Foreign nationals in western Poland faced unexpected delays on 11 February after a burst water main forced the Wielkopolska Voivodeship’s Foreigners’ Office on Plac Wolności to suspend almost all counter services. In an online communiqué, officials said the filing desk and information points would remain closed for the entire day, with only pre-scheduled biometric appointments honoured.
The outage follows two consecutive days of reduced hours caused by the same infrastructure problem. Applicants unable to submit paperwork have been told to re-book slots via the helpline (+48 61 850 87 77) once the system is restored. The office processes thousands of temporary-residence, EU Blue-Card and work-permit applications every month; even a 24-hour shutdown can generate week-long backlogs because interview calendars are booked months in advance.
![Water-main failure closes Poznań Foreigners’ Office, disrupting residence-permit appointments]()
In the meantime, anyone looking to initiate or monitor a Polish visa or residence request can turn to VisaHQ, which offers streamlined online application services and real-time guidance that help applicants bypass in-person bottlenecks such as the current Poznań closure. More information is available at https://www.visahq.com/poland/
Employers relocating staff to Poznań, a regional IT and shared-services hub, should anticipate knock-on effects. HR teams are advised to print evidence of the closure (screen-shots of the official notice) to defend against potential fines for late filings under the Alien Act, and to explore filing through alternative voivodeships if statutory deadlines loom.
The incident also highlights the wider fragility of Poland’s immigration infrastructure as it transitions to the Moduł Obsługi Spraw (MOS) e-portal. Until fully digital end-to-end workflows are in place, physical service points remain a single point of failure for business-critical immigration processes.
The outage follows two consecutive days of reduced hours caused by the same infrastructure problem. Applicants unable to submit paperwork have been told to re-book slots via the helpline (+48 61 850 87 77) once the system is restored. The office processes thousands of temporary-residence, EU Blue-Card and work-permit applications every month; even a 24-hour shutdown can generate week-long backlogs because interview calendars are booked months in advance.
In the meantime, anyone looking to initiate or monitor a Polish visa or residence request can turn to VisaHQ, which offers streamlined online application services and real-time guidance that help applicants bypass in-person bottlenecks such as the current Poznań closure. More information is available at https://www.visahq.com/poland/
Employers relocating staff to Poznań, a regional IT and shared-services hub, should anticipate knock-on effects. HR teams are advised to print evidence of the closure (screen-shots of the official notice) to defend against potential fines for late filings under the Alien Act, and to explore filing through alternative voivodeships if statutory deadlines loom.
The incident also highlights the wider fragility of Poland’s immigration infrastructure as it transitions to the Moduł Obsługi Spraw (MOS) e-portal. Until fully digital end-to-end workflows are in place, physical service points remain a single point of failure for business-critical immigration processes.
