Lost UKR status in Poland: how to restore it and how long you can stay without it (2026)

You lose UKR status by operation of law, with no decision and no notice: one stay of more than 30 days outside Poland is enough, and the PESEL register starts showing NUE. That does not automatically make your stay illegal or end your job, but from that moment specific deadlines matter: 30 days to re-apply after you return, 90 days of visa-free stay, 4 March 2027 and 4 March 2028. We set them out below in order. If you would rather have a law firm check your situation on the documents and prepare the residence card application straight away, online for PLN 1999 instead of PLN 2300, see legalisation of stay online.

When UKR status expires: the statutory list

Temporary protection, which UKR status is tied to, expires in the cases listed in Article 109b(1) of the Act on granting protection to foreigners, and separately the status was taken away by Article 25 of the Act of 23 January 2026. In practice we see four situations:

• leaving Poland for more than 30 days (Article 109b(1)(2)), the most common reason;
• being granted a temporary or permanent residence permit or an EU long-term resident permit, or filing an application for international protection;
• temporary protection obtained in another European Union country, or a written waiver of protection filed at a municipal office;
• failure to confirm identity with a passport by 31 August 2026 by people whose PESEL was issued on the basis of a declaration: on 1 September 2026 their status was changed to NUE (Article 25 of the Act of 23 January 2026).

Protection expires on the day of the event, not on the day you find out. It usually surfaces by accident: diia.pl stops working, an office suspends a benefit or your employer asks about your basis of stay. What the new register entry means exactly is explained in our text NUE status: what it means.

Leaving for more than 30 days: how the period is counted

What counts is one uninterrupted stay outside Poland longer than 30 days. Shorter trips do not add up: three two-week trips do not take the status away, a single 31-day trip does. The Border Guard records the dates of exit and return and passes the information to the PESEL register.

Be careful with trips to other Schengen countries. Nobody stamps your passport at an internal border, but that does not mean the trip does not exist: tickets, a lease, a job or temporary protection obtained in another country all prove the stay abroad. If you plan to be away for more than 30 days and your life is in Poland, base your stay on a residence card first and travel afterwards.

Can UKR status be restored

Yes, but only one way. Article 44b of the Population Register Act allows UKR status to be granted again after a new application for a PESEL number for a beneficiary of temporary protection. You file it in person at any municipal office within 30 days of crossing the border (Article 110a(2) of the Act on granting protection to foreigners), and the date of the renewed status is the day you re-entered Poland. If you came back and missed the 30 days, this route is gone.

There are three caveats. First, since 31 July 2026 a person applying for protection again receives it only if they show that they have fulfilled their military obligations in Ukraine or are exempt from them, where such obligations apply to them (Article 2 of Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1912). Second, a change to NUE for failing to confirm identity is not reversed by a visit to the municipal office with a passport. Third, restored status lasts only as long as protection itself, currently until 4 March 2028. The protection deadlines are covered in our article how long UKR status lasts.

How long you can stay in Poland without UKR status

It depends on which basis of stay you still have after losing the status. We check them in this order:

• a valid residence card, visa or confirmation of an application filed in MOS: the stay is legal regardless of the status shown in PESEL;
• Article 42(11) of the Special Act: if the last day of your stay on a Schengen visa or under the visa-free regime fell on 24 February 2022 or later, your stay in Poland is deemed legal until 4 March 2027; the provision works only on the territory of Poland and gives neither a right to stay in other Schengen states nor a guarantee of re-entry after you leave;
• visa-free travel on a biometric passport: 90 days in any 180-day period, counted jointly for the whole Schengen area.

So to the question whether you can stay in Poland once the 90 days on a biometric passport are over, the answer is: a Ukrainian citizen usually can, until 4 March 2027, as long as they remain in Poland. After that date and after every exit the ordinary 90/180 count returns. The rules of stay after a visa or the visa-free period ends are discussed in our guide legal stay after a visa expires.

Work after losing UKR status

Losing the status does not take away the right to work as long as the stay remains legal. Under Article 41 of the Act of 23 January 2026, until 5 March 2029 a Ukrainian citizen who stays in Poland legally and does not use temporary protection works without a work permit: the employer notifies the district labour office within 7 days. An employer who fails to notify faces a fine of PLN 1000 to 3000. Once the stay stops being legal, the work becomes illegal for both sides, so show your employer right away what your stay is based on.

Which residence card after losing the status

The simplified CUKR card under Article 42c of the Special Act requires UKR status on 4 June 2025, UKR status on the day of filing and uninterrupted status for at least 365 days, so after losing the status this route is closed, and the gap may rule it out even once the status is restored. What remains is an ordinary temporary residence permit: based on work, family, studies or business activity. Stamp duty is PLN 440 for residence and work or PLN 340 in other cases, plus PLN 100 for the card. Timing matters most: an application filed in MOS no later than on the last day of legal stay and free of formal defects gives you legal stay until the day the decision becomes final (Article 105(1) and Article 108(1)(2) of the Act on Foreigners). The card for people who kept their status is described here: residence card for Ukrainians with UKR status.

What we do and what it costs

Kancelaria Radców Prawnych Bartosz Krajewski starts by establishing on the documents why and from which day the status expired and which basis of stay works today. Then we choose the permit, complete the documents and file the application in MOS as your attorney, so letters from the office come to us. Legalisation of stay online, fully remote and with photos of documents taken on your phone, costs PLN 1999 instead of PLN 2300, and the option with a consultation costs PLN 2300. Official fees are paid separately. We work remotely across Poland; office: Warsaw, ul. Marszałkowska 20/22 lok. 72, tel. 537 927 737.

If a return decision has already arrived instead of a summons, days count, not weeks: see appeal against an order to leave Poland. How we run immigration cases is described on the page immigration lawyer in Poland.