Required documents for a trade license
Answer two or three questions and you get your own checklist. The rules differ a lot between EU citizens, other nationalities and Czech citizens, mainly for the police clearance.
Your document checklist
Good to know about the police clearance
Not older than 3 months
The 3 months count from the day the police clearance was issued, not from the date of the apostille, superlegalization or translation. Don’t bring one that expires in a few days: the registration itself takes time.
Original paper, with an apostille
The office needs the original paper document. A scan or copy is not enough.
Translation in the Czech Republic
We don’t recommend a translation made abroad. It has to be made by a translator registered at a Czech court. We arrange that for you: 1,500 CZK per standard page (normostrana) from a common language such as English, German, French or Spanish. Less common languages cost more; ask us first.
More than one country?
Officially you need a police clearance for every country where you spent more than 6 months in the past 3 years. There are ways to avoid this, so ask us before you order several.
All police clearance rules in one table, by nationality and residence status: police clearance rules.
Ordered the trade license registration, but not sure your documents are right?
Send us a scan or photo of them before you send them or have anything translated.
Why the apostille stamp?
Many countries signed the Apostille Convention of 5 October 1961, Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents. The reality is that even for many of those countries, the Czech authorities still require the apostille.
To avoid registration delays, don’t hand in a foreign police clearance without one.
