator, glazier, pipe fitter, HVAC mechanic, painter |
| Precast concrete and building materials (8) | Plant production roles |
| Manufacturing and automotive (8) | Machine operator, assembler, CNC, welder |
| Food processing (8) | Roles classified within major class 8 |
| Care and healthcare support (532) | Healthcare assistant, care worker |
| Hospitality kitchens (512) | Cook, chef de partie, sous chef |
| Horticulture (6113) | Qualified gardeners and nursery growers |
| Agriculture and forestry (class 6) | Roles classified within major class 6 |
| Logistics (class 8) | Forklift and plant operators, and drivers |
Where the line actually falls
In horticulture, qualified gardeners and nursery growers classify at 6113 and qualify. Horticultural assistants and grounds maintenance labourers classify at 9214 and do not.
In logistics, forklift and plant operators and drivers classify in major class 8 and qualify. General warehouse handlers and order pickers classify in class 9 and do not.
Tell us what you need
The roles we are recruiting for now.
These are the occupations we are actively reaching out on for Czech employers. Tick what you need and we will come back on whether each one classifies inside the programme, what the wage floor means for that role, and what the Philippine side requires from you. Nothing here commits you to anything and there is no charge for the scoping.
Care and nursing
A Philippine nurse is not a Czech nurse.
One caveat sits on top of the classification rules, and it applies to care employers specifically. The Philippines produces a great many registered nurses. Czechia does not automatically recognise that registration, and healthcare support at 532 is not the same occupation as nursing.
| Role | What it actually requires |
|---|---|
| Social services care worker | A qualification course for social services workers of at least 150 hours, recognised in Czechia. This is the realistic corridor role |
| Registered nurse | Recognition of qualifications through the Ministry of Health, including an approbation examination taken in Czech. A long road, and not a recruitment timeline |
| Home and senior care support | Same social services qualification, with the provider's own induction |
On care orders we recruit into the social services care role, and we say so plainly rather than presenting nurses you cannot lawfully employ as nurses. A Philippine nursing degree is still an advantage in that role — the clinical grounding is real — but it is experience and aptitude you are buying, not a Czech nursing licence.
If you specifically need registered nurses on the Czech register, tell us at scoping. That is a different, much longer project, and we would rather say so at the first call than three months into an order.
Language
Czech is the gate, not the paperwork.
The Employee Card imposes no language test on your candidate. The work does, and how much it does depends entirely on the work. A care floor is unforgiving: a resident with dementia does not accommodate a language barrier and a Czech inspection will not either. A production line or a construction site is a different problem — safety briefings, method statements and the ability to raise a hazard. The standard you set is the standard we recruit to.
Tell us the level you actually need rather than the level you would like. We build Czech language preparation into the pipeline before departure, and we would rather extend a timeline to reach a real standard than present someone who will struggle in week one.
English is widely held by Filipino workers and is worth something in a Czech team, but it does not substitute for Czech with residents, or with a supervisor on a noisy site. We do not pretend otherwise.
The process
What a Czech employer clears, in order.
- 01Czech side
Register the vacancy with the Labour Office
The role goes into the central register of vacancies that can be filled by Employee Card holders. It must sit there for the labour market test period before a non-EU candidate can be considered.
- 0230 days
The labour market test runs
The vacancy is open to Czech and EU applicants for 30 days, reducible to as few as 10 days where the local market is tight. Only once it goes unfilled can the role be offered to a third-country national.
- 03Sofielle
Scoping and sourcing on the Philippine side
In parallel we document the role, the shift pattern, the language standard and the qualification you require, then recruit against that brief. We do not hold a bench of pre-cleared candidates waiting to be matched.
- 04Your call
You interview, then decide
Shortlisted candidates meet you by video around your timezone, across as many rounds as you want, before you select anyone. Decline anyone, for any reason.
- 05Manila
Contract, then the embassy appointment
The employment contract is signed to Czech standards, and the Employee Card application is filed in person at the Czech Embassy in Manila. Appointment capacity is limited and is usually the least predictable step in the whole chain.
- 06DMW
The Philippine deployment chain
Employer registered as principal with the Department of Migrant Workers, job order approved, contract verified, then medical, NBI clearance, pre-departure orientation, OWWA membership and the Overseas Employment Certificate.
- 07Arrival
Decision, travel and arrival
The Ministry of the Interior decides within 60 days, up to 90 in complex cases. On arrival the worker gives biometrics, collects the residence card, takes out health insurance and registers with the Foreign Police within 3 working days.
Capacity and quota
Being ready before the tranche opens is the timeline.
The Employee Card cannot be filed by post. Your worker attends the Czech Embassy in Manila in person, and the number of appointments released is limited. In practice this is what sets a Czech timeline, far more than the statutory decision period does.
The Programme for Qualified Employees gives participating employers a route to reserved filing capacity rather than leaving them in the open queue. Its conditions attach to the employer, not to the worker.
| Employer condition | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Trading history | Operating for at least two years |
| Headcount | Employing at least six people for three consecutive months |
| Arrears | Free of tax and insurance arrears |
| The vacancy | Advertised properly through the Labour Office |
| Not an agency | The employer must not be an employment agency, and must have no personnel link to one |
Philippine capacity is released in monthly tranches, and a tranche is routinely exhausted within the month it opens. What decides your timeline is therefore not how fast anyone works once a tranche is live — it is whether the file is complete and waiting before it opens. An order that is still gathering documents when a tranche opens waits for the next one.
Whether your organisation meets those conditions, and whether the programme is open to Philippine nationals for your sector in the current year, are the first two questions we would ask on a scoping call. Both are set by Czech government decision and both change — confirm them with your guarantor body rather than relying on this page.
The Philippine side
The half we hold ourselves.
We hold the Philippine licence, so accreditation, job order registration, contract verification and the exit chain run through us rather than through a partner agency you never meet.
Czech employer → Sofielle Global → Migrant Workers Office → Department of Migrant Workers
The employer is registered as principal, the job order is approved, and the employment contract is verified against Philippine standards before a worker signs it. Which Migrant Workers Office post holds jurisdiction over Czechia is a question we confirm per order rather than assume, because the answer determines where your documents go and how long verification takes.
Place a job order
Tell us the occupations and the language standard.
Send us the occupations, the headcount, the shift pattern and the Czech level the work needs. We will tell you which roles classify inside the programme, what is realistic on that language standard, and handle the Philippine half — accreditation, contract verification and the exit chain.
Shortlisted candidates are interviewed by video around your timezone, with our Cebu team on the call — before you select anyone.
Costs
Government fees on the Czech side — the Employee Card application, the residence card itself — sit with the applicant or the employer depending on the item, and we set out which is which against your specific order. Everything on the recruitment side is employer-borne, and we never charge a worker a recruitment, placement or processing fee at any stage.
On this corridor that is not only our own policy. The Migrant Workers Office in Prague states that no placement fee may be collected from applicants bound for the Czech Republic. It is a rule we are held to, and an employer should treat any Philippine agency charging a Czech-bound worker as a problem rather than a saving.
Regulatory details on this page reflect our understanding as of September 2026. Czech residence rules, qualification recognition and embassy capacity all change: confirm the current position against the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Czech Embassy in Manila before acting. Nothing here is legal or immigration advice.