ul. Dywizjonu AK "Jeleń" 7B/U4, WarszawaFine per foreigner
PLN 3,000–50,000
for illegal entrusting of work
On-the-spot fines
Up to PLN 10,000
by penalty notice, without a court
Document retention
Work period + 2 years
copy of each residence document
Arrears
Mandatory refusal
ZUS or tax arrears block new permits
Inspection look-back
24 months
obstructing an inspection bars permits
Key deadlines
7 days · 15 working days
and five more, each with its own trigger
On this page
Why immigration compliance matters now
For years, employing foreigners in Poland was mostly a paperwork problem: obtain the permit, file it, move on. Three reforms within a year changed that. The rules on employing foreigners moved into their own statute on 1 June 2025, work-permit and declaration fees rose fourfold or more on 1 December 2025, and residence applications moved online on 27 April 2026. The common thread is that the employer's own record now decides what the employer can do next.
The penalty lands on the company
Illegal entrusting of work is punished at PLN 3,000 to 50,000, with a floor of PLN 3,000 for each foreigner concerned. Ten people on the wrong terms is no longer a conversation with an inspector; it is a five-figure exposure.
Inspectors no longer need a court
Since June 2025 labour inspectors can impose fines of up to PLN 10,000 by penalty notice, on the day. Cases that used to die in the queue for a court hearing are now closed on site.
Your record blocks your next hire
ZUS or tax arrears, a failure to register staff for insurance, a repeat penalty within two years, or having obstructed an inspection in the last 24 months are now mandatory grounds to refuse a work permit. There is nothing to weigh and nothing to explain.
Illegal entrusting of work is broader than it sounds. It covers not only work without a permit, but work on a residence title that does not allow work, work in a different position or on different terms from the permit, and – on its own – the absence of a written contract before work starts. The last two do not feel like immigration breaches at all, which is exactly why they are the ones inspectors find.
Where the exposure actually is
Fines are the visible part. For most companies the more expensive consequences sit elsewhere – in lost hiring capacity, in liability for other people's staff, and, where a foreigner was staying illegally, in claims that the law presumes rather than requires the worker to prove.
| Risk | What follows |
|---|---|
| Illegal entrusting of work | Fine of PLN 3,000–50,000, not less than PLN 3,000 per foreigner; PLN 6,000–50,000 in aggravated forms, including charging the foreigner for arranging a permit. The foreigner is fined separately. |
| A missed duty on an earlier permit | A separate ground to refuse future permits. A notification forgotten last year becomes an obstacle to this year's recruitment. |
| ZUS or tax arrears | Mandatory refusal of work permits – the authority has no discretion left. |
| A foreigner staying illegally | Under the 2012 act on employing illegally staying foreigners: back pay, with employment presumed to have lasted three months, and – without a contract – pay presumed at three times the minimum wage; plus the cost of transferring dues to the worker's country of return. |
| Aggravated cases | Criminal liability for employing several illegally staying foreigners at once, or a minor, or for doing so persistently; up to 3 years' imprisonment where the conditions amount to particular exploitation or the worker is a trafficking victim. A court may also ban access to public funds for 1–5 years. |
| Your subcontractors' staff | A contractor or general contractor can be jointly liable for a subcontractor's unpaid wages and return costs, with due diligence as the defence. Construction, logistics and facility services are the usual places this bites. |
There is also a defence built into the same statute: an employer that performed its checking and record-keeping duties and registered the worker for social insurance is not liable under the criminal provisions of the 2012 act, unless it knew the document was forged. That defence exists only on paper – your paper. It is the single strongest argument for doing the boring part properly.
What our immigration compliance audit covers
An audit answers one question for every foreign national working for you, directly or through others: on what basis are they here, on what basis do they work, and can you prove both today? We look at the file, not at the HR system's summary of it.
People and documents
- A residence title for each foreigner – and whether it permits work
- Copies of residence documents held for the whole period of work and two years after
- Visa purpose codes, including Schengen visas issued by other states
- Nationals who since August 2026 cannot work during a visa-free stay
- Board members, prokurents and directors – not only employees
Work basis and terms
- Work permit, declaration, single permit, Blue Card, ICT or a statutory exemption – for each person
- Position, pay, working time and contract type against what the permit states
- The quarter-time floor and the minimum wage on part-time contracts
- Written contracts concluded before work started, in a language the employee understands
Duties and deadlines
- Notifications of taking up, not taking up and ending work
- The 7-day duties on declarations and for Ukrainian staff
- The 15-working-day notifications to the voivode under single permits
- ZUS registration within 7 days and the company's own arrears position
Beyond your payroll
- Temporary-work agencies and the legality of their placements
- Subcontractors and the general contractor's joint liability
- Posted workers and the posting-of-workers notifications
- B2B and civil-law arrangements that are employment in substance
Scope is set to your size and risk. For a company with a dozen foreign staff we review every file. For hundreds, we agree a sample weighted towards the places problems cluster – recent hires, contract changes, agency staff and expiring titles – and expand it if the sample says we should.
