Hiring a Driver from a Third Country in Slovakia: Documents and Process (2026)

Start here: the three legal routes

For drivers from outside the EU/EEA there are three regimes to consider. The right one depends on the driver's citizenship, on whether they are already in Slovakia, and on your company's profile.

• Temporary protection (dočasné útočisko — refugees from Ukraine). Free access to the labour market: no work permit, start almost immediately. The status is currently extended until 4 March 2027.
• The national visa for drivers. A fast-track scheme for citizens of 19 countries (incl. Ukraine, Serbia, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, India, the Philippines) with a quota of 5,000 visas for 2026. Works only as direct employment with the carrier.
• The single permit (jednotné povolenie — temporary residence for employment). The standard route for every other situation — and because drivers are a shortage occupation, it moves faster than usual.

Route 1: a driver with temporary protection — the fastest start

A driver with temporary protection status can start without a work permit and without a labour office confirmation. The only paperwork on the company's side is the informačná karta (the labour-office notification of hire): filed electronically within 7 working days of the start of employment (and again when it ends), with a copy of the employment contract.

Ukrainian driving licences are recognised across the EU without exchange for as long as temporary protection lasts (EU Regulation 2022/1280). The code 95 qualification and the tachograph card still need to be arranged — more on that below.

A refugee with temporary protection is also the only category of third-country drivers an agency may legally assign to a user employer without further conditions — for every other status, assignment is restricted or banned (more below). And once the driver has worked for you in the same position for at least 6 months, they can — from 15 July 2026 — switch to standard temporary residence without a labour-market test, so today's quick hire converts smoothly into a long-term one.

Route 2: the national visa for drivers

For 2026 a fast-track visa scheme applies under Government Regulation No. 113/2023: national visas for bus drivers and international truck drivers from 19 countries, with a quota of 5,000 visas. The visa is granted for the duration of the employment, for one year at most, and cannot be renewed or granted a second time.

The process runs through the employer: the carrier submits a list of specific drivers to the Ministry of Transport, and once approved, the driver applies for the visa at a Slovak embassy (or directly in Slovakia if already staying here legally). The visa is tied to that specific carrier — the driver may not work for anyone else while it is valid.

The conditions for the company are not trivial: the scheme is reserved for carriers established in Slovakia for at least ten years, with no management or ownership links to foreign persons or foreign-based entities, taxes and levies fully settled, and no fine for illegal employment in the past five years. Domestic-only transport is not in the scheme — there, the single permit route applies instead.

The good news: when the visa expires, the driver does not have to leave. For the same position they transition to a single permit without a labour-market test, filing the residence application directly in Slovakia.

Route 3: the single permit — the standard that is faster for drivers

The single permit is a two-step process. First the company asks the labour office for a confirmation that the vacancy can be filled by a third-country national; then the driver applies for temporary residence for the purpose of employment. By default the vacancy must be reported at least 20 working days in advance and the office checks whether it can be filled from the unemployment register.

For international truck drivers, however, that currently exists only on paper: the profession is on the shortage-occupations list in all eight regions, so no labour-market test is carried out and the vacancy report can be filed as late as the day of the application — no waiting. The condition: third-country nationals must make up less than 45% of your workforce. The list is updated quarterly, so always verify it before filing.

The labour office issues the confirmation within 15 working days. The driver files the residence application at a Slovak embassy or — if staying in Slovakia legally (national visa, temporary protection, visa-free stay) — directly with the foreign police. The police decide within 60 days, or 30 days for shortage occupations (statutory deadlines were suspended during the officially declared emergency situation and are binding again from 1 August 2026).

The rule that matters most in practice: the driver may start working as soon as the complete application is filed with a positive confirmation — there is no waiting for the residence decision. The permit itself is granted for up to 5 years, following the length of the employment contract, and is renewable; an amendment effective July 2026 also gave single-permit holders protection on losing a job (3 to 6 months to find a new position).

On the driver's side, plan for document collection: apostilled criminal-record extracts with certified translations (from the home country and any country where the driver has lived for an extended period) and proof of accommodation for at least 6 months. Gathering these papers is usually the slowest part of the whole process.

Driver documents: residence alone is not enough

Residence and an employment contract are only half the story. A professional driver also needs the following — and this is where onboarding most often stalls:

• Driving licence. Licences of Vienna and Geneva Convention states (Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia, Moldova…) are valid in Slovakia, but a driver granted residence must exchange theirs: the application is due within 60 days after 185 days of residence, otherwise the licence becomes invalid. No exam is required; for C/CE categories the exchange requires Slovak medical and psychological fitness certificates. Drivers under temporary protection keep driving on their Ukrainian licences without exchange.
• Code 95 (driver qualification card). The mandatory initial qualification and periodic training also apply to third-country drivers employed by a Slovak carrier. If the driver does not have code 95 in an EU-issued licence, they prove the qualification with a driver qualification card (Slovak: kvalifikačná karta vodiča, KKV) after a course at a licensed training centre.
• Tachograph driver card. Issued in Slovakia with 5-year validity, capped at the expiry of the residence permit or visa — and its issuance is tied to the driver's residence in Slovakia. For newly arrived drivers, plan for it from day one.
• Driver attestation. In international road haulage, a third-country driver must hold a driver attestation under Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009. The carrier, as holder of the Community licence, applies for it at the Ministry of Transport; it is valid for up to 5 years. Without it the driver cannot be used on international routes — even with residence and contract in perfect order.
• Medical and psychological fitness. For C/CE categories, a medical examination and a psychological assessment are mandatory every 5 years, and every 2 years after the age of 65.

Agency or direct hire — and what to watch out for

The Employment Services Act sharply restricts agency assignment of third-country drivers. Only drivers with free access to the labour market (such as refugees with temporary protection) may be assigned without restrictions. Single-permit holders may only be assigned by an agency that has been operating for at least three years, and only into shortage occupations in the given region. Drivers on a national visa may not be agency-assigned at all. On top of that, assignment to one user employer is capped at 24 months.

So beware of “creative” offers: if someone supplies you with third-country drivers “under a service contract” while you give them their tasks and they drive your vehicles, the law treats it as disguised temporary assignment — with consequences for both sides. The labour inspectorate is actively targeting these schemes (a nationwide inspection sweep focused on agencies ran in February 2026), and fines for illegal employment doubled from 1 January 2026: at least EUR 4,000, at least EUR 8,000 where two or more people are involved, with a ceiling of EUR 200,000. The recipient of the work is co-liable with the supplier, and a final fine also means exclusion from public procurement and loss of access to hiring third-country nationals.

How we handle it at ALS GROUP

We specialise in drivers — from sourcing candidates to the last document. Here is what the cooperation looks like in practice:

• Driver recruiting for all three routes: we source and vet the drivers — refugees with temporary protection as well as national-visa and single-permit candidates — prepare the files for the authorities, and the driver joins your own payroll.
• Driver documents with every hire: code 95, tachograph cards, licence exchanges, driver attestations — we manage the sequence and the deadlines so the driver is on the road as soon as possible. More on our driver specialisation on the carriers page.
• Temporary assignment for non-driving positions: if you also need flexible capacity in the warehouse or back office, we employ the workers and assign them to you — payroll, levies and compliance are on us.

Frequently asked questions from companies