Today we would like to share a success story with you. You are going to read an interview with one of our clients who has recently relocated to the Czech Republic and become the 12th digital nomad visa holder. Meet Ash Fielder.
Ash, please tell us a few words about yourself. Where are you from and what is your field of professional expertise?
I am from England, my role is senior UX designer and I work for myself as a freelance designed for digital experiences.
Ash, you got a digital nomad visa in the Czech Republic, is that right?
Correct, yes.
You are among the 12th people to successfully get a digital nomad visa in the Czech Republic. How does that feel?
It feels great! I think it’s interesting to know that there are so few because it is such a great opportunity to get into the Czech Republic through the field of IT and contribute to this country. Maybe it’s just because it’s not been well advertised. I found the digital nomad option through an article that was on the Ministry’s website for Koreans. It was hard to find out that it even existed. But it’s a wonderful feeling that I was able to get through that process, and I feel really blessed, and I am very grateful to Foreigners for being able to get there as well.
How did you discover Foreigners Services and what was the turning point when you decided to trust us?
I was looking to get into the Czech Republic for a long time and I was looking for ways to do it and nothing quite met satisfaction. As I was looking around, I started to try to find other people’s experiences and if there was anyone who had gone through the process. I found a blog from somebody who had used Foreigners Services from before, and they recommended getting in touch with the company as they were very happy with their experience. I also looked at other providers of similar services, but Foreigners looked the most prepared and equipped across the entire country.
An obvious follow-up, why did you decide on the Czech Republic? What is so attractive about this country for you?
The reason I am interested in the Czech Republic is when I was living in the UK, for a brief time, I moved to Oxford and when I was living in Oxford, I kept meeting and becoming friends with people from the Czech Republic. I’ve always found being with them was very agreeable, they were always very nice people. I wanted to start learning the Czech language and things continued to escalate: I found friends here, I started doing business with some people here as well, they were based in Brno. So my focus was to move to Brno.
You have recently arrived, how do you like it here?
I find the feeling of Brno is a very nice central space; it’s large enough to get lost in, but it’s small enough that the feeling is not that you are lost. The architecture of Brno is actually very beautiful, I like the buildings, I love the way the streets are laid out. Brno feels a lot more like home to me than other places in the Czech Republic do.
Do you already see the opportunities for further professional growth?
Yes, definitely. My work mainly consists of working with very large companies based in Europe and internationally, companies based in France, Germany and England. My goal is more about bringing business into the Czech Republic rather than doing business in the Czech Republic. The country continues to grow economically, it has a lot of opportunities in the digital sector, there are people who would like to start a business here and they have technical requirements, so I think there are definitely some opportunities here.
Could you please give our readers more details on the nature of your cooperation with the company? What did your “relocation package services” include?
It was I suppose a comprehensive package, everything included, it was broken down into three different sections: the first section was about helping me to secure the trade license, the second section was an application for a digital nomad visa as this needed to go through the Ministry of Trade, and the third section was the visa application itself using the digital nomad as a purpose for the visa. What was interesting is the trade license was also the end part of the process, as when I moved to the Czech Republic, I needed to go to different state offices and get everything set up, and Foreigners helped me with that as well. Apart from the paperwork, the company also helped me to arrange the meetings and get things processed.
You were working with Lenka Landová, our relocation consultant. How would you evaluate your cooperation? Did it match your expectations?
Yes, absolutely. She was very experienced and responsive, clearing the communication. Also, I am a big organizer, I work very regimentally, trying to keep things very ordered, and Lenka was very responsive to that and was trying to lean into this approach, which I found very useful. She was very, very helpful throughout the process. I think whenever there were things that she wasn’t sure about because the digital nomad visa is a new process and not everybody is sure how it should work, Lenka was transparent and clear with me. While being very professional and skilled, she was very honest in communication when she wasn’t sure about things.
How would you evaluate your relocation process with Foreigners Services?
Significantly useful and valuable. I would speak of four key moments throughout the process that had I not had Foreigners, I would have never managed well. Haven’t I been told what to do and who to talk with, I would have failed the application process and I wouldn’t have got my visa. It saved me a ton of time and energy. And they were very supportive and accommodating, when I first arrived someone was always there to help me to fix things. I would like to tell all the people who are like me, that it’s a service that really helps speed up all of the ends, it is worth money like tenfold.