Zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy: grounds, processing times and documents

What the permit is and how long it lasts

You need pobyt czasowy if you want to live in Poland for longer than three months. It is not issued just to live here: in the application you state a purpose and back it with documents, and the purpose decides the conditions, the fee and the set of papers. The permit lasts from 3 months to 3 years. For students the first permit is 15 months, later ones cover the study period plus 3 months, but no more than 3 years (Art. 145 ustawy o cudzoziemcach).

The full list of permit types with tables is in the Karta pobytu guide. Here we cover only what you need to apply.

Grounds and what it costs

You pay twice: the opłata skarbowa (stamp duty) for processing the application and a separate fee for issuing the card. The first amount depends on the ground:

Ground	Main condition	Stamp duty + card
Work (pobyt czasowy i praca)	employment or civil-law contract, pay at least the minimum wage, health insurance	440 + 100 zł
Highly qualified work (EU Blue Card)	higher education, contract longer than 1 year, pay at least 1.5 times the Polish average	440 + 100 zł
Business	CEIDG registration or a company, stable income, insurance	340 + 100 zł
Study	student status at a Polish university, income, insurance	340 + 50 zł
Family	you are the spouse or child of a permit holder or a Polish citizen with stable income	340 + 100 zł

The two payments go to different accounts. The stamp duty is paid to the city where the voivode handling your case sits: for Pomorskie that is Gdańsk. The 100 zł card fee is paid to the voivodeship office itself. Account numbers are on your office's website. If you sit on the board of a sp. z o.o. or S.A. without holding shares in it, the fee for pobyt i praca is lower: 340 zł.

Choose the ground with the next step in mind. A card under Art. 114 ust. 1a (an occupation on the government list plus confirmed qualifications and income) gives the right to stały pobyt (permanent residence) after 4 years (Art. 195 ust. 1 pkt 6 lit. c ustawy o cudzoziemcach). An ordinary work card does not: with it the route runs through 5 years to EU long-term resident status.

How to apply through MOS

Since 27 April 2026 applications for pobyt czasowy are accepted only electronically, through the MOS portal (mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl). Paper applications that had not reached the office by that date were left unprocessed, and the postmark date did not count. The steps are:

1. create an account in the new MOS: an account from the old version does not work;
2. log in through login.gov.pl and fill in the application form;
3. attach the documents (list below) and give the e-mail of your employer, university or internship organiser: MOS sends them a link to the załącznik (annex), which they fill in and sign themselves;
4. sign the application with Profil Zaufany, a qualified e-signature or a podpis osobisty (ID card signature);
5. submit and keep the UPO, the official receipt confirmation.

You have to file it yourself: the account is tied to you, and a pełnomocnik (representative) cannot submit it for you. For minors, parents or guardians apply. The deadline is the last day of your legal stay (Art. 105 ust. 1 ustawy o cudzoziemcach). UdSC advises not to wait for it: one day may not be enough to attach every document, and getting the employer's signature on the annex can take a long time.

Documents

Every application needs the same core set:

• a digital photo taken no more than 6 months before you apply;
• a scan or photo of every page of your valid passport;
• proof of both payments;
• the annex from your employer, university or organiser, if your ground requires one;
• documents that prove the purpose: for work, the contract and insurance (a ZUS certificate or a policy).

Documents in a foreign language, other than the passport, must come with a sworn translation into Polish. The official may ask to see the originals, so scans do not replace the papers themselves: keep them at hand until the case is closed.

What happens after you apply

First the voivode calls you in person to give fingerprints and a signature specimen and to show the original passport. You have 7 days from receiving the summons. If there are errors or missing documents, another summons follows: you get at least 14 days to correct or supply them, otherwise the application is not examined.

What matters most for your status: if you applied on time and the application has no formal defects (or you fixed them), your stay in Poland is legal from the day you applied until the decision becomes final (Art. 108 ust. 1 pkt 2 ustawy o cudzoziemcach). There is one exception: if the proceedings were suspended at your own request, this rule does not apply.

There is no longer a stamp in the passport. Instead, a free zaświadczenie (certificate) of filing appears in MOS, though not straight away: only after an official has checked the application. It confirms your legal stay in Poland but does not give the right to travel to other Schengen countries. You may work while waiting only if your previous basis of stay allowed it, for example a valid work permit or an oświadczenie under which you worked right before applying.

How long does the decision take?

By law the voivode has 60 days to decide (Art. 112a ust. 1 ustawy o cudzoziemcach). They are counted not from the day you submitted, but from the later of two events: the application becoming complete, with no formal defects, and your providing the documents requested or the deadline for that passing.

In practice the wait is much longer. Biznes.gov.pl says it plainly: depending on the voivodeship office, the procedure takes about 12 months on average, because the case starts once replies arrive from the Border Guard, the Police, the ABW and other services. For the Blue Card the same site warns that in some voivodeships the wait can exceed a year. So 60 days is a deadline the law sets for the office, not a promise to you. Plan on the basis that legal stay under Art. 108 ustawy o cudzoziemcach will cover the whole period.

If you are refused, you have 14 days from receiving the decision to appeal. The odwołanie goes to the Head of the Office for Foreigners (UdSC) through the voivode who issued the decision, and the appeal is decided within 90 days (Art. 112a ust. 4 ustawy o cudzoziemcach).

If you currently hold UKR status

Ukrainians have been able to get pobyt czasowy since 1 April 2023, and switching to it is voluntary. But receiving any standard permit ends UKR status together with access to the special programmes attached to it, so weigh the decision before you apply, not after.

The argument for switching is strong too: years on UKR do not count at all towards the five years for EU long-term resident status, while time on a standard permit counts from the day you receive the card. PESEL UKR holders have a simplified route to exactly such a card: the CUKR card, for 340 + 100 zł, with applications accepted until 4 March 2027. How to choose is covered in our article on UKR status and CUKR.

Sources

• Ustawa o cudzoziemcach (Dz.U. 2013 poz. 1650), eli.gov.pl
• Art. 112a ustawy o cudzoziemcach: decision deadline, lexlege.pb.pl
• Art. 108 ustawy o cudzoziemcach: legal stay during proceedings, lexlege.pb.pl
• UdSC: the MOS portal and applications from 27.04.2026
• Biznes.gov.pl, single permit, pobyt czasowy i praca
• Biznes.gov.pl, pobyt czasowy for highly qualified work
• Mazowiecki Urząd Wojewódzki: fee table

Frequently asked questions