Temporary residence for the purpose of seasonal employment
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Prechodný pobyt na účel sezónneho zamestnania as of 2026-08-24[4][5] The Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family and the Migration Information Centre both use this wording, and the consular tariff carries 'seasonal employment' as its own line among the temporary-residence purposes. The Act itself frames it as the employment purpose applied to seasonal work rather than as a separate purpose, which is why it shares § 23 with sk-zamestnanie. |
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| Official name (English) | Temporary residence for the purpose of seasonal employment as of 2026-08-24[4] The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs' own English wording in the consular tariff. |
| Legal basis | Zákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov, § 23 (prechodný pobyt na účel zamestnania) pre sezónne zamestnanie; zákon č. 5/2004 Z. z. o službách zamestnanosti (definícia sezónneho zamestnania a povolenie na sezónne zamestnanie); vyhláška MPSVR SR č. 190/2017 Z. z. (zoznam odvetví sezónnych zamestnaní) as of 2026-08-24[5][6] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-24[4] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU as of 2026-08-24[3] |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. |
| Criminal-record condition | Not established from a qualifying source Not established from a Tier-1 source. The Central Office's document list for the seasonal residence application names the contract or promise and, for regulated occupations, the qualification decision, and does not mention good character; the Migration Information Centre does list a criminal-record document. Because the general § 32 conditions apply to every temporary residence, the likelier reading is that it is required and the Central Office's list is partial — but that is a reading, not a source, so the field stays unknown. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 180 days as of 2026-08-24[5][6] Granted for the period of the employment and for at most 180 days. The 180 days are the outer limit of seasonal work in any 12 consecutive months, counting any earlier period worked on a seasonal work permit in the same window. |
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| Renewable | No as of 2026-08-24[6] The Central Office states expressly that the general right to extend an employment-purpose residence by applying for renewal does not apply to seasonal employment, whose duration may not exceed 180 days. A renewal application inside that 180-day ceiling exists procedurally — the vacancy must be reported at least 15 working days before it — but it cannot carry the stay beyond the ceiling, which is why this is recorded as not renewable. |
| Renewal duration | Not applicable[6] Not renewable beyond the 180-day ceiling. |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2026-08-24[6] |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-08-24[5] A copy of the employment contract or of the employer's written promise containing the essentials of a contract. |
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| Labour-market test | Yes as of 2026-08-24[5][6] Seasonal employment of more than 90 days is the first case the Central Office lists as one where the labour office does examine the situation on the labour market. The employer reports the vacancy at least 20 working days before the residence application (10 working days where the route is a seasonal work permit rather than a residence, and 15 working days before an application to renew). |
| Qualification requirement | none as of 2026-08-24[5] No qualification threshold; a recognition decision or certified education document is filed only where the occupation is regulated. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-08-24[5] The employer reports the vacancy and must itself satisfy the § 70 ods. 7 conditions of the Employment Services Act, must not have breached the ban on illegal employment in the five years before the application, and must not have been fined for a breach of § 23b ods. 11 in that period. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-08-24[1][3] Not a job-search instrument. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-24[2][5] In person at a Slovak mission abroad, or at the locally competent foreign police department where the applicant is already lawfully in Slovakia — including on a Schengen visa issued for seasonal employment, which is the ordinary way in for the first 90 days. Where a worker has been doing seasonal work for 90 days on a work permit and files the residence application during that time, the stay counts as lawful until the application is decided. |
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| Statutory processing time | 90 days as of 2026-08-24[2] The police unit decides within 90 days of the complete application, shortened to 30 days where the applicant did seasonal work or held a seasonal-employment residence in the preceding five years. Only the Migration Information Centre states this and it is Tier-2; the Central Office's own page does not give a police deadline for the seasonal case. Recorded because the 90-day figure is also the general deadline that the Central Office states for the employment purpose, which is this route's own provision; the 30-day shortening rests on the Tier-2 source alone and is. |
| Observed processing time | Not established from a qualifying source No official observed-duration statistics were located. |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Not established from a qualifying source |
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Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 6 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 5 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-08-24 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-24 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-26 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Zákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov (znenie vyhlásené v Zbierke zákonov, čiastka 126)
Ministerstvo vnútra SR (kópia vyhláseného znenia na webovom sídle Úradu hraničnej a cudzineckej polície) · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2011-10-21 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [2] Sezónne zamestnanie štátnych príslušníkov tretích krajín v SR
Migračné informačné centrum IOM (Medzinárodná organizácia pre migráciu) · international organisation · Tier 2 · Published 2026-01-16 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [3] Pobyt cudzinca – účely prechodného pobytu, druhy trvalého pobytu a podávanie žiadostí
Ministerstvo zahraničných vecí a európskych záležitostí SR (Generálny konzulát SR v Užhorode) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2022-07-08 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [4] Poplatky — sadzobník konzulárnych poplatkov, položky 240 až 265 (položka 242: žiadosti o udelenie pobytu)
Ministerstvo zahraničných vecí a európskych záležitostí SR · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2024-03-11 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [5] Zamestnanie štátneho príslušníka tretej krajiny na účel sezónneho zamestnania alebo v rámci vnútropodnikového presunu
Ústredie práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny SR · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2022-01-26 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [6] 1. Zamestnanie štátneho príslušníka tretej krajiny s potvrdením o možnosti obsadenia voľného pracovného miesta
Ústredie práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny SR · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2023-01-09 · Accessed 2026-08-24