Declaration on entrusting work to a foreign national is a document that allows for legal employment in Poland for 6 months within the next 12 months. The employer may register such a declaration in the poviat labor office for citizens of the following countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova. Due to the fact that the procedure of obtaining declarations is much more informal and faster in relation to work permits issued by voivodes, it is the most common choice of employers willing to hire citizens of the above-mentioned countries.
The procedure in its current form has been in force since the beginning of 2018. Despite above-mentioned advantages, employers hiring foreigners in Poland face several challenges, for example:
- if the employer wishes to hire a person who has just exhausted the entire period of 6 months of permitted work on a declaration in another company, a new employer usually has to obtain a type A work permit for which, in some provinces, the processing time is even several months;
- after obtaining the declaration, the employer is obliged to inform the office about the commencement of work by the foreign employee, not later than on a day indicated as an employment start date in the declaration. In the case of large organizations, the fulfillment of this obligation can be very problematic - failure to submit such information on time is subject to a fine, and compliance with this obligation is carefully verified during inspections carried out by authorities.
What are the expected changes regarding declaration of employment?
Several challenges were addressed in the project by proposing:
- extending the period for which a declaration on entrusting work may be registered from 6 to 24 months;
- elimination of the 12-month settlement period and making it possible to register subsequent, consecutive statements for a given person;
- extension of the deadline for submitting information about the start of work on the basis of a declaration to not later than after 7 days from the date of commencement of work indicated in the declaration.
Apart from the obvious advantages of the aforementioned solutions which will allow employers to hire employees for a longer period of time without the need to obtain additional documentation, the assumption of the reform is also to free up processing capacity of the voivodeship offices examining applications for work permits. Entities employing citizens of other countries can expect faster processing of their applications for type A work permits.
The changes will also positively affect the continuity of employment, and perhaps even the willingness of foreign nationals to stay in Poland for a longer period of time.
It should also be remembered that the law allows the Minister responsible for labor affairs to extend the possibility of obtaining declarations on entrusting work also to citizens of countries other than the 6 mentioned above.
What should employers pay attention to?
It is worth underlining that employers should obtain new declarations on entrusting work to a foreign national after the updated provisions enter into force. The reform does not provide for an automatic extension of the validity of current documents, therefore it is important to remember about the appropriate planning of the processes of applying for new documents, taking into account the expected significant inflow of applications as soon as the provisions are implemented.
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