Poland’s Ministry of the Interior has published the final regulation in its year-long digital-by-default overhaul of the immigration system. From New Year’s Day 2026, every temporary-stay (residence) permit must be lodged exclusively through the Moduł Obsługi Spraw (MOS) e-portal. Voivodeship offices will shut their counters to walk-in submissions; paper dossiers handed across the desk will be rejected.
The change completes a sequence that earlier moved work-permit and seasonal-permit requests onto the national praca.gov.pl platform. Officials argue that a single electronic pipeline will slash backlogs, allow automatic data cross-checks with the labour office and tax authority, and make it harder for “piggy-back” applicants to jump the queue. Employers, however, worry about a rocky transition. Many provincial immigration offices still rely on legacy case-management software, and HR teams fear system glitches when thousands of end-of-year filings hit MOS on 2 January.
At this juncture, many employers and assignees may want a seasoned intermediary to shepherd them through Poland’s new e-filing maze. VisaHQ, an online visa and passport services platform, already supports clients with Poland-bound applications and will be updating its step-by-step guidance, document checklists and concierge filing options ahead of the MOS switchover. See https://www.visahq.com/poland/ for details on how its experts can streamline uploads, translations and fee payments under the new regime.
![Poland forces all residence-permit filings online and quadruples government fees from 1 January 2026]()
What most alarms mobility managers is the price tag. The standard residence-permit fee will soar from PLN 100 (≈ €22) to PLN 400, while posted-worker permits will cost PLN 800. The government says the quadrupling reflects "full cost recovery" for digital services and aligns Poland with fee levels in Germany and the Netherlands. Yet for a family of four, total government charges could exceed PLN 1,600—excluding translation, legalisation and legal fees. Global relocation budgets for 2026 may need immediate revision.
Companies operating graduate-rotation or short-term assignment programmes must also rethink timing. Because MOS will automatically reject incomplete uploads, HR staff should pre-collect notarised copies of passports, health-insurance proof and accommodation leases before the holiday shutdown. Authorities promise a 60-day decision time, but advisers caution that first-quarter backlogs are likely.
On the upside, the reform introduces a real-time case-tracker and automated SMS/email alerts—a long-requested feature for expats accustomed to paper receipts. The platform will integrate payment via bank transfer or BLIK mobile wallet, eliminating in-person cashiers. Early adopters testing the beta environment in Mazowieckie province report smoother data entry but warn that the portal accepts only Polish-language PDFs, pushing translation costs higher. Multinational firms should update employee handbooks and supplier contracts to reflect the new digital workflow and fees.
The change completes a sequence that earlier moved work-permit and seasonal-permit requests onto the national praca.gov.pl platform. Officials argue that a single electronic pipeline will slash backlogs, allow automatic data cross-checks with the labour office and tax authority, and make it harder for “piggy-back” applicants to jump the queue. Employers, however, worry about a rocky transition. Many provincial immigration offices still rely on legacy case-management software, and HR teams fear system glitches when thousands of end-of-year filings hit MOS on 2 January.
At this juncture, many employers and assignees may want a seasoned intermediary to shepherd them through Poland’s new e-filing maze. VisaHQ, an online visa and passport services platform, already supports clients with Poland-bound applications and will be updating its step-by-step guidance, document checklists and concierge filing options ahead of the MOS switchover. See https://www.visahq.com/poland/ for details on how its experts can streamline uploads, translations and fee payments under the new regime.
What most alarms mobility managers is the price tag. The standard residence-permit fee will soar from PLN 100 (≈ €22) to PLN 400, while posted-worker permits will cost PLN 800. The government says the quadrupling reflects "full cost recovery" for digital services and aligns Poland with fee levels in Germany and the Netherlands. Yet for a family of four, total government charges could exceed PLN 1,600—excluding translation, legalisation and legal fees. Global relocation budgets for 2026 may need immediate revision.
Companies operating graduate-rotation or short-term assignment programmes must also rethink timing. Because MOS will automatically reject incomplete uploads, HR staff should pre-collect notarised copies of passports, health-insurance proof and accommodation leases before the holiday shutdown. Authorities promise a 60-day decision time, but advisers caution that first-quarter backlogs are likely.
On the upside, the reform introduces a real-time case-tracker and automated SMS/email alerts—a long-requested feature for expats accustomed to paper receipts. The platform will integrate payment via bank transfer or BLIK mobile wallet, eliminating in-person cashiers. Early adopters testing the beta environment in Mazowieckie province report smoother data entry but warn that the portal accepts only Polish-language PDFs, pushing translation costs higher. Multinational firms should update employee handbooks and supplier contracts to reflect the new digital workflow and fees.
