Prague airport transit visa for Indian passport holders

Before you book a connection through Prague

1. 1Check whether you hold one of the exempting documents, and that it will still be valid on the day you transit.
2. 2If you hold only a UK visa, treat Prague as needing an airport transit visa.
3. 3Compare routes through Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna or Warsaw, where Indians need no airport transit visa.
4. 4If Prague is unavoidable, apply for the airport transit visa through VFS Global before you fly.
5. 5Apply the same check to any connection in Romania.

What the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs says

The Czech MFA’s airport visa page, last updated on 22 November 2022, lists India among the countries whose citizens must hold an airport transit visa when transiting through an international airport in the Czech Republic. The European Commission’s current Annex 7B confirms the requirement still stands for India, marking only Czechia and Romania.

This matters because the rest of Schengen has moved the other way. Spain dropped its requirement for Indians on 4 March 2026, France on 10 April and Germany on 3 June. Czechia did not follow.

Who is exempt

The Czech list of exemptions follows the common Schengen pattern. You do not need an airport transit visa at Prague if you are:

• a holder of a valid Schengen visa, a long-stay visa or a residence permit issued by a Schengen state;
• a holder of a residence permit issued by Andorra, Canada, Japan, San Marino or the United States;
• a holder of a valid visa for the EEA states, Canada, Japan or the United States;
• a family member of an EU citizen; or
• a holder of a diplomatic passport.

The UK gap

The UK is missing from the Czech list, and so are Australia and New Zealand. An Indian traveller with a UK visitor visa flying through Prague to London still needs a Czech airport transit visa, on top of the UK visa for London itself.

Heathrow has the mirror-image gap: there, a Schengen short-stay visa does not exempt you, while a US or Canadian visa works at both airports. Check each hub’s list separately rather than assuming one visa opens every transit zone.

Getting a Czech airport transit visa

The airport transit visa is a Schengen type A visa issued by Czechia. In India it is applied for through the Czech visa channel, which uses VFS Global. It is generally said to cost the same as a short-stay visa under the Visa Code, but the Czech fee schedule was not checked for this page, so confirm the amount when you book your appointment.

An airport transit visa only lets you stay in the international transit area. It does not allow you to pass passport control or leave the airport; for that you need a Schengen C visa.

Routing around Prague, and the flight reservation

Few Indians need Prague as a transit point: there is no nonstop flight between India and Czechia, and most routes through Prague have alternatives through hubs without a requirement. When the desk builds a reservation for a traveller who holds none of the exempting documents, it avoids Prague and Bucharest connections altogether.

A flight reservation is an airline booking held without payment. If Prague is your Schengen destination, it is simply your arrival airport: you enter with your Schengen visa and no transit visa is needed. If Prague would be a connection on the way elsewhere, choose a route through Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna or Warsaw instead.

Each airline decides how long it holds a reservation, so it varies. Order it for the day you submit.

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