The Czech Embassy in Cairo surprised would-be migrant workers on Friday (21 November 2025) when it published a last-minute notice opening its online booking system for just six hours—from 10:00 to 16:00 EET—for long-term visas issued under Czechia’s seasonal-employment scheme.
Seasonal-work visas allow non-EU nationals to live and work in Czechia for up to nine months in agriculture, food processing, hospitality and other peak-demand sectors. Egyptian interest in the programme has soared since post-pandemic labour shortages sent Czech employers scrambling for temporary staff, yet consular capacity remains tightly capped. Friday’s micro-quota permits a maximum of five complete visa applications for the entire month of November—meaning that dozens of pre-registered candidates will once again walk away empty-handed.
![Czech Embassy in Cairo Opens Six-Hour Window for November Seasonal-Work Visa Appointments]()
The embassy’s restrictions reflect Prague’s broader tightening of migration channels in 2025. In July the government scrapped most “walk-in” employee-card filings outside its Targeted Economic Migration Programmes and ordered embassies to spread fixed monthly quotas evenly through the year. Consular officials in Cairo say they now prioritise applicants whose Czech employers are registered under recognised sponsorship programmes; everyone else must compete for a handful of seasonal-work slots.
For Czech companies, the bottleneck carries real operational risk: November and December are key months for Egypt-to-Czechia labour flows that staff holiday markets and ski-resort kitchens. Multinationals have begun shifting recruitment to other posts—such as Nairobi or Pretoria—where quotas are larger, but that adds cost and travel time. Employers that miss this week’s window may not get another chance until January, pushing projects into 2026. Travel managers are therefore advising business units to line up sponsored employee-card petitions well in advance or explore intra-EU postings for critical roles.
Seasonal-work visas allow non-EU nationals to live and work in Czechia for up to nine months in agriculture, food processing, hospitality and other peak-demand sectors. Egyptian interest in the programme has soared since post-pandemic labour shortages sent Czech employers scrambling for temporary staff, yet consular capacity remains tightly capped. Friday’s micro-quota permits a maximum of five complete visa applications for the entire month of November—meaning that dozens of pre-registered candidates will once again walk away empty-handed.
The embassy’s restrictions reflect Prague’s broader tightening of migration channels in 2025. In July the government scrapped most “walk-in” employee-card filings outside its Targeted Economic Migration Programmes and ordered embassies to spread fixed monthly quotas evenly through the year. Consular officials in Cairo say they now prioritise applicants whose Czech employers are registered under recognised sponsorship programmes; everyone else must compete for a handful of seasonal-work slots.
For Czech companies, the bottleneck carries real operational risk: November and December are key months for Egypt-to-Czechia labour flows that staff holiday markets and ski-resort kitchens. Multinationals have begun shifting recruitment to other posts—such as Nairobi or Pretoria—where quotas are larger, but that adds cost and travel time. Employers that miss this week’s window may not get another chance until January, pushing projects into 2026. Travel managers are therefore advising business units to line up sponsored employee-card petitions well in advance or explore intra-EU postings for critical roles.
