Non-EU employees will be able to obtain temporary residence permits in Poland as part of a company transfer from another country. Those who want to obtain a permanent residence will have to demonstrate their knowledge of the Polish language.

The amended provisions regulating the work of foreigners in Poland are binding from February 12, 2018. Every foreigner from outside the Community who will apply for permanent residence must show a moderate level of knowledge of the Polish language, ie at least B1.

This obligation will not apply to children under 16 and those born in Poland. The regulations did not regulate the minimum level of language proficiency.

The amendment to the Act on foreigners also gives the possibility of obtaining a temporary residence permit in Poland as part of a transfer within a company from another country. Up to 200,000 people can benefit from this solution.

Managers and specialists will be able to be transferred to work in Poland for three years and trainees for a year. The condition is, however, that the first employees worked in the company for at least a year, and the second – 6 months.

New rules for the recruitment of foreigners from the beginning of the year are a problem for labor offices. They proved unprepared to implement new rules for issuing work permits to foreigners.

The main difficulties arise from the extension of the verification procedure of the statements, the increased number of attachments to the application and the requirement of the foreigner’s presence in Poland to register the document.

Meanwhile, the demand for employees in companies is growing. In 2017, more than 1.8 million statements were issued about the intention to entrust work to a foreigner, i.e. by 39 percent. more than in the previous year – according to the data from the Ministry of the Family and labor.