This article is 💩 mammoth shit
This means its value is not in informativeness, but in memory of how it was
There may be an update at the end of the article. Or maybe not.
So, for living and studying in Czech Republic you need different documents. For some it's a long-term visa, but we, as former 22-year-old students, knew in advance that we would need to get exactly a residence permit. Don't confuse these 2 concepts :)
I'll describe this process in two stages: firstly, registration at police, and secondly, actually getting the biometric card.
1) Registration at police for foreigners
We arrived in Poděbrady in the evening on September 3rd. It seems like the law states that we're obliged to register at police within three days of arrival. But on September 4th, when we came to the castle for the first time, we were told that there's an agreement with the police that students don't go themselves and not immediately, but on certain days in small groups (either for the convenience of the police itself, or for the convenience of students, this remained behind the scenes). I basically believed this, especially since I just ran into a police employee at the castle and asked again.
So, we had to wait for D-day - we had to walk and check if you were on the list. I'll say right away - I thought it would be a bit faster, we only appeared on the lists on September 26(!), so it was a bit nerve-wracking.
On Thursday, September 26th, instead of studying (this is sad, but true), taking everything required, we left straight from school at 10 AM. Before us everyone left at 8 AM from the dorm, so it was a bit strange.
We needed to bring a passport, insurance, photos, 200 crowns for the round trip by bus. Looking ahead - I think 200 crowns is too expensive to travel 30km in each direction, this became especially clear when we realized that we would have to go for the card ourselves, and, as it turned out, it cost about 140 crowns for two round trip.
Well, literally half an hour later we were in Kutná Hora, and about 10 minutes later we reached the police on foot. As it turned out, we arrived even early, we had to wait almost an hour until they started accepting students. Nothing needs to be done, not even taking numbers, you just need to wait your turn. During this hour, in a stuffy little room, I think I even fell asleep :)
But nothing terrible, soon the reception began. About 10 minutes were spent on each person. We went early, about 4-5, so about 10 people remained after us - which means you can go for a walk. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant (as always a huge portion for about 80 crowns) and headed back, thinking we'd be late, but came even early - the last students took very long.
I'll tell you what was inside. First we signed a couple of papers, gave photos, the employee made copies of the insurance. Then we went into a small room for photography and fingerprinting (they took from the index fingers of both hands. It worked from 3-4 tries 🙃).
We also signed a paper under which there was some screen - now the police also had an electronic sample of our signature.
At the end we were given a paper on which they wrote that we should come on October 17 (wait exactly 3 weeks), and bring our passport and postage stamps worth 2500 crowns. This is cruel, of course - more than 4 thousand rubles, roughly speaking, for a simple plastic card, without which, theoretically, it wouldn't be worse. Well, perhaps this is done to fight against another type of visitors. Of course, it's a pity that you have to pay considerable money for everything - even for changing residence you'll have to pay 1000 crowns (and this is inevitable, there are no universities we need in Poděbrady 🙃). In general, we plan the budget more carefully.
Soon we headed to the bus, counted ourselves and went home to our dorm. There was no point going to classes - we didn't even make it to the last one. Waiting for the second stage.
2) Getting residence permit (biometric card)
One day after school we went to the post office, bought a dozen postcards and, at the same time, stamps worth 2500 crowns. It's very sad to look at how instead of banknotes you're given 2 tiny pieces of paper. Well, wiping away tears, we wait for D-day.
On October 17th on a cloudy day we headed to Kutná Hora, to the police for the card. It was said that it's not necessary to come exactly at the time written on the paper, but, just in case, we came even an hour early. In reality it didn't matter, each person took about 5 minutes.
Well. Don't forget to put together everything you need. In advance we had to check the train schedule, choose a suitable one and go. This is conveniently done using the pubtran android app. So, at the ticket office we paid 140 crowns for tickets to Kutná Hora and back for two. You need to go to Kutná Hora město station. The path to it goes through the Sedlec station, and there's the famous Ossuary, so it was decided to stop there on the way back (no extra tickets were required, no point missing such a chance).
After riding for about an hour on trains of all types (both on new double-decker ones, and on ordinary old ones, and on interesting - two-car yellow ones running around Kutná Hora itself), simultaneously learning to travel around the country with transfers, we reached the right station. From there the walk to the police took about 10 minutes, the road is almost straight, it's hard to get lost.
Entering the police, again, we didn't do anything. Our compatriot had just gone in before us, everything was fine with him, so he managed in about 10 minutes.
Since we're ÚJOP students (yes, saying this is always a bit funny, like sometimes speaking Czech in general), we were simply called in turn.
Inside we signed papers in which we promised not to throw cards in acid, jump on them, break them, use them for purposes other than intended (yes, we signed a document that we're not idiots. But it's always interesting to think about where such rules come from - apparently there were precedents).
They also checked our fingerprints, on my left hand they matched from the fifth try, but it happens. Finally, having given the stamps and proved that I am me, I received the coveted card. It's beautiful, high-quality, with a "fancy" number 😀. Well, now we're on Czech territory quite officially, and it hasn't even been a month and a half.
In the new status you can have lunch and slowly return home. We weren't in a hurry and visited a couple of historical places in the city. But about that next time.