Questions about the planner
It depends on the voivodeship. For temporary residence, the voivodeship averages run from 249 to 680 days, and the average of the 16 voivodeships is 427 days (Office for Foreigners, decisions issued January 1 – September 28, 2026). The Blue Card uses the same figure; permanent and EU long-term residence have their own on the Permit Barometer. For a work permit, the Poland-wide average was 82 days in 2025 (Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy). No office publishes that figure per voivodeship.
The Act on Foreigners has no extension procedure for a temporary residence permit: you file for the next permit, no later than the last day of your legal stay (art. 105 ust. 1). Filed in time and without formal defects, your stay is legal until the decision is final (art. 108 ust. 1 pkt 2).
No later than the last day of your legal stay (Act on Foreigners art. 105 ust. 1); the law sets no earliest day. For the decision to come before your card expires, file as far ahead as your voivodeship's average waiting time; the planner counts the days for you. In practice your reason for staying limits how early: a job contract, for example, has to cover the period you apply for. For a work permit, the start date may be at most 12 months after filing (Act of 20 March 2025 art. 13 ust. 1 pkt 3).
If you filed in time and without formal defects, your stay remains legal until the decision is final (art. 108 ust. 1 pkt 2). Since 27 April 2026 there is no passport stamp: once the office has checked your application, you download a free certificate from MOS (art. 108 ust. 1 pkt 1). The certificate does not replace the card at a border. You cannot use it to travel outside Poland or to return. Talk to us before you book a trip.
It is an average of cases already decided, not a forecast: many applicants wait longer. Offices also have no binding deadline for residence permit decisions right now: the statutory term is suspended until 4 March 2027 (Act of 12 March 2022 on assistance to citizens of Ukraine, art. 100d). Plan with a margin and check the plan again before a big decision.
Your application is filed when you sign it in MOS with a trusted profile, a qualified signature or a personal signature and the official confirmation of receipt (UPO) arrives (Act on Foreigners art. 106d ust. 6). Uploading documents without signing, or signing without the UPO, is not a filing. Since 27 April 2026 paper applications are left unexamined (art. 106c).
File by the date on your card. It is the last day of your legal stay, whatever weekday it is, and the planner does not move it. The Code of Administrative Procedure has a rule for procedural deadlines that end on a Saturday or a public holiday (art. 57 §4), but whether it reaches the art. 105 date is not settled, and MOS accepts applications every day of the year.
Enter the date anyway. The plan marks every step as overdue and shows what applies to you. If nothing was filed before the last day of your legal stay, the protection of art. 108 does not apply and the next step depends on your situation. Book a consultation before you file anything.
Yes, if you are applying for either permit. The plan counts back from the expiry date of the card you hold now, at your voivodeship's average for that permit. The last day to file is the last day of your legal stay (Act on Foreigners art. 202 ust. 1 for permanent residence, art. 218a ust. 1 for EU long-term resident). The planner does not check whether you qualify.