Revolution that turned into chaos

On June 1, 2025, the Act on the Conditions for Employing Foreigners in the Territory of the Republic of Poland came into force. The changes introduced were intended to revolutionize the procedures for obtaining work permits and declarations of intent to employ foreigners. The key assumption was the complete digitalization of the proceedings. Offices stopped accepting paper documents — from now on, all applications and documents must be submitted via ICT systems. In theory, the new regulations were supposed to simplify and speed up the processes. In practice — many companies, offices, and foreigners found themselves caught in a whirlwind of organizational chaos. The changes and the resulting bureaucratic absurdities are commented on by Tetiana Hrynchyshyn, an expert at Smart Solutions HR.

Big Plans…

The Act of June 1, 2025, introduced two significant changes. First, the obligation to conduct the so-called labor market test — obtaining a statement from the district governor confirming the lack of available candidates from Poland or the European Union — was abolished. This regulation aims to simplify procedures and reduce the administrative burden on employers.

Second, the employment process for foreigners has been fully digitalized. Applications for work permits and declarations of intent to employ must now be submitted exclusively in electronic form. All supporting documents must also be uploaded online. A new requirement is the obligation to provide a scan of the signed employment contract with the foreigner via the teleinformatics system — this must be done before the foreigner begins work. Additionally, the process of legalizing residence has been fully digitalized. All applications in this regard must now be submitted exclusively through the Office for Foreigners’ Case Handling Module portal (www.mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl).

…That Gave Rise to Absurdities

“The changes introduced on June 1 initially seemed well-intentioned. Full digitalization sounded like a promise to simplify procedures and accelerate legalization processes,” says Tetiana Hrynchyshyn, administration and legalization specialist at Smart Solutions HR. “Abolishing the labor market test did bring some benefits — it streamlined procedures and relieved employers of part of the administrative burden. Unfortunately, the fully electronic system for work legalization turned out to be somewhat problematic in practice, and the promised simplification became an additional complication. After two months of implementation, we can already observe shortcomings that present serious challenges to address.”

The expert lists three main aspects pointing to flaws in the new system — instead of simplifying, they create additional difficulties for users.

Absurd #1: An electronic signature… for a passport scan

For applications involving declarations of intent to employ a foreigner, every attachment — such as a scanned passport or proof of payment of the stamp duty — must be electronically signed (e.g., with a trusted profile or a qualified signature). What’s more, after uploading these signed documents, the system still requires the entire application, including attachments, to be signed again. The result? Double bureaucracy.

Absurd #2: New Obligations Without the Means to Fulfill Them

The new regulations require employers to submit a scan of the signed employment contract through the teleinformatics system before the foreigner begins work. The problem? For many weeks, the system didn’t support this function. For declarations, the option to upload a contract scan only became available on July 1, 2025, and for work permits, not until August 1, 2025. This means that for over a month, employers were legally obligated to fulfill a requirement they had no technical ability to meet.

Additionally, for work permits, several new mandatory notifications were introduced — all of which must be submitted exclusively via the portal. These include, for example, notifying if the foreigner does not begin work within 2 months, interrupts work for more than 2 months, or ends employment earlier than expected. The issue? The system still lacks the functions to process these notifications, forcing employers to submit the necessary information in paper form.

Absurd #3: Double Systems, Double Applications

According to current procedures, applications for residence permits must be submitted through the Case Handling Module portal. However, in some provinces and major cities (including Warsaw, Wrocław, and Poznań), local registration systems still operate in parallel. The result? A foreigner wishing to submit an application must do it twice — once via the central system, and once via the local provincial system.

Digitalization 2.0 — double the clicking, with no real simplification.

To address this issue, some action was recently taken — on August 5, the Council of Ministers adopted a draft amendment to the Act on Foreigners and several other acts. A key proposed change is the requirement that all applications for temporary residence, permanent residence, and EU long-term resident status be submitted exclusively through the portal mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl. This solution aims to reduce abuse by intermediaries, help detect fraudulent applications, speed up procedures, improve information exchange between authorities and the Internal Security Agency (ABW), and enable more accurate statistics.

Expectations vs. Reality

“Although the legislator’s intention was to simplify and streamline procedures, in practice, companies employing foreigners are now facing prolonged processes and organizational chaos,” says Hrynchyshyn. “Temporary employment agencies and companies hiring large numbers of foreigners were forced by the new regulations to react immediately — they had to create and update internal procedures, implement new workflows for document handling and deadline tracking, and urgently train staff responsible for the legalization of work and residence. In many organizations, this led to chaos, overloaded legalization and administration departments, and the need to hire additional specialists, resulting in a significant increase in operational costs. Additionally, many public offices were not fully prepared for the changes — the IT systems were often unstable at first, and the user guidelines changed weekly, which didn’t help anyone involved.”

The expert also points out that another major challenge lies in the new requirements for foreign workers themselves, especially regarding electronic signatures. Many of them do not have access to such tools, which in practice blocks the ability to submit documents effectively and causes delays throughout the process.

“The idea of digitalization is valid — it’s a step toward greater transparency, elimination of paper documents, and faster access to information. Unfortunately, the lack of proper technological preparation and inconsistent regulations have made this digital revolution more frustrating than truly effective. Hopefully, over time these difficulties will be overcome, and the new regulations will begin to function as intended — efficiently, predictably, and in a way that supports both employers and foreign workers,” Hrynchyshyn concludes.