Poland residence permit documents 2026 — checklist, certification and e-filing

A complete and properly certified file is half the battle in a residence permit (karta pobytu) case. Most requests to supplement your file — and months of delay — come from two mistakes: a missing document or an attachment with no legal force. Below is the full checklist of documents for 2026 and a guide on how to file the application electronically.

The key rule for 2026: a document without signatures or certification has no legal force

Residence applications are now filed electronically — and this is where foreigners make the most expensive mistake. An ordinary scan of a contract or certificate uploaded to the system is, for the office, a worthless copy. For an attachment to have legal force it must be:

• signed electronically by BOTH parties (qualified signature or trusted profile — e.g. an employment contract e-signed by employer and employee), or
• certified as a true copy by a legal counsel (radca prawny), attorney or notary.

Documents submitted without meeting one of these conditions are treated as if they were never filed — the office will summon you to supplement the file and the case will stall for months. When a radca prawny runs your case as your representative, they certify documents as they go — one of the main reasons to file through a law firm.

Core documents — required with every application

• temporary residence application — completed in the electronic system;
• an electronic photo 35×45 mm (one is enough for a MOS application; 4 paper photographs only in cases filed before 27.04.2026);
• passport — scans of all used pages (you present the original at your in-person appointment);
• proof of stamp duty payment (fees below);
• health insurance — ZUS registration (ZUS ZUA/ZZA) or a policy accepted by the office;
• proof of accommodation — lease agreement, ownership deed or a host's declaration (mind the signatures/certification!);
• proof of stable income — depends on your purpose of stay (below).

Documents by purpose of stay

Residence and work

• Annex no. 1 completed and signed by your employer;
• employment or mandate contract — e-signed by both parties or certified;
• ZUS RCA reports for the last 3 months with proof of submission (UPO/UPP);
• PIT-37 or a tax clearance certificate — if the office requests it;
• for regulated professions — proof of qualifications.

Studies

• university certificate of admission or continuation of studies;
• proof of tuition payment (if applicable);
• funds for living costs and return travel — bank statement, scholarship certificate.

Family reunification

• marriage certificate / children's birth certificates (foreign ones with sworn translation and, where needed, apostille);
• residence document of the family member you are joining;
• income documents of the person you will live with. More in our article on family residence.

Business

• CEIDG / KRS entry, company financials (CIT-8, balance sheet);
• proof of required income or of employing staff.

Permanent residence and EU long-term resident — additional documents

Applications for permanent residence and EU long-term resident status have their own, stricter requirements. Beyond the basic set, prepare:

• tax returns for the required period — for a resident, PIT-37 (or the relevant business PIT) for the last 3 tax years; a PIT-11 from the employer alone is not enough,
• certificates of no arrears from the tax office (US) and ZUS,
• a Polish language certificate min. B1 (state, ECL or telc) or a diploma of a school/university in Poland taught in Polish — for applications filed from 1.07.2026 a post-secondary (policealna) school certificate is no longer sufficient,
• legal title to the premises — a lease agreement or a notarial deed,
• previous decisions, residence cards and a table of stays — the office verifies the length and continuity of your stay, including trips outside Poland.

How to file the application in 2026 — step by step

1. File electronically no later than the last day of your legal stay — via MOS (mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl), which routes it to the voivode competent for your place of residence (in Warsaw: the Masovian Voivodeship Office). The system filing date counts.
2. Make sure every attachment has legal force — e-signed by both parties or certified by a radca prawny / attorney / notary (see the rule above).
3. In-person appointment and fingerprints — when summoned you appear in person: present your passport and give fingerprints. Your stay during the case is legalised by the certificate of filing downloaded from MOS, which replaced the former passport stamp.
4. Supplement any gaps within the deadline in the summons (usually 7–14 days) — no response means the application is left unexamined.
5. Collect the decision and the card — after a positive decision you pay the card issuance fee and collect it in person.

Fees and processing times in 2026

• temporary residence permit — PLN 340; residence and work — PLN 440; permanent residence and EU long-term resident — PLN 640; card issuance — PLN 100 (the stamp duty and the card fee are two separate payments to two different accounts);
• the statutory deadline is 60 days from a complete file, but in practice Masovian cases take from several months to over a year — all the more reason to file a complete, properly certified application on day one.

Most common gaps that stall a case

• attachments with no legal force — scans without both parties' e-signatures or a radca prawny's/notary's certification (the most common and most costly mistake),
• missing proof of submission (UPO/UPP) for ZUS and PIT filings,
• photos not meeting requirements or older than 6 months,
• missing sworn translations of foreign documents,
• expired insurance or no ZUS registration,
• unsigned declarations and annexes.

Before you click "submit" — we will certify and file your documents

A single summons to supplement your file means, in practice, 2–4 months of delay and a real risk to the legality of your stay. A document audit and certification by a radca prawny costs a fraction of that time and stress. We handle residence cases end to end: we check the file, certify attachments as true copies, file the application electronically and represent you before the office until the decision. Book a consultation before you file — fixing a case after a bad start always takes longer than preparing it well. See also: residence card in Warsaw step by step, ways to legalise your stay and our foreigners' cases service in Warsaw.

Received a refusal decision? The 14-day appeal deadline runs from delivery. Before writing the appeal on your own, order an online analysis of the refusal decision — within 48 hours a lawyer tells you plainly whether the appeal has grounds, and if it does, we run the case and the analysis fee counts towards it.

If you would rather not file it yourself, the Bartosz Krajewski Law Firm will assemble and submit the documents online for 1900 PLN instead of 2200 PLN.

Useful links

• Residence card in Warsaw 2026 — the complete step-by-step guide
• How long you wait for a residence card in Warsaw — real MUW timelines
• e-Delivery (e-Doręczenia) 2026 — what it is, who it applies to and how to set it up
• MOS portal — electronic submission of residence applications
• How to set up Profil Zaufany (gov.pl)
• e-Doręczenia (e-Delivery) — official service (gov.pl)
• Masovian Voivodeship Office — foreigners' affairs

A single missing or wrongly described attachment can set the case back by months, and the document list is built for your specific basis of stay, not from a generic template. We handle foreigners' cases across Poland, also fully remotely: no visits to the office, with document photos taken on your phone. Book a consultation and start with a diagnosis, not with an application.