The opportunity
1/2 · Some pain
A worker hired from outside the EU needs an employee card to work and live here, and agencies prepare each file by hand.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- About 82,000 employee-card cases went through the interior ministry in 2024.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- Each renewal or job change means a new file, prepared by hand.2 sourcesmv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- No Czech software prepares the file, tracks it or watches its deadlines.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
The opportunity
About this section
- What this shows
- The problem as it is today: what goes wrong, and who it costs.
- Why it matters to a builder
- Documented pain means you will not have to convince buyers the problem exists before you can sell them the fix.
- How to read the score
- 2/2 means clear, recurring pain: documented complaints, a petition or industry pressure. Scattered complaints make it 1/2.
A worker hired from outside the EU needs an employee card to work and live here, and agencies prepare each file by hand.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- About 82,000 employee-card cases went through the interior ministry in 2024.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- Each renewal or job change means a new file, prepared by hand.2 sourcesmv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- No Czech software prepares the file, tracks it or watches its deadlines.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
Czech employers hire from Ukraine, the Philippines and India through government quota programmes.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees. Getting an employee card is slow and runs on paper.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees. After it is issued come renewals and the employer's reporting duties, and no Czech product watches those dates for the employer.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- The 82,000 were 14,287 new applications filed at embassies, 44,869 extensions and 22,793 changes of employer or position.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them. 12,843 new cards were granted that year.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- A government decree caps new applications at about 45,300 a year across the listed embassies, and most countries never come close.Zákony pro lidizakonyprolidi.czGovernment Decree 220/2019: employee-card quotas (another site)The hard ceiling on annual volume — and evidence the constraint is processing capacity rather than quota.
- Ukraine used about 10% of its 11,000 places in 2024, and only for India and Kazakhstan is the quota the real limit.Zákony pro lidizakonyprolidi.czGovernment Decree 220/2019: employee-card quotas (another site)The hard ceiling on annual volume — and evidence the constraint is processing capacity rather than quota.
Suggested solution
Build software for employers and their agencies that prepares work-permit files, tracks each case and warns before permits expire.
- An agency or law firm. Today: Prepares each permit file by hand. With the suggested solution: Prepares the file in shared software.
- Interior ministry. Today: Decides each case; some sit untouched. With the suggested solution: Unchanged: the ministry still decides.
- Who does this is not known. Today: How an employer follows its case today is not known. With the suggested solution: The employer sees where each case stands.
- An agency, for clients who pay for it. Today: Watches permit expiry dates by hand. With the suggested solution: Software warns before each permit expires.
Not known: how an employer follows its case today.
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Suggested solution
About this section
- What this shows
- One way to solve the problem, and how the work would run with it.
- Why it matters to a builder
- It is a starting point to test with buyers, not a plan. The sections below are the evidence for and against it.
Build software for employers and their agencies that prepares work-permit files, tracks each case and warns before permits expire.
An agency or law firm prepares each employee-card file by hand, the interior ministry decides it, and no Czech provider offers software that tracks the case or its expiry date.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- An agency or law firm. Today: Prepares each permit file by hand. With the suggested solution: Prepares the file in shared software.
- Interior ministry. Today: Decides each case; some sit untouched. With the suggested solution: Unchanged: the ministry still decides.
- Who does this is not known. Today: How an employer follows its case today is not known. With the suggested solution: The employer sees where each case stands.
- An agency, for clients who pay for it. Today: Watches permit expiry dates by hand. With the suggested solution: Software warns before each permit expires.
Not known: how an employer follows its case today.
Why now
1/3 · Soft deadline
Foreign staff wait on stalled permit cases, and every renewal or job change means a new file prepared by hand.2 sourcesmv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- 3,518 complaints in 2024 said foreigners' cases sat untouched, and 40.6% were upheld.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- 44,869 extensions and 22,793 job changes in 2024 each needed a new file.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- Employers pay agencies high fees for each file done by hand.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Why now
About this section
- What this shows
- The dated rules and events that push buyers to act, soonest first.
- Why it matters to a builder
- A dated rule turns “nice to have” into “must buy by”, and tells you how long the window stays open.
