Slovakia Visa Application & Requirements

The Slovak Republic is a country in Central Europe, it has borders with Poland,
Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria. The country does not have territory connected to an ocean and it is mostly mountainous. Slovakia is a state member of the Schengen Agreement, so it shares the same visa policy as all of the 26 Schengen Zone countries. That means that Slovak short-stay visa is at the same time a Schengen Visa and you can travel passport-free to all Schengen Area states. The Schengen Area countries have one unique visa policy, so you can apply for a Schengen visa in the diplomatic mission of each country that is a member of the Area.

Any person holding a Slovakian visa can cross the Slovak border via air, land, or sea and then travel in all passport-free zone freely. They can leave UE from any Schengen Zone state. However, a Slovakian visa holder cannot enter the European Union at the border of the country different from the Slovak Republic.

The candidate can apply for a single-entry visa, a double-entry visa or a multiple-entry visa. If the bearer of a single-entry Slovak visa leaves the Schengen Zone, this visa shall cease to be valid. Regardless of the number of entrances assigned to a visa, a traveller from outside of the EU can stay in Schengen Zone for up to 90 days within a 180-day period.

Who needs a visa to Slovakia?

If you are a national of one of the Schengen Zone countries, have a Slovakian residence permit or residence permit of one of the Schengen countries – you do not need a visa to enter the Slovak Republic. The same applies to holders of the following documents:

• valid long-stay visa issued by one of a Schengen country
• EU family member’s residence or EU long-term residence permit
• passport of a “British National Overseas”, “British Overseas Territories Citizen”, “British Protected Person”, “British Subject”
• special residence card as a diplomatic or consular staff

Moreover, there is a list of countries whose nationals are exempted from holding a visa when entering the Schengen Area. Check if your country is on the list below:

Albania	Andorra
Antigua And Barbuda	Argentina
Australia	Bahamas
Barbados	Bosnia And Herzegovina
Brazil	Brunei Darussalam
Canada	Chile
Colombia	Costa Rica
Dominica	El Salvador
North Macedonia	Georgia
Grenada	Guatemala
Vatican City State	Honduras
Israel	Japan
Kiribati	Malaysia
Marshall Islands	Mauritius
Mexico	Micronesia
Moldova	Monaco
Montenegro	New Zealand
Nicaragua	Palau
Panama	Paraguay
Peru	Samoa
San Marino	Seychelles
Serbia	Singapore
Solomon Islands	South Korea
St Kitts And Nevis	St Lucia
St Vincent And The Grenadines	Trinidad And Tobago
Tuvalu	Ukraine
United Arab Emirates	United States Of America
Uruguay	Vanuatu
Venezuela	United Kingdom

If you do not fulfil the conditions indicated above, it means that you need a visa to Slovakia.

Schengen Zone countries you can visit with a Slovakian visa

When you enter the Slovak Republic, you can stay there for up to 90 days or you can travel to other Schengen Zone member states. From Slovakia, you can go without a visa to:

Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

There are also 3 micro-states you can visit with the Slovak visa as they keep their borders with Schengen countries open. These micro-states are Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City. You can go also to overseas territories of Spain (the Canary Islands, Azores), and of Portugal (Madeira island).

Slovak tourist visa

There are limited purposes of the stay with the tourist visa to Slovakia. You can stay in this country or one of 25 other Schengen Zone states for up to 3 months and you can apply for a single entry or a multiple-entries visa, but your activities must be limited to:

• tourism, sightseeing, holidays
• visiting your family, life-partner and/or friends
• participating in a cultural or sport event
• enrolling in an internship or in a short-term training course
• participating in a business meeting, negotiations, conference etc.
• making research or short-term course
• airport transit/seafarers transit
• medical reasons (surgery, health treatment, etc.)
• official visit

With a tourist visa you must not get a paid job or study in Slovakia. In such a case you must apply for a long-term Slovak visa according to the purpose of your stay. 

Slovak Schengen Visa application

You can apply for a Slovakian Visa in every diplomatic mission of the Slovak Republic except honorary consulates. The time frame to apply is 1-2 months before the trip, but you cannot apply more than 6 months before the planned journey.

