Long waiting times in Lower Silesia for residence cards: The Commissioner for Human Rights intervenes
Poland’s Commissioner for Human Rights is receiving complaints on abnormally long waiting times for residence cards to be issued to foreigners by the Governor of Lower Silesian Province, once the foreigners have obtained a Polish residence permit (at least 44 complaints were received on this, just from June to mid-July 2023). The Commissioner has intervened and sent a letter to the Governor of Lower Silesia requesting details of the scale of the problem, its causes, as well as the corrective measures the authority is putting into place.
In his response, the Governor of Lower Silesia pointed to, among others:
- the significant increase in the number of residence decisions issued (from 13,098 in 2020 to 30,217 alone, in the first half of 2023),
- the significant shortages of staff at the authority, requiring the involvement in the department’s work of staff from other parts of the organisation, as well as interns and trainees.
The governor summarised that the current waiting time for a residence card to be issued is about 4 months.
More details, as well as the full letter of the Human Rights Commissioner and the Lower Silesian Governor’s reply are available here.