Permanent residence for five years

Last Updated: 02 April 2024
The Police Authority may grant the permanent residence permit for five years to a foreign national:
Download Fact Sheet: Permanent residence for five years.pdf

The Ministry of the Interior may grant permanent residence for five years without meeting the conditions laid down in the Act of Residence of Foreigner, even repeatedly:

 

Application submission

The application for a permanent residence for five years must be submitted in person at a Slovak embassy/consulate general abroad. One may also apply at the Foreign Police Department in Slovakia, however, only if the applicant is:

If the application is submitted at a Slovak embassy abroad, the foreigner will be interviewed for the purpose of preliminary assessment of the application.

An official application form can be downloaded from the web page of the Border and Foreign Police. The applicant must attach the following documents:

  1. valid travel document (passport)
  2. two passport photographs
  3. document providing the purpose of residence
  4. document proving clear criminal record
  5. document proving financial coverage
  6. written consent of a parent who is authorized to meet the child (the applicant) younger than 18 years of age
  7. document of accommodation.

If the foreigner does not submit all the required documents to the Embassy or the Foreign Police department, the application will not be accepted and the applicant will be given a written list of the necessary documents to be submitted with the application. The documents submitted with the application cannot be older than 90 days (except for civil registry documents, e.g. marriage certificate etc.), otherwise the Police Department will not accept them. Each document issued abroad must be duly authenticated and translated to Slovak by a certified translator. The application should be processed within 90 days. 

The foreign national must sign up for health insurance within 3 business days of collecting the residence card.

Within 30 days of obtaining the residence card, the foreigner must submit a medical report confirming that they do not suffer from any disease which could endanger public health (not older than 30 days). The police may extend the deadline for submitting the medical report by 60 days on request. 

Application

The application must be submitted using an official form issued by the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic.

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Photos

2 identical colour photographs sized 3 x 3.5 cm (passport format).

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Purpose of stay

How you prove the purpose of your permanent residence depends on your individual situation. For example, if applying for residence after a marriage between a foreigner and a Slovak citizen, it is sufficient to indicate the place of marriage (it must be contracted in Slovakia or registered with the Slovak Special Registry Office) and to provide proof of the spouse's permanent residence in Slovakia (e.g. a valid identity card).

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Criminal Record

The clean criminal record of a foreign national is proved by submitting a Criminal record statement from their country of origin and a Criminal record statement from the country where the applicant has resided longer than 90 days during 6 consecutive months within the past 3 years. The criminal record is not required from foreign nationals younger than 14 years of age, or to change of type of residence, or in case the foreign national had already submitted it when applying for their previous residence permit.

Notice for US citizens. A federal Identification Record (criminal history record) valid for the whole territory of the United States of America is required when applying for a residence permit. A national Identification Record valid only for the territory of one state is not sufficient. Allow approximately 13 weeks for the processing of your request. Therefore it is necessary to make the request with sufficient advance. The federal Identification Record is issued by the FBI and apostille is not required.

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Finances

The stay of the applicant must be financially covered in the amount of 12-times the minimum subsistence level (from July 2023 the sum of the minimum subsistence level is EUR 268.88). The financial coverage can be proved by submitting either a bank account statement in the name of the foreign national from a bank in the territory of Slovakia or in his home country, translated to Slovak by a certified translator, or an employer´s confirmation of the amount of the agreed wage. Financial coverage may also be proved by a notarially certified declaration of the person with whom the foreigner asks for a family reunion, supplemented by their bank account statement or by the employer's confirmation of the person's salary. 

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Accommodation

Document confirming the provision of accommodation must be issued for a minimum period of 6 months. Document confirming the provision of accommodation can, for example, be an affidavit of real estate ownership (if the foreigner is the owner of the property) or a lease with the owner or user of the property and proof of eligibility to use the property in case of a lease agreement with the property user, or confirmation of the accommodation facility, a hotel or a boarding house, or an affidavit of a physical person or a legal entity of provision of accommodation to the foreign national on the territory of Slovakia and proof of eligibility to use the property in case of an affidavit of the property user.

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Medical Report

A medical report certifying that the foreign national does not suffer from an illness endangering public health must be submitted within 30 days of collecting the residence permit. The police may extend the time limit for submitting the medical report by 60 days at the request of the foreigner. The medical report cannot be older than 30 days. The medical report need not be submitted by a foreign national with a residence in another Union Member State or by a foreign national changing the type of their residence. The medical report may be issued only by one of these medical facilities:  

Bratislava region:

Nitra region:

Trenčin region:

Banská Bystrica region:

Žilina region:

Košice region:

A foreign national can be granted permanent residence for an unlimited time after 4 years of having a permanent residence for five years.