10 Things Nobody Tells You Before Moving to the Czech Republic

Moving to the Czech Republic can look wonderfully straightforward from the outside: beautiful cities, excellent public transport, good beer and easy access to the rest of Europe. But, then you actually move here. Suddenly you are standing in a government office holding three documents you did not know existed, wondering whether the person behind the desk is angry with you or not. 

The good news is that many of the things that initially confuse foreigners eventually become some of the things they appreciate most. Beyond the usual advice about visas and accommodation, here are ten things worth knowing.

If you are arriving from the UK or US, everyday interactions can feel rather direct. Shop assistants may not ask how your day is going, and strangers are unlikely to start chatting on the tram. It can seem unfriendly at first, but Czechs often make a clearer distinction between strangers and people they actually know. Once you are in someone’s circle, friendships can be remarkably genuine and long-lasting.

Every foreigner eventually acquires a story involving a government office, a form and a document they were certain they did not need. You may encounter residence permits, health insurance paperwork, Czech Point, verified signatures and the surprisingly important datova schranka (Data Box). The trick is to learn the system: keep copies, watch deadlines and bring more paperwork than you think you need. 

At first, the trams, buses, metros and trains simply seem convenient. Then you visit your original home, wait 25 minutes for a bus and realise how spoiled you have become. Even outside Prague, public transport can make living without a car much easier than in many countries. You will still complain when your tram is four minutes late. That is part of the integration process. 

On Friday afternoon, cities begin to empty (known as POETS day in the UK). Many people head to a chata or chalupa, while others go hiking, cycling, skiing or mushroom picking (or as a Mexican friend of mine said ‘I grow mushrooms at the weekend’ – with a wink). For newcomers, this is worth understanding: Czech life is not only about Prague cafes and offices. If a Czech friend invites you to their cottage for the weekend, say yes but do not be surprised if some form of manual labour is involved. 

In some countries, lunch means a sandwich over your keyboard. The Czech Republic has other ideas. The poledni menu – the lunchtime menu – remains one of the small pleasures of working life (we always have a problem getting a table at the restaurant by our office). Colleagues often leave the office and eat together, making lunch one of the easiest ways for foreigners to get to know Czech colleagues. Learn the word vyvar (broth) as it will appear frequently. 

You might resist, but sooner or later it will get you. Outdoor shoes generally come off when you enter someone’s home, and slippers appear with astonishing regularity. At some point you will buy your own. Then one day you will see somebody walking around a home in outdoor shoes and think, ‘What are they doing?’ Congratulations: something has changed.

Prague is extraordinary, but it is not the whole country. Brno has its own energy; Olomouc is one of Central Europe’s underrated cities, and South Bohemia feels completely different from northern Moravia. One of the easiest expat mistakes is to live for years inside an international bubble. Take the train somewhere you have never heard of. You may discover that the Czech Republic you like most is not the one you originally moved to. 

Can you survive in Prague speaking only English? Quite possibly. Should you? That is a different question. Czech is not easy, but even a modest amount makes a noticeable difference, and I have mentioned my initial attempts here (see Lost in Translation). Being able to greet people, understand numbers, order food and make a heroic attempt at pronunciation changes everyday interactions. People often appreciate the effort. 

Ask long-term expats how they ended up here and you will often hear the same story: they came for a job, planned to stay briefly, met someone, bought a flat, had children – and suddenly a decade disappeared. That matters financially too– you see, I nearly got to the end of the blog without mentioning finance. Temporary pensions, investments and bank accounts can quietly become a complicated cross-border financial life.

Moving country can change more than your address. Your tax residence may change, investments that were tax-efficient at home may be treated differently here, and you may accumulate pensions, property and accounts across several countries and currencies. None of this necessarily means you have done anything wrong. It simply means international lives tend to create international finances.

There will be frustrating days, linguistic misunderstandings and probably at least one encounter with Czech bureaucracy that you recount for years. But there will also be Sunday walks through forests, summer evenings in beer gardens, efficient trams, weekends at cottages and friendships that gradually make a foreign country feel considerably less foreign. 

Perhaps that is the biggest thing nobody tells you before moving here: you might arrive thinking you are here temporarily, and then somewhere along the way realise you have built a life here. 

Aisa International provides financial planning and wealth management services to international clients, including expatriates living in Czechia. If your temporary move has become rather more permanent, it may be worth reviewing whether your pensions, investments and wider financial arrangements have made the move with you.

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