Reporting foreign guests in Slovakia: form, deadline, steps

When you accommodate a foreigner, you must verify their identity, record their nationality and date of birth in the guest book (kniha ubytovaných) and make sure the official residence report form (hlásenie pobytu) is filled in. You deliver the form to the Foreign Police (cudzinecká polícia) within five days of the guest's arrival, in person, by post or electronically through a service of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic. A foreigner is anyone who is not a Slovak citizen, so this includes guests from Czechia, Poland or Germany.

Who is a foreigner and who is an accommodation provider

Act No. 404/2011 Coll. on the Residence of Foreigners (zákon č. 404/2011 Z. z. o pobyte cudzincov) distinguishes between:

• a foreigner: anyone who is not a citizen of the Slovak Republic,
• an EU citizen: a foreigner who is a national of another EU member state (for the purposes of the Act, also of the European Economic Area states and Switzerland),
• a third-country national: a foreigner who is not an EU citizen, for example a guest from Ukraine, the United Kingdom or the USA.

Under the Act, an accommodation provider (ubytovateľ) is a legal entity or a self-employed individual (fyzická osoba – podnikateľ) providing accommodation under an accommodation contract. The Act also places reporting duties on foreigners themselves: a third-country national must report the start, place and expected length of their stay to the police within three working days of entry if the accommodation provider does not have this duty (§ 111(2)), and an EU citizen reports the start of their stay at a police unit within ten working days of entry (§ 64(2)). If you are not sure which category you fall into, check with the relevant Foreign Police department.

Four obligations of the accommodation provider

Section 113 of the Act on the Residence of Foreigners requires the accommodation provider to:

1. verify the foreigner's identity on arrival; the foreigner must present their travel document at your request,
2. record in the guest book the foreigner's nationality and date of birth as well,
3. make sure the official residence report form is filled in and deliver it to the police unit within five days of arrival; it can also be delivered via an electronic service,
4. allow the police unit access to all areas of the accommodation for inspection purposes.

What the guest book itself should look like is covered in the article Guest register requirements.

The five-day deadline and how to meet it

The deadline runs from the guest's arrival. In its frequently asked questions, the Ministry of the Interior lists three ways of delivery:

• in person at a Foreign Police unit of the Police Force (Policajný zbor),
• by post: the item must be handed over to the post office no later than the fifth day after arrival, because the deadline is met if the submission is handed to the post office on the last day,
• electronically via the ministry's information system.

If you miss the deadline, you commit an administrative offence. The police unit may impose a fine of up to €3,300 on an accommodation provider who breaches the obligations under § 113, within one year of the day it learned of the breach and no later than three years after the breach (§ 119).

What the form contains

The details on the form follow directly from the Act, from the foreigner's obligation to sign the completed form. They differ depending on whether the guest is an EU citizen or a third-country national.

EU citizen (§ 112(1)(j))

• first name and surname,
• date of birth,
• nationality,
• number of the travel document or ID card.

Third-country national (§ 111(1)(l))

• first name and surname,
• date and place of birth,
• nationality,
• permanent address,
• purpose of stay,
• travel document number,
• visa number and validity, or where applicable the place of issue or number of a residence document issued by Slovakia or another member state and its validity,
• address of stay in the Slovak Republic and the name of the accommodation provider,
• first names and surnames of accompanying children.

The foreigner signs the completed form. It is therefore best to fill it in on arrival, when you have both the guest and their document in front of you.

Reporting online via the Ministry of the Interior

On the ministry's electronic services portal (pes.minv.sk), the section for foreigners (Cudzinci) contains three services an accommodation provider needs:

• Online registrácia ubytovateľa (online registration of accommodation providers). Before you can report online, you must register. You can also apply electronically via slovensko.sk, the Slovak government portal (under "Všeobecná agenda", the general agenda, with the Ministry of the Interior as the provider), logging in with a Slovak ID card with a chip and a qualified electronic signature. You attach a request for access rights according to the relevant Foreign Police department, the signed instructions for the accommodation provider, the signed instructions for the authorised person and the authorised person's consent.
• Zápis do knihy ubytovaných (entry in the guest book). You enter foreigners either one at a time by filling in a form manually, or in bulk by importing an XML file from an electronic guest book.
• Výmaz z knihy ubytovaných (deletion from the guest book) to remove a recorded stay.

To log in and sign you need a Slovak ID card with a chip, with a security personal code and certificates loaded, plus the login and signing apps, as stated on slovensko.sk.

One thing to watch out for: reporting online does not replace the paper form. The ministry explicitly states that the obligation to have the official form filled in, keep it for two years and present the original to the police unit on request still applies.

A practical routine when a guest arrives

1. When taking the booking, ask for the nationality of all guests so you know whether you will need the form.
2. On arrival, ask for the travel document and verify identity.
3. Enter the guests in the guest book, including nationality and date of birth.
4. Have the guest sign the completed residence report form.
5. Deliver it to the police within five days, in person, by post or electronically.
6. Keep the form for at least two years.

Common questions in practice

A group with only one foreigner. You only fill in the form for foreigners. Guests with Slovak citizenship are entered in the guest book in the usual way.

A family with children from a third country. The form for a third-country national also includes the names of accompanying children, so you list them on the parent's form.

A guest without a document. The Act requires the foreigner to present a travel document at your request and requires you to verify their identity. Without a document you cannot meet this obligation.

A late arrival on a Friday evening. The five-day deadline runs from arrival, not from the next working day. If you deliver by post, the item must be handed over no later than the fifth day; alternatively, report online.

How this links to your other obligations

A foreign guest is a guest like any other: they pay the accommodation tax under your municipality's local bylaw (VZN) and are entered in the same guest book. If you list your property on booking portals, from 2027 you will also need to register in the short-term rental register.

How SFERIN helps

With the guest registration add-on, guests fill in their details on their phone via a QR code at the property. Fields needed only for foreigners are shown only when they are actually required, so guests from Slovakia fill in nothing extra, and you have the details for both the guest book and the form in one place. We will tell you the price of the add-on when we prepare your free website preview.