The online application is impossible because the visa appointment is obligatory. Anyway, you can find the application forms online, fill in and print them at home. In purpose to submit your application, provide two copies of the completed and signed application form together with the following documents:

• Your biometric passport * 
• 2 printed color passport-style photos meeting the requirements and taken within the last 3 months
• All copies of old visas in your current and previous passport
• Proof of the travel medical insurance valid in all European Union covering a minimum of €30,000 of medical costs
• complete Itinerary with dates of crossing Slovakian borders
• proof of financial means which can be:
  • recent bank statement
  • employment contract stating your salary
  • income from a rented property
  • retirement benefit plan
  • A letter of declaration from a sponsor in Slovakia
  • Any other documents proving that you have the means to support yourself while stating in Slovakia
• Addresses of accommodation in Slovakia
• proof of payment of the visa fees

* The passport must be issued within the last 10 years and valid for a minimum of 3 months after the end of your planned stay in Slovakia. At least two blank pages of the passport must be blank.

Sometimes it is necessary to provide the certificate of the criminal record of the home country (you must have no open crime case involvement) or your marriage certificate – you will be informed about this necessity.

Visa appointment in Slovak embassy or consulate

After you gather all the needed documents, you have to make an appointment in a Slovak diplomatic mission. In most Slovak embassies and consulates-general you can schedule the visit online, if not, make a call or send an email.

This appointment is necessary to know your motivation to go to Slovakia, check if you can support yourself financially in Europe, and know your travel plans. The consular officer will ask you about your family and professional situation. You can prepare yourself for the following questions:

• Why do you want to visit Slovakia?
• Do you want to travel to another European country?
• Have you ever been to the European Union already?
• Which countries you are going to visit and for what reasons?
• Do you know someone in Slovakia?
• What do you do for a living?
• What is your marital and family status? Do you have children? How many?
• Do you have a family in Slovakia?
• Do you intend to look for a paid job in Slovakia?

Remember, that a Slovak tourist visa doesn’t allow you to take any paid job in this country. Keep in mind that you must leave the Schengen Zone after a maximum of 90 days. The consular officer can ask you if you are aware of this.

During the conversation be honest and calm, there is nothing to be stressed about and in most cases, the Slovak visa is granted to tourists easily.

How long does the Slovak visa application process take? 

Usually, the consular officer has 20 working days to process your application (if you have applied for a short-term visa). Bear in mind, that processing time may vary depending on your particular situation.

Sometimes it may happen that the visa application is rejected. There can be different reasons for this refusal and not always substantive ones. Sometimes it can be a lack of some information (eg. the address of your accommodation in Slovakia) or… the wrong visa photo.

If you want to minimize the risk of refusal, check twice if you have completed all necessary fields in an application form and if you submitted two identical, color photo satisfying standards.

If you are not sure, whether your picture is correct or not, use the intelligent Slovak Visa Photo Maker and gain a 100% warranty of correctness!

This smart tool is able to resize, crop and adjust the background in your photo and at the end check if it is 100% correct. It takes only 3 seconds and costs less than taking a picture in a professional photo studio!

However, if you believe that the refusal decision was unjust or a mistake, you can submit a request for a re-evaluation of the application. It happens that the new decision is favourable for a candidate and you will be granted a visa. The consular officer will inform you about the final decision within 60 days – if not, that means that a rejection decision remains in force.

Do children need a visa to Slovakia?

You can visit Slovakia with your children but they need to have their own visas. Every person crossing the Slovak border, regardless of age, must carry a passport and a visa if it applies to their nationality.

Basically, the conditions of granting the tourist visa to minors are the same as for adults, the only difference is that this is the parent or the legal guardian must submit the visa application in the name of an under-age child.

So, exactly as you, your child must have a valid passport and you must submit their 2 color, printed passport-style photos meeting biometric photo requirements. Additionally, there are some documents you have to present additionally. They are:

• Proof of your regular income * 
• Notarized travel permission from the second parent/legal guardian or both of them if the child travels with the third person

* it can be a work contract with specified monthly income or a 6-last-months bank statement, or business license) (or both of them if the child travels with the third person.

The guardian or parent should accompany a child to the embassy or consulate during the visa appointment.

Slovakia entrance

You have to be aware that having a Schengen visa does not mean automatically that you will enter Slovakia without any additional formalities. Once arriving at Slovak port-of-entry, you must present the following documents:

• a valid passport (check if its expiration date is later than 3 months after your planned exit from Europe)
• a valid visa
• proof of sufficient funds for the entire stay in the Slovak Republic
• a ticket back from Slovakia or another Schengen Zone country

The immigration officer will probably talk to you for a while. Be prepared to answer the following questions:

• What is the purpose of your visit?
• How long are you planning to stay in Slovakia and maybe in the Schengen Zone?
• Where are you going to stay in Sweden?
• Do you have family in Slovakia? 

