Immigration to Poland

CGO Mobility | Updated October 8, 2026

Immigration to Poland starts with two questions: on what legal basis will you stay, and on what basis will you work? The answers depend on your citizenship, where you are now and why you are coming. This page compares the main routes, explains the rules they share and links to detailed guides.

Start here

• I am moving to Poland: answer a few questions in the Path Finder below, or skip to the comparison of routes.
• I am hiring foreign employees: go to what your company must do or see our legal support for HR departments.

Immigration to Poland: main routes compared

Use the table to narrow down your options; each route is explained in a few paragraphs below.

The routes in brief

Work permit and single permit

For non-EU nationals hired by an employer in Poland. Two different instruments are involved, and their pay rules differ:

• Work permit. The employer applies online (praca.gov.pl) and is the party to the case. Working time must be at least a quarter of full time, and pay is assessed pro rata to working time against the minimum wage (PLN 4,806 gross per month for full time in 2026). Fee: PLN 200 for up to three months, PLN 400 for longer.
• Single permit (temporary residence and work). You apply through MOS while staying in Poland legally, and the employer signs Annex 1. Monthly pay must be at least the full minimum wage, whatever the working time. Fee: PLN 440 plus PLN 100 for the card.

From abroad, the usual sequence is: work permit, national D visa, the employer files a copy of your signed contract before you start, then a single permit before the visa expires. If you are already in Poland legally, you can usually apply for the single permit directly, unless your current basis of stay excludes it, for example a visa or residence document issued by another Schengen country. Since August 22, 2026 citizens of Colombia, Georgia and Venezuela cannot work on a work permit during visa-free stay.

Declaration of entrusting work (oświadczenie)

For citizens of Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine; Georgia was removed from the list on December 1, 2025. The employer registers the declaration online with the county labor office before work starts, and pays a PLN 400 fee. The declaration covers work only, so you still need a visa, visa-free stay or a residence card. Ukrainians with UKR status do not use it; their employer files a notification instead. For a longer stay, the usual next step is a single permit through MOS.

Seasonal work

For work in agriculture, horticulture and tourism, in activities listed by regulation. The county labor office issues a seasonal work permit for up to nine months in a calendar year (fee PLN 100); the employer applies online and reports your arrival. If the season lasts longer than your visa or visa-free stay, a temporary residence permit for seasonal work is available (PLN 170). Seasonal work has no family route and does not count toward long-term residence.

EU Blue Card

For highly qualified professionals with a contract or binding offer for at least six months. Gross pay must reach 150% of the previous year’s average wage: PLN 13,355.34 per month for applications filed in 2026. Since June 1, 2025, documented professional experience can replace a diploma in the cases defined by law. You apply through MOS with an annex signed by the employer (PLN 440 plus PLN 100 for the card).

Blue Card holders from another EU country can make short business trips without a Polish permit and can move here after 12 months in the first country, or after 6 months if they already used long-term mobility. The threshold changes every year, and renewals or a new employer are checked against the current figure.

Posted workers and intra-corporate transfers

For employees who remain employed by a foreign company.

• Posting. The employer applies for a work permit: type C for a posting to a Polish branch or related company for more than 30 days a year, type D to deliver an export service, type E for other postings. Fee: PLN 800.
• Intra-corporate transfer (ICT). A residence permit for managers, specialists and trainees of a group based outside the EU. The host entity in Poland files the application (on paper, outside MOS) and is the party to the case. For the first permit, the employee must be outside the EU when the application is filed. Holders of an ICT permit from another EU country use mobility rules instead.

Your own business: start with your role

The right permit depends on what you will do in the company.

The form of business is a separate question. A sole proprietorship (JDG) is a way of running a business, not a basis of stay. A non-EU national can register one only with a status that already allows it, such as permanent residence, EU long-term residence, the Karta Polaka or the CUKR card; EU citizens can do so freely.

What the company has to show for a business permit. In the tax year before filing: income of at least 12 times the average monthly wage in its voivodeship, or at least two employees on full-time, indefinite contracts for 12 months. A company that does not meet either condition yet can instead show funds or activity, such as investment, technology transfer, innovation or job creation, that will let it meet them. For a board member without shares, the authority assesses the company on the same kind of criteria. In MOS, the company signs an electronic annex to your application.

