Poland Act on Foreigners changes 2026: your residence card

Since 27 April 2026, applications for a temporary or permanent residence permit in Poland are filed only online through MOS, a free QR-coded zaświadczenie has replaced the passport stamp, and skipping a fingerprint summons now gets your case discontinued. A year earlier, on 1 June 2025, Poland scrapped the labour market test, barred work-based applications from student and several other visas, and raised employer fines to 50,000 zł.

Everything below is taken from the Dziennik Ustaw (Poland's official journal) or official notices. Drafts that are still only proposals are listed separately at the end.

Timeline of the changes

If you already hold a karta pobytu (residence card), the April 2026 change is the one that will touch you at your next renewal.

MOS replaced the counter

From 27 April 2026, applications for temporary residence (pobyt czasowy), permanent residence (pobyt stały) and EU long-term resident status are accepted only on mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl. Paper applications that had not reached the voivodeship office by that date were left unprocessed, whatever the postmark said. Accounts from the old MOS were not migrated, so everyone registers again.

Paper filing survives for a short list of cases, mostly people still outside Poland: intra-company transfers (ICT) and long-term mobility, family reunification when the relative is abroad, and family members of Polish, EU or UK citizens who are abroad. One exception catches people out. An application to amend an existing single permit (wniosek o zmianę zezwolenia na pobyt czasowy i pracę) is filed on paper under the new art. 120a of the Act on Foreigners.

When your application counts as filed

It used to count from the postmark or your visit to the office. Under art. 106d(6), the application is now filed once two things happen: it is signed electronically (profil zaufany, personal ID signature or a qualified signature), and you receive the UPO, the official receipt. The deadline hasn't moved: you still apply no later than the last day of your legal stay.

Here's the catch. Your employer completes and signs Załącznik nr 1 (the employer annex) inside MOS through a link sent to their email. You can't submit until they sign. The Office for Foreigners (UdSC) itself warns that a third-party signature can take a long time.

A typical situation since the switch to MOS: a Belarusian citizen renewing a work-based card in Warsaw finishes her part ten days before her visa runs out. The company's accountant is on holiday and the link sits in a shared inbox. The signature arrives two days before the deadline. Technically in time, but two days is almost no margin if an error in the data or attachments surfaces at the last minute. Send the employer the link on day one and chase it if nothing is signed within three days.

The zaświadczenie instead of a stamp

Nobody stamps your passport any more. Under the amended art. 108, the voivode issues a zaświadczenie (certificate) confirming your application: an electronic document with a QR code and the qualified electronic seal of the head of UdSC. It's free, it arrives through MOS, and you can also receive it at your fingerprint appointment. It becomes available once an official has checked your application and found no formal defects.

The underlying rule is unchanged. If you applied on time and without formal defects, your stay is legal until the decision becomes final. Only the paper you show your employer or a border guard has changed. Our piece on the stamp and travelling while you wait covers the travel side.

Fingerprints by summons, with consequences

Fingerprints and a signature sample are still given in person, but only when you're summoned. You get at least 7 days' notice for the appointment (art. 106e) and at least 14 days to bring requested documents (art. 106f). Miss a properly delivered summons, or turn up and refuse fingerprints, and the voivode discontinues the case (umorzenie, art. 106i). No case means no legal stay based on it.

The 60-day decision clock in art. 112a also lost one of its triggers: your personal visit no longer restarts it. It now runs from a complete application or from the date you deliver the documents you were asked for. Warsaw cases often take longer than 60 days, and the remedy is the same as before: a ponaglenie (formal reminder) and complaint about inaction.

When you collect the card, bring a valid passport. That's now written into art. 248(4).

Six months of MOS in practice

UdSC figures quoted by the PAP news agency on 14 May 2026 put the first weeks at over 50,500 accounts and over 15,500 applications. In the same report UdSC said system emails don't reliably reach mail.ru addresses and suggested using another provider. So for MOS we ask clients to open a Gmail or Polish mailbox.

In June 2026 the Interior Ministry set up a working group of voivodeship offices and UdSC to review MOS 2.0 after launch, according to its 12 August 2026 reply to the Polish Ombudsman. Expect the procedure to keep shifting.

Cases filed on paper before 27 April continue under the old rules (art. 12 of the November 2025 act), and a stamp you already have stays valid. The full walk-through is in our MOS 2.0 guide, and the usual failure points are in MOS filing mistakes.

