Is a criminal record certificate required to buy or open a Czech company?

In short: A criminal record certificate is only required for directors of a legal entity or individual entrepreneurs if they are not residents of the Czech Republic (i.e., they do not have local temporary or permanent residency) and are not citizens of another EU country. Czech residents do not need this certificate at all. EU citizens can complete the verification by getting a Czech confirmation. Citizens of non-EU countries who are non-residents of the Czech Republic will need a certificate from their country of citizenship.

A detailed explanation

No criminal record certificate is required for the founders of a Czech company. The certificate may only be required for members of the governing bodies of legal entities or Czech individual entrepreneurs – essentially, the directors of the company (or governing bodies in general).

Whether a certificate is necessary depends on the person’s citizenship, as well as their residency status in the Czech Republic if they are a foreigner.

The following situations are possible:

• The director is a Czech citizen or a foreigner living in the country with temporary or permanent residency. In this case, no certificate will be required. Their criminal record status will be checked in internal Czech databases, which will be perfectly sufficient.
• The director is a citizen of another EU country with no temporary or permanent residency in the Czech Republic. In this situation, a criminal record certificate will be required, but a Czech confirmation of a clean record will be acceptable. Formally, when appointing an EU citizen as a director, you do need to verify their criminal record in their home country. This can be achieved by obtaining a certificate directly from their country’s authorities (which is often complicated and may require an apostille), but you can also request a criminal record certificate from the Czech Republic. When obtaining a Czech criminal record certificate for an EU citizen, the system automatically sends an additional request to verify their record in their EU country of citizenship. This means their criminal history is checked both in their country of citizenship and in the Czech Republic, with the final document confirming a clean record in both jurisdictions, which is exactly what we need. Therefore, this verification can be arranged through a Czech certificate, which is much simpler. Moreover, the document is accepted in the Czech Republic without any issues, apostille requirements, or translation.
• The director is not a citizen of the Czech Republic or another EU country, and holds no residency status in the Czech Republic (no temporary or permanent residency). This is the situation where a criminal record certificate from the country of citizenship will be required. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid this requirement or replace the certificate with a local document or another alternative.

If the criminal record certificate is obtained outside the Czech Republic, you will need a physical document with "wet" seals and stamps from the relevant authorities. Unfortunately, no electronic versions will be accepted in the Czech Republic. Additionally, documents from many countries will require further certification with an apostille. The requirements depend on the specific country – we have a form on our website where you can check whether an apostille is required for your specific country. Finally, the certificate must be translated into Czech by a certified (court/sworn) translator. 

Important: the same applies to registering as a Czech individual entrepreneur (Czech: Živnostenský list) – the principle and the requirements are identical.