In order to be prepared and have it done quickly and easily, prepare the address of the place where you are going to stay in Slovakia and the contact data of people you know in the country. In practice, this conversation almost always ends by giving a traveller a stamp in the passport. This stamp is your entrance permission. It is important to get it because, without a stamp, you could have problems with leaving Slovakia!

Slovak long-stay visas (for over 90 days)

If you would like to work, live and settle down in the Slovak Republic, you need to apply for a D-type national Slovakian visa.

This document authorizes its holder to enter the territory of the Slovak Republic and to stay there more than 90 days during the period of validity of the visa. Usually, this is 12 months, only for language education purpose, the visa expires 31 July of the given academic year.

D- type visa is a multiple-entry one. A D-type Slovak visa authorizes its holder to travel to other Schengen Area Member States but be aware that you cannot stay there longer than 90 days during a 180-day period. National visas are different types than Schengen short-stay visas and each member state has its own long-stay visa policy.

If you are eligible to stay in Slovakia for more than one year, your long-stay visa will be replaced by a temporary residence. Apply for it before the visa’s expiration date.

D-type visa in Slovakia

You can stay in Slovakia for example for language education, regular studies, join your family or life partner, work and run a business. The most common D-type visa is granted to individuals wishing to learn the Slovak language in language schools. In such a case the future student must be at least 15 years old and the tuition must take at least 25 hours by the week.

Another popular purpose of a long stay in Slovakia is a reunion with family or a life partner. In this case, you will need to submit accommodation-related documents. They might be for example a letter of invitation confirming that the applicant will stay at the inviting person’s place, containing the host’s contact data.

Moreover, you will need to present documents confirming sufficient means of subsistence. They might be:

• cash in a freely convertible currency
• travel cheques
• bank account statement confirming a regular income (salary, pension) in the last 12 months
• other documents safeguarding funds in a convertible currency.

Bear in mind that the money amount requested for 1 day of staying in Slovakia is EUR 56 per person.

Slovakia for holidays – the best places to visit!

Slovakia is famous for its mountains Tatra, amazing palaces and castles, and, of course, beer. You will feel there like in paradise if you like outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain trekking, skiing and climbing.

In Slovakia, you can find more than 100 castles and palaces. Some of them are ruins but there are also stunning monuments ready to visit and take Instagram shots. You will not be disappointed if you go to see Bojnice Castle. Initially, the fortress, over the passing time became a stunning royal residence. Now it is one of the most visited castles in Europe. 

If you want to see the largest castle complex in Europe, take a ride to the 12th-century Spiš Castle recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Staying with UNESCO-protected sites, you should go to Banská Štiavnica which is a perfectly preserved medieval town located on an ancient volcano. Its history reaches the third century BC and Celtic times.

Don’t miss also the Dobšinská Ice Cave, another UNESCO Heritage site located not so far away, inside the Slovak Paradise area, famous for its breathtaking cave. But this can not be so easy to reach there! It requires a hike up a hill to an altitude of over 900 meters, then a slow descent into the mountain itself. The temperature in the Cave is always circulating around zero degrees and the ice covers walls, ceilings, and floors, This all looks like “Frozen” scenery!

If you are a skier, Slovakia has an interesting offer of snow-covered peaks, large ski resorts, four and five stars hotels, and excellent ski trails.

It does not matter if you visit, make shopping in Bratislava, do alpine ski in the mountain or discover Slovakian little, magical towns or impressive castles – you will be hungry. The Slovak kitchen is famous for its potato meals, cheese and dairy products, wild mushrooms, and sauerkraut. You absolutely must taste bryndzové halušky (potato dumplings with sheep cheese) and lokše (potato pancakes)! If you are an adult, you can try a local brewery that is famous all over the world.

For history fans, the big adventure will be a visit to open-air museums that offer a chance to discover the folk traditions of the country. You can reach them by taking one of the popular trail and cycling routes, in order to make the trip more exciting.

And if you like challenges and you are a sports lover, why not take part in the oldest marathon in Europe? Kosice Peace Marathon has taken place since 1924 and even if you do not start in the race, come over to cheer marathon runners from all the countries and during the after-marathon-evening celebrate and have fun with the international company!