Temporary residence permit for a family member of an EU, EEA-EFTA or Swiss national, and on account of conducting family life
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy dla członka rodziny obywatela państwa członkowskiego UE, EFTA-EOG lub Szwajcarii oraz ze względu na prowadzenie życia rodzinnego 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 a family member of an EU, EEA-EFTA or Swiss national, and on account of conducting family life 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. 160, art. 162 ust. 2, art. 168a (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] |
|---|---|
| Minimum age | Not applicable Art. 160 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's general ceiling governs most of art. 160. The one express term is art. 162 ust. 2: a permit under art. 160 pkt 2, for a child born in Poland during the validity of a parent's national visa or temporary permit, runs to the day that parent's document expires. |
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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 | Not established from a qualifying source Art. 3 ust. 1 of the Act of 20 March 2025 lists art. 158 ust. 2 pkt 1 and 2, art. 159 ust. 1, art. 161 ust. 2 and art. 161b ust. 1 among the free-access grounds; art. 160 is not among them, and neither is it excluded. Pkt 15 and 16 of that article may reach some art. 160 applicants by their relationship to a Polish citizen rather than by their permit, but the fit is not clean and no Tier-1 source was found stating the answer for the art. 160 permit as such. Recorded unknown rather than guessed. |
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. |
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Requirements
| Who can sponsor | citizen, specific permits as of 2026-04-07[1] |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | unmarried partner, other dependent, minor child as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 160 covers three shapes. Pkt 1 and 4: a family member of the resident national, outside the free movement definition, who lived in the same household or depended financially on them in the country they came from, or who needs their personal care for serious health reasons – other_dependent. Pkt 3, 5 and 6: a person conducting family life within the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights with the resident national, which is the route an unmarried partner of a Polish citizen actually uses – unmarried_partner. Pkt 2: a minor child of a foreigner, born in Poland during the validity of the parent's national visa or temporary permit. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × social-assistance income criterion, single-person household per month as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 160 pkt 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 require the applicant to meet art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 2 – health insurance and a stable and regular source of income – which art. 163 ust. 1 measures against art. 140 ust. 2's criterion. Art. 160 pkt 2 requires art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 2 AND pkt 3. The condition is on the applicant rather than strictly on the sponsor, and art. 163 ust. 2 allows a maintaining family member resident in Poland to cover it. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | No as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 160 pkt 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 require only art. 159 ust. 1 pkt 2, not pkt 3, so no accommodation condition attaches to them. It attaches only to the pkt 2 child-born-in-Poland ground. Sourced absence on a closed enumeration. |
| Pre-entry language test | No as of 2026-04-07[1] No language condition appears in the chapter. |
| Sponsor and relation matrix |
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Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-04-07[1] Art. 168a ust. 1: for the art. 160 pkt 1, 3, 4 and 6 grounds the Polish, EU, EEA-EFTA, Swiss or UK Withdrawal Agreement national resident in Poland files on behalf of a foreigner who is ABROAD, with that person's written consent. Art. 105 ust. 5 disapplies the personal-appearance requirement in that case. |
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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 — 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