Residence card

General information

The residence card confirms that the foreigner (a third-country citizen) has a residence title on the territory of the Republic of Poland in the form of:

• temporary residence permit (the document is issued with a validity period equal to the validity of the temporary residence permit granted),

• permanent residence permit (the document is issued with a validity period of 10 years),

• residence permit for a long-term EU resident (the document is issued with a validity period of 5 years),

• residence permit for humanitarian reasons (the document is issued with a validity period of 2 years).

Note: the residence card is also issued to foreigners who, on the basis of the provisions of the Act of 13 June 2003 on granting protection to foreigners on the territory of the Republic of Poland, have obtained refugee status on the territory of the Republic of Poland (a document issued with a validity period of 3 years) or subsidiary protection (a document issued with a validity period of 2 years).

The residence card, during its validity period, confirms the identity of the foreigner during their stay on the territory of the Republic of Poland and entitles, together with a valid travel document, to cross the border multiple times without the need to obtain a visa.

In addition, the residence card entitles its holder to travel within the Schengen area as part of a short-term stay, i.e., for a period not exceeding 90 days during any 180-day period, if the foreigner:

• has a valid travel document,

• can justify the purpose and conditions of the planned stay,

• has sufficient means of subsistence or the possibility of obtaining them in accordance with the law,

• is not considered to constitute a threat to public policy, internal security, public health or international relations of any of the Member States and, in particular, no alert has been issued on that basis for the purposes of refusing entry in the national databases of the Member States.

In addition, the data of the foreigner should not be included in the national list of alerts for the purposes of refusing entry of the Member State concerned.

Model residence permit: