canadaelk

Hello all,

Looks like me and the American missus will be heading to Prague in 2016 and are hoping to live in the CR for a minimum of 2 years. And if it all goes smoothly, stay on indefinitely.

Wondering if anyone has any tips or advice or just general notes of interest regarding life in the CR?


I'm also trying to do research on the process and benefits of a temporary residence permit for the wife. First of all, to establish that she can live there for a few years, and ideally so she can work if necessary. Anybody have any experience with non-EU spouses living and working in the CR?


Always appreciate the great help on this forum!

BritInParis

If you're a British citizen then your wife can live and work in the Czech Republic as the spouse of an EU citizen.

EU citizens and their family members - Ministry of the interior of the Czech Republic

In order to find work I would presume that one would need to speak Czech however.

canadaelk

Thanks BIP. Still trying to figure exactly how much of a hassle it is to establish EU spouse status and procure all the necessary documentation. I'll start as much of it as I can stateside, but sounds like there's a certain amount of work that needs to be done in CR.

I'm hoping to get my wife comfortable with basic Czech expressions before we get there, but yes without speaking czech jobs would be limited. However there appears to be a fair amount of English language jobs, which also pay a healthy wage for native speakers.

Cihadlo

Hi Winston

You don't tell us much obout the circumstances of your move and so it's a bit difficult to give you any specific advice.

I don't think you will stand any chance at all of making any progress with your wife's residence status until you are in the Czech Republic yourself and become registered as a resident. I assume you are a EU national?

Here is a thread will some indications of the challenges you may experience in becoming established in Prague!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/europ...public-850846/

If you have any specific questions, please ask.

Chris

canadaelk

Hello Chris,

Thanks for the info. You're correct, I'm an EU citizen (UK).

There's still a lot details that we'll have to work out as far as long-term location and employment, but the general idea is to head over with enough savings to support us for a solid 8 months, and hopefully get established and reach financial break-even point within 2-3 months...or very near to that anyway.

We're not planning on being upper-middle class in Prague. Indeed one of the most appealing things about Prague is the quality of life you can manage on a more basic income, apparently. So I'll be starting out as an English teacher (cliche, I know) and if that isn't sufficient, which i imagine it might not be, then I'll combine it with a call centre job and some web design work.

I don't have any direct contacts there at the moment, but several friends of friends who would be able to help out with the Czech paperwork and getting settled. So we won't be doing this entirely on our own.

From what I read online, moving to Prague is either the easiest thing in the world, or utterly impossible and destined to fail. Should be an interesting experience either way

Cihadlo

Hi Winston

Have you discovered the expats.cz site yet? There is a lot of information there about relocating to the CR; it's very Prague-centric but that's probably what you need.

Expats.cz also has information about teaching English as a foreign language. The hourly fees advertised for private lessons are between 200CZK and 400CZK, with most charging between around 300CZK and 400CZK. But there's a big BUT though about the availability of work at these prices. You'll find posts from old-stagers bemoaning that it's difficult to make a decent living these days because of competition with a lot of foreign English-speaking students offering lessons for basically beer-money.

Agencies and schools will expect you to be professionally qualified and probably speak reasonable Czech too.

For English teaching you might be better off in one of the other towns or cities away from Prague. There is a desperate shortage of natural English speakers there and living expenses are considerably cheaper too.

Chris

canadaeh

Hi,

Thought I'd help out here as I was living in Czech Republic for a few years up until last year.

Without Czech you will get a job as there are plenty available which are looking for native English speakers. I'd try for one of them first instead of the teaching English and the teaching English isn't the best pay and can be irregular.

Look on expats.cz for jobs, plenty there and with good pay. A good agency to find work also is called People Place, located near Namesti Miru.

I was living in Prague and in the centre, rent is good and usually includes utilities. You can have a very comfortable life.

While you can get by without Czech, I'd reccomend you start learning it as soon as you can and continue when you arrive. The Czechs really appreciate it and if you stay out of expat communities you pick it up quickly. I avoided expats while living there and picked it up to conversational level. Czechs are also extremely helpful when it comes to learning it if you want and a lot of companies provide Czech lessons for their staff.

Most places like banks, post office, foreign Police, telco, utilities don't speak English so you'll need to take a local with you for those things, otherwise there are some banks that specialise for English speakers but they'll slap on a fee for it. So open a normal bank account at a normal branch, just take someone with you.

Drivers licence - if you have a US one it's not accepted (only for short stay tourists) if you are going to be living there you'll need to get a Czech one, it takes time and is costly. If you've got a UK one that's fine. I had this issue.

The people are great, it's a cheap place to live and work and easy for most things. If you have any specific questions I can try answer them for you.

Assanah

Just head there before the UK will vote itself out of the EU. If the UK leaves the EU you can probably say 'hasta la vista' to your work permit for EU countries.

canadaelk

Thanks for the tips. Agree with the language advice. Very set on learning some Czech if only just for good manners.

I was originally going to go with TEFL as my plan A, and call centre work as Plan B, but may flip that around. Would still like to have my tefl cert as it could be handy as a side income or if i choose to move on to some other part of the world, but avoiding that initial cost would also be nice.

I'll contact a few of those recruitment agencies and see what the prospects are for English-only jobs.

Interested in your thoughts as to what reasonable rent fees are within Prague, and what would be a reasonable wage for an English-only job? I've looked at a few different property sites and expats.cz and it seems like most 'good' housing(clean, safe, 1 bedroom) would be around the 10,000 czk/mo. Can I expect to earn 25,000 czk a month doing English-only work, no other qualifications? and should it be possible to find work within the first few weeks of arriving?

Pulaski

Er, the right to live and work in other countries has nothing to do with the European Onion, it is a European Economic Area (EEA) matter, which is why it covers non-EU countries: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein.

There has been no discussion of the UK leaving the EEA, and any politician who says that leaving the EU will solve the UK's "immigration problem" is either lying, ignorant, or an idiot, ... or possibly more than one of those options.

canadaeh

My apartment was 12,300 a month for a one bedroom, it was in an old building but completely renovated inside. That rental amount included all my bills and utilities too. I thought it was cheap, but my Czech Colleagues thought it was expensive, and once I seen their places I realised mine was pretty expensive for Prague. So you can get a good apartment for 10,000 a month including utilities. Expats.cz has listings, but are aimed at expats so are a but more. The proper site to look for rentals, the ones Czechs use is https://www.bezrealitky.cz/ you'll get better prices there.

Most places come furnished and utilities are usually included in amounts shown.

People say the average wage is 25,000 so most as for that at interview, and if you get one of the call center jobs then it probably will be that. But if you look for better jobs that want native English speakers (and there are plenty) you can get a much better wage. When I first arrived I got 40,000czk a month, plus benefits such as Stravenky (meal voucher thing), yearly transport card paid for (all public transport), 13th salary, plus language lessons etc.

Honestly just look on expats.cz and a lot of the recruitment agencies. A lot of expats make the mistake of going straight for the safe option of English Teacher or THAT Call center (everyone knows that call center) and end up with a smaller wage. Look outside the box, you will be surprised.