UK → CZECHIA Moving to the Czech Republic: how customs works, and the documents to expect

The question this lane brings up most is the one in the thread above, and it is a fair one. Parking for the van is your job at both ends, because only the person who lives on the street can apply for it. In Prague that means the city’s paid-parking zones, which the city’s road authority runs on marked streets across the inner districts, with spots set aside for loading.

What you need from us is the vehicle length. We give it to you the moment we confirm your size, not in the final week, so the council has the notice it wants. On the UK side the same applies to a suspended bay; our guide to parking bay suspension walks through it. Sort both early, and moving to the Czech Republic from the UK loses its one avoidable delay.

In Prague a space for a removal van is not a parking ticket but a zábor, an occupation of public space. The district office is clear that a move needs a formal decision for it. Prague 1 asks for two applications with their attachments, one to the district office and one to the city’s road administrator. It says the decision takes roughly a month to issue. The charge at the office’s 2023 rate was 40 CZK per square metre per day, plus a fee for the traffic signs that mark the space. Check the current figure with your own district, since each sets its own.

The week before loading runs to a rhythm you can see coming. Your documents are with us seven days before the window opens and your finalised inventory three days before, both on your booking confirmation. In between, you confirm the permit for the Prague street with the length we gave you, and the day before loading you have a precise time in the thread rather than a window. Nothing in that week is a surprise, because every date on it was on the confirmation you read when you booked.

Czechia gives a non-EU arrival three working days to report their address to the Foreign Police, in person, with a travel document, the form from the police station and proof of travel medical insurance. Hotels report their guests for them; a flat you have rented does not. Someone moving to the Czech Republic from the UK on a long-term visa registers with the Ministry of the Interior within 30 days as well.

What proves that address on the Czech side is the lease or a recent utility bill in your name, with your work contract where there is one. If the flat is a friend’s at first, their ownership document and a declaration that they are housing you stand in, which is the case the instructed pack exists for.

The Ministry of the Interior keeps three more clocks for a resident from outside the EU. A change of address goes to one of its offices within 30 working days. A new passport, a new name or a change of civil status is reported within three working days. At a residence check the police may ask for your travel document or residence permit and proof of travel medical insurance. Both travel with you, then, rather than with the boxes. None of this is customs; all of it is the first month of moving to the Czech Republic from the UK.

A UK driving licence runs out of welcome quickly here. You may drive on it for three months, after which you exchange it at the municipal office, without a test. Apply before the three months end, since the exchange takes time. None of this is customs, but it belongs on the same list as the boxes.

Clearance happens in France, where French customs applies the relief for people moving in from outside the EU. It is the EU rule, and the Czech Customs Administration publishes it article by article. You lived outside the EU for an unbroken twelve months. You used the goods at your old home for at least six months. They will do the same job in Prague. They arrive within twelve months of your taking up residence, in one go or in stages. Sell, lend, pledge or let them within twelve months of clearance and the relief is lost, with import duty charged on them. Alcohol, tobacco and the tools of a trade stay outside it, portable instruments aside.

A lease can start before you do, and you may want the goods in Prague ahead of you. That has to be arranged, so raise it with us before you book. From France on to Prague the load is moving between member states, which the Czech page says carries no customs formalities for personal effects. The papers on this page, the Non-Cession Certificate and proof of residence at both ends among them, are the usual set, and customs can ask for more. Our customs partner lodges the declaration; you supply the evidence, with the inventory finalised 3 days before your window.

London to Prague is 12.9 recorded hours. After the Channel and the German autobahns, the van leaves the A6 at Waidhaus and joins the Czech D5 at Rozvadov, the motorway known as Via Carolina, which runs past Plzeň into Prague. A four-wheeled vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes needs the Czech electronic vignette on it; anything heavier pays the distance toll instead. Both are the driver’s business and sit outside your price.

Two Czech rules shape the calendar. From 1 November to 31 March, winter tyres are compulsory whenever snow, ice or frost lies on the road, with 4 mm of tread, or 6 mm on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes; a crew that drives this route in January is equipped for it.

On Sundays and public holidays, vehicles over 7.5 tonnes are off the motorways from 13:00 to 22:00, with extra Friday and Saturday hours in July and August. Czechia keeps 13 public holidays in 2026, and when one falls on a weekend there is no substitute day: New Year’s Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday, 1 and 8 May, 5 and 6 July, 28 September, 28 October, 17 November, and 24 to 26 December. The pair to watch is 5 and 6 July, back to back, and then the three autumn dates. A collection window that crosses one of them is worth raising with us before you fix it.

Under either name, the quote is a single figure, transport and customs clearance in one, fixed at booking. The matrix gave £1,916 for 10 m³ between London and Prague at our last reading; what your own two addresses give is what you pay. It does not change because the road was slow, the vignette went up, or a customs officer asked for more. Only you can move it, by needing a bigger size, and then you pay that size’s locked price, as the fixed price removals page explains.

Outside the price: the parking permits at both ends, yours to arrange; and, should customs turn the relief down, the duty or VAT it then levies, a charge that is theirs to make. Cover is a figure, goods in transit up to £20,275 per event, exclusions on the cover page. The person who gave you the van length stays in your thread to the end. Read what happened when a move went wrong, and what we did, on our MuveOne reviews page.