A Polish conviction is spent (zatarcie skazania) automatically, by law, and the National Criminal Register (KRK) deletes the entry without any application. The clock runs from when the sentence was carried out: 1 year after a fine, 3 years after restriction of liberty, 10 years after imprisonment, and 1 year after the probation period ends for a suspended sentence. Once spent, the conviction is treated as if it never happened and doesn't appear on certificates.
Many figures online are out of date. You'll still see 5 years for a fine and 6 months after a suspended sentence, while current law says one year in both cases. The terms below follow the current consolidated Criminal Code (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 383); the amendments passed since then didn't touch articles 76 or 106-108.
Spent conviction periods in Poland
| Sentence | When it is spent | Counted from | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fine (grzywna) | 1 year | payment, pardon (darowanie) or limitation of enforcement (przedawnienie) | art. 107 § 4a KK |
| Restriction of liberty (ograniczenie wolności) | 3 years | completion, pardon or limitation | art. 107 § 4 |
| Imprisonment (pozbawienie wolności) | 10 years | release, pardon or limitation | art. 107 § 1 |
| Imprisonment up to 3 years, on the convicted person's application | a court may order it after 5 years | if the person obeyed the law throughout | art. 107 § 2 |
| Life imprisonment | 10 years | pardon or limitation | art. 107 § 3 |
| Suspended prison sentence | 1 year | end of the probation period (okres próby) | art. 76 § 1 |
| Conviction without a penalty (odstąpienie od wymierzenia kary) | 1 year | judgment becoming final | art. 107 § 5 |
| Conditional discontinuance (warunkowe umorzenie), not a conviction | data deleted | 6 months after probation ends | art. 14(1a) KRK Act, art. 68 § 4 KK |
| Unsuspended sentence for a sexual offence against a child under 15 | never spent | - | art. 106a |
A note on suspended sentences. The one-year rule has applied since 1 October 2023, introduced by the Act of 7 July 2022 (Dz.U. 2022 poz. 2600); before that, art. 76 § 1 said 6 months. Probation lasts one to three years and runs from the date the judgment became final (art. 70 § 1). So a suspended sentence with two years' probation, final in March 2025, leaves the KRK no earlier than March 2028. If your judgment became final before 1 October 2023, check which term applies to your specific case.
What pushes the date back
The table works only when there's a single penalty with nothing added. In practice, things are often added.
First, additional measures. If the court imposed a penal measure (środek karny, such as a driving ban), forfeiture (przepadek) or a compensation measure (środek kompensacyjny), the conviction can't be spent until it has been carried out, pardoned or become time-barred (art. 107 § 6). The same applies to a security measure (środek zabezpieczający). For suspended sentences, any fine or other measure attached must be carried out first (art. 76 § 2).
Second, more than one conviction. If someone was convicted of two or more unrelated offences, or committed a new one while the old conviction's period was running, the law allows only all of them to be spent together (art. 108). A new conviction effectively holds the old one in the register.
Example. Someone is convicted in 2024 of drink-driving: a fine and a three-year driving ban. The fine is paid the same year, so under art. 107 § 4a alone the entry would go in 2025. But the ban runs until 2027, and the conviction can't be spent before it ends. The certificate will show the entry until at least 2027, and any employer who asks for one will see it.
What the certificate shows after zatarcie
Art. 106 of the Criminal Code is short: from the moment it is spent, a conviction is deemed never to have happened, and the entry is removed from the register. Art. 14 of the KRK Act says the same for the register: data is deleted when a conviction is spent by law, and after notice of a court-ordered expungement, a pardon or an amnesty.
For a certificate, that means no entry and no note that one existed. There's no "wyrok zatarty" stamp: the register can't show what it has deleted. A certificate for an employer and one for yourself come from the same database, so the entry is gone from both.
An employer won't see it either. Under art. 6(1)(10) of the KRK Act, employers get register data only where a law requires a clean record, and spent data isn't in the register.
What zatarcie doesn't cover:
- Poland's list of unwanted foreigners and SIS entries: separate databases with their own terms, which can end earlier or later than the KRK entry (see criminal record certificate for karta pobytu);
- convictions handed down abroad and your home country's certificate: the law of the country that convicted you applies, as the KRK itself says, and the Polish register holds only a foreigner's Polish convictions.
A recent change on foreign data: the Act of 13 February 2026 (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 421) prepares the KRK for the EU's ECRIS-TCN system. Once the European Commission launches it, a certificate for a non-EU national will also include data from other EU countries' registers that hold convictions on that person.
If the certificate is for a visa, the other country's rules matter too. UK Home Office guidance says outright that a certificate may not show a conviction spent under the issuing country's rehabilitation law, and the officer can ask you to explain a discrepancy. Read foreign forms literally: what counts as a conviction is decided by the country asking. Requirements by country are in Polish criminal record certificate in English.
And what never gets into the KRK at all. A speeding or parking ticket (mandat) doesn't: of petty offences, the register keeps only those punished with detention (areszt), under art. 1(2)(7) of the KRK Act. Fiscal offences (przestępstwa skarbowe), on tax or excise for example, do go in (art. 1(2)(1) of the KRK Act).
How to check your entry and its spent date
- Order a certificate about yourself. Through e-KRK it's 20 PLN with an answer within 7 days; on paper 30 PLN, usually issued on the spot in person. Step by step: criminal record certificate in Poland; without a PESEL or Trusted Profile: KRK certificate without a PESEL.
- Find out when the entry will be spent. Write a signed letter to the KRK Information Office (Biuro Informacyjne KRK, ul. Czerniakowska 100, 00-454 Warszawa) with your full details: all surnames including previous ones, date and place of birth, parents' first names, mother's maiden name, address, citizenship and PESEL if you have one. Or go in person. It's free. They don't give this information by phone or email. In the same building, room 41, a duty lawyer explains the expungement rules.
- Period over but the entry still there? Use the same kind of letter to ask whether the register still processes data on the conviction. That's the KRK's own advice.
- If you're a foreigner and the unwanted-foreigners list matters, ask the Head of the Office for Foreigners separately whether your data is on it or in SIS, and until when (art. 444 of the Act on Foreigners).
Art. 7(1) of the KRK Act gives everyone the right to know whether their data is in the register and what it says; you don't need a reason.
Quick answers
Is a conviction spent automatically
Yes. KRK staff delete the entry once the period has passed; no application needed. The exception is court-ordered expungement under art. 107 § 2, which starts with an application by the convicted person.
Can a conviction be spent early
Only narrowly: for imprisonment of up to 3 years, a court may order it after 5 years instead of 10, on application, if the person obeyed the law the whole time. A pardon is the other route.
What if a new conviction comes before the old one is spent
The old entry stays. If the new offence was committed while the old period was running, both can only be spent together (art. 108), so the later date is the one that counts.
We'll order your KRK certificate and show you what the register says today: 500 PLN with state fees, under power of attorney, no trip to Poland needed. Order a criminal record certificate →