Temporary residence permit for the purpose of study
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy w celu kształcenia się na studiach 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 the purpose of study 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. 144-150 (consolidated text Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1079, as updated to 2026-04-07); dyrektywa (UE) 2016/801 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. 144 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 15 months as of 2026-04-07[1][4] |
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| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1][4] Art. 145 ust. 4: a further permit is granted for the period of the studies or the preparatory course plus 3 months, or plus 6 months for doctoral candidates, and for no longer than 3 years. As everywhere in Polish law this is a fresh permit rather than an extension. The Office for Foreigners adds that a foreigner who continues on this route cannot then apply for the EU long-term resident permit. |
| Renewal duration | up to 3 years as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 145 ust. 4: the period of the studies plus 3 months (6 months for doctoral candidates), capped at 3 years. |
| Maximum total duration | Not applicable The Act sets no lifetime cap on study residence; each further permit is capped at 3 years and the number of them is not limited. |
| Work rights | full as of 2026-08-07[8] 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. Poland therefore imposes no term-time hours cap on students at all, which is unusual in the EU. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] |
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Requirements
| Enrolment status required | admitted as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 144 ust. 1 pkt 1 lit. a: a certificate from the institution confirming ADMISSION to studies, or their continuation – admission, not enrolment, is what opens the route. That provision is repealed by the pending amendment carried in the consolidated text; art. 148b already requires the authority to verify the applicant against the POL-on registers of foreigners admitted to studies and of students, so the certificate is being replaced by a register check rather than by a different substantive test. |
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| Means requirement | 1 × social-assistance income criterion, single-person household per month as of 2026-04-07[1][4][7] Art. 144 ust. 1 pkt 2 lit. b with ust. 1a: sufficient funds to cover maintenance, the return journey and the costs of study; the monthly maintenance figure, after deducting accommodation costs, must be HIGHER than the social-assistance income criterion for the applicant and each dependant – PLN 1,010 for a single-person household or PLN 823 per person in a family. Art. 144 ust. 1b defines accommodation costs and ust. 1c disapplies the deduction for nationals of states named in the regulation under art. 113b. The return-travel component is a separate flat amount set by the Regulation of the Minister of Interior of 6 February 2018 – PLN 200 from a state neighbouring Poland, PLN 500 from another EU, EEA-EFTA or Swiss state, PLN 2,500 from anywhere else, and the same again per accompanying dependent family member – and is stated here rather than folded into the monthly figure, which is what the field holds. |
| Work-hours cap | Not applicable Poland caps nothing. Free labour-market access under art. 3 ust. 1 pkt 14 of the Act of 20 March 2025 carries no term-time hours limit, so there is no number to record. |
| Post-study route exists | Yes as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 186 ust. 1 pkt 6: a graduate of a Polish higher-education institution who is looking for work or plans to start a business may be granted a temporary residence permit on account of other circumstances. Recorded separately as pl-absolwent-poszukiwanie-pracy. |
| Post-study permit duration | 9 months as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 190 pkt 3: 9 months, once, immediately after completing the studies. |
| Post-study income requirement | 1 × social-assistance income criterion, single-person household per month as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 188 ust. 1a pkt 3 with ust. 6: funds for maintenance and return above the social-assistance income criterion, plus secured accommodation under pkt 2. |
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[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 |
|---|---|
| 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] 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 w celu kształcenia się na studiach
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] Rozporządzenie Ministra Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji z dnia 6 lutego 2018 r. w sprawie wysokości środków finansowych, jakie musi posiadać cudzoziemiec podejmujący lub kontynuujący studia na terytorium Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (Dz.U. 2018 poz. 337, ze zm. Dz.U. 2021 poz. 738)
Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2018-02-09 · Accessed 2026-08-24 - [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