On 1 January 2016 the amendment to the Travel Documents Act became effective. The applicants will be able to submit the application for issue of the passport and to take over the made passport in ANY office of the municipality with extended powers. When submitting the application for issue of the passport, the applicant can ask to prepare the passport for takeover in the office (e.g. the office close to your domicile) other than where the application for issue of the passport was submitted. In this case the applicant pays the administrative surcharge amounting to CZK 100.
The people who need to travel abroad urgently will be given the passport (if requested to do so) with biometrical data within the express term of 6 working days from the date when the application was submitted. Validity of this way issued passport will be 10 years and/or the applicants under 15 years of age will be issued the passport with the 5-year validity. The passport to be prepared within 6 working days can be collected only in the office where the application was submitted.
Another news: it is possible to apply for issue of the passport in the embassy of the Czech Republic abroad and the passport can also be collected in the Czech Republic – in the office of the municipality with extended powers competent by the place of your permanent domicile.
Administrative fees for issue of the passport within the standard term of 30 days remain unchanged - the administrative fee for issue of the passport amounts to CZK 600 and/or CZK 100 for the applicants under 15 years of age. In case of the passport issued within the express term of 6 working days the administrative fee will amount to CZK 4,000 and/or CZK 2,000 for the applicants under 15 years of age.
And, last but not least, cancellation of issue of the passports without biometric data within the express term of 15 days with 6-month validity (the so called EXPRESS passport) is another news worth mentioning. These passports are no more issued with the effective date from 1 January 2016.