Poland Work Permit

Work permits are usually the standard type A or C/E permits, which are used in internal transfers. A national D visa is also required legally by employees in order to travel to and reside in Poland. The work permit, granting the right to employ, the TCNs, also requires the National D Visa in order to enter and stay in Poland legally. Foreigners staying in Poland legally, and the reason of staying is to work, may apply for the Temporary Residence & Work Permit, or Temporary Residence Permit, with the aim to work in occupations that require higher qualifications. Employers of a foreigner A foreigner must have documents that authorize a foreigner to perform work in Poland, and conditional on it, issue a visa to him or her, or temporary residence permit for this purpose.

To get a visa for work purposes, the foreigner must submit the application for the visa with the employment authorization, or an employers written declaration about their intentions of assigning the foreigner the job, in case he does not need a employment authorization. The employer should perform labor market screening prior to initiating an application for a foreign worker visa. For a foreign national to receive work authorization in Poland, the application must be submitted by an entity which plans to employ this specific foreign worker. Foreign workers are required to hold appropriate visas and work permits to Poland, which are established under the Immigration Act.

Foreign employees from countries outside of the EU are required to have work permits, and, in most cases, a visa, in order to legally work in Poland. Foreigners may work in Poland as long as they have obtained sponsorship for their work permit and are legally allowed to live in Poland. It may be difficult to get permits for foreign employees to live and work in Poland, since priority goes to Polish citizens. Individuals planning to work in Poland will need their Polish employer to request work permits on their behalf.

There are several types of work visas available in Poland, but most recent arrivals looking to work in Poland will be applying for Type-A visas, which permit foreigners to work in Poland as long as they are employed by a Polish business. If citizens wish to work in Poland, they need to find work, obtain work authorization via a prospective employer, apply for the National D visa (Work), and, when entering Poland, register at the voivodship (state or province) they are working in and living (for a period of four days). The employer applies for appropriate work permits, at which point employees apply for the National D (Work) Visa in order to enter Poland. It is expected that they will register in the local voivodship (within four days) where they plan to live and work. To apply for work visa to Poland, an expat worker needs to submit a letter from their employer, which describes job duration, location, salary, working conditions, basic duties, and other pertinent information.

The employers of expats are also obliged to keep copies of documents that prove legal residency of a foreigner in Poland. Note that, if the foreigner does not begin working within 3 months of the date on which he was designated on his authorization, stops working for longer than 3 months, or finishes working until 3 months after the authorization ends, the employer is required to notify the Office of the Foreigner within seven days. When it comes to temporary resident permits, the situation is the same, provided it is specified on the documents that one is allowed to begin lawful employment in the country.

Some foreigners wrongly assume that getting a visa is enough for legally working in Poland. Since Poland is a member of the European Union (EU), citizens of other EU members need no visas for work there. Citizens of the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries do not need work permits to legally work in Poland, whereas citizens of countries outside of the EU must have a work permit in order to do so.