Poland · Business & founder
Temporary Residence Permit for Business Activity
Open
Last verified July 2026
Open. From 2026 applications are submitted exclusively online through the MOS system.
Poland has no investor route at any price — this is the only business-based option, and it turns on the company's actual income or payroll rather than a capital deposit. Structure matters: a board member with shares gets this permit; a board member without shares gets a single work-and-residence permit instead.
Qualifying routes
—
Company with sufficient income
Company must have earned, in the preceding tax year, income of at least 12x the average gross monthly salary in the voivodeship of registration
—
Company employing Poles
Alternative: employ at least 2 Poles or work-authorised foreigners for at least 1 year prior to the application
The facts
- Total landed cost
- No capital threshold; the gate is company income or payroll. Personal income floor of PLN 1,010/month net (single) or PLN 823 per family member.
- Timeline
- 3–12 months — Voivodeship office backlogs vary widely; Mazowieckie is the slowest
- Physical presence
- Genuine business activity in Poland
- Family
- spouseminor children
- Permanent residency
- Generally 5 years of continuous residence
- Citizenship
- 3 years holding permanent residence plus a B1 Polish certificate — but see watch-outs on pending reform
- Language test
- B1 Polish certificate
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- company income of at least 12x voivodeship average gross monthly salary in the preceding tax year, or 2 employees for at least 1 yearpersonal income of at least PLN 1,010/month net, or PLN 823 per family membershareholding if applying as a board member
What can go wrong
- There is no investor or golden visa route in Poland at any price. Anyone offering one is selling something else.
- The income test is keyed to the voivodeship average salary, so the threshold varies by where the company is registered.
- Board members without shares fall outside this permit and need a single work-and-residence permit instead — get the structure right first.
- From 2026 filings are online-only via MOS.
- The citizenship endpoint is under active reform — see the Poland citizenship reform entry.