Home

Global

Contact

de|en|pl

50 countries – 116 offices – around 6,000 colleagues – 1 firm |

Worldwide

We use cookies to personalise the website and offer you the greatest added value. They are, among other purposes, used to analyse visitor usage in order to improve the website for you. By using this website, you agree to their use. Further information can be found in our data privacy statement.

New rules of hiring foreigners in Poland – the key changes since 1 June 2025

by Małgorzata Kolasa-Dorosz

5 June 2025

The Act on Admissibility Criteria for Hiring Foreigners in the Republic of Poland entered into force on 1 June 2025 to replace the Act on Employment Promotion and Labour Market Institutions dating back to 20 April 2004.

The new act introduces numerous changes significant for those who hire foreigners when it comes to regularisation of their hiring in respect of both work permits and foreigner employment declarations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Limited types of residence permits that allow foreigners to undertake employment in Poland
Full digitalisation of the work permit application process and no more labour market test (district governor’s feedback)
New obligations on employers of foreigners
Higher penalties for illegal employment of foreigners
Changes to temporary residence and work permits

Limited types of residence permits that allow foreigners to undertake employment in Poland

The new legislation revokes the extended list of visas which have so far allowed foreigners to work in Poland. Legal employment on the basis of the extended list of visas will no longer be possible (working on e.g. a visa to visit family or friends, transit visa or medical treatment visa will no longer be legal) from 1 June 2025.

The list of documents that regularise stay and permit work will also no longer include visas issued by other Schengen member states.

Full digitalisation of the work permit application process and no more labour market test (district governor’s feedback)

The new act makes the processing of work permit applications and foreigner employment declarations entirely electronic in a dedicated system.

Another major simplification is the abandonment of the requirement to obtain feedback from the district governor (starosta) on the possibility to satisfy the employer’s personnel requirements and to carry out a labour market test. The feedback from the district governor will be replaced by a procedure that will allow individual districts to limit the hiring of foreigners within a given period.

New obligations on employers of foreigners

Along with the modification of the work permit procedure and the foreigner employment declaration procedure, obligations of those who hire foreigners have been updated and extended. The most important changes are:

a copy of the contract with the foreigner must be delivered to the authority that has issued the work permit or accepted the foreigner employment declaration via a dedicated system – before the foreigner is hired;
shorter deadlines to inform the authority which has issued the work permit about a foreigner’s failure to commence work within 2 months of the work permit start date, about a break from work longer than 2 months, and about the foreigner’s termination of work more than 2 months before the work permit expiry date – the deadlines used to be 3 months;
entities that have been in business for less than a year or entities intending to hire a foreigner not more than half-time, or 20 hours a week, will be able to obtain a work permit for a definite period of no more than 1 year;
no work permit will be available for less than ¼ full-time equivalent;
when it comes to foreigner employment declarations, the district governor who records the declaration has to be notified that the foreigner will not start the work or has finished the work before the work end date specified in the declaration – such a notification will make the declaration entered in the records void by operation of law, and the work based on that declaration will no longer be allowed.

Higher penalties for illegal employment of foreigners

Illegal hiring of a foreigner is subject to a fine from 3,000 zloty to 50,000 zloty (used to be from 1,000 zloty to 30,000 zloty), and no less than 3,000 zloty per foreigner.

Changes to temporary residence and work permits

Besides the above-mentioned changes, the Foreigners Act has been amended too. Employers face a new obligation to inform the provincial governor who has granted a temporary residence and work permit about:

loss of the job by the foreigner who has been granted the temporary residence and work permit with the employer named in the decision;

– within 15 days of that event;

change of registered office or home address, name or legal form of the entity hiring the foreigner or of the hirer;
transfer of the work establishment or its part to another employer;
increasing weekly working hours specified in the temporary residence and work permit with the concurrent proportional pay rise;
change of job position name without changing the scope of the foreigner's responsibilities;
replacing a civil law contract with an employment contract;

– within 15 working days.

Do you need support in adapting your foreigner hiring procedures to the new legislation? Contact our experts, who will help you navigate the laws safely and in compliance with the law.