Evidence. Tax returns and financial statements filed with the National Court Register (KRS), bank turnover, social security records for staff, contracts and invoices, and a business plan whose figures match the bank statements. A virtual office is acceptable if it fits how the business works.

Discuss your business setup with a lawyer

Studies and research

Students must prove the language of instruction at level B2 or higher (since 2025). The usual path is a study visa, then a temporary residence permit for studies through MOS, with an annex signed by the university (PLN 340 plus PLN 100 for the card, which costs half for students). Full-time students with a study visa or residence card can work without a work permit, and so can graduates of full-time studies in Poland. Half of the time spent studying counts toward long-term residence.

Researchers hosted by an approved research institution sign a hosting agreement, obtain a research visa and then a temporary residence permit for scientific research. They need no work permit, and the time counts toward long-term residence.

Family

Family of a foreigner. The family member who lives in Poland (the sponsor) needs a qualifying status, for example permanent residence, EU long-term residence, an EU Blue Card or a temporary residence permit held for the required time, plus stable income, health insurance and housing for the family. If your relatives are abroad, the sponsor files a paper application in Poland and they then apply for a visa; if they are already in Poland legally, they apply through MOS.

Spouse of a Polish citizen. A temporary residence permit based on the marriage, which allows work without a work permit. After three years of marriage and two years of continuous stay on this permit, you can apply for permanent residence. Authorities check whether the marriage is genuine.

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens

No visa and no work permit. For stays over three months you register your residence with the voivode if you work, run a business, study, or have sufficient resources and health insurance. Non-EU family members apply for a residence card of a family member of an EU citizen; after five years, a permanent right of residence can be confirmed. Documents issued on templates used before August 2, 2021 expired on August 3, 2026. The right of residence remains, but you need a new document to prove it.

Polish roots

Polish ancestry can open three different procedures. Which one applies depends on your family’s citizenship history and your own ties with Poland:

• Confirmation of Polish citizenship: if citizenship was passed on to you without interruption, you may already be Polish, and the voivode confirms it.
• Karta Polaka: for people of Polish nationality who prove Polish ancestry, basic Polish and a connection with Polish culture. It gives a free national visa, work without a permit and permanent residence without the official fee; one year of permanent residence on this basis can lead to recognition as a citizen.
• Repatriation: mainly for people of Polish origin from the Asian part of the former USSR.

In each case archive documents decide, and finding them often takes months.

Ukrainian citizens: UKR status and the CUKR card

UKR status (temporary protection) lasts until March 4, 2027. Leaving Poland for more than 30 days ends it. You can work without a work permit; your employer notifies the county labor office.

The CUKR card is a one-time, three-year temporary residence permit. You qualify only if all four conditions are met: an active PESEL UKR when you apply and when the card is issued, an active PESEL UKR on June 4, 2025, and UKR status held without a break for at least 365 days. You apply through MOS until March 4, 2027 (PLN 340 plus PLN 100). Fingerprints and the signature specimen are taken from the registers, so you go to the voivode’s office only to collect the card, within 60 days of being notified.

Before applying, note three consequences: filing for CUKR automatically ends a pending application for a residence and work permit; leaving Poland for six months or more leads to withdrawal; only time on the CUKR card counts toward long-term residence, from the day you collect it.

Official information: Office for Foreigners, CUKR questions and answers

Permanent residence and EU long-term residence

Permanent residence is granted on specific grounds, for example Polish origin, the Karta Polaka, or marriage to a Polish citizen (three years of marriage and two years on a spouse permit).

EU long-term resident status is the main route for everyone else. You need five years of legal and continuous stay right before applying, stable income documented for three years (two for Blue Card holders), health insurance and Polish at level B1. Time on Polish national visas and most residence permits counts in full, study periods count by half, seasonal work does not count, and as a rule neither does a posting by a foreign employer. No single absence may exceed six months, and all absences together may not exceed ten months. Each permit costs PLN 640 plus PLN 100 for the card; Karta Polaka holders pay no fee for permanent residence.

