I need to replace the sidelight bulb in my 2005 Octavia.

The manual says I need to remove the entire headlight assembly, which seems easy enough (just three steps in the manual). However, it then says that the headlight should be checked by a specialist after it has been replaced. So, we'd be talking upwards of £50 garage fees to replace a £2 bulb!
I've had a poke around and it may be possible to replace the bulb by carefully feeling around in the back of the headlight assembly, but of course it could be fiddly, not seeing what I'm doing.
So I'm interested in how everyone else does it. Is it OK to extract the whole assembly, without having to take it to a garage to have the alignment checked? Or is it easy enough to do it in situ?
I had a similar problem with a Passat, but that was even worse: the manual said that to change a bulb you had to first remove the front bumper, then pull out the headlight! This is crazy coming from a German manufacturer, given that in Germany it's a legal requirement to be able to change bulbs at the side of the road.
I took it to a VW dealer, where one of the mechanics simply swapped the bulb from behind. It took about 2 minutes!
I'm hoping it will be just as easy with the Octavia.

Just pop the headlight out, replace the bulb and refit it. Assuming it's currently correctly fitted and you refit it correctly, it shouldn't make any real difference to the headlight alignment.

 

It's super easy given the headlights are trivial to remove

 

Just for example:

 

Agree with above - we had our Octy II for 14 years, changed numerous bulbs and never had an alignment problem.

As above I have changed a number of bulbs never had to have any realignment all ways passed mot no issues.