Temporary residence for the purpose of study
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Prechodný pobyt na účel štúdia as of 2026-08-24[3][6] The statutory name of the § 24 purpose, identical in the Border and Aliens Police question set and in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs' catalogue. |
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| Official name (English) | Temporary residence for the purpose of study as of 2026-08-24[3] Translation of the Slovak statutory name. |
| Legal basis | Zákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov, § 24 (štúdium), read with § 32 ods. 5 písm. f) (doklad potvrdzujúci účel pobytu) a § 32 ods. 6 písm. c) (finančné zabezpečenie pobytu) as of 2026-08-24[5][6] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-24[3] |
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 No minimum. The route is expressly open to minors: a legal representative or appointed guardian acts for a child, and a child over 15 may act alone provided the application carries the legal representative's certified signature. No lower bound is stated, so the field is recorded as unknown rather than as a number. |
| Criminal-record condition | Yes as of 2026-08-24[6] A criminal-record extract no older than 90 days from the state of nationality and from every state where the applicant spent more than 90 days in any six consecutive months in the last three years, covering the whole territory of the issuing state. The police unit may accept an extract older than 90 days where no more than 90 days separate its issue from the applicant's arrival in Slovakia. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 6 years as of 2026-08-24[3][6] Granted for the expected duration of the study and for no longer than six years. Both the Border and Aliens Police and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs state the six-year ceiling, which is the longest initial term any Slovak temporary residence carries. |
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| Renewable | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Work rights | hours capped as of 2026-08-24[2][7] § 23a ods. 1 písm. e) of the Employment Services Act: a holder of study residence, other than a language-school pupil, needs neither a work permit nor a labour-office confirmation provided work for all employers together does not exceed 10 hours a week, or 20 hours a week for a university student, or the corresponding number of days or months in a year. The Migration Information Centre restates the same rule monthly, as 40 hours a month for a secondary-school pupil and 80 for a university student. The language-school exclusion is the trap on this route: a language-course student on study residence has no work right at all under this provision. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. Whether study time counts towards EU long-term residence under § 52, and at what rate, could not be sourced — the qualifying period itself is unknown on this record. |
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Requirements
| Enrolment status required | admitted as of 2026-08-24[6] The purpose is proved by a confirmation of the applicant's ACCEPTANCE for study, issued by the competent state administration body or by the school, or by a confirmation from the organisation administering programmes approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic or European Union programmes under a contract with the competent state administration body. Admission, not enrolment: the document is dated no more than 90 days before the application and precedes the start of the course. |
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| Means requirement | Not established from a qualifying source[5] |
| Work-hours cap | 20 as of 2026-08-24[2][7] |
| Post-study route exists | No as of 2026-08-24[1][3][7] Slovakia has no job-search or graduate residence. The § 21 ods. 1 enumeration of temporary-residence purposes is closed on its face and contains no such purpose, and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs' catalogue of purposes enumerates the same list — recorded as a sourced absence. What does exist is a labour-market facilitation rather than a residence: § 23a ods. 1 písm. t) of the Employment Services Act frees a person who has successfully completed secondary or university study in Slovakia from needing a work permit or a labour-office confirmation, so a graduate moves onto employment-purpose residence without the labour-market test rather than onto a job-search permit. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-24[6] In person abroad at a Slovak mission, or at a foreign police department where the applicant is in Slovakia on a valid residence permit under a special regulation, on tolerated stay under § 58 ods. 1 písm. a) to c) or ods. 2, on a national visa under § 15, or where no visa is required of them. |
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| Statutory processing time | 30 days as of 2026-08-24[3][6] The competent foreign police department decides within 30 days of receiving the complete application — one of the five purposes the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs names as decided in 30 days rather than 90. |
| Observed processing time | Not established from a qualifying source No official observed-duration statistics were located. |
| Fees | |
| 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 | 7 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 6 |
| 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] Kto nepotrebuje povolenie na zamestnanie ani potvrdenie o možnosti obsadenia voľného pracovného miesta?
Migračné informačné centrum IOM (Medzinárodná organizácia pre migráciu) · international organisation · Tier 2 · Published 2026-08-11 · 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] 44. Finančné zabezpečenie pobytu podľa zákona č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov (edícia október 2024)
Úrad hraničnej a cudzineckej polície, Prezídium Policajného zboru, Ministerstvo vnútra SR · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 · Superseded by sk-uhcp-faq-podnikanie - [6] 14. Doklady potrebné k prijatiu žiadosti o udelenie prechodného pobytu na účel štúdia podľa § 24 zákona o pobyte cudzincov (edícia júl 2025)
Úrad hraničnej a cudzineckej polície Prezídia Policajného zboru, Ministerstvo vnútra SR · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [7] 4. Zamestnanie štátneho príslušníka tretej krajiny, u ktorého sa povolenie na zamestnanie ani potvrdenie o možnosti obsadenia VPM nevyžaduje (§ 23a zákona č. 5/2004 Z. z. o službách zamestnanosti)
Ústredie práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny SR · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2024-03-07 · Accessed 2026-08-24