- How to read the score
- 3/3 means an enacted rule binds these buyers within 18 months and names a penalty. Without a named penalty it is 2/3. A draft law, a rule on someone else, or a date further out is 1/3.
Foreign staff wait on stalled permit cases, and every renewal or job change means a new file prepared by hand.2 sourcesmv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- 3,518 complaints in 2024 said foreigners' cases sat untouched, and 40.6% were upheld.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- 44,869 extensions and 22,793 job changes in 2024 each needed a new file.mv.gov.czInterior Ministry migration report 2024 (another site)The transaction volume this product would automate — new applications, extensions and employer changes, counted by the ministry that decides them.
- Employers pay agencies high fees for each file done by hand.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.
A draft law would add a second file for some of these hires from 2028:VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…”
- From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU.VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…”
- Today such a diploma can be recognised, but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession.VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…” So a hire into one needs a second file beside the employee card.VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…”
- The European Commission counts 365 regulated professions in Czechia, the second most in the EU.VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…”
- The draft comes from the education ministry and went out for comment in August 2026.VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…” It is the first full revision since 2004 of the act on recognising qualifications, and it answers a ruling of the EU Court of Justice against Czechia.VeKLEPodok.gov.czZákon 18/2004 novela — assessing non-EU qualifications (another site)From 1 January 2028 Czechia is to get its first route for assessing a professional qualification earned outside the EU — today a diploma is recognised but that is often not enough to enter a regulated profession, so every third-country hire into one carries a second dossier alongside the employee card.In the source’s words“Soudní dvůr EU v rozsudku C-75/22 Komise v. Česká republika konstatoval, že Česká republika tím, že nepřijala opatření podle čl. 3 odst. 1 písm. g) a h), čl. 7 odst. 3 a čl. 51 odst. 1 směrnice 2005/36/ES, nesplnila povinnosti, které pro…”
Willing to pay
0/2 · No sign yet
Employers already pay agencies and law firms to prepare each file by hand, but no Czech provider publishes its fee.2 sourcesMarket checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- Agencies charge high fees for files they prepare by hand.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.
- A Brno and Prague law practice of over fifty people does this work.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- One agency sells watching clients' permit expiry dates as a service.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Willing to pay
About this section
- What this shows
- Who already spends money on this problem, how much, and how they buy.
- Why it matters to a builder
- If people already pay for this, even by hand or through a consultant, you are replacing a spend, not creating a budget.
- How to read the score
- 2/2 means a Czech buyer has paid for this, or a priced job also gets public money that pays part of it. A price on file makes it 1/2. Public money alone earns nothing. Only public buyers publish what they pay, so problems sold to private firms often score lower.
Employers already pay agencies and law firms to prepare each file by hand, but no Czech provider publishes its fee.2 sourcesMarket checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- Agencies charge high fees for files they prepare by hand.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.
- A Brno and Prague law practice of over fifty people does this work.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- One agency sells watching clients' permit expiry dates as a service.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
What the work costs is not public:
- None of nine Czech agencies and law firms publishes a per-case fee, so the price has to be asked for.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- The state's own fee is public: an embassy charges 5,000 CZK to accept each application.Zákony pro lidizakonyprolidi.czAct 634/2004 on administrative fees — the embassy fee for an employee card (another site)The state's fee schedule: an embassy charges 5,000 CZK to accept an application for an employee card.
- Agencies are a likely second buyer, for software that lets the same staff handle more cases.
No price paid by a Czech buyer is on file yet.
Where to look
Registr smluv full-text for "zaměstnanecká karta" or "relokační služby" — a public employer that hires abroad, a fakultní nemocnice (teaching hospital) or a university, publishes its relocation-agency contract there with the per-case fee; otherwise ask the HR director of a fakultní nemocnice or the head of a university's welcome office what an agency charges per card; the MS2021+ index under "cizinců" returns only state integration centres, not the employer's filing.
Validated abroad
3/3 · Proven in 2+ markets
Funded companies in Germany, Estonia and the US already handle employers' work-permit cases with software.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best.
- Gale (another site)Based in United States
- LegalOS (another site)Based in United States
- Localyze (another site)Based in Germany
- Jobbatical (another site)Based in EstoniaAlso sells in Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Netherlands
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Validated abroad
About this section
- What this shows
- Companies abroad that already sell a solution, and how far along they are.