Work permits under the March 2025 act

Since 1 June 2025, work permit applications and related documents go only through praca.gov.pl, and anything filed another way is left unprocessed (art. 8(3)). The labour market test (informacja starosty) is gone. Instead, a district head (starosta) may publish a list of occupations for which permits are refused locally because of unemployment (art. 31).

What that means for a residence card holder:

1. Your employer must upload a Polish-language copy of your contract to praca.gov.pl before you start work (art. 17(1)(2)).
2. Illegal employment costs the employer 3,000-50,000 zł, at least 3,000 zł per foreigner. The worker faces a fine of at least 1,000 zł (art. 84).
3. If in the past two years you entered Poland on a work permit or oświadczenie and didn't work without good reason, a new work permit can be refused (art. 13(1)(10)). This tends to surface when you change employers.
4. From 1 December 2025 the oświadczenie costs 400 zł and covers only citizens of Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Georgians can finish declarations already registered.

More on employer duties in our piece on work permits through praca.gov.pl.

Students and visas: the art. 116 trap

This change is easy to miss: it came with the visa-abuse act, not with a residence card amendment. Art. 116 lists situations where the voivode won't even start a single permit case (pobyt czasowy i praca). Until June 2025 it covered only tourist and family-visit visas. From 1 June 2025 the list also includes visas for studies, vocational training and other courses, sports and cultural events, transit, medical treatment and exchange programmes, plus long-stay visas and residence permits of other Schengen states unless you're using mobility rights in Poland.

So a student on a national D visa marked "student" who finds a job can't switch to a work-based card from that visa. That applies to every application filed from 1 June 2025. The options left are a study-based permit (art. 144) or another ground that art. 116 doesn't block, and which one fits depends on the person. Check before filing, not after the refusal. Our student visa to residence card piece covers graduates.

Universities got stricter rules too. Private academic universities and public vocational ones now need Interior Ministry approval to admit foreigners, with a transition period that ended on 30 June 2026. Students who got a study permit by that date can finish at their school. Since 27 April 2026 the university no longer issues a paper certificate for your application: it fills in and signs the annex in MOS.

The same act changed language proof. Since 1 July 2025 a certificate from a Polish post-secondary school (szkoła policealna) no longer proves Polish for EU long-term resident status or for citizenship. The transition window for older certificates closed on 30 June 2026. See our guide to EU long-term resident status.

Blue Card and Ukrainian citizens, briefly

Since 1 June 2025 an EU Blue Card needs a contract of at least 6 months instead of a year. A degree could already be replaced by five years of experience; for occupations on the minister's list, three years within the last seven now does. Compare the routes in Blue Card vs residence card.

For Ukrainian citizens, the act of 23 January 2026 (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 203) has been winding down the 2022 special rules since 5 March 2026, with end dates moved to 4 March 2027. The CUKR procedure opened in MOS on 4 May 2026; see our CUKR card guide.

Still only drafts

Draft UD408, published on the Prime Minister's Office site on 12 May 2026, would treat a temporary residence case as granted 60 days after a complete application (milczące zakończenie postępowania), but only for citizens of developed visa-free countries on a government list. Adoption by the Council of Ministers was planned for Q3 2026; the project page shows no adoption. It won't reach citizens of Belarus or Kazakhstan, who need visas for the EU, and the government hasn't yet published its country list.

Citizenship proposals are covered separately.

FAQ

Can I still file a residence application on paper?

Not for temporary, permanent or EU long-term residence since 27 April 2026. Paper remains for ICT, mobility, family reunification and family members of Polish, EU and UK citizens while the applicant is abroad, and for amending an existing single permit.

What replaced the passport stamp?

A zaświadczenie from MOS with a QR code. It's free, appears after the office checks your application, and you can print it. Stamps from cases filed before 27 April remain valid.

Can I apply for a work-based residence card on a student visa?

Not since 1 June 2025: art. 116 requires the voivode to refuse to open such a case. The bar applies to the visa, not to a study-based residence card.

What happens if I miss my fingerprint appointment?

If the summons was properly delivered and you had no valid reason, the case is discontinued. Your legal stay based on that application ends, and you'd need to file again while you still have a legal basis to be in Poland.

This is an overview of the amendments, not advice on your file. If your history includes a change of grounds, a gap in employment or an earlier refusal, have a lawyer look at it before you file. Appeals exist (after a refusal), but avoiding the refusal is cheaper.

Check how the changes affect your case: status report from the voivodeship office 250 PLN, new card through MOS from 2000 PLN →