Urging Letter in a Residence Card Case — How to Force the Office to Issue a Decision Step by Step

If your residence card case has been running for more than a few months, the office is almost certainly breaking the law — the Code of Administrative Procedure (KPA) gives it one month, or two in particularly complicated cases. We covered the fact that in Warsaw the real wait is 6-12 months in our article on processing times at the Mazowiecki Voivodeship Office (Mazowiecki Urząd Wojewódzki). The good news: you are not condemned to waiting. The law provides two tools which, used one after the other, genuinely work: the urging letter and the inactivity complaint.

What an urging letter is and when to file it

The urging letter (ponaglenie) is a formal reminder under Art. 37 of the KPA. It is available in two situations:

• inactivity — the office has not handled the case within the deadline and has not effectively set a new one,
• excessive length of proceedings — the proceedings are formally ongoing, but the office is taking longer than necessary (e.g. spending months "verifying" a complete file).

In a residence permit case the urging letter is addressed to the Head of the Office for Foreigners (Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców), but filed through the voivode (wojewoda) who is handling your case. The voivode has 7 days to forward the letter together with the file and its position, and the higher-level authority has 7 days to examine it.

What an effective urging letter must contain

• the case reference number and the date the application was filed — that is the date from which the overrun is counted,
• a statement that the deadline under Art. 35 of the KPA has passed, and by how much,
• a description of the course of the case: when you supplemented missing documents, when the office last wrote to you,
• the demand: a finding of inactivity or excessive length, and an order obliging the office to handle the case within a set deadline.

An urging letter is not a complaint "addressed to no one", nor a plea for mercy — it is a formalised legal remedy that leaves a trace in the file. Even if the Head of the Office for Foreigners dismisses it, it opens your path to court — which is exactly why it has to be filed correctly.

Inactivity complaint to the Provincial Administrative Court (WSA) — where the real pressure begins

If the decision has still not arrived after the urging letter, you file a complaint about inactivity or excessively lengthy proceedings with the Provincial Administrative Court (WSA) (through the voivode). A prior urging letter is a precondition — which is why it always comes first. The court fee is PLN 100. The court may:

• oblige the office to issue a decision within a specific deadline,
• rule that the inactivity involved a flagrant breach of the law,
• impose a fine on the office,
• award you a sum of money payable by the office — real money for the delay, not a symbolic apology.

If you win, the office also reimburses your costs of the proceedings, including the costs of your attorney.

What this achieves in practice

From our experience in cases against the Mazowiecki Voivodeship Office, the pattern repeats itself: cases "start moving" once the complaint is filed, often before the court even schedules a hearing. An office that has a complaint on its desk — with the prospect of a fine and a finding of flagrant breach of the law — finds a way to issue the decision. An urging letter and a complaint do not "spoil" your case: the office cannot refuse you a card for exercising your rights. If the decision turns out to be a refusal, you have the right to an appeal, which we covered separately.

What not to do

• Do not send yet more emails "kindly asking for the case to be expedited" — they have no legal effect and leave no trace on which a complaint can later be built.
• Do not file an urging letter "just in case" in the second week of the case — a premature one will be dismissed and will weaken your position.
• Do not give up after the urging letter is dismissed — that is precisely the moment the court route opens.

We will do it for you

We handle urging letters and inactivity complaints in residence cases every day — from drafting the letter to representation before the WSA. Check our administrative law practice and our foreigners' cases in Warsaw — before your case sits in the office for another year.