- Why it matters to a builder
- Established companies selling it in other markets show that buyers will pay, so you are not betting on an untested idea.
- How to read the score
- 3/3 means established in two or more markets, one of them near Czechia. 2/3 is one established company, 1/3 only early players.
Funded companies in Germany, Estonia and the US already handle employers' work-permit cases with software.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best.
- Y Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.
$2.7M seed, Apr 2025 (Business Insider, 2025); automates H-1B pipeline, coordinates independent attorneys
- 3 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best.
YC W26; claims 100% approval across dozens of filings, 48h turnaround (YC profile, 2026)
- No source on file
$35M Series B led by General Catalyst (TechCrunch, 2022); revenue up 6x YoY; 10 European markets
- No source on file
€11.6M Series A (TechCrunch, 2022); clients incl. N26, TravelPerk, Personio; live in 8 countries
A German company and an Estonian one have sold employer-side immigration case handling for years, both funded at Series A or later, and the Estonian one names well-known European tech firms among its clients.
In the US, a company with a $2.7M seed round automates the corporate work-visa pipeline: application prep, compliance and links to the company's personnel systems.Y Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them. It coordinates independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Y Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them. Two more US companies followed within about a year: Mayflower, which screens hires for immigration issues for personnel teams, and an AI-native immigration law firm.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best. Y Combinator, the US startup accelerator, backed all three, in its batches from winter 2025 to winter 2026.Y Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them. The work-visa company and the law firm both started in 2024.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best.
That model fits Czechia, where this work sits with agencies and law firms.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best. A service firm run on software, rather than software sold to a firm, is the form that fits a paper-based process best.Y Combinatorycombinator.comLegalOS (another site)'The AI-Native Immigration Law Firm' (YC W26) — a service firm rather than a software vendor, which is the form factor that fits a paper-based process best. The Czech procedure is national and runs on paper, which is a local builder's edge.2 sourcesY Combinatorycombinator.comGale (another site)A $2.7M-seed US company automating the corporate work-visa pipeline — application prep, compliance, HR integration — by coordinating independent attorneys rather than replacing them.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.
Market gap
2/2 · Open
Seven Czech agencies and law firms sell this work by hand, and none sells software that tracks a case.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
New, selling this: nobody on file. Established, selling this: nobody on file. New, selling something nearby: Expat Support (since 1992), Workking (since 2020), Spring Walk (zamestnaneckekarty.cz) (since 2021), DMPF Expat Assistant (since 2023), Foreigners.cz, Principio, ReloCzech. Established, selling something nearby: nobody on file. No established player sells this here.
The space is still open
- EarlySells something nearby · since 1992Expat Support (another site)Sells a serviced immigration and expat agenda by the case rather than software.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearby · since 2020Workking (another site)Sells the employee-card agenda by hand from offices in Prague and Brno, including for staffing agencies, which it says most of its competitors will not touch.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearby · since 2021Spring Walk (zamestnaneckekarty.cz) (another site)A law firm, not a software vendor: zamestnaneckekarty.cz — the top Czech-language result for the process itself — is run by Spring Walk vízová kancelář s.r.o., registered in August 2021 and part of a Brno and Prague practice of over fifty people.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearby · since 2023DMPF Expat Assistant (another site)Sells a serviced immigration agenda under the Expat Assistant name.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearbyForeigners.cz (another site)A five-office relocation agency and knowledge portal running the employer-facing site zamestnavamecizince.cz.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearbyPrincipio (another site)Sells a serviced immigration agenda and watches document expiry dates as a service — a person watching the dates, which is the single function such a product would automate first.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearbyReloCzech (another site)Sells a serviced immigration agenda: the provider files and chases the employee card for the employer, case by case, for a fee, with no self-service tracking offered anywhere on the site.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Market gap
About this section
- What this shows
- Czech companies that already sell this, and firms nearby that sell something else.
- Why it matters to a builder
- A mature Czech seller means taking customers from an incumbent. Firms nearby still matter: the buyer may already pay them.
- How to read the score
- More points mean a more open field. 2/2 means no Czech company sells this, 1/2 only early ones do, 0/2 a mature one does.
