After 15 years of strained patience among employers and assignees, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) finally pulled the plug on its outdated Visapoint booking platform at midnight on 30 November 2025. From 1 December, anyone who needs to lodge a long-term visa, employee card or residence-permit application must secure an embassy appointment through an all-new reservation portal. The ministry promises stronger cybersecurity (captcha-protected log-ins), four language versions (Czech, English, Ukrainian and Vietnamese) and — crucially — a weekly, lottery-style queue number that randomises access to newly released slots. The change is designed to end the notorious “click-war” that saw tech-savvy intermediaries scoop up appointments in seconds, leaving genuine applicants empty-handed.
The transition has not been entirely friction-free. In the first two hours of operation, users in India and the Philippines reported repeated time-outs, and the Czech Consulate in New York announced on social media that its weekly quota for employee-card filings sold out in 15 minutes. Nevertheless, the MFA says the system processed 18,300 simultaneous log-ins without crashing and that incremental fixes will be deployed over the next fortnight. Consular posts have been instructed to honour all Visapoint appointments dated through 30 November but to cancel any future-dated slots that were booked on the old site.
![Czech Foreign Ministry Retires “Visapoint,” Launches Smarter Visa-Appointment Portal]()
For corporate mobility teams the operational impact is immediate. HR staff will have to create new user profiles, clear browser caches and familiarise themselves with the randomised queue mechanism, which may add several days to lead times. Employers with critical start dates in the first quarter of 2026 are being advised to monitor smaller consulates in Vienna, Bratislava and Warsaw, where appointment pressure is traditionally lower. Mobility advisers also warn that processing times could lengthen temporarily while visa officers learn the new back-office interface.
Looking ahead, the MFA has hinted that it may introduce a paid premium-service lane next year if demand continues to outstrip capacity. It also plans to publish a step-by-step user manual later this week. Until then, companies should remind applicants that any unconfirmed slot will be cancelled automatically after 24 hours, and they should build additional slack into assignment start dates. Despite early glitches, the reform is widely viewed as a long-overdue step toward greater transparency in Czechia’s consular operations.
The transition has not been entirely friction-free. In the first two hours of operation, users in India and the Philippines reported repeated time-outs, and the Czech Consulate in New York announced on social media that its weekly quota for employee-card filings sold out in 15 minutes. Nevertheless, the MFA says the system processed 18,300 simultaneous log-ins without crashing and that incremental fixes will be deployed over the next fortnight. Consular posts have been instructed to honour all Visapoint appointments dated through 30 November but to cancel any future-dated slots that were booked on the old site.
For corporate mobility teams the operational impact is immediate. HR staff will have to create new user profiles, clear browser caches and familiarise themselves with the randomised queue mechanism, which may add several days to lead times. Employers with critical start dates in the first quarter of 2026 are being advised to monitor smaller consulates in Vienna, Bratislava and Warsaw, where appointment pressure is traditionally lower. Mobility advisers also warn that processing times could lengthen temporarily while visa officers learn the new back-office interface.
Looking ahead, the MFA has hinted that it may introduce a paid premium-service lane next year if demand continues to outstrip capacity. It also plans to publish a step-by-step user manual later this week. Until then, companies should remind applicants that any unconfirmed slot will be cancelled automatically after 24 hours, and they should build additional slack into assignment start dates. Despite early glitches, the reform is widely viewed as a long-overdue step toward greater transparency in Czechia’s consular operations.
