Global mobility teams woke on 27 December to discover that every Polish consular post—more than 90 embassies and consulates—has gone dark for a five-day festive shutdown, freezing visa, passport and legalisation processing until Monday 29 December . The closure is routine, but 2025 is the first year that 24 December became a statutory public holiday, extending the downtime and knocking out the usual back-up channels inside Poland.
What exactly is closed? • e-Konsulat appointment calendars are locked; new slots will only open at 00:01 CET on 29 December. • Walk-in counters at high-volume missions in Cairo, Manila and Riyadh have posted notices directing applicants to return next week. • Inside Poland, voivodeship offices and Border Guard customer desks—often used for last-minute residence-permit extensions—are also shut.
Business impact. 1 ) Assignment start-dates: Employers planning January “go-lives” for IT and engineering secondees face a minimum four-day delay. VisaHQ reports that lead times in Manila were already six weeks; the break could push deployments into mid-February. 2 ) Compliance risk: Some assignees will over-stay the 14-day deadline for reporting changes of circumstance. Immigration counsel advise carrying proof of the cancelled appointment plus onward-flight tickets to mitigate airline-check-in issues. 3 ) Travel-planning headaches: Travel-management companies are urging corporates to avoid board meetings in Poland during the first week of January, when rescheduled appointments will swamp consular servers.
![Polish Consulates Shut 24–28 December, Halting All Visa and Passport Services Worldwide]()
For mobility managers looking for extra muscle during the blackout, VisaHQ’s Poland specialists (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) can pre-audit document packs, keep a live watch on the e-Konsulat reset and snap up the earliest refreshed slots—freeing HR teams from 2 a.m. portal-refresh duty and shaving days off the post-holiday backlog.
Practical advice. • Pre-fill forms now: e-Konsulat allows draft submissions; having a completed application ready will help secure the first reopened slots. • Remote work: Consider allowing affected hires to begin assignments from their home country under a short-term remote-work policy until permits are stamped. • Document audits: Use the break to double-check that medical insurance letters and proof-of-funds statements still meet the stricter standards introduced in June 2025.
Looking ahead. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it processed a record 1.46 million national-visa applications in 2025, a 12 % jump on last year. Officials hint that Christmas 2026 could see an even longer closure if staffing needs continue to outpace budget allocations, so mobility managers should consider front-loading Q4 2026 deployments or shifting some work to EU neighbour states.
What exactly is closed? • e-Konsulat appointment calendars are locked; new slots will only open at 00:01 CET on 29 December. • Walk-in counters at high-volume missions in Cairo, Manila and Riyadh have posted notices directing applicants to return next week. • Inside Poland, voivodeship offices and Border Guard customer desks—often used for last-minute residence-permit extensions—are also shut.
Business impact. 1 ) Assignment start-dates: Employers planning January “go-lives” for IT and engineering secondees face a minimum four-day delay. VisaHQ reports that lead times in Manila were already six weeks; the break could push deployments into mid-February. 2 ) Compliance risk: Some assignees will over-stay the 14-day deadline for reporting changes of circumstance. Immigration counsel advise carrying proof of the cancelled appointment plus onward-flight tickets to mitigate airline-check-in issues. 3 ) Travel-planning headaches: Travel-management companies are urging corporates to avoid board meetings in Poland during the first week of January, when rescheduled appointments will swamp consular servers.
For mobility managers looking for extra muscle during the blackout, VisaHQ’s Poland specialists (https://www.visahq.com/poland/) can pre-audit document packs, keep a live watch on the e-Konsulat reset and snap up the earliest refreshed slots—freeing HR teams from 2 a.m. portal-refresh duty and shaving days off the post-holiday backlog.
Practical advice. • Pre-fill forms now: e-Konsulat allows draft submissions; having a completed application ready will help secure the first reopened slots. • Remote work: Consider allowing affected hires to begin assignments from their home country under a short-term remote-work policy until permits are stamped. • Document audits: Use the break to double-check that medical insurance letters and proof-of-funds statements still meet the stricter standards introduced in June 2025.
Looking ahead. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it processed a record 1.46 million national-visa applications in 2025, a 12 % jump on last year. Officials hint that Christmas 2026 could see an even longer closure if staffing needs continue to outpace budget allocations, so mobility managers should consider front-loading Q4 2026 deployments or shifting some work to EU neighbour states.