Seven Czech agencies and law firms sell this work by hand, and none sells software that tracks a case.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
New, selling this: nobody on file. Established, selling this: nobody on file. New, selling something nearby: Expat Support (since 1992), Workking (since 2020), Spring Walk (zamestnaneckekarty.cz) (since 2021), DMPF Expat Assistant (since 2023), Foreigners.cz, Principio, ReloCzech. Established, selling something nearby: nobody on file. No established player sells this here.
The space is still open
- EarlySells something nearby · since 1992Expat Support (another site)Sells a serviced immigration and expat agenda by the case rather than software.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearby · since 2020Workking (another site)Sells the employee-card agenda by hand from offices in Prague and Brno, including for staffing agencies, which it says most of its competitors will not touch.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearby · since 2021Spring Walk (zamestnaneckekarty.cz) (another site)A law firm, not a software vendor: zamestnaneckekarty.cz — the top Czech-language result for the process itself — is run by Spring Walk vízová kancelář s.r.o., registered in August 2021 and part of a Brno and Prague practice of over fifty people.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearby · since 2023DMPF Expat Assistant (another site)Sells a serviced immigration agenda under the Expat Assistant name.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearbyForeigners.cz (another site)A five-office relocation agency and knowledge portal running the employer-facing site zamestnavamecizince.cz.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearbyPrincipio (another site)Sells a serviced immigration agenda and watches document expiry dates as a service — a person watching the dates, which is the single function such a product would automate first.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
- EarlySells something nearbyReloCzech (another site)Sells a serviced immigration agenda: the provider files and chases the employee card for the employer, case by case, for a fee, with no self-service tracking offered anywhere on the site.Sources and the full note are in Read more.
Sells something nearby 7
- Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
A law firm, not a software vendor: zamestnaneckekarty.cz — the top Czech-language result for the process itself — is run by Spring Walk vízová kancelář s.r.o., registered in August 2021 and part of a Brno and Prague practice of over fifty people. What it sells is hands-on case handling billed per application; there is no portal, dashboard, status tracking or reminder anywhere on the page, and that missing layer is exactly what a software product would add.
- Early: Foreigners.cz (another site)No source on file
A five-office relocation agency and knowledge portal running the employer-facing site zamestnavamecizince.cz. What it sells is people doing the paperwork, plus articles explaining it — there is nothing an employer logs into to see where an application stands — and the group appears on the state business register as several separate Brno companies, none of which could be tied to this site, so no company number or launch year is claimed here.
- Early: ReloCzech (another site)Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
Sells a serviced immigration agenda: the provider files and chases the employee card for the employer, case by case, for a fee, with no self-service tracking offered anywhere on the site. No company of that trade name appears on the state business register, so no company number or founding year is claimed here.
Found by the register’s market check
- Early: Expat Support (another site)Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
Sells a serviced immigration and expat agenda by the case rather than software. Expat Support s.r.o. has been registered since May 1992 and is by far the oldest provider here, but it names and counts nobody on the buyer side, holds no public contract in the state contracts register and discloses no funding.
Found by the register’s market check
- Early: Principio (another site)Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
Sells a serviced immigration agenda and watches document expiry dates as a service — a person watching the dates, which is the single function such a product would automate first. One Brno company of that trade name sits on the state business register, Principio s.r.o., registered in October 2018; no product site was reachable to confirm the match, so the identification is stated here for a reader to check, and it names no client.
Found by the register’s market check
- Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
Sells a serviced immigration agenda under the Expat Assistant name. The state business register resolves it as DMPF Consulting s.r.o., incorporated in October 2023, which makes it the youngest provider here; no product site was reachable, and it names no client.
Found by the register’s market check
- Early: Workking (another site)Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and there is no product among them.
Sells the employee-card agenda by hand from offices in Prague and Brno, including for staffing agencies, which it says most of its competitors will not touch. It is people doing the filing — no portal, no case status a client can open, no expiry watch — and the company, registered in September 2020, names nobody it has filed for.
Each sells a person doing the paperwork, case by case, with no portal, dashboard or status a client can open.2 sourcesMarket checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and…
- The top Czech search result for the process belongs to a law practice in Brno and Prague that handles each case by hand.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- One agency watches clients' permit expiry dates as a service: a person watching the dates, not software.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- One agency in Prague and Brno also files cards for staffing-agency workers, which it says comparable firms rarely do.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and there is no product among them.