What audits usually find
None of these is exotic. They are the patterns we see repeatedly, in well-run companies with careful HR teams – usually because a process was built for the law as it stood in 2024.
| Finding | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| No copy of the residence document, or a copy of one that expired long ago | Without it the employer has no defence on an inspection, however genuine the document was – and loses the statutory defence under the 2012 act. |
| Work permit expired while the single-permit case is pending | The certificate of submission keeps the stay lawful, not the work. From the expiry date the work is illegal, and the fine is per person. |
| Terms changed without the permit following | A promotion, a shift to a different role or a pay cut below the stated minimum takes the work outside the permit. Some changes need a notification, others a new permit; many companies do neither. |
| Missed 7-day and 15-working-day notifications | Each is a breach on its own and now a ground to refuse future permits. |
| Employees on Schengen visas issued by other states | Since 1 June 2025 such a visa does not permit work in Poland, whatever the work permit says. |
| Contract signed after the first day | Illegal entrusting of work in its own right, even with a flawless permit. |
| Agency or subcontractor staff nobody checked | The workers are on your site; inspectors start with you. Joint liability may follow. |
| Internal procedures still citing permit types A–E | The forms no longer exist. A process that cannot be executed is not a process. |
How an audit runs
Scoping call
Headcount, nationalities, sites, agencies and subcontractors, recent changes. We agree whether to review every file or a weighted sample, and give a fixed fee before we start.
Document request
A short, specific list – not a data dump. Residence documents, permits and declarations, contracts, notifications and the ZUS and tax position. Everything goes through a secure channel and is processed only for the audit.
File review
Person by person: residence title, work basis, terms against the permit, deadlines met or missed. We flag anything time-critical as soon as we see it, not at the end.
Interviews
A short conversation with HR and payroll about how the process really runs – onboarding, changes, terminations and who watches the expiry dates.
Report and risk register
Each finding rated by severity, with the legal basis, the exposure and a concrete fix with a deadline. Written for HR to act on and for the board to read in five minutes.
Remediation
Late notifications filed, applications for modification or new permits lodged, contracts corrected, procedures rewritten. Where something cannot be cured, we tell you how to contain it.
Privilege and confidentiality. An audit carried out by attorneys-at-law is covered by professional secrecy. That matters if the audit finds something you would rather analyse before deciding what to do – which is precisely the case in which you want it done by lawyers rather than an HR consultancy.
What you receive
A clear report
An executive summary, a findings table and a person-by-person schedule. Red, amber, green – with the legal basis and the fix for each item.
A compliance calendar
The 7-day, 14-day, two-month, 15-day and 15-working-day duties tied to events your HR system already records, plus every permit and residence-title expiry in one place.
Procedures that work
An onboarding checklist, a change-of-terms checklist and an exit checklist, written for the law as it is in 2026 – and for the people who will actually use them.
Training
A session for HR, payroll and line managers on what they must check, when to call, and how to behave if an inspector arrives. In English or Polish.
Labour inspections and the Border Guard
Two authorities check the legality of employing foreigners: the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) and the Border Guard. Both can arrive unannounced, both can ask for personnel files on the spot, and either can be the start of proceedings that end in fines, refused permits or, for the foreigner, a return decision.
The first hour
Cooperate, but do not improvise. Identify the inspectors and the scope, provide what is asked for, keep a list of every document handed over, and call your lawyer. Obstructing an inspection is now a ground to refuse permits for 24 months – so how the first hour is handled has consequences two years out.
The penalty notice
An inspector may offer a penalty notice of up to PLN 10,000. Accepting it ends the matter quickly – and records a final penalty that counts against future permits. Refusing it sends the case to court. Which is better depends on the facts, and it has to be decided there and then.
After the inspection
Responses to the protocol, objections, follow-up correspondence and, where it comes to that, the defence in court proceedings. We also deal with the foreigners' side: their residence cases and any return proceedings.
Ongoing advisory and outsourcing
An audit tells you where you stand on one day. Most of our corporate clients then keep us on a monthly arrangement so that the next audit finds nothing.
Advisory on call
- Route selection for each new hire – permit, declaration, single permit, Blue Card, ICT or none
- Answers on changes of role, pay or hours before they happen
- Second opinions on documents presented by candidates
- An HR helpdesk in English and Polish
Outsourced handling
- Work permits and declarations through praca.gov.pl
- Employer annexes and notifications on the residence side
- Monitoring expiry dates and the notification calendar
- Quarterly or annual re-checks of personnel files
The arrangement is priced as a fixed monthly fee or per matter, whichever fits your volume. For companies hiring dozens of foreign staff a quarter, fixed fees are usually cheaper and always more predictable.
