Legalisation of work. Normal procedure

Most employers and foreigners have to take 3 basic steps before starting cooperation:

Step 1 – Notifying the Poviat Labour Office (Powiatowy Urząd Pracy) adequate to the place of performing work about a job vacancy, and obtaining information from the district starost

Before entrusting work to a foreigner you have to prove that the local job market lacks candidates who meet the employer’s expectations. In order to do so, a job market test is conducted in the place where the work will be performed.

This means that, even if the employer’s registered office or place of residence is in Warsaw but the foreigner is to work in Cracow, the job market test (a search for a suitable candidate among the unemployed registered in a local Labour Office) has to be conducted in Cracow Labour Office.

A job application can be filled in here. To correctly complete the job application it is necessary to know the actual terms of work entrusted (type of contract, amount of remuneration, requirements towards the candidate for a given position).

Note!
The district starost does not take into consideration any requirements indicated in the job offer which are or too low or too excessive in proportion to the work the foreigner is to perform.

Completing the application form will be easier with a job description search engine.

On behalf of the district starost a representative of the Poviat Labour Office is obliged to:

1. accept the job offer from an entity entrusting the performance of work to a foreigner;
2. immediately check if among people registered with the poviat labour office, there are candidates meeting the requirements specified in the job offer;
3. inform the entity making the job offer about the number of candidates meeting the requirements specified in the job offer;
4. after a consultation with the entity making the job offer – direct to it candidates meeting the requirements specified in the job offer;
5. make an analysis of the proposed amount of remuneration with reference to the amount of remuneration in the same or comparable job or type of work;
6. within 14 days from the date of submitting the job offer to the poviat labour office inform the entity entrusting a foreigner with the performance of work about the impossibility of satisfying its staffing needs if the analysis of registers of unemployed and seeking employment does not indicate that it is possible to organise recruitment, or within 21 days from the date of submitting the job offer if the recruitment process is organised among the unemployed and seeking employment.

Often the notification about a job vacancy may be sent by email and the district starost’s opinion may be delivered to the entity entrusting work both by post and in person.

Step 2 – Applying for the issuance of:

1. a work permit
2. a common residence and work permit

Once they have the district starost’s opinion on the impossibility of satisfying the employer’s staffing needs from the local labour market, the employer and the foreigner have two possibilities: obtaining a work permit or obtaining a common residence and work permit.

2a: Obtaining a work permit

The employer applies for the issuance of a work permit to the district starost (adequate to his registered office or place of residence) and passes it on to the foreigner.

For this purpose, it is necessary to fill in an application for the issuance of a work permit for a foreigner within the territory of the Republic of Poland.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

cost: 100 PLN; issued within 30 days. This allows starting work more quickly (even in case of leaving to get a visa) than in the procedure of obtaining a common residence and work permit (the approximate time of proceedings is 2-3 months); the foreigner is required to submit less documents than in the procedure of obtaining a common residence and work permit; the party to the proceedings is the employer (the future employee may be given an appropriate power of attorney); if the common residence and work permit proceedings are prolonged, once you get the work permit you can work legally (you will not have to wait for the common residence and work permit to be issued).

obtaining a visa necessitates leaving for your country of residence (it has to be remembered that according to the Act on foreigners, applying for a visa for the purpose of performing work may be done only in the country of residence); if the employer is not a company registered in the National Court Register (KRS) but a natural person, a person conducting business activity or a civil-law partnership, while submitting the application it is necessary to produce the original of the employer’s identity card (or a copy certified by a notary).

2b: Obtaining a common residence and work permit

A foreigner applies for the issuance of a common residence and work permit to the district starost adequate to his place of residence. For this purpose it is necessary to fill in an application for the issuance of a common residence and work permit. You can read more on that in the article: Residence permit for a fixed period, long term resident’s status, permanent residence.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

within one procedure we obtain a document allowing legal residence and legal performance of work; the party to the proceedings is the foreigner (he is independent). Only a concluded contract for the whole period of employment or a concluded contract with a promise of further employment is required from the employer; the possibility of obtaining the permit for a period of up to three years (depending on the documents submitted by the employer); if the application was filed in time (even on the last day of legal residence) and there are no irregularities (Three completed applications submitted in person. Fingerprints given. Four photographs. Two passport copies + the original for perusal, and the above mentioned district starost’s opinion) – it gives the possibility of legal residence in Poland on the basis of a stamp until the final decision is made (issued by a second-level instance authority – the Office for Foreigners).

the entire procedure takes about 2-3 months and may be prolonged; cost – 440 PLN; the foreigner is required to submit more documents – a statement on no tax arrears, a PIT-37 for the previous year, documents confirming the right to reside at the indicated address (contract of lease, contract of loan for use or registration of residence), among others.

Step 3 – Concluding a contract in accordance with the work permit or the common residence and work permit issued

It should be remembered that the employer and the employee cannot conclude a contract on other conditions than those indicated in the permit granted.

For example, if the work permit was granted to Anna for the position of a secretary on the basis of a contract of full-time employment with a gross remuneration of 2500 PLN, it will be illegal to:

• perform part-time work as a secretary with a gross remuneration of 1250 PLN,
• perform work as a secretary on the basis of a mandate contract with monthly gross remuneration of 2500 PLN,
• perform work other than that of a secretary, on the basis of a contract of full-time employment with a gross remuneration of 2500 PLN, it will be illegal to:
  • perform part-time work as a secretary with a gross remuneration of 1250 PLN,
  • perform work as a secretary on the basis of a mandate contract with monthly gross remuneration of 2500 PLN,
  • perform work other than that of a secretary, on the basis of a contract of full-time employment with a gross remuneration of 2500 PLN.

  Note! If the foreigner undertakes to perform work for several employers or even in the same company on more than one position – obtaining more than one document allowing him to legally perform work will be necessary. An exception to this rule is a situation where the entity entrusting a foreigner with performing work may, for periods not exceeding 30 days in a calendar year, entrust him with performing work of a different nature or on a different position than indicated in the work permit if other conditions indicated in the permit were fulfilled (article  88f section 1b). In such case, obtaining a work permit indicating new circumstances is not necessary. However, this refers only to a work permit (not a common residence and work permit).