You give fingerprints for a Polish residence card in person, when the voivode summons you, after you've filed your application in MOS. You can't book the slot yourself: the summons arrives in e-Doręczenia or by e-mail, with at least 7 days' notice. Bring your original passport. Skip the visit without a good reason and the voivode discontinues your case.
Before 27 April 2026, Warsaw took fingerprints when you handed in a paper application, which is why older advice still says "book a queue slot and bring your folder". The order is now reversed. You file online in MOS (Moduł Obsługi Spraw), then the office calls you in once to scan your fingerprints, take a signature sample and check your passport. It no longer accepts case documents at that visit.
When does the fingerprint summons arrive?
The law sets no deadline for the voivode to call you in. At the Mazowiecki Voivodeship Office the sequence looks like this (steps 3 and 4 sometimes swap):
- You sign the application in MOS and save the UPO, the official receipt.
- The office registers the case and e-mails you the case number and a code to link the case in inPOL, the voivode's status portal.
- Once the application is checked, a filing certificate (zaświadczenie o złożeniu wniosku) appears in MOS. It replaced the old passport stamp.
- The summons to appear in person (wezwanie do osobistego stawiennictwa) arrives with a date, an address and usually a list of documents to send electronically.
MOS has no booking calendar for fingerprints, and UdSC confirms this in its MOS Q&A: the voivode tells you the date. If you've been waiting a long time, check e-Doręczenia, the spam folder of the e-mail address you gave in MOS, and your status in inPOL, in that order. Warsaw gives case status by phone on 22 695 67 73. When "slow" becomes "stuck" is covered in our case status guide for Mazowieckie, and the old question of queues and booking slots in our piece on booking a karta pobytu appointment in Warsaw.
What to bring
Shorter than most clients expect:
- your valid original passport, the one whose scan is in MOS;
- the summons with the case number, printed or on your phone;
- your child's passport if the summons covers them, even when the child is under 6;
- if you have no passport and can't get one, another identity document plus an explanation and evidence of why your country won't issue a passport.
Leave the photos, copies and folder of contracts at home. The Warsaw office says plainly that its counters take fingerprints and check passports and won't accept paper documents for the case. Anything the same letter asks for goes through e-Doręczenia, as explained in our article on the wezwanie do uzupełnienia braków.
Got a new passport since filing? Tell the office through e-Doręczenia with a scan of the new one, and bring both to the visit so the clerk can match your details to the file.
How the visit goes
The location is in your summons. Under the MOS rules it's the voivodeship office, one of its branch offices (delegatura) or another place the voivode names. The Foreigners' Department in Warsaw operates from several buildings (ul. Marszałkowska 3/5, ul. Krucza 5/11, pl. Bankowy 3/5, Al. Jerozolimskie 28), and there are branch offices in Radom, Płock, Siedlce, Ostrołęka and Ciechanów. Take the address from your letter, not from a chat group.
At the counter the clerk checks you against your passport, scans your fingerprints (the image later goes onto the card) and takes your signature on a tablet or paper form. The procedure itself is short; the time goes on waiting. Staff speak Polish. If you'd feel calmer with someone who can translate and steer, bring an interpreter for official visits.
If your filing certificate hasn't reached you through MOS yet, it can be handed to you at this visit (art. 108(7) of the Act on Foreigners).
One more detail for autumn 2026. The Warsaw office runs Information Saturdays (Soboty Informacyjne) at ul. Marszałkowska 3/5, 8:00 to 15:00, for people who already have a visit date from the office. On those days you can give fingerprints, fix formal gaps and collect your card. The next dates are 24 October, 7 and 21 November, and 5 December.
Who's exempt from fingerprints or the visit?
The exceptions are in art. 106b and 106h of the Act on Foreigners:
| Who | Fingerprints | Personal visit | Signature sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child under 6 on the filing date | no | not required, but a parent comes with the child's passport | no |
| Child aged 6 to 12 | yes | required | no |
| Aged 13 and over | yes | required | yes |
| Someone whose fingerprints physically can't be taken | no | required | yes |
| Seriously ill or disabled person who can't attend | no | not required | on a paper form, if able to sign |
The last row needs a certificate from a medical specialist issued no earlier than 3 months before you filed. Instead of a visit, the office will ask you to send a certified copy of your passport (certified by a notary, or by an advocate or legal adviser representing you) and a signature on a paper form. Being excused from the visit doesn't excuse you from anything else in the case.
A common mistake in family cases. A mother files for herself and her five-year-old daughter, the summons names both, and she assumes that since the child is exempt from fingerprinting, nothing is needed for her daughter. But under art. 106h(2) the parent has to show the child's passport when summoned, and without that the daughter's case can't move. Bring the child's passport even if only you are giving fingerprints. More on children's cases in our article on karta pobytu for children.
Can I reschedule the fingerprint appointment?
The law gives you no automatic right to move it. Article 106e only requires at least 7 days between delivery of the summons and the date. Beyond that, it depends on what happened.
- You know about the problem in advance (a hospital stay, a trip you can't move). Write to the office through e-Doręczenia before the date, attach proof and ask for a new one. Until they agree, assume the original date stands.
- You missed it through no fault of your own (an ambulance, a flight cancelled on the day). You have 7 days from the moment the obstacle ended to request restoration of the deadline (przywrócenie terminu, art. 58 KPA), with evidence.
- Long-term illness or disability. That's grounds for exemption under art. 106h, with the specialist's certificate.
- A failure on the office's side. If fingerprints couldn't be taken for reasons on the voivode's end, the office sets a new date at least 7 days out (art. 106g). This happened on 24 April 2026, when the Pobyt system was down at every Warsaw location during the MOS rollout. Even then, the office warned that deadlines in summonses already sent still applied.
What if I don't show up?
If you skip a properly delivered summons, or turn up but don't give fingerprints, sign or show your passport, the voivode discontinues the proceedings (art. 106i). That's a decision, and you have 14 days to appeal to the Head of UdSC through the voivode. Your stay under the case stays legal until the decision becomes final; after that, the protection ends.
You won't get the fee back either. Since 5 March 2026 the stamp duty (340 or 440 PLN) isn't refunded after a refusal or discontinuance, under art. 113c of the Act on Foreigners. You can only file a new application while you're legally in Poland, so check what that basis would be before the decision becomes final.
Do I give fingerprints again when renewing?
Yes. Each new temporary residence application is a separate case, and art. 106b makes no exception for people who already hold a card. Fingerprints from three years ago don't carry over.
Fingerprints, the wezwanie and the passport stamp
For MOS cases the passport stamp is gone. It was replaced by a filing certificate (zaświadczenie potwierdzające złożenie wniosku): delivered through MOS, free, with a QR code and a statement that your stay counts as legal until a final decision. You get it only if you filed on time and the application has no formal gaps, or you fixed them on time (art. 108(1)). So the fingerprint summons, the request for documents and the certificate are links in one chain: break one and the next one suffers.
If you filed on paper before 27 April 2026 and your case is still open, the old rules apply under the transitional art. 12 of the 21 November 2025 amending act that introduced MOS. There the stamp goes into your passport after the formal check, and the consequences of a no-show follow the old wording of the law. What you can and can't do with the stamp or the certificate is in our article on the passport stamp while you wait, and the whole route from filing to card in our step-by-step karta pobytu guide.
If the summons arrives at a bad moment, or never arrives, talk your situation through with a specialist before the date.