No. A mandat karny (on-the-spot fine) for a wykroczenie (petty offence) or a petty fiscal offence is never entered in the Krajowy Rejestr Karny (KRK), Poland's criminal register, whatever the amount. The KRK holds convictions for crimes and fiscal crimes, conditional discontinuances and arrest for petty offences. Only a conviction or an arrest marks your certificate.
What the law puts in the KRK
The contents of the register are set by art. 1 ust. 2 of the Act of 24 May 2000 on the National Criminal Register. The amendment of 13 February 2026 left this list as it was. The KRK holds data on people:
- convicted by final judgment of a przestępstwo (crime) or przestępstwo skarbowe (fiscal crime);
- whose case for such a crime a court conditionally discontinued (warunkowe umorzenie);
- whose case was discontinued under an amnesty;
- who are Polish citizens convicted by foreign courts;
- subject to środki zabezpieczające (protective measures);
- who are minors given educational, medical or corrective measures by a court;
- sentenced to arrest (kara aresztu) for a petty offence;
- wanted under a list gończy (arrest warrant);
- held in pre-trial detention (tymczasowe aresztowanie);
- who are minors placed in a schronisko dla nieletnich (juvenile shelter).
A fine for a petty offence isn't on the list. Neither a mandat nor a court-imposed grzywna. Even a fine of up to 30,000 PLN, which the Kodeks wykroczeń (Petty Offences Code) allows for some traffic offences (art. 24 § 1a), stays out of the register. Of all the penalties for petty offences, the KRK records only arrest.
What shows on the certificate and what doesn't
| Situation | On the KRK? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mandat for speeding, illegal parking or drinking in public | no | a petty offence; only arrest for petty offences is recorded |
| Court fine for a petty offence after you refused the mandat | no | still a petty-offence penalty, not arrest |
| Arrest for a petty offence, 5 to 30 days | yes | art. 1 ust. 2 pkt 7 |
| Driving "po użyciu alkoholu" (after drinking, below the drunkenness threshold), art. 87 of the Petty Offences Code | only if the court chose arrest | the court picks arrest or a fine of at least 2,500 PLN |
| Drunk driving above 0.5 per mille, art. 178a of the Criminal Code | yes | a crime, up to 3 years' imprisonment |
| Mandat for a petty fiscal offence, e.g. goods brought in without a declaration where the duty is below the statutory threshold (art. 86 § 4 of the Fiscal Penal Code) | no | a petty fiscal offence carries a fine only |
| Court conviction for a fiscal crime | yes | art. 1 ust. 2 pkt 1 |
| Fiscal crime closed through dobrowolne poddanie się odpowiedzialności (voluntary submission to liability) | no | art. 18 § 2 of the Fiscal Penal Code |
| Conditional discontinuance of a crime case | yes, temporarily | removed 6 months after the probation period ends |
| Driver penalty points (punkty karne) | no | kept by the Police in their own records |
| Pre-trial detention, arrest warrant | yes | pkt 8 and 9, no conviction required |
The second row surprises our clients most. Someone refuses the mandat, the case goes to court, the court imposes a fine, and they assume they now have a criminal record. They don't: a court decision with a fine in a petty-offence case does not go to the KRK.
Petty fiscal offence or fiscal crime: where the line is
The Kodeks karny skarbowy (Fiscal Penal Code, kks) splits cases by amount. If the unpaid tax or duty, or the value of the item, doesn't exceed five times the minimum wage at the time of the act, it's a wykroczenie skarbowe (art. 53 § 3 kks). The only penalty is a fixed-amount fine (art. 47 § 1). In fiscal cases a mandat can be issued only for a wykroczenie skarbowe and for no more than five minimum wages (art. 137 § 1 and art. 48 § 2). None of this reaches the KRK.
Above the threshold you're in fiscal-crime territory, and a conviction there is recorded. The exception is dobrowolne poddanie się odpowiedzialności: the court allows you to pay an amount equal to the fine, and art. 18 § 2 kks says such a judgment is not entered in the KRK. This route is closed for fiscal crimes punishable by restriction or deprivation of liberty (art. 17 § 2 pkt 1).
Refused the mandat? What changes for the register
You're allowed to refuse a mandat. The authority whose officer issued it then files a wniosek o ukaranie (motion for punishment) with the court under art. 99 of the Code of Procedure for Petty Offences. The same happens if a mandat issued in your absence goes unpaid. In a petty-offence case the court can impose arrest, restriction of liberty, a fine or a reprimand (nagana). Only arrest lands in the KRK.
