Temporary residence permit for the purpose of family reunification
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy w celu połączenia się z rodziną as of 2026-04-07[1][3] 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 for the purpose of family reunification 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. 159-166b, art. 168 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1079, as updated to 2026-04-07); dyrektywa 2003/86/WE 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. 159 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[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 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. Art. 161 ust. 1 additionally gives an AUTONOMOUS temporary residence permit after 5 years on successive reunification permits, to a spouse or an adult child, and art. 161 ust. 2 gives one on divorce, separation, widowhood or the death of the sponsor where the applicant's important interest requires it – the safety net that stops the permit dying with the relationship. |
|---|
Requirements
| Who can sponsor | permanent resident, temporary permit holder, specific permits as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 1 lists the qualifying sponsor bases exhaustively: a permanent residence permit (lit. a), an EU long-term resident permit (lit. b), refugee status (lit. c), subsidiary protection (lit. d), at least 2 years on successive temporary residence permits with a current permit of at least 1 year (lit. e), a research permit or research national visa (lit. f), a researcher long-term mobility permit (lit. g), an EU Blue Card (lit. h), an ICT permit (lit. ha), an ICT long-term mobility permit (lit. hb), an art. 186 ust. 1 pkt 7 permit (lit. hc), UK Withdrawal Agreement residence rights (lit. hd), a Blue Card long-term mobility permit (lit. he), and a humanitarian-grounds permit (lit. i). A Polish CITIZEN is not on the list: their family uses art. 158 instead. 'specific_permits' carries lit. c, d, f, g, h, ha, hb, hc, hd, he and i. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, minor child, parent, sibling as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 159 ust. 3: 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; minority is assessed at the date of filing (ust. 3a), or at the date of the protection application in the refugee and subsidiary-protection cases (ust. 3b). Art. 159 ust. 4 and 5 widen the definition for a beneficiary of international protection who is or was an unaccompanied minor: a direct ascendant or the adult responsible for the minor, the minor's parent, and a brother or sister who is completely and permanently dependent on the parents by reason of serious illness. parent and sibling therefore reach only the protection cases. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × social-assistance income criterion, single-person household per month as of 2026-04-07[1][3] Art. 163 ust. 1 applies art. 140 ust. 2: the monthly income must be HIGHER than the social-assistance income criterion for the sponsor and for each dependent family member – PLN 1,010 for a single-person household or PLN 823 per person in a family. Multiplier 1 therefore states a floor to be exceeded, not met. Art. 163 ust. 2 treats the condition as met where a family member resident in Poland who is obliged to maintain the applicant will cover the costs. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 3: secured accommodation in Poland. Art. 159 ust. 2 disapplies both the income and the accommodation condition where the sponsor is a refugee or holds subsidiary protection and the application is filed within 6 months of that status; ust. 2a disapplies them for the art. 159 ust. 5 family members; ust. 2b disapplies them where the sponsor holds a Blue Card long-term mobility permit and the family was formed in the member state that issued the Blue Card. |
| Sponsor waiting period | at least 2 years as of 2026-04-07[1] |
| Pre-entry language test | No as of 2026-04-07[1] No language condition appears in the chapter. Sourced absence on art. 159's closed condition list. |
| Who qualifies as a sponsor |
|
| Sponsor and relation matrix |
|
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 105 ust. 1 requires the foreigner to file in Poland, but art. 105 ust. 5 disapplies the personal-appearance requirement in the art. 168 ust. 1 case, and art. 168 ust. 1 lets the sponsor resident in Poland file on behalf of a family member who is ABROAD, with that member's written consent (ust. 2), which counts as a power of attorney (ust. 3). Both directions are therefore open. The pending amendment carried in the consolidated text adds art. 104 ust. 1b, which names the wojewoda competent for an applicant outside Poland – confirming the direction of travel rather than opening it. |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | 60 days as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 112a ust. 1's general 60-day clock. Art. 166b ust. 1 shortens it to 30 days where the sponsor holds a permit for long-term mobility of an EU Blue Card holder. |
| 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. The Act does not chain reunification: a person admitted under art. 159 becomes a sponsor only on the general lit. e terms, after 2 years. |
|---|---|
| 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.
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 | 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 — pobyt z rodziną: katalog kategorii
Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców — Moduł Obsługi Spraw · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [4] Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy — praca: katalog zezwoleń
Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców — Moduł Obsługi Spraw · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [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