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New rules of hiring foreigners in Poland – the key changes envisaged in the act

by Małgorzata Kolasa-Dorosz

27 March 2025

The Act on Admissibility Criteria for Hiring Foreigners in the Republic of Poland, which has been submitted to the Polish president, implements the previously announced changes in the hiring of foreigners in Poland.

Hiring foreigners in Poland – what will change?

The act is supposed to replace the Act on Employment Promotion and Labour Market Institutions and constitute a stand-alone piece of legislation regulating the hiring of foreigners and access of foreigners to the Polish labour market. Aiming to reduce abuse and simplify the hiring of foreigners, the act envisages first of all the following changes:

1) The work permit procedure will be fully digitalised.

2) The types of work permits will change and the reasons for granting and refusing a work permit will be defined more precisely.

Under the new legislation, a work permit may be refused if, for example, it follows from the circumstances of the case that the foreigner would be hired to work for a third party by an entity other than a temporary employment agency operating legitimately in Poland; the changes are supposed to limit the so-called employee outsourcing.

Newly established entities hiring foreigners (entities that have been in business for less than one tax year) or entities intending to hire a foreigner not more than half-time, or 20 hours a week, will not be able to obtain a 3-year work permit. According to the act, the work permit may be issued in such a case for a fixed period of up to one year.

3) Employers will be obliged to send to the authority which has issued the work permit a copy of the contract concluded with the foreigner before putting him or her to work.

4) The so-called labour market test (information from the district governor [starosta]) will be replaced by a procedure that will allow individual districts to limit the hiring of foreigners within a given period.

5) There will be higher penalties for illegal hiring of foreigners and providing false information about the hiring of foreigners – for example, hiring a foreigner illegally will be subject to a fine from 3,000 to 50,000 zloty.

More lenient laws and abandonment of controversial changes

Contrary to the act’s original intentions, its final wording has abandoned higher fines for offences against workers' rights, regardless of their nationality.

The act has also dispensed with the requirement for temporary employment agencies to hire foreign temporary workers solely under an employment contract. According the act, applications for a work permit for a temporary worker to be hired under a civil-law contract will not be rejected.

If the president signs the act, it will take effect on the first day of the month after 14 days from the date of its publication in the Journal of Laws.

Do you want to know more about the upcoming changes in the hiring of foreigners? You are welcome to contact us »