Order to leave Poland — 7 days to appeal. We will read your decision

You have seven days. Not fourteen, not thirty. That is what the law allows for an appeal against a decision obliging a foreign national to return — the document people call an “order to leave Poland”. The clock starts on service and nobody stops it while you think it over. Send us a photo of the decision and we will tell you exactly how much time is left. That first check costs nothing.

What you are actually holding

The document never uses the word “order”. Its full name is decyzja o zobowiązaniu cudzoziemca do powrotu, issued by the commander of a Border Guard post or unit. It is the same thing people describe as “they told me to leave” — only phrased in the language of the Act on Foreigners.

Recognising the name is not trivia: the type of decision determines the deadline and the appeal route. A foreign national who assumes 14 or 30 days “like with other decisions” loses the case before anyone reads their arguments. No amount of money fixes that later.

Seven days is one weekend and four working days

The deadline runs from the day the decision was served, not from the date printed on it nor from the day somebody translated it for you. The appeal goes to the Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard through the authority that issued it. If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday it moves to the next working day — and that is all the slack you get.

In that window the decision has to be translated, the facts established, evidence gathered and a pleading written that someone will take seriously. Which is why “I will wait until Monday” is the most expensive decision in the whole case.

Do not count the days on a calendar by yourself. Enter the date of service in our deadline calculator — it shows your last day to appeal and puts you straight through to the firm.

The costliest mistake: assuming the appeal stops enforcement

It does not. Filing an appeal does not by itself stop the decision being enforced. Suspension must be applied for separately — to the authority that issued it, and at the court stage to the voivodship administrative court. More cases are lost on this detail than on any argument about the merits.

That is why we file both documents at once and argue them separately: one explains why the decision is defective, the other why immediate enforcement would cause harm that is hard to reverse. An appeal without that second motion can be a victory you hear about from abroad.

What is at stake is not Poland — it is the whole Schengen area

A return decision almost always carries a ban on re-entry, from 6 months up to 10 years depending on the grounds. The record enters the Schengen Information System, so the effect does not stop at the Polish border: it closes the door to the other states of the area. Work, studies, family, a business, a mortgage — everything you built stays on the other side.

Compare that with the cost of finding out. The analysis of your decision costs PLN 500 and is ready in 48 hours. Years outside the EU carry no price you can make up later.

Deportation, expulsion, order to leave — three words, three stages

Confusing them leads to one very expensive mistake: waiting passively at the very moment the appeal deadline is still running.

• Order to leave Poland — the everyday name for the decision itself. This is the stage where you have 7 days and real room to act. This is where cases are won.
• Deportation — forced escort to the border once the decision has not been complied with voluntarily; the cost is charged to the foreign national. It is the enforcement stage, not a separate decision.
• Expulsion — in everyday speech confused with the entry ban, which is part of the same decision and can be challenged on its own.

What these cases are actually won on

Not every decision can be overturned and we never promise otherwise. But many contain errors that the second-instance authority and the courts take seriously — and those are exactly what we look for when reading your document:

• family life — a spouse, partner or child in Poland whose situation the authority weighed superficially or not at all,
• defective service — a decision sent to an outdated address, handed to the wrong person, or without comprehensible instructions,
• a disproportionate entry ban — imposed at the upper limit with no explanation of why,
• inadequate reasoning — a template copied from another case instead of an assessment of the evidence,
• facts left unestablished — work, studies, a residence application already filed, health, the situation in the country of origin.

Which of these is strongest in your case only becomes visible once the decision has been read — not from a description over the phone and not from advice on a forum. We handle cases for foreign nationals constantly, not occasionally: over 200 successfully concluded proceedings, service in eight languages, representation before the Border Guard, the Voivode and the administrative courts. See how we work on cases for foreign nationals.

Exactly what you get for PLN 500

We do not sell hope, and we do not “sort things out” with officials. We sell a specific product: a written analysis of your decision, ready within 48 hours of receiving the documents. Inside you will find:

• the verified deadline — the exact date by which the appeal must arrive, and an assessment of whether service was valid,
• an assessment of the grounds for overturning or changing the decision, stated plainly: strong, weak, none,
• a written strategy — what we file, with whom and by when, including the motion to suspend enforcement,
• a quote for the next steps, so you know the cost of running the case before you commit.

If, having read the decision, we conclude there are no grounds, we will say so plainly and will not talk you into a hopeless appeal — instead we will show other routes: a residence permit on humanitarian grounds, tolerated stay, international protection, sometimes a fresh residence application. What you tell us is protected by professional secrecy, not by a “privacy policy”. The whole case runs remotely, without you leaving home — you send the documents as photos from your phone, the power of attorney by post, and we handle the rest.

Deadline already gone? That is not the end: an application to restore the deadline can be filed within 7 days of the obstacle ceasing, together with the appeal itself. We describe the legal position after losing a right of residence in our piece on lawful stay after a visa expires.

Do it today, not tomorrow

Write down the date of service — everything is counted from it. Photograph every page of the decision, including the instructions and the envelope. Do not leave the country and do not sign anything “to calm things down” before someone establishes what the decision actually requires of you.

Then the one thing that genuinely changes the outcome: show the decision to a lawyer while the deadline is still running. Order the analysis — PLN 500, answer within 48 hours. We reply the same working day, and if your deadline falls within 48 hours, call us instead of waiting for our message.