Until what date is temporary protection in Slovakia valid
The status dočasné útočisko (temporary protection) is valid until March 4, 2027, and is automatically extended. The basis is the implementing decision of the EU Council and the Slovak government resolution from February 21, 2025, by which the country adopts European deadlines without a separate decision each time. You do not need to go to the police or "push" for the term just to extend it.
The next deadline has already been adopted. On July 30, 2026, the EU Council adopted implementing decision 2026/1912, which extended temporary protection until March 4, 2028. Slovakia has not officially announced this date yet: last time the ministry informed about automatic extension in February, two weeks before the old deadline. What the European decision changes for men we explained in the news about temporary protection until 2028.
Read one condition from this decision carefully. Article 2 says protection is granted only to those who perform military duties in Ukraine and, if needed, request to confirm this with documents. It applies from July 31, 2026, and does not apply to those who had temporary protection until July 30, 2026, inclusive, and continuously keep it — moreover, keep it in the same EU country, as literally written in the decision. Moving to another EU country breaks this exception: there you are a new applicant, and the military duty condition formally applies to you. In such a case, it is worth checking your situation directly at the foreigner police department or the Migration Information Center IOM.
This is where the date discrepancies you see online come from. March 4, 2027 — the valid Slovak deadline, and it is on your document not because of a delay in renewal: the extension itself, i.e., Article 1 of the decision, applies only from March 5, 2027. March 4, 2028 — the already adopted European level. Both dates are correct.
Who is an odídenec (temporary protected person) and what this status gives
Odídenec (odídenec) — a person to whom Slovakia has granted temporary protection. Formally, this is tolerated residence for the purpose of temporary protection, and this is exactly the wording you will see in your documents.
The right to the status is held by Ukrainian citizens, their family members, persons to whom Ukraine granted international or equivalent national protection before February 24, 2022, and foreigners with permanent residence permits in Ukraine who cannot safely return home. A family member is considered a spouse, a minor child, parents of a minor child — a Ukrainian citizen, and also a close relative who lived together and was dependent.
What the status opens:
Work. You can work under employment without a separate work permit. Since July 15, 2024, odídenec (temporary protected person) are also allowed entrepreneurial activity. The employer must notify the employment center within seven working days using the form "Informačná karta".
Healthcare. Since September 1, 2023, adults with the status have state health insurance. For children from birth to 18 years and 364 days, the same coverage has been in effect since January 1, 2023.
Children can go to kindergarten or school immediately after applying for protection, adults — to courses and universities.
Payments. The amount of material need assistance from January 1, 2026, is €89.70 per month for a single person, €155.90 for a couple without children, and €170.60 for a single person with a child; it is assigned after income verification. For a minor child, an additional €25.10 is added, for housing — €100.60 for a one-person household.
You can live in a migration service facility up to 60 days from the first granting of status; vulnerable categories — longer, by separate written application.
Don’t have the status yet? The application is submitted personally at any foreigner police department by appointment, and presence is required from each applicant — biometrics are taken. The child must also be present; the application for them is submitted by the father, mother, or legal representative. With a valid passport or other identity document, the status is granted immediately; without any documents, the application is still accepted, but the decision will take up to 30 days.
As of August 2, 2026, tolerated residence for the purpose of temporary protection in Slovakia was held by 149,120 persons. The most are in the Bratislava region — 47,054 people, then Košice region with 29,392. Children and teenagers under 18 years — 41,434. And in the age group 18–60 years, women are 61,546 versus 34,918 men — almost twice as many.
The status is not granted to Ukrainian citizens who already have a residence permit (VNZh) or permanent residence permit (PMP) in Slovakia, have applied for asylum, or have already received asylum or additional protection.
How odídenec (temporary protected person) differs from asylum and residence permit (VNZh)
Odídenec (temporary protected person) — a temporary collective status activated by the EU Council decision immediately for a whole group of people: valid until March 4, 2027, and gives work without permit, health insurance, school, and payments. Asylum is granted by the Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic (Migračný úrad) — individually and for a long time, but indefinitely and with the broadest rights. Residence permit (prechodný pobyt) is issued by the foreigner police for a specific purpose — work, business, study, family — for a maximum of two years, and is not related to war.
We laid out the three statuses side by side — with conditions, terms, and decision statistics — in a separate analysis about asylum, additional, and temporary protection. If you are still choosing which to stop at, start with our overview of residence options.
Do you need to extend temporary protection and how to renew the document
The main confusion is here: status and document are different things with different terms. The status is extended centrally, without your participation. But the paper or card in your hands has its own term, and you renew it yourself.
Checking validity takes two minutes and is done online:
Open the Slovak Ministry of Interior portal portal.minv.sk and find the service to check confirmation of temporary protection.
Enter the identifier and family number — both printed on your document. Instead of typing, you can scan the QR code in the corner of the document.
The system will show the current confirmation of tolerated residence with the new validity period.
Save it on your phone or print it. This is enough for the bank, employer, and institutions.
The paper confirmation in A4 format is valid for a maximum of 90 days. After that, a plastic card — doklad o pobyte (document of residence) with the mark "DOČASNÉ ÚTOČISKO" is required. Those who received the status after December 15, 2024, must apply for it within the same 90 days. The card is valid for three years but not longer than the status itself.
According to the Migration Information Center IOM, the fee for the card is €10 if issued within 30 days or €39 if needed within two working days. You must bring a completed application, a valid foreign passport, and a paid eKolok.
