Since 27 April 2026, applications for a temporary residence permit, a permanent residence permit and EU long-term resident status can only be filed online through MOS (mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl). Paper applications that reached a voivodeship office after 26 April 2026 are left unexamined, whatever the postmark says. To file, you have to be in Poland legally, log in through login.gov.pl, sign with a Profil Zaufany or a qualified electronic signature, and attach a digital photo, a scan of every passport page and proof of the fees: 340, 440 or 640 PLN depending on the permit, plus 100 PLN for the card.
Below is what the portal actually asks for, what it cannot do, and what the Mazowiecki office in Warsaw does with your application after you press "send". The rules come from the Office for Foreigners' MOS Q&A, the MOS "how to start" page and the Mazowiecki office's procedure page. Which permit to choose and which documents prove your grounds is covered in our karta pobytu walkthrough; this article is about the portal itself.
What to have ready before you open MOS
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Legal stay | You must be in Poland and staying legally on the day you send the application. Filing from abroad is not allowed |
| Login and signature | A login.gov.pl identity and a trusted signature (Profil Zaufany), qualified electronic signature or personal signature. The Mazowiecki office lists "get a PESEL" and "set up a Profil Zaufany" as the first two steps |
| Photo | JPG, at least 684 x 883 px, no larger than 2.5 MB, taken within the last 6 months |
| Passport | A scan or photo of all pages, not only the photo page, as a PDF |
| Fees | Stamp duty: 440 PLN for a temporary residence and work permit or a Blue Card, 340 PLN for most other temporary permits, 640 PLN for permanent residence or EU long-term resident status; plus 100 PLN for the card. Put your full name in the transfer title |
| Employer or university e-mail | For work, Blue Card, studies, traineeships and volunteering, a third party fills in an annex online (see step 3) |
| e-Doręczenia address | Not needed to file, but the Mazowiecki office sends summons and takes your documents through it |
File sizes: one attachment up to 10 MB, all attachments together up to 50 MB.
What MOS handles, and what still goes on paper
| In MOS | Outside MOS (paper or e-Doręczenia) |
|---|---|
| Temporary residence permit on most grounds | Intra-corporate transfer and its long-term mobility |
| Permanent residence permit | Family reunification when your family member is still abroad |
| EU long-term resident permit | Family members of Polish, EU or UK citizens who are still abroad |
| CUKR card for Ukrainian citizens | Change of a temporary residence and work permit (zmiana zezwolenia) |
| Replacement of a residence card | |
| Appeal against a decision | |
| Telling the office about a new employer, new address or new purpose of stay while the case is pending |
MOS also does not carry the case after filing: you cannot message the office through it, and it will not tell you about missing documents. That happens by e-mail and e-Doręczenia.
Step 1. Create your account
Click "Zaloguj", confirm your identity on login.gov.pl, fill in the short registration form and click the activation link that arrives by e-mail. The link works for 15 minutes; after that the unactivated account is deleted and you register again. Accounts from the old MOS were deleted, so even if you used the portal before, you need a new one.
The account is personal. A representative, agency or employer may not create it for you or log in on your behalf: the portal rules forbid sharing login data. They can sit next to you while you fill in the form. A parent applies for a child from a sub-account added under "Moje konto", in the section for children and wards.
Step 2. Fill in the form, in Polish
The form has to be completed in Polish. The Office for Foreigners says free translation tools are fine, as long as the answers are understandable and your personal data match your passport exactly. Drop-down lists cover most fields.
Two rules catch people out:
- A draft you have not signed is deleted 45 days after the last change (art. 225h of the Act on Foreigners). It cannot be restored.
- Once the draft is sent to your employer for the annex, or once the application is sent, you can no longer edit it. A mistake after sending is corrected by hand on a printout, with your signature and date, when the office calls you in.
Documents other than the employer's annex can carry ordinary handwritten signatures and be uploaded as scans. You do not have to attach every supporting document at filing; the law only requires the photo, the passport scan, the mandatory annexes and proof of fees. The voivode will later ask for the rest. Attaching them up front, however, usually means fewer letters later, and the Mazowiecki office says so.
Step 3. The employer's annex (Załącznik nr 1)
If you apply for a temporary residence and work permit, a Blue Card, a business permit where you sit on a company's management board, studies, a traineeship or volunteering, someone else has to fill in part of the application:
- In the form you enter the e-mail address of the employer (or university, or organiser) and click "Dodaj".
- You click "Zapisz wniosek i prześlij formularz pracodawcy". The status changes to "waiting for the organisation to fill in the annex".
- The employer receives a link, fills in the annex and signs it with a trusted, personal or qualified signature through login.gov.pl. The link is valid for 30 days.
- You get an e-mail that the application can now be signed and sent.
For a company, the annex is signed by a person who represents it in the KRS register, or by a proxy; the proxy's power of attorney then goes into your application. If you work for two employers, each fills in its own annex. The pay stated must be at least the minimum wage, 4,806 PLN gross a month in 2026, even for part-time work; with two employers, the two salaries are added up.
