On 21 November the Czech Embassy in Cairo quietly opened its online booking system for long-term seasonal-employment visas—but only for a six-hour window between 10:00 and 16:00 local time and with a quota of just five applications for the entire month. The flash opening, revealed on 23 November, left scores of pre-registered Egyptian workers scrambling as appointments vanished within minutes.
Seasonal-work visas allow non-EU nationals to work in Czechia for up to nine months in agriculture, hospitality and logistics—sectors facing acute labour shortages ahead of the Christmas peak. Demand from Egypt has soared since Prague cancelled most walk-in employee-card filings in July, making the seasonal route one of the few remaining pathways outside government Targeted Economic Migration programmes.
![Czech Embassy in Cairo Opens Surprise Six-Hour Slot for Seasonal-Work Visas]()
For Czech employers the micro-quota poses real operational risk. Companies counting on Egyptian staff for winter tourism or warehouse shifts may now face gaps, pushing them to reroute recruitment through higher-quota embassies such as Nairobi or Pretoria. Some firms are drafting contingency plans that involve short-term secondees from within the EU or overtime for domestic teams.
The embassy defends the tactic as a means of “spreading limited capacity evenly through the year” but has not ruled out another last-minute window before year-end. Mobility advisers warn that the unpredictability adds complexity to compliance planning, especially for multinationals that must align visa lead times with project start dates.
Best practice: keep complete candidate files—police clearances, medicals, certified translations—ready to upload at a moment’s notice and consider enrolling in facilitation programmes that guarantee slots in exchange for higher wage and accommodation commitments.
Seasonal-work visas allow non-EU nationals to work in Czechia for up to nine months in agriculture, hospitality and logistics—sectors facing acute labour shortages ahead of the Christmas peak. Demand from Egypt has soared since Prague cancelled most walk-in employee-card filings in July, making the seasonal route one of the few remaining pathways outside government Targeted Economic Migration programmes.
For Czech employers the micro-quota poses real operational risk. Companies counting on Egyptian staff for winter tourism or warehouse shifts may now face gaps, pushing them to reroute recruitment through higher-quota embassies such as Nairobi or Pretoria. Some firms are drafting contingency plans that involve short-term secondees from within the EU or overtime for domestic teams.
The embassy defends the tactic as a means of “spreading limited capacity evenly through the year” but has not ruled out another last-minute window before year-end. Mobility advisers warn that the unpredictability adds complexity to compliance planning, especially for multinationals that must align visa lead times with project start dates.
Best practice: keep complete candidate files—police clearances, medicals, certified translations—ready to upload at a moment’s notice and consider enrolling in facilitation programmes that guarantee slots in exchange for higher wage and accommodation commitments.
