Work permit for a foreigners in Poland!

 Before hiring a foreigner, you should read about the conditions of his legal employment. There are a lot of exceptions in which a work permit is not required, but in this article we will consider the procedure when permission is needed.

 A work permit is issued by the Voivode for a determinable  period - up to a maximum 3 years. It contains information about foreigner, employer, working conditions, such as position, salary, rate, place of work. It is worth paying attention that the working conditions of a foreigner in reality should not be worse than those indicated in the work permit. For example, if an employer or employee needs to reduce the number of working hours per week, it is necessary to change the work permit. However, if the conditions become better, for example, the wage increases without changing the working hours, then there is no need to change the previously issued work permit.

There are several types of work permits:

 Type A – is  issued to a foreigner in order to perform work on the basis of an employment contract with a company registered in Poland, a branch or representative office of a foreign company in Poland.

 Type B – is issued to a foreigner in order to perform the functions of a member of the board, a prosecutor in a Polish company, founder or partner of a Polish company that has been working for more than 6 months a year.

 Type C - is issued to a foreigner in order to perform work on the basis of an employment contract with a foreign company, which sent him on a business trip to a branch in Poland for a period of more than 30 days.

 Type D - is issued to a foreigner in order to perform work on the basis of an employment contract with a foreign company that does not have a branch in Poland, which were seconded to the territory of Poland to sell short-term services.

 Type E - is issued to a foreigner in order to perform work on the basis of an employment contract with a foreign company that has seconded foreigner to Poland for a period of more than 30 days for a different purpose than in type B, C, D. permits.

An application for a work permit and the entire set of documents should be submitted by employer or his authorized representative. The permit is issued in two copies, one of which remains with the employer, and the second is transferred to the employee in order to obtain a work visa.

Waiting for a work permit today takes a lot more time than we would like. For example, in the Masovian Voivodeship, the period for issuing a work permit reaches 6 months. Prior to obtaining permission, a foreigner cannot start working for a Polish employer. However, there are several options for how to obtain the dreamt permission in a shorter period or to begin work before it is received:

1. The ability to obtain a work permit under the accelerated procedure (1-2 months).
2. To begin legalization of stay of a foreigner with a statement from the employer about the intention to employ a foreigner (only for citizens of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Armenia and Ukraine), which will make it possible to continue working while waiting for a work permit and to avoid a waiting for labour market test .

 The accelerated procedure for obtaining a work permit is that the deadline for submitting originals is pre-booked, a full set of documents and a correctly completed application are prepared for the visit. Provided that there will be no additional questions to the set of documents, permission is issued within 1-2 months.

 It is worth considering that reservation for such a submitting of documents is not simple, and the following cases have priority in the queue:

• applications for renewals of work permit and permit for the continuation of the actual employment of a foreigner with a work permit;
• continued employment on the basis of an application for employment of a foreigner registered with the district labor department;
• employment of foreigners to perform work in the field of professions exempted from the information of the head of the district;
• employment of foreigners caring for a member of the applicant's family (only an individual / household can be a tenant);
• employment of foreigners to perform work on a work permit type B;
• applications providing for employment under a full-time employment contract, in the absence of a right to employment on the basis of an application registered with the district labor department.

 As practice shows, most applications for a work permit are suitable for the requirements of an accelerated procedure for obtaining a work permit, but due to the lack of knowledge of such a scheme for issuing permits, foreigners have to wait much longer.