Work legally in Poland

EU/EFTA citizens can work in Poland without any permits.

But majority of other countries' citizens are obliged to have Polish work permit if they plan to be employed here.

More information about Polish work permit will be published soon.

The work permit is not a document that legalizes your stay in Poland. It only legalizes your work here. To stay and work here legally, you are also obliged to have visa or residence permit.

Visa

If you have found a job in Poland during your stay abroad, your prospective employer should apply for the work permit for you. On the basis of this document (the employer should send you the original!) you can apply for Polish visa D06 for the period of time up to 1 year.

Joint  work and residence permit

If you found an employer in Poland, you can apply jointly for work permit and residence permit. After the procedure you will get final decision on being permitted both to work and stay here. 

Non-visa stay in Poland

There is also a group of countries, which citizens are allowed to stay in Poland without visa (but not to work without work permit!) for the period of 90 days. They can be divided into two groups, that is explained in that post.

"The act on promotion of employment and labour market institutions" says, that a foreigner is allowed to work in Poland during his/her non-visa stay, if this right is not excluded by the agreement concerning that non-visa stay.
In case of the countries, that have bilateral agreements with Poland, I strongly recommend to study the specific agreement with your country, because they differ from each other. For example, the agreement between Poland and USA says clearly, that US citizens are not allowed to work in Poland during their non-visa stay. 

The second group are the countries, that signed a joint agreement with all the Schengen states. The interpretations of this agreement are contradictory. During my practice, I met with the opinions of some officials, that a non-visa stay based on this agreement doesn't allow a foreigner to work in Poland. Fortunately, Minister of Labour and Public Policy decided to issue an official interpretation of this agreement. According to this opinion, the citizens of countries, that signed the above agreement with the Schengen states, are allowed to work in Poland during their non-visa stay.

When you start to be employed in Poland, your employer is obliged by law not only to apply for the work permit for you (if you need it) but also to make sure, that your visa, residence permit or the right for non-visa stay allows you to work legally in Poland.

Legal basis: 

• The Act of 20 April 2004 on promotion of employment and labour market institutions (Journal of Laws of 2008, No. 69 item 415, with later amendments)
• The Regulation of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration of April 22, 2011, on visas for foreigners
• COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement
• Bilateral agreements between Poland and Argentina,Brasilia, Chile, Croatia, Honduras, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Singapore, USA, Uruguay, Macau, and Hongkong
• Letter of the Minister of Labour and Public Policy from August 18, 2010, signature: DRP-X-4031-24-1-MK/10
• The Act of 30 December 2013 on foreigners (Journal of Laws of 2013., item 1650)