Polish citizenship

Recognition by the voivode follows statutory criteria. The most common path is three years on permanent residence or EU long-term residence, with stable income, housing and Polish at B1. Shorter periods apply to spouses of Polish citizens (two years, after at least three years of marriage) and to people whose permanent residence was granted on the basis of Polish origin or the Karta Polaka (one year).

Grant by the President has no fixed criteria, and the decision cannot be appealed.

Proposals to change these rules are under discussion; none is in force. Our guide tracks the current status.

International protection and routes that do not exist

Refugee status and subsidiary protection are decided by the Office for Foreigners under separate rules; at the border with Belarus, the right to apply has been temporarily restricted since 2025. See the Office for Foreigners.

Poland has no digital nomad visa, no residence by investment or property purchase, and no job-seeker visa. The Poland. Business Harbour program has been suspended.

Practical rules for residence and work applications

Filing through MOS and staying legal while you wait

• Online by default. Since April 27, 2026, applications for temporary residence, permanent residence and EU long-term residence go only through MOS. Paper applications remain for ICT permits and for family-related permits when the family member is outside Poland.
• Personal login and signature. You log in yourself through login.gov.pl and sign with a Trusted Profile, a qualified electronic signature or an e-ID. A Trusted Profile requires PESEL, so newcomers usually need a qualified signature. Annexes from an employer, company or university are signed by them electronically, so ask them early.
• Deadline. File no later than the last day of your legal stay, and preferably well before it.
• Legal stay during the case. If the application has no formal defects, or you fix them in time, your stay is legal until the decision becomes final. You receive an official receipt (UPO) and, once the office has checked the file, a certificate that replaces the former passport stamp. The office then invites you to give fingerprints.
• Travel. That certificate is not a travel document and does not by itself guarantee re-entry. Plan any trip abroad with this in mind.
• Waiting times. Statutory deadlines are often exceeded. The Supreme Audit Office found, for example, that the Lower Silesian voivode’s office was not prepared to handle foreigners’ cases on time in 2022–2024 (NIK). We do not promise decision dates.

Pay and income records

• Which minimum applies. A work permit allows pay pro rata to working time. A single permit requires at least the full monthly minimum wage whatever the working time. In both cases pay must not be lower than that of comparable employees.
• The contract must match the permit. A lower salary, fewer hours or a different position require a change of permit first (PLN 220 for a single permit). More hours with a proportional pay rise, or replacing a civil-law contract with an employment contract, do not.
• How salary is paid. Under the Labor Code, salary goes to a bank account unless the employee asks in writing to be paid in cash. Either is lawful. Payslips, social security records and tax returns are the evidence you will later need for renewals, family reunification and long-term residence.

Formal defects and refusals are not the same

• Formal defects are gaps such as a missing signature, fee, photo or annex. MOS does not accept an incomplete form; if the office still finds a formal gap, it asks you to fix it by a deadline. If you do not, the application is left unexamined. That is not a refusal, but the legal stay based on the application does not arise.
• Refusal to initiate proceedings. Some bases of stay exclude a given application. For example, a single permit case cannot be started while you stay on a tourist or family-visit visa from another Schengen country, on a long-stay visa or residence document from another Schengen country (unless you are using EU mobility), or for seasonal work. The office then refuses to start the case and does not examine the conditions.
• A refusal is a decision on the merits, which you can appeal within 14 days to the Head of the Office for Foreigners. Typical grounds: the conditions are not met (pay below the required level, no documents showing that a business meets the criteria, no stable income), an employer with arrears or recent obstruction of inspections, an entry in the Schengen Information System, or untrue statements. Since March 5, 2026 the official fee is not refunded after a refusal.

After you receive the card

• If you lose your job while on a single permit, notify the voivode in writing within 15 working days. The permit is then not withdrawn for 30 days from the loss of work.
• A new employer requires a change of the permit or a new permit.
• Renew through MOS before the permit expires. The records you build now are the evidence for the next application.

