On 13 September 2022, a draft law on the employment of foreigners (list no: 400) appeared on the website of the Government Legislation Centre. It is primarily intended to be comprehensive legislation regulating key issues concerning the employment of foreigners, currently scattered across various laws and regulations. As indicated in the explanatory memorandum to the draft, it is also intended to streamline procedures and shorten waiting time for decisions. Apart from minor changes related, inter alia, to notification obligations on the part of the employer, introduction of one type of work permit for all employees delegated to Poland (currently divided into 3 types – C-E) or granting an obligatory nature to premise of refusal to issue a work permit in the case of employers in arrears with social insurance contributions or taxes, the draft introduces several significant changes that may have a real impact on the functioning of legalisation procedures in practice.

The popularity of remote work and its various forms, including digital nomadism, is not waning. Unconstrained by national borders or the nationality of employees, employers taking advantage of the global labour market must take into account a number of legal aspects not present in traditional employment. These involve not only issues of supervision of work performance or compensating employees for out-of-office costs, but above all, issues such as the law applicable to the employment relationship and legalisation of the employee’s work and residence in the country of work.

Two years passed in July since a Polish Card (Karta Polaka) may also be received by foreigners with citizenship of countries other than which emerged from the Soviet Union’s collapse. The applicant’s knowledge of Polish is checked when considering the application. This seems one of the reasons why the confirmation of Polish citizenship route appears more popular among Poles living in countries such as Brazil or the United States. However, there are situations in which a Polish Card application is a better, and sometimes the only available solution enabling an applicant to be able to boast, in a relatively short while, of holding a Polish passport.

The first day of June this year saw the entry into force of amendments to the Act on Rules for Registering and Identifying Taxpayers and Tax Remitters, of 13 October 1995 (Act). They have redefined the rules concerning the PESEL (Universal Electronic System for Registration of the Population) and NIP (Taxpayer Identification Number) tax identifiers. As a result, PESEL has become the primary identifier for taxpayers who are individuals and are not registered as taxpayers of goods and services or are not engaged in business. According to the justification for the Act, the amendments are intended to enable foreigners to obtain a PESEL identifier without having to register their stay and does away with the practice of assigning NIP numbers to such persons. This change is of great practical significance, particularly for persons providing HR and payroll services to companies employing foreigners.