Temporary residence permit on account of seasonal work
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy ze względu na pracę sezonową 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. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Temporary residence permit on account of seasonal work 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. 185a-185c (consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1079, as updated to 2026-04-07); dyrektywa 2014/36/UE 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. 185a 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 9 months as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Art. 185a ust. 2: the permit runs for the validity of the seasonal work permit or its extension, and for no longer than 9 months counted from the first entry in the calendar year concerned. Art. 185a ust. 3 allows it to be granted even where the circumstances do not justify a stay of more than 3 months, which is an exception to art. 98 ust. 1's general three-month threshold. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the assignment |
| Renewable | No as of 2026-08-24[1][4] The 9-month ceiling runs per calendar year from the first entry, and the Office for Foreigners states plainly that there is no way to renew this permit while keeping continuity of residence in Poland. That is a different answer from every other Polish temporary permit, where a further permit is available on the same terms. |
| Renewal duration | Not applicable There is no renewal. |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2026-04-07[1][7] The permit exists to continue the seasonal work covered by the seasonal work permit issued under the Act of 20 March 2025; art. 3 ust. 3 of that Act ties the work to the terms of that permit. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Art. 212 ust. 2 does not name this permit among the excluded stays. In practice the 9-month annual ceiling and the absence of any renewal that keeps continuity make the 5 uninterrupted years art. 211 ust. 1 requires unreachable on this route alone; the record states the statutory position and this consequence rather than turning the consequence into a false. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 185a ust. 1 pkt 2: a valid seasonal work permit, or an extension of one, running beyond the stay the visa or visa-free entry allows. The seasonal work permit is issued by the starosta on the employer's application under the Act of 20 March 2025. |
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| Labour-market test | No as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 185a imposes none; any labour-market control sits in the separate seasonal work permit procedure before the starosta. Sourced absence on art. 185a's closed condition list. |
| Qualification requirement | none as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 185a imposes no qualification requirement. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] The seasonal work permit that art. 185a ust. 1 pkt 2 requires is applied for by the entity entrusting the work, so the route cannot be used without an employer. |
| Own means requirement | 1 × social-assistance income criterion, single-person household per month as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Art. 185a ust. 1 pkt 3 with ust. 5, applying art. 140 ust. 2: a stable and regular source of income higher than the social-assistance income criterion. Art. 185a ust. 1 pkt 5 also requires secured accommodation, which this block has no field for. |
| Paid in-country | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] The seasonal work is performed for and paid by a Polish entity. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-04-07[1] Not a job-search route. |
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 ze względu na pracę sezonową
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