Fikce legálního pobytu

Under Czech law

The fiction is anchored in § 47 of the Aliens Residence Act (Act No. 326/1999 Sb.): where an application to extend or change a residence permit is filed within the statutory window (generally no earlier than 120 days before and no later than the last day of validity), the existing residence is deemed to continue until a final decision. The ministry issues a bridging visa sticker or confirmation (překlenovací štítek) evidencing the fiction for travel and employers.

The fiction protects residence, not everything attached to it: working rights during the fiction follow the previous permit''s scope, and travelling outside Schengen on a bridging document has practical limits. Filing even one day late kills the fiction — the person falls into illegal stay with all consequences, and must usually leave and start over from an embassy.

A practical example

A graduate''s employee card expires 31 May; the renewal decision realistically will not come before autumn. She files in April, receives the bridging confirmation, and keeps working for the same employer through the summer under the fiction. Her colleague files 2 June — one working day late — and finds no fiction applies: employment must stop and the immigration history now carries an illegal-stay entry.

When you need a lawyer

When a deadline was missed (narrow repair routes exist and evaporate fast), when the ministry sits on an application beyond statutory time limits (inaction protection under § 80 of the Administrative Procedure Code), and before any travel on a bridging document.