How long does a residence permit take in Poland?
Temporary residence: the average wait for a decision runs from 249 days in the fastest voivodeship to 680 in the slowest. Average of the 16 voivodeships: 427 days (Office for Foreigners, decisions issued January 1 – September 28, 2026).
Temporary residence permits
- Śląskie: 680 days, Queue growing
- Pomorskie: 622 days, Queue growing
- Kujawsko-Pomorskie: 547 days, Queue growing
- Lubuskie: 519 days, Queue growing
- Opolskie: 498 days, Queue shrinking
- Podlaskie: 470 days, Queue growing
- Zachodniopomorskie: 461 days, Queue growing
- Mazowieckie: 425 days, Queue growing
- Lubelskie: 389 days, Queue growing
- Łódzkie: 383 days, Queue growing
- Wielkopolskie: 343 days, Queue shrinking
- Dolnośląskie: 329 days, Queue shrinking
- Świętokrzyskie: 328 days, Queue growing
- Podkarpackie: 313 days, Queue growing
- Warmińsko-Mazurskie: 278 days, Queue shrinking
- Małopolskie: 249 days, Queue growing
Poland
Days, average of 16 voivodeships: 427 days
Queue direction
1.27Queue growing
345,605 applications to 272,464 decisions, 2026 so far
migracje.gov.pl, sampled September 23, 2026
Average of the 16 voivodeships: 427 days.
Sources: UdSC, decisions issued January 1 – September 28, 2026; migracje.gov.pl, September 23, 2026.
- Shorter
- 0–249
- 250–349
- 350–449
- 450–549
- 550+
- Longer
Darker means slower. The arrow shows which way the queue is moving. Tap, click or Tab to a voivodeship.
Work permits
- Lubuskie: 157 days to a work permit decision; 3,006 work permits and 11,750 oświadczenia in 2025
- Dolnośląskie: 143 days to a work permit decision; 11,232 work permits and 24,087 oświadczenia in 2025
- Mazowieckie: 99 days to a work permit decision; 55,291 work permits and 79,403 oświadczenia in 2025
- Łódzkie: 97 days to a work permit decision; 28,144 work permits and 27,129 oświadczenia in 2025
- Pomorskie: 96 days to a work permit decision; 15,011 work permits and 30,043 oświadczenia in 2025
- Wielkopolskie: 95 days to a work permit decision; 19,653 work permits and 32,415 oświadczenia in 2025
- Śląskie: 88 days to a work permit decision; 22,102 work permits and 27,978 oświadczenia in 2025
- Zachodniopomorskie: 72 days to a work permit decision; 13,730 work permits and 10,068 oświadczenia in 2025
- Świętokrzyskie: 61 days to a work permit decision; 4,351 work permits and 2,255 oświadczenia in 2025
- Warmińsko-Mazurskie: 58 days to a work permit decision; 2,019 work permits and 5,478 oświadczenia in 2025
- Opolskie: 57 days to a work permit decision; 7,598 work permits and 9,452 oświadczenia in 2025
- Małopolskie: 50 days to a work permit decision; 33,698 work permits and 21,282 oświadczenia in 2025
- Podkarpackie: 50 days to a work permit decision; 3,376 work permits and 4,158 oświadczenia in 2025
- Podlaskie: 46 days to a work permit decision; 13,619 work permits and 12,724 oświadczenia in 2025
- Lubelskie: 42 days to a work permit decision; 6,936 work permits and 15,678 oświadczenia in 2025
- Kujawsko-Pomorskie: 39 days to a work permit decision; 11,759 work permits and 14,194 oświadczenia in 2025
Poland
Days to a decision, 2025
82
Permits issued, 2025
251,525
Oświadczenia registered, 2025
328,094
An employer declaration, not a permit.
By permit type
- ZC-WWZPP (was A)
- 247,262
- ZC-WWZF (was B)
- 822
- ZC-WWZD (was C, D, E)
- 3,441
Sources: MRPiPS. Days: reply of October 8, 2026 to our request for public information, data as of January 26, 2026. Counts via psz.praca.gov.pl, permits January 26, 2026; oświadczenia February 16, 2026. Published twice a year.
- Faster
- 0–49
- 50–69
- 70–89
- 90–119
- 120+
- Slower
Darker means a longer wait. For a Polish employer, the voivodeship is where the employer is based, not where the worker lives. Tap, click or Tab to a voivodeship.
How to read the days
Average days from application to the first-instance decision that closed the case, refusals included, for decisions issued in 2025. Poland as a whole: 82 days, the ministry’s own figure, not the plain average of the 16 regions. Oświadczenia take about 7 days. An average of completed cases, not a forecast for yours.
Permit names
2025 counts, shown under the names praca.gov.pl has used since 1 January 2026.
Where the numbers come from
- Days to a decision
- Wydział Analiz i Statystyk, Urząd do Spraw Cudzoziemców, by written request, renewed each quarter. An average of completed cases: many applicants waited longer. Not a forecast for any case, and no office is bound by it. The statutory term for these proceedings is currently suspended.
- Queue direction
- UdSC statistics on migracje.gov.pl, read from its public JSON API: applications received divided by decisions issued, for the permit type shown, year to date, unadjusted. The API counts only by year, so we sample weekly; the series starts on 23 September 2026.
- Work permits
- Days to a decision per voivodeship: Departament Rynku Pracy, Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, by written request, for decisions issued in 2025. For a Polish employer, the voivodeship is where the employer is based. Permit and oświadczenia counts: the ministry’s published releases on psz.praca.gov.pl.
- Not shown
- International protection (decided by the Szef UdSC, not the voivodes) and Border Guard cases (enforcement, not a permit). Also oświadczenia by voivodeship: the ministry holds those times per county labour office only.
Citing this
Krakspire Permit Barometer, krakspire.com/barometer/, retrieved [date].
Free to cite and quote, with attribution and a link. Questions about method, or a correction: hello@krakspire.com.
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