Temporary residence permit for work in a profession requiring high qualifications (EU Blue Card)
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy w celu wykonywania pracy w zawodzie wymagającym wysokich kwalifikacji as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Recorded from the statutory chapter or article heading; the Office for Foreigners' own procedure page uses the same wording. Diacritics as published. |
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| Official name (English) | Temporary residence permit for work in a profession requiring high qualifications (EU Blue Card) as of 2026-08-24[4][5] 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. 127-138b (consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1079, as updated to 2026-04-07); dyrektywa (UE) 2021/1883 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] |
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| Minimum age | Not applicable Art. 127 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 | up to 3 years as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Art. 128: the permit is granted for the period of the work plus 3 months, and for no longer than 3 years. Art. 127 pkt 1 lit. a requires a contract of at least 6 months, so the practical range the Office for Foreigners publishes is 'from more than 6 months to 3 years'. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the contract |
| 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 | own activity only as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 137: the decision states the validity period and that the holder may work in a profession requiring high qualifications at not less than the art. 127 pkt 3 salary – it does NOT name the employer, which is the material difference from the single permit under art. 118 ust. 1. A change of employer is notified to the wojewoda within 15 working days (art. 134 ust. 2). Unemployment is tolerated for 3 months, or 6 months after 2 years on the permit (art. 133 ust. 2). |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 212 ust. 1 pkt 1: for a Blue Card holder the 5-year EU long-term residence clock runs across the whole European Union, provided at least the 2 years immediately before the application were spent in Poland; ust. 3 pkt 2 also widens the tolerated breaks to 12 months at a time and 18 months in total. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 127 pkt 1 lit. a: a contract of employment, an outwork contract, a civil-law contract or a service relationship, concluded for at least 6 months. |
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| Salary threshold |
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| Labour-market test | No as of 2026-08-07[1][8] Same mechanism as the single permit: art. 127 pkt 2 refuses the permit where the occupation is on the starosta's negative list under art. 31 ust. 3 of the Act of 20 March 2025, and art. 129 disapplies that condition for continuation with the same employer in the same post, for a foreigner already lawfully employed in Poland for 2 years on a Blue Card, and for anyone exempt from the work-permit requirement. The Office for Foreigners adds Turkish nationals to the disapplication list. |
| Qualification requirement | degree, equivalent experience, regulated profession as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Art. 127 pkt 1 lit. b and c: formal qualifications for a regulated profession, or higher professional qualifications for a profession that is not regulated. The Office for Foreigners states higher professional qualifications as a completed higher-education cycle of at least 3 years, or 5 years' professional experience, or 3 years' experience acquired in the 7 years before the application in an occupation on the list the Minister of Interior publishes under art. 138a, which mirrors Annex I to Directive (EU) 2021/1883 (M.P. 2025 poz. 549). |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] The contract with a named entity is a condition of the grant and art. 132 pkt 3 makes that entity's conduct, solvency and tax and social-insurance compliance refusal grounds. |
| Paid in-country | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] The salary condition in art. 127 pkt 3 is a condition on the contract under which the work is performed in Poland. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-04-07[1] Not a job-search route: art. 127 requires a concluded contract. |
Process
| Where to apply from | in-country only as of 2026-04-07[1][5] 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). |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 1 lit. h: a family member of a holder of an EU Blue Card issued under art. 127 may be granted a temporary residence permit for family reunification with no prior-residence condition on the sponsor. |
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| 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 | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 168 ust. 4 and 4a: where the family member's application is filed on the same day as, or within 3 days of, the principal's application, the same wojewoda decides both and issues the family decision immediately after the principal's. |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2026-08-07[8] 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.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 8 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 8 |
| 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] Komunikat Prezesa Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego z dnia 9 lutego 2026 r. w sprawie przeciętnego wynagrodzenia w gospodarce narodowej w 2025 r. (M.P. 2026 poz. 192)
Główny Urząd Statystyczny / Monitor Polski · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2026-02-10 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [4] Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy w celu wykonywania pracy w zawodzie wymagającym wysokich kwalifikacji (Blue Card)
Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców — Moduł Obsługi Spraw · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [5] Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy — praca: katalog zezwoleń
Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców — Moduł Obsługi Spraw · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [6] 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 - [7] 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 - [8] 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