Ponaglenie to the Head of UdSC — When Your Residence Card Appeal Sits for Months

Appeal proceedings before the Head of the Office for Foreigners have a statutory deadline, and once it passes you can file a ponaglenie — the same tool as against the voivode, but sent elsewhere. Many people appeal a residence card refusal and then wait for months, not knowing that the second instance can be urged too. We prepare such a ponaglenie online — see the 199 PLN offer.

Who decides your appeal

An appeal against the voivode's decision in a residence case is filed through the voivode, but it is decided by the Head of the Office for Foreigners (Szef UdSC) as the second-instance authority. The voivode has 7 days to send the appeal with the case files (Article 133 of the Code of Administrative Procedure); from then on the case is handled by the Head of UdSC, who is responsible for the deadlines. We wrote about preparing the appeal itself in the article on appealing a residence card refusal.

How long appeal proceedings may take

The Code of Administrative Procedure gives the appeal authority one month from the day it receives the appeal (Article 35 § 3). Periods of suspension, time limits set for specific actions and delays caused by the party are, among others, not counted (Article 35 § 5). If the authority misses the deadline, it should notify you of the reasons for the delay and set a new date (Article 36 § 1). In practice, appeals in residence cases often wait many months at UdSC with no notice at all — and that is exactly the situation in which a ponaglenie is available.

Where a ponaglenie is filed in the second instance

This is where most mistakes happen, because the first-instance pattern — a ponaglenie to the Head of UdSC through the voivode — no longer fits: the voivode is no longer handling your case. The Code provides that where there is no higher authority above the authority conducting the proceedings, the ponaglenie is filed directly with that authority (Article 37 § 3(2)); this is how we address ponaglenia in appeal cases before the Head of UdSC. With every such letter we take care of four things:

• the addressee — the ponaglenie goes to the Office for Foreigners, not to the voivodeship office,
• the timing — a ponaglenie filed before the deadline has passed is left unexamined (Article 37 § 3a),
• the reasoning — a ponaglenie must contain it (Article 37 § 2), and its strength lies in the dates: service of the decision, filing of the appeal and transfer of the files,
• continuity — this ponaglenie is a condition of a later complaint about inaction to the court, so it must be filed correctly the first time.

What the Head of UdSC must do after receiving the ponaglenie

A ponaglenie is examined within 7 days of receipt (Article 37 § 5). Where the authority examines a ponaglenie in its own case and finds inaction or delay, it must deal with the case without delay and order an explanation of the reasons (Article 37 § 8). A ponaglenie does not guarantee a specific decision date, but it turns silent waiting into a formal obligation that stays in the case file.

If the Head of UdSC stays silent

After the ponaglenie you can file a complaint about inaction or protracted proceedings at any time (Article 53 § 2b of the Law on Proceedings before Administrative Courts). For the Head of UdSC the competent court is the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, and the complaint is filed through the Head of UdSC (Article 54 § 1). The court may order the authority to issue a decision within a set time, find a flagrant breach of the law, impose a fine or award you a sum of money. Details are in the article on the complaint about inaction to the WSA.

Order a ponaglenie to the Head of UdSC online

You order a ponaglenie in an appeal case the same way as against the voivode: in the form you name the Head of the Office for Foreigners as the authority, give the dates and the case number, pay, and then sign the power of attorney — with a photo from your phone or an electronic signature. A legal counsel signs the ponaglenie as your attorney, and we send it no later than the next business day after we receive the power of attorney. The ponaglenie costs 199 PLN, and the package with a later complaint about inaction to the WSA costs 1199 PLN, with the 100 PLN court fee and 17 PLN stamp duty paid by the firm.