Restructurings, transactions and relocations
Corporate events are where immigration compliance most often breaks, because nobody on the deal team thinks of permits until the first payroll after closing.
| Event | What to check |
|---|---|
| Acquisition or due diligence | The legality of the target's foreign workforce, its arrears and inspection history. Under the 2025 act the target's compliance record affects its ability to hire after closing. |
| Merger, change of name or legal form, transfer of undertaking | Many of these can be handled by notifications to the voivode rather than new permits – but only if the notifications are made on time. Missed, they leave staff on permits that no longer match their employer. |
| New Polish entity | Work permits for an employer trading for less than a year are capped at one year, so a first-year team renews everything at once. Board members of the new company need their own legal basis. |
| Relocating staff to Poland | Choosing between ICT, Blue Card, single permit and posting – a choice that also decides whether the years count towards long-term residence. |
Agencies, subcontractors and posted workers
Workers who are not on your payroll are still on your site. Inspectors start with the business where the work is done.
Temporary-work agencies
Directing a foreigner to work through an entity that is not a licensed agency carries a fine of not less than PLN 6,000 per person. Check the licence, and check the agency's permits for the people it sends you.
Subcontractors
A general contractor can be jointly liable for a subcontractor's illegally staying workers. Contract clauses help, but only verification is a defence: right-to-work evidence before people arrive on site, and periodic checks after.
Posted workers
Foreign employers posting staff to Poland need a posting permit or an EU-law basis, a representative in Poland, and the separate posting-of-workers notifications. See our pages on work permits and EU service providers.
How we work with employers
We act for the company. In this area the employer is the applicant, the party and the one the penalties land on, so that is where our instructions sit – and it lets us take the work off your HR team rather than supervise them through it. KRASUSKI Legal has advised on immigration law since 2014, from offices in Warsaw and Wrocław, for companies ranging from start-ups with their first foreign hire to groups employing foreigners in the hundreds.
Audit
- Fixed-fee immigration compliance audit
- Report, risk register and person-by-person schedule
- Remediation of everything found
Advisory
- Monthly retainer or per matter
- Route selection, changes and exits
- Procedures, checklists and HR training
Disputes
- Representation during PIP and Border Guard inspections
- Penalty proceedings and court defence
- Appeals against refused permits
Not sure where you stand?
Tell us how many foreign nationals work for you – directly, through agencies and through subcontractors – and on what bases. We will propose a scope and a fixed fee for the audit, and tell you straight away if anything you describe needs attention this week.
Ask about an audit → Email usFrequently asked questions
What does an immigration compliance audit cost?+
It depends on the number of foreign staff and whether we review every file or a sample. We quote a fixed fee after a short scoping call, before any work starts, so the cost is known in advance.
How long does an audit take?+
For a company with up to a few dozen foreign staff, usually two to four weeks from receiving the documents to the final report. Anything time-critical – an expired work title, a deadline about to pass – is flagged as soon as we see it, not at the end.
We already use an agency for permits. Do we still need an audit?+
Often, yes. Agencies file applications; an audit checks what happens after – whether the terms still match the permits, whether notifications were made, whether documents are kept, and whether agency and subcontractor staff are covered. Those are the points inspectors look at.
What happens if the audit finds a problem?+
We tell you what it is, what the exposure is and how to fix it. Many issues can be cured – late notifications filed, permits modified or replaced, contracts corrected. Where something cannot be undone, we advise on how to contain it. The audit is covered by attorney-client confidentiality.
Who inspects the legality of employing foreigners?+
The National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) and the Border Guard. Both can inspect unannounced and request personnel files. Since June 2025 labour inspectors can also impose fines of up to PLN 10,000 by penalty notice without going to court.
Should we accept a penalty notice offered by an inspector?+
It depends on the facts. Accepting closes the matter quickly but records a final penalty, which can count against your future work-permit applications. Refusing sends the case to court. It is a decision worth taking with a lawyer on the phone, because it has to be taken on the spot.
How long must we keep copies of residence documents?+
For the whole period of work and for two years after it ends. Without a copy the employer has no defence on an inspection, however genuine the document was.
Are we liable for our subcontractors' workers?+
Potentially. Under the 2012 act on employing illegally staying foreigners, a contractor or general contractor can be jointly liable for a subcontractor's unpaid wages and return costs. Due diligence is the defence, so right-to-work checks before people arrive on site matter.
Do you work in English?+
Yes. Reports, training and day-to-day advice are available in English and Polish, and we regularly work with international HR teams and group legal departments.
Your attorney
Konrad Krasuski – Attorney-at-law
Konrad leads the firm's employer practice: immigration compliance audits, work permits and declarations, compliance programmes for companies hiring at volume, and representation in labour inspections and penalty proceedings. If you are not sure your files would survive an inspection, that is the conversation to have with him first.
k.krasuski@krasuski.legal
Warsaw: +48 502 115 589 Wrocław: +48 71 719 59 08
Related guides
Legal status as of October 2026. This article is general information and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. Whether a particular engagement complies with Polish law depends on the documents and can only be assessed on them.
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