There are some well-defined reasons for which you can be granted a temporary residence permit in Poland – e.g. work, studies, Polish language courses, marriage with a Polish citizen etc. However, in many cases, the situation can be more complicated, and there may be other reasons for you – as a foreigner – to stay in Poland. Does this mean that you will not be able to legalize your stay…? Of course not!
There exists a special type of temporary residence permit granted for so-called “other circumstances”. You can apply for this permit if you have reasons to justify your stay in Poland for more than 3 months.
What could be those reasons? Here are some examples:
1) You have just graduated from a Polish university and want to look for a job.
- You can only obtain this permit once, directly after graduation, and for a period of 9 months.
2) You hold a residence permit for an EU long-term resident granted by another EU country (so not Poland) and you want to work or conduct business activity in Poland.
- This is a simplified procedure in case you already have this permanent permit from another EU country.
3) Your husband/wife came to Poland and has applied (or already has) their first temporary residence permit, and you want to join them.
- This type of permit will not allow you to work in Poland without an additional work permit. However, if your spouse has already been in Poland with a valid Karta Pobytu for at least 2 years, then you can apply for a residence permit named “residence with family”, which will grant you access to the labor market – Read more
- This applies to all family members of the foreigner living in Poland who can prove that together they form a household.
4) You are in a relationship with a Polish citizen, but you are not married.
- You will need to provide documents confirming that you live together with your partner and that your relationship is in fact true
In all of the cases mentioned above, you will also be asked to provide:
- Documents confirming the existence of the mentioned circumstances
- Valid health insurance certificate
- Documents confirming that you have a place of residence provided
- Documents confirming that you have a stable and regular source of income – at least 701 PLN per month (if someone from you family here in Poland is going to maintain you, that also counts, in which case it’s 528 PLN per month per family member)
This type of temporary residence permit can be granted for up to 3 years (depending on the circumstances).
It will not give you access to the Polish labor market, therefore if you would like to work, you will need to obtain a separate work permit.
For details, check the Office for Foreigners’ website
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