Temporary residence permit on account of other circumstances (family member of a holder of an EU long-term resident permit issued by another member state)
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy ze względu na inne okoliczności (członek rodziny cudzoziemca posiadającego zezwolenie na pobyt rezydenta długoterminowego UE udzielone przez inne państwo członkowskie) as of 2026-04-07[1] Recorded from the statutory chapter or article heading; the Office for Foreigners' own procedure page uses the same wording. Diacritics as published. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Temporary residence permit on account of other circumstances (family member of a holder of an EU long-term resident permit issued by another member state) as of 2026-08-24[3] Working translation of the Polish statutory name. Poland publishes no official English text of the Act on Foreigners, so this is marked a translation, not an official English name. |
| Legal basis | Ustawa z dnia 12 grudnia 2013 r. o cudzoziemcach, art. 186 ust. 1 pkt 4 i ust. 3, art. 188 ust. 1 i 2, art. 189 ust. 2, art. 190 pkt 1 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1079, as updated to 2026-04-07) as of 2026-04-07[1] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-04-07[1] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2026-04-07[1] |
|---|---|
| Minimum age | Not applicable Art. 186 ust. 1 pkt 4 imposes no minimum age. A minor's application is filed by a parent or guardian under art. 105 ust. 3, which is a procedural rule rather than an age threshold. |
| Criminal-record condition | No as of 2026-04-07[1] |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-04-07[1] |
|---|---|
| How the initial term is set | matches the sponsor's permit |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] |
| Renewal duration | Not established from a qualifying source No separate renewal term exists – a further permit is granted under the same art. 98 ust. 2 ceiling of 3 years. |
| Work rights | full as of 2026-08-07[6] Art. 3 ust. 1 pkt 14 of the Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for the admissibility of entrusting work to foreigners gives the holder of this permit free access to the Polish labour market (swobodny dostęp do rynku pracy): no work permit, no employer tie, no hours cap. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 212 ust. 2 does not name this permit among the excluded stays. |
|---|
Requirements
| Who can sponsor | specific permits as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 186 ust. 1 pkt 4: the sponsor is a foreigner within pkt 3 – a holder of an EU long-term resident permit issued by ANOTHER member state – whom the applicant lived with in that state and now accompanies or wishes to join. The sponsor holds a Polish art. 186 ust. 1 pkt 3 permit rather than any of the four enumerated statuses; 'specific_permits' is the closest and the note carries the rule. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 186 ust. 3 applies art. 159 ust. 3's definition: a spouse in a marriage recognised by Polish law and minor children of the foreigner, of the spouse, or of either where dependent and under their actual parental authority. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × social-assistance income criterion, single-person household per month as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 188 ust. 1 pkt 2 with ust. 4, applying art. 140 ust. 2: a stable and regular source of income higher than the social-assistance income criterion for the applicant and each dependant. Art. 188 ust. 5 lets a maintaining family member resident in Poland cover it. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 188 ust. 2: for the pkt 3 and pkt 4 grounds, secured accommodation in Poland is required in addition to the ust. 1 conditions. |
| Pre-entry language test | No as of 2026-04-07[1] No language condition appears in the chapter. |
Process
| Where to apply from | in-country only as of 2026-04-07[1][3] Art. 105 ust. 1: the foreigner files the application in person, no later than the last day of their legal stay in Poland. There is no consular stage for this permit. The pending amendment carried in the consolidated text rewrites art. 105-106a and moves filing into the Office for Foreigners' electronic Moduł Obsługi Spraw (MOS); the Office's own procedure pages already describe electronic filing through MOS. The entry-into-force date is to be announced by communique under art. 17 of the Act of 21 November 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1794). |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | 60 days as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 112a ust. 1: the decision is issued within 60 days. Art. 112a ust. 2 starts the clock at the last of the qualifying events – a formally complete application and (until the pending amendment removes it) the applicant's personal appearance – so it is not a 60-day clock from lodging. |
| Observed processing time | Not established from a qualifying source No official observed-duration statistics were located for this permit; the Office for Foreigners publishes the statutory deadline, not outturn times. |
| Fees |
|
| Quota |
Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-04-07[1] The Act on Foreigners attaches no minimum-presence or maximum-absence condition to holding a temporary residence permit. What it does attach, in art. 101, is withdrawal where the purpose of the stay ceases or the conditions of the grant are no longer met – a purpose test rather than a day count. The 6-month and 10-month absence limits recorded at country level under permanent_residency.absence_rules bite on the qualification for the EU long-term resident permit, not on this permit. |
|---|
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 1 lit. e: a family member may be granted a temporary residence permit for family reunification where the sponsor has resided in Poland for at least 2 years on successive temporary residence permits and holds, immediately before the application, a permit granted for a period of not less than 1 year. This route is not one of the bases in lit. a-d or f-i that carry no waiting period. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 159 ust. 3: a spouse in a marriage recognised by Polish law, and minor children (including adopted children) of the foreigner, of the spouse, or of either where dependent and under their actual parental authority. Minority is assessed at the date the application is filed (ust. 3a). |
| Family may apply at the same time | No as of 2026-04-07[1] The lit. e sponsor condition requires 2 years of prior residence on successive temporary permits, so family members cannot apply together with a first permit on this route. |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2026-08-07[6] Art. 3 ust. 1 pkt 17 of the Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for the admissibility of entrusting work to foreigners: a holder of a temporary residence permit granted under art. 159 ust. 1 of the Act on Foreigners has free access to the labour market (swobodny dostęp do rynku pracy) – no work permit, no employer tie, no hours cap. |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
Profile benefits
- A 30-minute call with our consultant, who reads your profile first.
- An offer for legal support built around your case, covering the whole process.
Verification
| Sources cited | 6 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 6 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-04-07 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-24 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-26 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Ustawa z dnia 12 grudnia 2013 r. o cudzoziemcach — tekst ujednolicony (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1079)
Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2025-08-07 · Accessed 2026-08-23 · Amended by pl-aliens-act-amendment-2025-1794, pl-work-admissibility-act-2025 - [2] Rozporządzenie Ministra Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji z dnia 26 lipca 2022 r. w sprawie opłat pobieranych w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej od cudzoziemców za wydanie i wymianę dokumentów (Dz.U. 2022 poz. 1583)
Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2022-07-26 · Accessed 2026-08-23 - [3] Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy — praca: katalog zezwoleń
Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców — Moduł Obsługi Spraw · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [4] Akt prawny: ustawa o cudzoziemcach (Dz.U. 2013 poz. 1650) — metadane ELI, w tym wykaz aktów wykonawczych i aktów zmieniających
Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej — API ELI · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [5] Ustawa z dnia 16 listopada 2006 r. o opłacie skarbowej — tekst ujednolicony (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1154), załącznik część III
Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-23 - [6] Ustawa z dnia 20 marca 2025 r. o warunkach dopuszczalności powierzania pracy cudzoziemcom na terytorium Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej — tekst ujednolicony (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 621, 1794, z 2026 r. poz. 203, 473, 734)
Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2025-05-16 · Accessed 2026-08-24