As the clock struck midnight on 1 January 2026, Poland activated the last—and most expensive—phase of its 2025 immigration overhaul. Under a late-December ordinance from the Interior Ministry, every temporary-stay (residence) permit application must now be submitted exclusively through the Moduł Obsługi Spraw (MOS) online portal and signed with a qualified electronic signature. Paper dossiers delivered to voivodeship offices will be rejected outright and deemed not filed.
At the same time, government fees have jumped sharply across the board. The standard residence-permit charge quadruples to PLN 400, posted-worker permits soar to PLN 800, national (type D) visa fees rise from €135 to €200 and Schengen (type C) visas inch up to €90. A separate Foreign Ministry decree published on 30 December confirmed identical tariffs for all Polish consulates worldwide, meaning the higher costs apply immediately to applications lodged in Singapore, Paris or Chicago alike.
For multinationals the twin changes are more than a bookkeeping nuisance. HR teams must ensure that assignees obtain a Trusted-Profile login or EU eID, purchase an e-signature and learn to navigate MOS—steps that can take a week in peak periods. Because the portal has suffered intermittent time-outs during pilot testing, immigration advisers recommend taking screenshots of each stage to prove timely submission if a session crashes.
![New year, new rules: Poland makes MOS e-filing mandatory and raises visa & residence-permit fees]()
For organisations that lack dedicated in-house immigration specialists, VisaHQ’s Warsaw-based team can create MOS accounts, arrange qualified electronic signatures within 24 hours and submit fully compliant e-dossiers on the company’s behalf—even stepping in to troubleshoot if the portal freezes. Full service descriptions and live fee calculators are available at https://www.visahq.com/poland/.
Budget implications are significant. A family of four moving from Bangalore to Kraków for a three-year ICT assignment now faces upfront government charges of roughly €1,060—almost triple last year’s outlay. Several large tech companies told VisaHQ they will absorb the higher costs for strategic roles but will review the business case for shorter postings.
Poland argues that the digital-only model will shorten processing times by 30 percent and cut fraud, and the European Commission is monitoring the roll-out as a potential template for the wider Schengen area. In the meantime, mobility managers should update cost projections, book MOS training for HR staff and warn travellers that consular appointment slots may be scarce in the opening weeks of 2026.
At the same time, government fees have jumped sharply across the board. The standard residence-permit charge quadruples to PLN 400, posted-worker permits soar to PLN 800, national (type D) visa fees rise from €135 to €200 and Schengen (type C) visas inch up to €90. A separate Foreign Ministry decree published on 30 December confirmed identical tariffs for all Polish consulates worldwide, meaning the higher costs apply immediately to applications lodged in Singapore, Paris or Chicago alike.
For multinationals the twin changes are more than a bookkeeping nuisance. HR teams must ensure that assignees obtain a Trusted-Profile login or EU eID, purchase an e-signature and learn to navigate MOS—steps that can take a week in peak periods. Because the portal has suffered intermittent time-outs during pilot testing, immigration advisers recommend taking screenshots of each stage to prove timely submission if a session crashes.
For organisations that lack dedicated in-house immigration specialists, VisaHQ’s Warsaw-based team can create MOS accounts, arrange qualified electronic signatures within 24 hours and submit fully compliant e-dossiers on the company’s behalf—even stepping in to troubleshoot if the portal freezes. Full service descriptions and live fee calculators are available at https://www.visahq.com/poland/.
Budget implications are significant. A family of four moving from Bangalore to Kraków for a three-year ICT assignment now faces upfront government charges of roughly €1,060—almost triple last year’s outlay. Several large tech companies told VisaHQ they will absorb the higher costs for strategic roles but will review the business case for shorter postings.
Poland argues that the digital-only model will shorten processing times by 30 percent and cut fraud, and the European Commission is monitoring the roll-out as a potential template for the wider Schengen area. In the meantime, mobility managers should update cost projections, book MOS training for HR staff and warn travellers that consular appointment slots may be scarce in the opening weeks of 2026.