An unpaid mandat won't appear on the certificate either. Mandat fines that go to the state budget are collected by the head of the tax office, the naczelnik urzędu skarbowego (art. 100 § 1 of the same code), not by a court and not through the KRK.
How long an entry stays in the register
Entries don't stay forever. Once a conviction is expunged (zatarcie skazania), the data is removed from the KRK (art. 14 of the KRK Act). The KRK bureau says on its gov.pl pages that expunged convictions are removed without any application.
| What is recorded | When it disappears | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Arrest for a petty offence | 2 years after serving it | art. 46 § 1 of the Petty Offences Code |
| Fine for a crime | 1 year after it is paid or otherwise enforced | art. 107 § 4a of the Criminal Code |
| Restriction of liberty | 3 years after enforcement | art. 107 § 4 |
| Imprisonment | 10 years; on application, a court may expunge after 5 if the sentence was 3 years or less | art. 107 § 1 and § 2 |
| Suspended imprisonment | 1 year after the probation period ends | art. 76 § 1 |
| Conditional discontinuance | 6 months after the probation period ends | art. 14 ust. 1a of the KRK Act, art. 68 § 4 of the Criminal Code |
One catch people miss. If the court also imposed a środek karny (penal measure), such as a driving ban after drunk driving, the conviction can't be expunged until the ban has run its course (art. 107 § 6). So a driver with a three-year ban won't get a clean certificate one year after paying the fine.
What the voivode checks for a residence permit or citizenship
The KRK certificate is what you see. The voivode looks wider.
Before deciding on a temporary residence permit (zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy), the wojewoda asks the regional Border Guard commander, the provincial Police commander and the head of the Internal Security Agency (ABW), and the consul if needed. The question is whether your stay could threaten national defence, state security or public order (art. 109 ust. 1 of the Act on Foreigners). They have 30 days to reply, 60 in special cases. Refusal on that ground falls under art. 100 ust. 1 pkt 4. There is no separate refusal ground for "having fines".
The Police answer from their own data and don't need a KRK printout for that. Traffic offences that carry penalty points are held in records kept by the Police. So a clean certificate doesn't mean the Police know nothing about you; equally, a mandat in a Police database is not a conviction. The voivode, as a public administration body, can also request KRK data directly (art. 6 ust. 1 pkt 9 of the KRK Act).
Citizenship works the same way. For uznanie za obywatela polskiego (recognition as a Polish citizen), the voivode asks the provincial Police commander and the director of the regional ABW office (art. 36 ust. 2 of the Act on Polish Citizenship), and may refuse if granting citizenship would threaten security or public order (art. 31 pkt 2).
One more point about forms. False information in a residence application is a refusal ground on its own (art. 100 ust. 1 pkt 5 of the Act on Foreigners). If the form asks about convictions or proceedings, answer with the facts. The application process is on our temporary residence page, and typical refusal reasons are covered in refusal of a residence card.
Does an ongoing case show on the certificate?
Not without a judgment. A pending case isn't entered in the KRK. The exceptions are pre-trial detention and an arrest warrant, which go into the register straight away (pkt 8 and 9). The voivode can still learn about a case from the Police, but that's no longer about the certificate.
ECRIS-TCN: certificates for foreigners will cover more
The amendment to the KRK Act of 13 February 2026 (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 421) connects Poland to the EU's ECRIS-TCN system. Once it runs, a certificate a non-EU national requests about themselves will contain data from the Polish register and from the registers of EU countries that hold entries on them (new art. 20 ust. 1da). In its report COM(2026) 284 of June 2026, the European Commission expects the system to start operating in 2027. For someone with a Ukrainian or Kazakh passport, that means a conviction handed down in, say, Czechia will show on the Polish certificate once the system is live.
How to check your own record
Everyone has the right to see the content of all entries about themselves (art. 7 ust. 1 of the KRK Act). An electronic certificate via e-KRK costs 20 PLN and needs a profil zaufany (trusted profile) or a qualified signature; a paper one costs 30 PLN at a KRK information point. We cover ordering online in the e-KRK guide, and the no-PESEL route in KRK for foreigners without a PESEL. If an employer or a licensing body is asking for the certificate, see the KRK for licences and professions.
The KRK laws set no validity period for the certificate; the KRK bureau says so in its gov.pl Q&A. How fresh it must be is up to whoever asks for it.
A typical situation: a driver from Łomianki has picked up three speeding mandats in two years and is sure his certificate is "ruined" before applying for permanent residence. His KRK certificate is in fact clean: speeding mandats don't go there. His penalty points show up in mObywatel, but that's a different register and it doesn't feed the certificate.
If your certificate does show an entry, have a lawyer assess what it means for your case before you file.