A draft law on the employment of foreigners has appeared on the Council of Ministers’ legislative work list. It assumes the transfer to a draft law of provisions on work permits, which are currently in the Employment Promotion and Labour Market Institutions Act.

On 1 July 2022, a further amendment was announced to the Act on Assistance to Citizens of Ukraine in Connection with the Armed Conflict on the Territory of the Country.

The amendment gives an additional 14 days for the submission of notifications on giving work to Ukrainian nationals and their family members if, for some reason, these notifications were not submitted earlier. This new deadline runs from the amendment’s entry into force, namely from 2 July 2022. It follows that a notification may be submitted up to and including 16 July. However, this deadline falls on a Saturday, and there is no information on the government’s website as to whether the deadline is therefore extended to Monday, and whether the system will allow notifications to be submitted on Monday. As a precaution, we advise against delaying with submitting such notifications.

Under the Act on Assistance to Ukrainian Citizens in Connection with the Armed Conflict in that Country of 12 March, employers may use a simplified procedure for legalizing the work of a Ukrainian citizen.

Nevertheless, in a latest amendment, legislators have abandoned the earlier simplification and now require employers to declare in their notifications the levels of remuneration, working hours and the numbers of all persons working under  employment contracts and under civil law contracts as at 23 February 2022 and as at the date of filing the notification.

Legislative work on the amendments to the Act has not yet completed. The Act has been already amended several times and further changes are possible.

A bill amending the Law on Foreign Citizens and other laws has appeared in the Council of Ministers’ list of legislative and programme works (draft number: UD275).

The bill’s main objective is to streamline proceedings on granting temporary residence permits for foreign citizens in Poland – including, in particular, the so-called “combined permits” (i.e. residence and work permits) – where flagrant breaches of statutory deadlines for handling these types of administrative matters are currently being noted. The changes are also intended to facilitate obtaining of work permits by foreign citizens intending to work in entities of particular strategic importance for Poland’s economy.