The system will not let you send the application without the annex. If your legal stay ends in a week and the employer has not opened the link, you have a problem MOS cannot solve, so agree on the timing with the person who signs before you start.
Step 4. Sign and send
In the last step of the wizard, click "Podpisz przez login.gov.pl i wyślij". After signing, the application moves through these statuses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Oczekuje na synchronizację | Being transferred to the office's database; normally a few minutes |
| Przesłany | Sent. Download the UPO now |
| Zatwierdzony / Zatwierdzony z brakami formalnymi | Accepted by the voivodeship office, with or without formal defects to fix |
| Odrzucony | Rejected by the office; it will not be processed |
| Wniosek obsługiwany przez wojewodę | The zaświadczenie has been issued. From here on, MOS status no longer changes |
There is no e-mail confirmation of sending. Keep the PDF and XML copies of the application and the UPO (urzędowe poświadczenie odbioru). The Mazowiecki office's rule is simple: no UPO means the application was not filed.
UPO and zaświadczenie: there is no passport stamp any more
The UPO only proves that the system received your file. The document that replaces the old stamp in the passport is the zaświadczenie potwierdzające złożenie wniosku, a certificate you download from MOS after an officer has checked and approved the application. The Mazowiecki office also sends it to the e-mail given in the form.
The zaświadczenie confirms that your stay counts as legal until the decision becomes final. It is not issued if you filed after your legal stay ended. And it is not a travel document: according to MOS, you cannot use it to leave Poland or to come back. If you travel during the case, you need another basis to cross the border, such as a valid visa or residence card. How the old stamp worked is explained in our article on the stamp while waiting for the card.
What happens next at the Mazowiecki office in Warsaw
The Wydział Spraw Cudzoziemców of the Mazowiecki Urząd Wojewódzki describes its process for MOS applications like this:
- You receive an e-mail with your case number (sygnatura) and a code to attach the case to your account in the inPOL foreigner portal, where you track its status.
- You receive a summons by e-mail or e-Doręczenia: a date to appear in person, give fingerprints and a signature specimen, show the original passport, plus a list of missing documents.
- Missing documents go in electronically through e-Doręczenia, one letter per case, with the case number and your name in the title. Paper documents are not accepted at the visit.
- Paper originals must be sent as scans certified electronically, by a notary or by an adwokat, radca prawny or doradca podatkowy acting as your pełnomocnik. Sworn translations must be signed electronically by the translator or certified the same way.
- The decision goes to the delivery address you gave. After a positive decision, the office tells you by SMS, e-mail or e-Doręczenia when and where to collect the card.
The case line is 22 695 67 73. The law gives the voivode 60 days from a complete application for a temporary residence and work permit. If the case has stood still for months, the tools are a written status enquiry and a ponaglenie (a formal complaint about delay); our guide to checking case status in Warsaw explains both.
A refusal can be appealed to the Head of the Office for Foreigners (Szef UdSC) within 14 days of delivery, through the Mazowiecki voivode, outside MOS.
If MOS is down on your last day of legal stay
You file within 3 working days after the outage ends, and the filing date counts as the first day of the outage. Outages and maintenance breaks are announced on gov.pl/udsc. Take a screenshot of the error with the date and time; that is not a legal requirement, but it is the only evidence you will have if the office questions the date.
Mistakes that cost weeks
- Starting on the last day when an annex is needed. The employer's link lives for 30 days, and you cannot send without the signed annex.
- Scanning only the photo page of the passport. All pages are required; anything less is a formal defect.
- Uploading a phone photo instead of a 684 x 883 px JPG. Another formal defect, and the office will ask you to fix it.
- Treating the zaświadczenie as permission to travel. It is not.
- Posting paper documents to the Mazowiecki office after filing in MOS. They go through e-Doręczenia, as certified scans.
- Giving your login to an agency "to save time". It breaks the portal rules, and the signature on the application has to be yours.
- E-mailing a filled-in PDF of the form to the office, or sending it through e-Doręczenia. Neither counts as an application.
How we help with an MOS application
A representative cannot file in MOS for you, so our work sits around the portal. Before you log in, we check that your grounds and documents will hold up and prepare the attachments. Then we go through the Polish form with you, in our Warsaw office or on a video call, while you stay logged in and sign yourself. After filing, with your power of attorney, we answer the voivode's summons and handle the e-Doręczenia correspondence.
Prices: full residence card handling from 2,000 PLN; a consultation with a written plan costs 300 PLN and is credited towards the service; a case status check at the office with a written report is 250 PLN; a ponaglenie we draft for you to file is 300 PLN. State fees are paid separately.
Get help with your MOS application →
This article is informational and reflects the rules as of October 2026. The portal and office practice change; check the current instructions on mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl before filing.
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