According to some information found in official announcements, all residence permit proceedings conducted in the Voivodeship Offices have no legal deadlines to issue permits. But is that really the case?
What is the deadline to issue a residence permit and what happens if it is exceeded?
All Polish administrative offices are legally obligated to perform their duties efficiently and without delays.
Because of that, every residence permit case conducted at the Voivodeship Office (Urząd Wojewódzki) has a legal deadline to issue a decision. In case temporary residence permits, this deadline is 60 days (as per article 112a point 1 of ustawa o cudzoziemcach z dnia 12 grudnia 2013 r.).
In case there are delays in resolving the case, foreigners have a right to submit a reminder to the Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców w Warszawie [Head of the Foreigners Office in Warsaw], as per article 37 § 1 of the Code of Administrative Procedure.
If, after submitting the reminder, the Voivodeship Office won’t speed up the process immediately, then it is possible to file a complaint to the Provincial Administrative Court. The court can order the Voivodeship Office to issue decision within a set deadline (usually 14 or 30 days), as well as grant financial compensation for long waiting time.
These rules are similar for almost all administrative proceedings in Poland and the ability to submit a complaint to the court is part of basic rights granted by Polish constitution and EU regulations.
War in Ukraine and deadlines for residence permit proceeding
Due to outbreak of war in Ukraine, on 15th April 2022, Polish government issued new rules regarding residence of Ukrainian citizens in Poland (as part of ustawa o pomocy obywatelom Ukrainy w związku z konfliktem zbrojnym na terytorium tego państwa z dnia 12 marca 2022 r. [Help for Ukrainian Citizens in Connection with the Armed Conflict on the Territory of their State Act of March 12th 2022].
Based on these new rules, there are no deadlines for Voivodeship Office to resolve a residence permit case. They are still obligated to resolve these cases, but there is no time limit whatsoever to do so. These new rules also disable the right to submit reminders and complaints about their slow case conduct.
The reasoning for them is that a high number of Ukraine citizens could overload Polish Voivodeship Offices with a large number of new cases for a residence permit. For this reason the deadlines for solving them are suspended are suspended.
Does the suspension of a deadline to issue decision relates to all foreigners?
Many Voivodeship Offices published announcements on their websites, stating that all residence permits deadlines are suspended, meaning there is no time limit to solve them and issue decision.
This is contrary to the meaning and goal of the ustawa o pomocy obywatelom Ukrainy w związku z konfliktem zbrojnym na terytorium tego państwa z dnia 12 marca 2022 r. [Help for Ukrainian Citizens in Connection with the Armed Conflict on the Territory of their State Act.
As the name suggests, this act only regulates situation of Ukrainian citizens and their family members, who arrived in Poland because of the war and are seeking shelter here. It doesn’t refer to all foreigners in Poland as a whole.
The article 1 section 1 of the above act clearly states that:
“the Act specifies rules for legalizing the stay of Ukrainian citizens who came to the territory of the Republic of Poland from the territory of Ukraine in connection with military operations conducted in the territory of that state, and Ukrainian citizens holding the Pole’s Card who, together with their immediate family, due to these hostilities arrived on the territory of the Republic of Poland”.
Moreover, pursuant to article 1 section 2 of the act:
“whenever the act mentions a citizen of Ukraine, it also means a spouse of a citizen of Ukraine who does not have Ukrainian citizenship, provided that he/she came to the territory of the Republic of Poland from the territory of Ukraine in connection with military operations conducted in the territory of that state and is not a Polish citizen or a citizen of a Member State of the European Union other than the Republic of Poland”.
It has been since stated in numerous administrative court sentences, that these new rules only refer to Ukrainian citizens (not to all foreigners!) and only those of them who came to Poland because of the war (after February 27th 2022).
However, the regulations regarding the suspension of the deadline in residence permit cases were written in such a way, that they don’t specify nationality of foreigners they concern. This is being interpreted by some Voivodes in a way that justify the delays.
Still, in the opinion of the author of this article and as proven by most of administrative court sentences, the correct interpretation is that the suspension of deadlines only affects a certain group of Ukrainians – not all foreigners as a whole.
As a side note, even the fact that the act “targets” Ukrainian citizens seems to be violating the higher-level rules regarding their rights. As it has been since stated by one of the authors of legal commentaries:
“Restriction of the right to a court, even of a temporary nature, is contrary to Art. 45 sec. 1 of the Constitution, which guarantees everyone the right to a fair and public hearing of their case, without undue delay, by a competent, impartial and independent court. Although the exercise of constitutional freedoms and rights is not absolute (Article 31(3) of the Constitution), it is impossible to find justification for such far-reaching restrictions.”
(Klaus Witold Antoni (red.), „Ustawa o pomocy obywatelom Ukrainy w związku z konfliktem zbrojnym na terytorium tego państwa”; published by: WKP 2022)
So what can be done in case of delays?
The reminder to the Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców and the complaint to the administrative court are the main tools that foreigners could utilize to speed up the process.
The residence permit proceeding should take no more then 2 months. If it takes longer then that, you have the right to make legal complaint to speed up your process and possibly get a compensation.
You can learn more about this in one of our older articles: https://kancelariakamler.pl/en/still-waiting-for-a-residence-card-you-can-speed-up-your-case-and-get-financial-compensation-for-the-slow-case-conduct/
Would you like to know more? Do you want to speed up your case and get due compensation?
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