Working atmosphere is more clam here
Kristína Pašková (16.5.2008).
How would you summarize the situation that brought you to the Czech Republic?
I was working for a company in India and they offered me an opportunity to establish a new office here in the Czech republic. I took it, even though I was slightly apprehensive at the time, because I didn’t know much about this country or even about Prague. Most of the people who are moving out of India are probably looking for jobs in the United States or Western Europe, not many people move towards Eastern Europe. But I took the opportunity to move to this place to establish a new office, that’s the whole story.
Was it difficult to get your family here? How did they feel about moving?
To be honest, during the initial six or seven month, I did not like this place at all, I thought it was to dark and there was the problem of different language. It was also difficult because when we came here, my wife wasn’t allowed to work and she did not have anything to do, the television was just in Czech and we did not know anybody. It is also quite difficult to keep your family’s living standard with just one person working. It would be very helpful if the spouse of somebody who moved here for work would be given a work permit as well. But my wife finally started working a year ago as a sales representative and generally, we really like it here. Last year, we went to India for a month and towards the end of our stay, we couldn’t wait to come back to Prague.
Did you have to do a lot of paper work before you could work here?
To be honest, there is a lot of bureaucracy involved in getting your visa and work permit done. I have never moved out of India before, so I do not know how much bureaucracy is involved when you move to some other country, but I presume it must be pretty much the same. After I got here in November 2005, I had to fly back to India at least three times to get mine and my family’s visa done. I had to first look for an apartment, because the foreign police requires a lease agreement before they can give you a long term visa, then I went back to apply for the long term visa for me and my family, after that I came here on a short term visa again, then had to go back after three month to get my long term visa stamped. Since that there is every year the process of getting my long term visa extended. I would appreciate it, if it could be every two years. I heard there might be a change like that next year, which would be good.
But thanks to the pilot project of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs you will get your permanent residency and these changes will not be necessary for you.
Yes, thanks to the project my whole family will get permanent residency in just a year from now instead of standard five years. So hopefully, I won’t need that. When I’m thinking from the perspective of other people who will be coming over, it might become slightly easier for them.
Did you have assistance from your company?
The company I came here with has already outsourced all the immigration work to another company, which specializes in this. They arranged all the papers for me, but it was very expensive. Since my company was paying for it, that wasn’t a problem for me. After one year, I started to work for the company I’m currently working for and they helped me as well, so I had no problems with the transition. I will have to extend my long term visa in person at the foreign police once more in August, but it will probably be the last time, which is nice.
How did you actually find out about this project which will help you get a permanent residency in a drastically shortened period of time?
One of my friends from India applied for this project and simultaneously, I got an email from a friend who did his education here in the Czech republic, so he’s been living here for like seven or eight years and he told me that there is this programme and I should check out its website, so I had a look, found it interesting and applied for the whole family.
What will the permanent residency mean for you and your family?
I’m looking at this from a few different angles. First of all, I will not have to go through the process of renewing my and my family’s long term visa every year anymore. Other advantage is I believe in buying an apartment. Right now I would have to establish a company and then buy an apartment for that company, which is a very complicated process. Hopefully, when we get a permanent residency, I will be able to get my family our own place here in Prague.
Do you intend to stay here permanently or have you already thought about coming back or moving somewhere else?
I haven’t really thought about that, I’m just taking everything as it comes.
Do you have any children?
I have a four year old son.
Does he go to a Czech kindergarten or to one of the English language ones?
He goes to an English kindergarten, but now, when I think about it, we should have given him into a Czech kindergarten in the first place, but he has already settled in the English one and isn’t very keen on moving.
Do you speak English at home as well, or would Czech be a second foreign language for your son?
We speak English at home. My son speaks only a bit of broken Hindi, even though he can understand his grandparents for example, English is his perfect language. Kids can pick up languages very easily, so I think he will manage to learn Czech. Now he finds it quite difficult to interact with children in the parks or playgrounds. Last weekend, we took him to this park at Vyšehrad and there were all the Czech speaking children and they wouldn’t give him his turn on the roundabout. He tried to tell them in English, but they couldn’t understand. So when I asked him if he wants to learn Czech, he said yes, I want to learn Czech.
Are you thinking about putting him into a Czech elementary school in a few years? Because there aren’t many English speaking ones here.
Honestly, that’s one of the concerns we have about staying here permanently, education for my child. English education is extremely expensive. Czech schools are, however, still underfunded, which is a problem this state should take more seriously. Anyway, I hope we will at the end of the day find an institution which can provide affordable education in English as well.
You mentioned some initial difficulties after coming here, how do you see Czech society now?
Czechs are very nice people, very easy to get along with. It depends, however, on the group of people you are dealing with. The company where I worked during the first year here had mostly Czech employees who wouldn’t bother to talk in English during a societal event. So foreigners like me felt estranged. But Czech people at my current company are very nice and open to talk in English even outside of business meetings. I would say that the working environment is more relaxed than in India, which I believe to be beneficial for everybody, because people are not so stressed. But as far as the service industry is concerned, Czech Republic has still a long way to go. I don’t think that people in Czech restaurants or shops are not nice to me, because I am a foreigner. They behave like this towards everybody. They are sometimes even quite rude. But with people in our building, it’s very different. We never had any problems with anybody there. I really like the place where we live, it’s quiet and near to the centre, we never intend to move from there.
Do you know your neighbours?
No, we greet each other, but I don’t really know them. I and my wife try to spend as much free time as possible with our son. We only see him for a couple of hours during weekdays, because we both work full time. So we try to make a lot of family trips during weekends to compensate. One of the great things about Prague is that there are a lot of parks, a lot of places to go with children to.
Do you also travel outside of Prague?
Yes, we went to Paris last year, but this year, because the Czech Republic is a part of the Schengen zone now, we plan to travel a lot more. I don’t need a visa any more to go to other Schngen zone countries. We have already been to Krakow in Poland, which is a very nice city, full of history. In this sense, I would say, it’s quite similar to Prague. In May I’m going to Barcelona, then maybe to Germany, Austria and Hungary.. It is very easy to go somewhere just for a weekend now. But I prefer living here to many places I have been to. When I was in Paris on London, I felt like I was suffocating. Prague is not that crowded, you still have a space to breath.