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Getting your foreign degree recognised in Czechia (Nostrification)

The Oddballs · 14 June 2026

If you’re applying to any university in Prague (or Czechia generally) with a degree from outside the country, you’ll run into Nostrification — the official process of getting your foreign degree recognised as equivalent to a Czech one. Without it, most universities won’t issue an acceptance letter, and without that, there’s no student visa.

This post covers the document side, which is largely the same regardless of which university you’re applying to. For the CZU-specific application timeline, see our other post.

Before you do anything: the apostille

This is the step that catches people out, because it’s the slowest and it depends on your home country, not on Czechia.

  • Your degree certificate and final transcript/marksheet need to carry an apostille (or super-legalisation, depending on your country) — a stamp from your home country’s authorities confirming the document is genuine.
  • Start this before you start anything else. It can take weeks, and nothing in the recognition process can begin without it.
  • From April 2024, universities won’t accept documents without an original apostille or super-legalisation label — photocopies of an apostille don’t count.

The document checklist

Once your documents are apostilled, you’ll typically need:

  • A completed and signed application form (usually downloadable from the university’s recognition office page)
  • A notarised copy of your degree/diploma — provisional certificates are not accepted, it has to be the final diploma
  • A notarised copy of your official transcript of records
  • If your new programme follows on from another (e.g. a Master’s after a Bachelor’s), documents for both degrees
  • Certified translations into Czech or English, if your originals aren’t already in Czech, English or Slovak — done by a sworn translator or a Czech embassy, with the translation officially bound to a certified copy of the original
  • A plain copy of your passport
  • A Power of Attorney, if someone else is submitting on your behalf
  • A marriage certificate / name-change document if your name differs from the one on your degree

The fee

Nostrification typically costs around 3,000 CZK, paid by bank transfer — the receiving university will give you the exact account details, variable symbol (often your date of birth in YYMMDD format) and reference to use. Get this right; a payment that can’t be matched to your application just sits there.

Two paths, if your target university offers both

Some universities (CZU included) offer a faster, narrower alternative:

  • Nostrification — official, recognised everywhere in Czechia, valid permanently. Takes longer but is the safer choice, especially for visa purposes.
  • Internal Evaluation — faster and cheaper, but only valid for that one university, for that one programme, one time only. No certificate is issued — it’s a purely internal note on your file. If you reapply later (even to a different programme at the same university), you do it again. Still legally required before admission either way.

A few extra things worth knowing about Internal Evaluation specifically:

  • It usually only becomes available after you pass the admission interview/exam — you can’t start it earlier, which is exactly why the apostille has to be done before that point, not after.
  • Some applicants can skip it entirely — for example, if you already hold Nostrification for the relevant level of education, or your diploma is an IB/EB diploma, or from certain neighbouring countries (Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary). If any of these apply to you, say so explicitly and don’t pay the (non-refundable) Internal Evaluation fee until you’ve confirmed it’s needed.
  • Once it’s done, your physical documents typically stay with the university for their records and aren’t automatically returned — if you sent originals and want them back, you usually have to arrange that yourself (in person, at your own cost, or via your programme coordinator alongside the acceptance letter). Worth deciding in advance whether you’re comfortable not getting originals back.

If you’re not sure which path applies to your programme, ask the recognition/admissions office directly — don’t guess.

Common mistakes (the ones that cost people a whole year)

  • Sending documents to the wrong department — degree recognition is usually a separate office from general admissions, and they don’t forward things for you.
  • Sending physical/original documents before getting email confirmation that everything is correct.
  • Submitting a provisional certificate instead of the final diploma.
  • Treating the apostille as something you can “get to later” — by the time people realise they need it, it’s often too late for that year’s intake.

What we’d tell a friend

Treat the apostille and nostrification as the actual deadline — not the university’s application deadline. If those two are done early, everything downstream (acceptance letter, tuition payment, visa appointment) has room to breathe. If they’re late, nothing else matters.

General guidance based on our own experience — requirements differ slightly between universities and change over time, so confirm the current document list with your specific university’s recognition/nostrification office.

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