In Poland five types of work permits are issued:
- A - applies to a foreigner carrying out work in Poland, under contract with the Polish employer (established in Poland). Only in this case it is necessary to carry out a labour market test;
- B - applies to a foreigner - a member of the board or of a limited incorporated company in the given organisation, for a period of more than 6 months within the subsequent 12 months;
- C - applies to an alien performing work for a foreign employer, posted on the territory of Poland for a period longer than 30 days per calendar year to a branch or establishment of a foreign entity, its subsidiary or other related entity with which the foreign employer established a long-term cooperation contract. Legislation does not clarify the term "long-term cooperation contract”. It needs to be concluded that such a contract cannot be shorter than the period for which a work permit is to be issued;
- D - concerns an alien performing work for a foreign employer who does not have a form of organized activity on the territory of Poland and who is delegated to Poland to carry out services on a temporary and occasional basis (export service);
- E - rarely encountered situations which cannot be classified according to other types of permits, namely - an alien performing work for a foreign employer, posted to the Polish territory for over 3 months within the subsequent 6 months for purposes other than performing export services, work for the entrepreneur’s board, or delegation to work / in a foreign entity’s branch/ in Poland.
A work permit is issued for a period of 5 years, but/ the validity length depends on the province governor. . The validity length of the work permit may therefore vary between voivodeships, and the decision as such is governed by the province governor’s regulation. In Mazowieckie voivodeship work permits shall be issued for a specified period of time:
a) in the case of occupations for which there is a great demand as defined in the province governor’s regulation that are not the subject of the labour market test - a period not exceeding 2 years;
b) if an alien sits in the board of a legal person that, at the time of the application, employs over 25 people - for a period not longer than 5 years;
c) for D-type work permits the province governor issues a work permit for the delegation? no longer than 3 years;
d) when an alien performs work on the Polish territory in the entity with which a long-term cooperation contract is established - for the duration of the contract but no longer than 3 years;
e) in other cases a decision will be issued for a period of 12 months and in the case of the work permit renewal- for a period not longer than 2 years.
