The National Council of the Slovak Republic (parliament) has adopted Act No. 178/2025 Coll. (the “Amendment Act”), which amends and supplements Act No. 404/2011 Coll. on Residence of Foreigners. The Amendment Act introduces significant procedural and substantive changes — with particular emphasis on regulating the admission of third-country entrepreneurs, simplifying certain documentary requirements, and amending the validity period of a national visa. The Amendment Act enters into force on July 1, 2025.

Extension of national visa validity

• The validity period of a national visa, required when submitting an application for a residence permit, is extended from 90 to 120 days. This is intended to allow a sufficient time frame for processing applications before the visa expires.

Temporary residence for business

• Applications may be submitted only through Slovak diplomatic missions abroad. As of July 1, 2025, it will no longer be possible to apply for a temporary residence permit for business purposes directly at a Foreign Police Department within the territory of the Slovak Republic; applications must be submitted exclusively to the competent Slovak diplomatic mission (embassy/consulate).
• Quotas and annual limits. The granting of business permits will be limited by quotas set by the Government in a separate regulation for each diplomatic mission. There should be a total of 700 applications for all diplomatic missions, with significant differences in the number of applications to be processed by individual diplomatic missions.
• Change of the purpose of temporary residence to business purposes. This change will only be possible after 24 months from the granting of the original temporary residence permit for another purpose (currently, a change of the purpose of permit to business purposes is possible after 12 months).

Simplification of required documents

• It will no longer be mandatory to attach a photograph when submitting an application;
• The obligation to submit bank statements is abolished (however, in some cases, e.g. for a temporary residence permit for business purposes, a long-term residence permit, or the verification of an invitation, proof of one’s bank account balance is still required).