When employing foreign nationals, companies must take into account long-term immigration procedures. The employment planning process should take into account not only estimated deadlines for issuing the permits, but also often includes scrupulous indication of the immigration path by combining various procedures, starting from a declaration of entrusting work, through a work permit, visa and temporary residence permit. A properly selected immigration path and a correct and complete set of documents allow the companies for a faster employment of foreign nationals. The employees, on the other hand, might be able to travel outside Poland during the legalization processes of stay (proper immigration path can minimize the risk that the foreign national will not be able to travel for many months due to the lack of a residence card while awaiting the residence permit decision to be issued). In many situations, estimating the time of issuing a document is very difficult due to unpredictable deadlines for processing the cases in offices. The amendment to the Act on foreigners provides for specific, shortened deadlines for examining certain cases.
What are these cases and the deadlines?
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Temporary residence permits
The proposed regulations assume that applications for a temporary residence permit will be issued within 60 days, and the Office for Foreigners will consider the appeal within 90 days. However, permanent or long-term residence permits will be issued within 6 months.
This is very positive news, however, it is worth emphasizing that the deadline for issuing a temporary residence permit depends not only on the fact of submitting the application, but also on such conditions as:
- the application is complete (it has no formal defects or the mandatory documents have been submitted in a timely manner);
- a personal visit in the office has taken place (unless the person is exempt from it);
- documents necessary to confirm the circumstances described in the application have been submitted.
All of the above conditions must be met for the 60-day period to run. Therefore, it is extremely important to select a proper set of documents, especially the documents confirming the purpose of stay in Poland. Unfortunately, the interpretation of the regulations differ among the individual Voivodeship Offices, and thus the required documents confirming the circumstances indicated by the legislator are also different. Hence, in order to benefit from shortened processing times indicated in the new law, it is extremely important to know the requirements of particular offices. According to the amended regulations, the office may summon (it may happen within the same summon to appear in person) to supplement the missing documents which should be delivered within a period of not less than 14 days.
Visas
The amended regulations also provide for shortened processing times of national visas for students, interns, people coming to Poland to conduct research or development, or to participate in the European Voluntary Service program. Currently, the maximum deadline for considering applications for such visas by a consul is 60 days, and a proposed processing time is 30 days from the date of submitting the application. There may be situations when the consul will require additional information from the Head of the Office for Foreigners, necessary for him/her to issue a visa for a given purpose (e.g. confirmation that the school operates in accordance to its purpose and not e.g. in order to facilitate unlawful entry or stay in the territory of Poland for students). The provision of such information by the Office for Foreigners, in accordance with the proposed changes, should not exceed 5 days.
What should employers pay attention to?
The shortened processing times for the residence permit applications is undoubtedly something that may facilitate employment of foreign nationals. It may be important for companies to support their employees in obtaining documents so their applications are considered complete and they are processed in the shortest possible time. Although a party to the proceedings in the matters of residence permits is, as a rule, a foreign national, nevertheless, a support in the course of the process may contribute to faster and, most importantly, legal employment of a candidate.
In case of any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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