Mandatory Electronic Filing for Polish Residence Applications via MOS System

At a glance

• On 27 April 2026, key provisions of Section VIA of the Polish Act on Foreigners (Act) took effect.
• Certain applications for temporary residence permits, permanent residence permits, and EU long-term resident permits must be submitted exclusively in electronic form via the MOS ICT system.
• Paper applications that were not delivered to the voivodeship offices before that date will not be processed.
• The Act introduces strict and formalised requirements regarding the submission of applications, meaning that failure to comply with the prescribed electronic form may result in the application being deemed not effectively filed.
• For the time being, the application cannot be submitted by an authorised representative; it must be filed personally by the foreign national and signed using a trusted profile, a qualified electronic signature, or a personal signature.

As of 27 April 2026, certain applications for temporary residence permits, permanent residence permits, and EU long-term resident permits must be submitted exclusively in electronic form via the MOS ICT system.

This includes temporary residence permits for the purpose of employment. However, certain categories remain outside the scope of MOS, such as applications for temporary residence permits relating to intra-corporate transfers of managers, specialists, or trainee employees, and may still be submitted in paper form.

This reform effectively eliminates paper filing for the covered categories. Any paper applications not physically received by the competent voivodeship office before 27 April 2026 will not be examined, regardless of the date of postal dispatch.

Applications submitted via MOS must be signed electronically using a trusted profile, a qualified electronic signature, or a personal signature (ie an eID-based signature embedded in a Polish ID card). An application that is not properly signed by the foreign national or their authorised representative will not be considered effectively filed.

All required supporting documents must likewise be submitted electronically through MOS, using dedicated electronic forms, and each document must be signed in one of the above-mentioned ways. Where a temporary residence and work permit or an EU Blue Card is sought, the applicant must make the relevant employment annex available to the employer for electronic completion. 

Despite full digitalisation of the filing procedure, the requirement of personal appearance at the voivodeship office remains in place where requested by the voivode.