- A corporate services firm files employers' reports on their foreign staff by hand.Market checkworkking.czMarket scan — the same question, an in-domain control (another site)A Czech query written the way an employer would ask surfaced the agencies — including one an earlier search had missed — and no software: the method finds providers in this market when they are there, and there is no product among them.
- The state business register lists nine "Relocation" and fifteen "Expat" companies, all service, tax or consulting firms.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
- Ministry pages, form-filling guides such as permit.cz and general law firms such as ARROWS (a Czech law firm) make up the rest, and none of them is software that does the work.Market checkycombinator.comFirst Czech market scan (another site)An early sweep that surfaced ministry pages, law firms and static form-filling guides, and documented the employee-card process as slow, paper-based and handled manually at high fees.
- The only self-service tracking of the Czech process sits inside Deel, a foreign platform that employs staff on a company's behalf.Market checkzamestnaneckekarty.czMarket scan — Czech immigration providers (another site)Six searches and an ARES sweep found a dense manual market — Spring Walk, Foreigners, ReloCzech, Expat Support, Principio, DMPF — with no portal, dashboard or tracking, and no software vendor among them.
Execution difficulty
3/3 · Easy
Makes it easier
- Employers already pay a fee for every case.
- No licence or regulator stands in the way.
- The seven Czech providers all do the work by hand.
Makes it harder
- The filing itself is still on paper.
- No provider publishes its fee.
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Execution difficulty
About this section
- What this shows
- What stands between you and the first sale: who buys, what permission selling needs, what it must plug into, and whether it needs outside money.
- Why it matters to a builder
- It tells you whether a small team can start selling soon, or needs a licence, a certification or funding first.
- How to read the score
- More points mean easier to enter: 3/3 is easy, 0/3 very hard. It is not added to the Opportunity total, and local competition does not count here: that is Market gap.
Easy
Makes it easier
- Employers already pay a fee for every case.
- No licence or regulator stands in the way.
- The seven Czech providers all do the work by hand.
Makes it harder
- The filing itself is still on paper.
- No provider publishes its fee, so the price has to be learned one conversation at a time.
Local competition does not change this level. It is covered under Market gap.
Suggested first moves
- Build a simple deadline watch that warns an employer before each foreign worker's employee card or permit runs out.
- Point the first version at renewals and job changes rather than new hires, because they are most of the cases and they keep coming back.
- Call the heads of personnel at employers who hire from outside the EU, and open with the ministry's count of complaints about stalled cases.
P-0009 · Czech work permits for foreign staff get stuck, and agencies still do every file by hand
Suggested first moves
About this section
- What this shows
- A few concrete steps to start with.
- Why it matters to a builder
- They are cheap ways to learn whether buyers will pay, before you build much.
- Build a simple deadline watch that warns an employer before each foreign worker's employee card or permit runs out. It files nothing and carries no legal risk, so it can ship before any filing feature. Today one agency sells this as a person watching the dates, and no Czech product does it; the only self-service tracking sits inside a foreign platform, as Market gap shows. Give an employer one screen with every worker's dates and a warning well before each one, and let the agency it already uses see the same screen.
- Point the first version at renewals and job changes rather than new hires, because they are most of the cases and they keep coming back. The ministry's own counts, under The opportunity, show extensions and changes of employer far outnumber new applications filed at embassies. Renewals run to fixed dates and are filed inside Czechia, so someone at the employer has to watch every one of them. That person is the user to design for.
- Call the heads of personnel at employers who hire from outside the EU, and open with the ministry's count of complaints about stalled cases. The count and the share upheld are under Why now. Ask how many of last year's hires started late, and who found out first. The cost that matters to them is less the agency fee than the worker who cannot start on time, and their answers show which warning to build next.
- Offer the same software to the agencies and law firms that prepare these files, so the same staff can handle more cases. One of them is a large law practice in Brno and Prague, and another also takes staffing-agency workers, which it says comparable firms rarely do; see Market gap. More cases per person is their margin, so show them the time saved per file. Go in knowing that none of them publishes a per-case fee, so ask what they charge before you set your own price; see Willing to pay.