Work in Poland. Work permits for foreigners – India, Uzbekistan and Turkey are in the lead, data from the Ministry of Family and Social Policy

As the Ministry emphasizes, “Our labor market has been understaffed for years. In the ManpowerGroup survey, employers consistently report difficulties in recruiting employees with the required competencies – in 2023, 72% of employers faced these difficulties.”

Family Ministry data show that in the first half of 2023, 145,136 work permits were issued to foreigners. The ministry indicated that “data for the first half of 2023 may still be updated.”

Most of the permits went to citizens of India, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Nepal. Here are the top ten:

The above countries are responsible for about 72%. All permits issued from January to June 2023.

Kazakhstan (3,787), Vietnam (3,728) and Belarus (3,637) were outside the top ten.

In 2022, the largest number of permits were granted to citizens of Ukraine – 85,074 and India – 41,640.

In total, in the years 2015-2023 (until June 30 of this year), Poland issued 2,623,606 work permits to foreigners. In the above-mentioned period, the largest number of permits were issued in 2021 – more than half a million.

As we can read on government websites, a foreigner needs a work permit if he is to work in Poland under a contract with an entity whose registered office, place of residence, branch, factory or other form of regulated activity is located on the Vistula River.