Temporary residence and work permit (single permit)
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę 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 and work permit (single permit) as of 2026-08-24[3][4] 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. 114-126 (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] |
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| Minimum age | Not applicable Art. 114 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] Art. 98 ust. 2: a temporary residence permit is granted for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of the stay, and for no longer than 3 years. The Act sets no floor, so the term actually granted is at the wojewoda's assessment of the purpose; art. 100 ust. 1 pkt 1 requires that the purpose justify a stay of more than 3 months. |
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| 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. 118 ust. 1: the decision names the entity entrusting the work, the position or type of work, the lowest salary, the working time and the type of contract, so the entitlement is confined to that work with that entity. Art. 119 lists the changes that do not require the permit to be changed and art. 120 the procedure for changing it; art. 121 ust. 1 obliges the holder to notify the wojewoda of losing the job within 15 working days, with a 30-day grace period under art. 123. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 211 ust. 1 counts legal and uninterrupted residence towards the 5-year EU long-term resident qualification, and neither art. 212 ust. 2's list of stays that do not count nor ust. 1 pkt 3's list of stays counted at half names the single permit. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 114 ust. 1 pkt 4 and art. 106: the entity entrusting the work completes an annex to the application stating the position, the salary, the working time and the contract type, so a concrete offer is a condition of the grant. On the art. 126 limb the office in the company takes the place of the job offer. |
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| Salary threshold | |
| Labour-market test | No as of 2026-08-07[1][7] |
| Qualification requirement | none as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 114 ust. 1 imposes no general qualification requirement. Two qualifications on that: art. 117 pkt 2 lit. a refuses the permit where the work is in a regulated profession and the foreigner lacks the formal qualifications for it, and the separate art. 114 ust. 1a limb – work in an occupation designated as desirable for the Polish economy by regulation under ust. 5 – requires the professional qualifications for that occupation. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] The application carries an annex completed and signed by the entity entrusting the work (art. 106), the decision names that entity (art. 118 ust. 1 pkt 1), and art. 117 and art. 117a make the entity's conduct and solvency refusal grounds. The foreigner is nevertheless the sole party to the proceedings. |
| Paid in-country | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] The permit is granted for work performed in Poland for an entity that entrusts it, and the salary conditions in art. 114 ust. 1 pkt 4 and 5 assume payment in Poland. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-04-07[1] This is not a job-search route: art. 114 ust. 1 requires the work itself to be the purpose of the stay, and art. 121 obliges the holder to notify the loss of the job. |
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). |
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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. 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. |
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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 | 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[7] 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 | 7 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 7 |
| 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] Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę (zezwolenie jednolite)
Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców — Moduł Obsługi Spraw · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 · Archived copy - [5] 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 - [6] 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 - [7] 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