Our story probably isn’t much different from that of most Russians who tried to move to the Czech Republic after 2009.
Like many Russian tourists who visited the Czech Republic, we fell in love with the country. It’s hard not to love the Czech fairy tale. We started gathering documents — and I’ll say right away, it wasn’t cheap. The expenses were about four times higher than for immigration to Montenegro.
We paid €2,000 for company registration in the Czech Republic and another €1,500 for the visa package, document translations, visa fee, and travel to the embassy for the interview. All in all, not exactly cheap.
And what did we get in return for all that effort and money? The same thing almost everyone who tries to immigrate to the Czech Republic has been getting since 2009 — a visa refusal, of course.
The Czechs don’t issue business visas. These days, you’re lucky if one out of thirty applicants gets a residence permit.
Was it all worth it?
I think yes — because just a couple of months earlier, there were no problems at all. Until the end of 2008, getting a residence permit (residence visa) was quite easy, and at the beginning of 2009, I simply didn’t know there might be issues. If I were considering immigration now, I definitely wouldn’t try to move to the Czech Republic, since now it’s clear that it’s just a waste of time and money. Unfortunately, in 2009, that information wasn’t available yet.
Our move to Montenegro
After our attempt to immigrate to the Czech Republic failed, I started thinking about where else to go. What other countries, besides the Czech Republic, grant residence permits to Russians without huge investments? Montenegro and Serbia. So, in fact, there wasn’t much of a choice. And in the end — hello, Montenegro.
