A legal stay is not the right to work

If you submitted the application for a residence permit on time and without formal defects, your stay is legal until the day the decision becomes final (Art. 108 para. 1 point 2 of the Act on Foreigners). See: legal stay after submitting an application. The right to work during this time, however, depends on the basis on which you worked before you submitted the application. This is set out in the Act on the Conditions for Permitting the Entrusting of Work to Foreigners (hereinafter: the Act on Entrusting Work).

Continuing the same work

Do you have a work permit or a temporary residence permit covering work, and are you applying for a further temporary residence and work permit in order to continue this work? Then you can keep working on the terms of the existing permit. The work is legal from the day the existing permit expired until the day the decision on the new one becomes final (Art. 21 paras. 1 and 3 of the Act on Entrusting Work). This rule also applies, among others, to an application for the EU Blue Card and for EU long-term resident residence (Art. 21 para. 3).

Conditions:

  • you submitted the application during the validity of the existing permit,
  • the application has no formal defects or you removed them on time,
  • you work on the terms of the existing permit.

Periods of suspension of the proceedings at your request do not count towards the period of legal work (Art. 21 para. 1).

A work permit or a declaration

If you have a work permit or a declaration of entrusting work entered in the register, you can work in accordance with it during the legal stay after submitting the application. Condition: immediately before submitting the application you had the right to work in Poland (Art. 3 para. 3 point 2 of the Act on Entrusting Work). A declaration may concern only citizens of the states indicated in the regulation (Art. 3 para. 8 point 1).

Free access to the labour market

Without a work permit you can work while waiting if immediately before submitting the application you had free access to the labour market on the basis of specified temporary residence permits, for example for studies, for the purpose of family reunification or as the spouse of a Polish citizen (Art. 3 para. 1 points 14-18 of the Act on Entrusting Work).

When you cannot work

  • You did not have the right to work before the application. Submitting the application does not give it. In some situations a work permit is not required, for example for the holder of a valid Karta Polaka (Pole's Card) or a graduate of a Polish university - but only for the bases of stay indicated in Art. 3 para. 5 of the Act on Entrusting Work.
  • You want to work for a new employer. Continuation concerns the same work. New work requires a separate basis, for example a work permit for the new employer. See: changing employer.
  • Your stay has stopped being legal. The protection does not apply when the application was submitted late or formal defects were not removed on time. It also does not apply when the proceedings were suspended at your request (Art. 108 para. 2 of the Act on Foreigners).

Consequences of illegal work

Illegal work carries a fine of not less than 1 000 PLN (Art. 84 para. 2 of the Act on Entrusting Work). A foreigner who works without the required work permit or declaration receives a decision obliging him or her to return (Art. 302 para. 1 point 4 of the Act on Foreigners).

You can show the employer the certificate of submission of the application - see UPO and certificate. The certificate itself, however, confirms a legal stay, not the right to work. What decides on work is the basis described above.