New rules for applying for visas at the Polish Embassy in New Delhi

After suspending the possibility of applying for Polish visas for several weeks, the Polish diplomatic mission announced last week that from the beginning of December it will be possible to apply for national visas at five designated visa centres. According to the official communiqué, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland is resuming cooperation with the VFS Global visa centres. The outlets where visa applications will be available are located in Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow. Booking of available dates is already underway on the websites of the designated visa centres.

The consular district of the Consular and Polonia Department of the Polish Embassy in New Delhi covers not only numerous states of India, but also the countries of: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Therefore, the resumption of cooperation with VFS Global opens up the possibility for citizens of these countries to apply for Polish national visas as well.

A similar system of cooperation is being implemented at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Mumbai. It will enable foreigners residing in the consular district of the Polish post in Mumbai, which covers eight states of central and southern India, to apply for Polish visas.

A further extension of border controls on the border with Slovakia

Due to the serious threat of illegal immigration, on 4 October 2023 border controls were reinstated on the Polish-Slovak section of the national border. Initially, the controls were in force until 13 October 2023, but there have already been two extensions and the current is in place until 22 November 2023.

On Friday 17 November 2023, the website of the Government Legislation Centre published a draft regulation of the Minister of Interior and Administration. Under it, the third extension of Polish-Slovak border controls is to apply from 23 November 2023 to 3 December 2023.