Polish employers awoke on 4 December to an official bulletin from the Lubelskie Voivodeship confirming the biggest pricing shake-up in years for work authorisations. Three executive regulations, all published on 25 November but effective as of 1 December, have now been transposed into regional practice.
The headline change is financial. The fee for registering an ‘oświadczenie’ (declaration on entrusting work to a foreigner) has quadrupled from PLN 100 to PLN 400, while work-permit charges have been standardised at PLN 200 (permits up to three months) and PLN 400 (longer than three months). Companies that second foreign staff to Poland will pay PLN 800 per permit, and the seasonal-work fee remains PLN 100. Local labour offices have been instructed to reject applications that do not show proof of the new payment levels.
![Poland raises work-permit fees and removes Georgia from simplified hiring list]()
Equally significant is the pruning of the declaration procedure to four source countries: Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Georgia—whose citizens have dominated agricultural and construction hiring—has been removed. Existing declarations for Georgian nationals remain valid until they expire, but no new registrations are allowed.
The regulation also updates the catalogue of jobs that can be performed without a permit or declaration (for example, short-term artistic work, accredited foreign journalists, and certain defence-sector assignments) and raises documentary standards: complete scans of passports, proof of qualifications for regulated professions, and sworn Polish translations where applicable must now accompany every file.
For mobility managers the practical impact is immediate. Budgets must be adjusted to reflect higher state fees, lead times will lengthen as employers gather additional paperwork, and talent pipelines relying on Georgian workers will need to pivot quickly—potentially toward Ukrainian or Belarusian candidates. Employers with outstanding declarations should audit expiry dates and plan renewals through the full work-permit route where necessary.
The headline change is financial. The fee for registering an ‘oświadczenie’ (declaration on entrusting work to a foreigner) has quadrupled from PLN 100 to PLN 400, while work-permit charges have been standardised at PLN 200 (permits up to three months) and PLN 400 (longer than three months). Companies that second foreign staff to Poland will pay PLN 800 per permit, and the seasonal-work fee remains PLN 100. Local labour offices have been instructed to reject applications that do not show proof of the new payment levels.
Equally significant is the pruning of the declaration procedure to four source countries: Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Georgia—whose citizens have dominated agricultural and construction hiring—has been removed. Existing declarations for Georgian nationals remain valid until they expire, but no new registrations are allowed.
The regulation also updates the catalogue of jobs that can be performed without a permit or declaration (for example, short-term artistic work, accredited foreign journalists, and certain defence-sector assignments) and raises documentary standards: complete scans of passports, proof of qualifications for regulated professions, and sworn Polish translations where applicable must now accompany every file.
For mobility managers the practical impact is immediate. Budgets must be adjusted to reflect higher state fees, lead times will lengthen as employers gather additional paperwork, and talent pipelines relying on Georgian workers will need to pivot quickly—potentially toward Ukrainian or Belarusian candidates. Employers with outstanding declarations should audit expiry dates and plan renewals through the full work-permit route where necessary.
