The Blue Card is a residence permit for highly skilled foreigners. High qualification is defined as duly completed education or higher vocational training that took place over a period of at least three years. In order to obtain a Blue Card, the foreigner must also present a work contract for at least one year and for the statutory working hours. The employment contract must state the amount of the agreed gross annual wage, which must be at least 1.5 times the average gross annual wage announced by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The average gross annual wage in the Czech Republic for the period 1 May 2022 – 30 April 2023 will be CZK 681,102, which implies that the gross monthly wage for Blue Card holders must be at least CZK 56,758.50 during this period.

Shortage of blue card holders

The requirements mentioned above are rather difficult to meet. For this reason, there are only few holders of these cards. As of 31 January 2022, there are over 104,000 reported holders of alternative residence titles in the Czech Republic and only 1,357 holders of blue cards. 

The Czech Republic issued 366 new blue cards in 2020, while Portugal and Hungary issued only one blue card in the same year. Germany, on the contrary, issued almost 100,000 blue cards between 2016 and 2020 (almost three quarters of all blue cards in the European Union).

Plan to attract more highly skilled foreign workers

Last October, the EU Council adopted a new Blue Card Directive. This directive aims to reduce the requirements for issuing the first blue cards and thus attract foreign highly skilled workers, especially in sectors where there is long-term labour shortage. 

The main changes:

1)    A 6-month employment contract will be sufficient for being issued the first blue card.

2)    The obligation for Blue Card holders to request consent to change employers will be reduced from two years to one year.

3)    The minimum wage required for the Blue Card will now be 1.0 times the average annual gross wage in the Member State concerned, but will not exceed 1.6 times.

4)    Jobs in the information technology sector will be open to workers without a university degree, if they can prove having at least three years of professional experience. Professional experience will be considered equivalent to university qualification.

5)    Recognised employer status will be introduced, which should make it easier to issue blue cards for employees of certain companies.

The adopted version of the Directive was published in the Official Journal on 15 November 2021 and entered into force on the twentieth day following its publication. Member States should thus adapt their legislation to the new rules by November 2023. 

Author: Roman Burnus, Valérie Kovářová