For employers: what your company must do

• Check the residence document and the right to work before day one, and keep a copy for the whole employment.
• Choose the right basis (work permit, declaration, seasonal permit, single permit, EU Blue Card or an exemption) and apply online.
• Offer pay that meets the rule of the chosen instrument and matches comparable employees.
• Work permit: give the voivode a copy of the signed contract before work starts, and report within 7 days if the employee does not start, stops work for more than two months or the contract ends early.
• Single permit: notify the voivode within 15 days if the employee loses the job.
• Declarations and seasonal work permits have their own reporting duties at the county labor office.
• Register the employee with social security (ZUS) and keep payroll consistent with the permit.
• Sign MOS annexes promptly and track permit, visa and card expiry dates.
• Be ready for inspections by the National Labor Inspectorate (PIP) and the Border Guard. Fines for illegal employment range from PLN 3,000 to PLN 50,000.

Legal support for immigration to Poland

A route that looks right on paper can fail on one detail: the wrong permit type, pay below the rule that applies, or a business without documents showing that it meets the conditions. A lawyer checks this before you file.

• We assess your situation and the legal bases available to you.
• We list missing documents and possible obstacles.
• We agree the scope of work and the fee.
• We prepare the documents and carry out the agreed steps.

You log in to MOS and sign your application yourself; within the agreed scope, we prepare the documents and can represent you before the voivode’s office.

If you are moving to Poland yourself or with your family

Talk to a lawyer about your move

Legalization of stay · Relocation to Poland · Company formation · Polish citizenship

If you hire foreign employees

Talk to a lawyer about hiring foreigners

Work legalization for foreign workers · Legal support for HR departments · Monitoring the legality of stay

Immigration to Poland: frequently asked questions

How do I immigrate to Poland?

For immigration to Poland, choose the route that matches your purpose: a job, your own business, studies, family or Polish roots. Most non-EU nationals start with a national visa, often after the employer has obtained a work permit, and then apply for a residence card through MOS. EU citizens only register their stay.

Can I move to Poland without a job offer?

Yes, but only on another basis: your own business, studies, research, family ties, marriage to a Polish citizen, the Karta Polaka or EU citizenship. Remote work for a foreign employer is not, on its own, a basis for a residence permit.

How long does it take to get a residence card?

The law sets deadlines for decisions, but in practice cases often take many months, depending on the voivodeship. Your stay remains legal while an application without formal defects is pending.

Do I need to speak Polish?

Not for a first work, business or family permit. Students must prove the language of instruction at level B2. Polish at level B1 is required for EU long-term resident status and for recognition as a Polish citizen, with exceptions for certain minors.

Can my family come with me?

Usually yes, once you hold a status that allows family reunification and can show stable income, health insurance and housing. Seasonal work has no family route. Spouses of Polish citizens and family members of EU citizens have their own procedures.

How much does a residence permit cost?

The official fee is PLN 340 for most temporary residence permits, PLN 440 for the single permit, EU Blue Card and ICT permit, and PLN 640 for permanent residence or EU long-term residence, plus PLN 100 for the card. The fee is not refunded after a refusal.

Can I still apply on paper?

Only in a few cases, such as ICT permits and family-related permits for people outside Poland. Since April 27, 2026 all other temporary residence, permanent residence and EU long-term residence applications go through MOS.

When can I get permanent residence or citizenship?

EU long-term resident status requires five years of legal, continuous stay, stable income, insurance and Polish at B1. Recognition as a citizen usually requires a further three years on that status; shorter periods apply to spouses of Polish citizens and to people whose permanent residence was granted on the basis of Polish origin or the Karta Polaka.

What do official figures say about foreigners in Poland?

On February 1, 2026 the Office for Foreigners reported 1,555,576 Ukrainian citizens with valid residence documents, which it described as 77% of the foreign population. At the end of March 2026, 1.305 million foreigners were insured in the social security system. The two figures measure different things.

Does Poland have a golden visa or a digital nomad visa?

No. Buying property or investing does not give a right to stay, and there is no visa for remote workers. The Poland. Business Harbour program has been suspended.

Poland at a glance and immigration in numbers

The figures below measure different things and should not be added up.

Current statistics are published on migracje.gov.pl, run by the Office for Foreigners.

All guides and services

This page describes the law as of October 8, 2026 and is general information, not legal advice.