You cannot come "just like that." The cudzinecká polícia (foreigner police) departments accept temporary protection applications only by appointment, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 to 13:30. How to catch free slots when there are "none," we explained in a separate analysis about how to catch an appointment.
One action often done incorrectly is moving. You report address changes to your municipality or city, not the police: they enter it into the system and issue a new document printout. We collected other document situations in the "Legalization" section.
What happens if the document is expired or protection ends
An expired document does not mean lost status. But without a valid paper, the bank will not open an account, and the employer will not hire you — so renew it a few weeks before the date, not on the last day.
Missing the 90-day deadline for the plastic card also does not cancel protection. You fix it the same way: book an appointment in the residence document issuance system and submit an application. There are no legal consequences here, only practical ones: with expired paper, every institution will ask extra questions, and free slots have to be waited for weeks.
What really terminates the status is listed exhaustively. Since June 12, 2026, law No. 69/2026 Z. z. on international protection is in force, which replaced the old asylum law, and its § 64 contains a closed list of grounds: expiration by EU Council or government decision; submitting an international protection application in Slovakia; granting residence permit (VNZh) or permanent residence permit (PMP) in Slovakia; written refusal of status; international protection or indefinite residence in another country; temporary protection in another EU country; acquiring citizenship of Slovakia or another EU country; cancellation by decision; death. Trips to Ukraine are not in this list.
When temporary protection finally ends, you will not be illegal the next day. You will still be considered a person under temporary protection for another year, and the document validity will be extended for that year. You must leave within that year if there is no other legal basis for residence. This rule does not apply to those who applied for asylum, received VNZh or PMP in Slovakia, or protection in another country.
A special case is consciously closing the status before final departure. The refusal procedure, where to submit the application, and which mistakes cost time we explained in the material about how to close status before leaving.
How to switch from temporary protection to residence permit (VNZh)
Since July 15, 2026, a simplified transition from temporary protection to prechodný pobyt (temporary residence permit, VNZh) is in effect. The condition is one and checked formally: at least six months immediately before submitting the application you conducted the relevant activity — worked, ran a business, studied — and continue it on the day of submission.
What to submit to the foreigner police along with a valid foreign passport:
document about the purpose of residence; for employment, this is a certificate from Sociálnej poisťovne (Social Insurance) about registration in the insured registry, issued no earlier than 30 days before submission;
certificate of no criminal record from Ukraine, issued no earlier than 90 days; not required for children under 14;
document confirming housing — with the same exceptions as for a regular VNZh application.
If something is missing, the application will not be accepted but you will receive a written list of what to provide. Then the police have 60 days to notify about meeting conditions and another 30 days to issue the document. The VNZh term is tied to the purpose document term; if that is indefinite — the maximum is two years.
The appointment for this life situation is separate. In the Ministry of Interior reservation system, select the district "dočasné útočisko", then the situation with the application for document issuance and transition to residence, and booking is open up to 21 days in advance. Applications submitted under another life situation will not be processed — we wrote about this when Slovakia introduced new booking rules.
Why change work status to VNZh at all? For permanent residence permit (PMP) — and here two rules work at once. While you are an odídenec (temporary protected person), you cannot apply for dlhodobý pobyt (long-term residence) at all: § 52 ods. 2 e) of the foreigners residence law excludes odídenec from the five-year rule. That is why the path starts with switching to VNZh, not waiting.
The years lived under protection do not burn out. The explanation of the director of the Border and Migration Police Directorate from April 8, 2026, orders to count the time with odídenec status fully in those five years: in the lists of § 52 ods. 3 and 4, where periods not counted or counted half are named, temporary protection is not included. The instruction is mandatory for police but has a methodological character — it conflicts with the law, the law has priority, and in a disputed case the court decides. What awaits next on this path is in the analysis about PMP and citizenship.
A technical detail easy to miss: on the day of VNZh issuance, temporary protection automatically expires. There cannot be two statuses simultaneously.
How temporary protection looks in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany
Those who are just choosing a country compare Slovakia with two neighbors and Germany. Their dates are now close: all four countries count the term from the same EU Council decision. But the extension mechanics differ greatly, and it is this that decides whether you can do nothing.
Country | Status name | Valid until | What to do yourself |
|---|---|---|---|
Slovakia | dočasné útočisko | March 4, 2027 | nothing; renew only the document |
Czech Republic | dočasná ochrana | March 31, 2027 | online registration, then visit for visa sticker |
Poland | legal residence with UKR status | March 4, 2027 | keep data current in PESEL |
Germany | permit under § 24 AufenthG | March 4, 2027 | nothing, extension without application |
The Czech Republic is the most demanding: online registration lasted until March 15, 2026, it extended protection only until September 30, and the final date was given by a personal visit to the ministry for a new visa sticker. Poland took a different path — the law of January 23, 2026, extended legal residence until March 4, 2027, but part of the special law decisions ceased to apply from March 5, 2026. Germany did the same as Slovakia: permits under § 24 AufenthG are valid until March 4, 2027 "without extension in each individual case" — as directly written in § 2 of the resolution.
One warning for those planning to move within the EU. As soon as another EU country grants you temporary protection, the Slovak one expires itself: this is a separate ground for termination in § 64, and no application from you is needed. In the new country, you are already a new applicant, so the military duty condition from Article 2 works there for you — the exception for those who had status before July 30, 2026, is tied to a specific state.
Take your document and look at the date. If less than 90 days remain or you still have a paper confirmation in A4 format — book an appointment today, because free slots for the coming weeks are taken quickly.
