Poland Work Permit Types A to E: Match the Description, Not the Letter

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Poland work permit types A, B, C, D and E are not a menu. The letter follows from who employs you, where that employer is based, and what you will actually be doing. You do not pick one, and neither does an agent.

This guide quotes a Polish voivodeship office directly, and it also tells you something most guides leave out: the labelling is not consistent between official sources, and that matters when somebody quotes a letter at you.

Why the letter matters

The type determines which documents the file needs. A permit for someone employed by a Polish company requires different evidence from one for someone delegated by a foreign employer to provide a service.

Get the type wrong and the application does not simply proceed more slowly. It is built on the wrong basis, with the wrong supporting documents.

It also matters as a check on what you are being told. If an agent names a type that does not match your actual situation, either they have misunderstood the job or the job is not what they described.

The types in the office’s own words

The Pomeranian voivodeship department for foreigners’ affairs sets out when each work permit type applies. These are its own words, quoted rather than paraphrased.

Type A — “when your employee will be working in Poland and you run a business in the territory of the Republic of Poland”.

This is the ordinary case and the one most readers will be on. A Polish employer, a job in Poland, a contract under Polish conditions.

Type B — “when a foreigner will serve on the management board of a legal person entered in the register of entrepreneurs”.

This is about company governance rather than employment. Being a director is not the same as being hired.

Type C — “when a foreigner will work for a foreign employer and will be delegated to work in Poland for a period longer than 30 days”.

Here your employer stays foreign. You are sent to Poland by them.

Type D — “when a foreigner will work for a foreign employer and will be delegated to Poland for a period exceeding 30 days within the next 6 months — in order to provide an export service”.

Also a delegation, but tied specifically to providing an export service.

Type E, as this office describes it — “when a foreigner will be working in Poland as part of so-called seasonal work. This includes work in agriculture, horticulture and forestry, which lasts a maximum of 9 months a year”.

Which brings us to the complication.

A warning about the labels

We are going to be straight with you about something other guides state with more confidence than the sources support.

The office quoted above applies the letter E to seasonal work. Other official Polish material treats seasonal work as a separate permit administered differently, granted by the starosta rather than the voivode, applied for through the district labour office, and sometimes labelled with a different letter altogether.

We could not reconcile those two positions from primary sources, because the national migration portal that would settle it was not reachable when this guide was written. So rather than pick the version that sounds tidier, here is the honest position:

The letters are not applied consistently across official Polish sources.

The practical consequence is simple, and it protects you either way. Identify your situation from the descriptions, not from a letter somebody quotes at you. Then ask the office handling your case, or your employer who is filing the application, to confirm which type they are applying under.

This is also a useful test of an adviser. Someone who knows this area will not be thrown by the question. Someone reciting a memorised list may be.

If seasonal work is what you are actually being offered, our separate guide on seasonal work permits in Poland covers the substance of that route, including the nine month limit.

What does not change between types

Whatever the letter, three things hold, and they are the ones that matter most for spotting a bad offer.

The employer applies. A work permit is applied for by the entity entrusting the work, not by you. If somebody offers to obtain one for you with no employer involved, the story does not match the process.

It is issued in Poland. The permit comes from a Polish authority. As the Polish foreign ministry states, it “does not issue work permits or other documents entitling to work in Poland”, so a permit attributed to an embassy or consulate is fake. Our guide on checking whether a work permit is genuine covers how to test one.

The permit is not the visa. They are separate documents from separate authorities, and the permit comes first. If that distinction is still blurred, which document does what sets it out.

The fee, and why it stings

The same office states the application fee for types A, B and C as 100 PLN, and adds a sentence worth reading twice:

You pay for submitting your application and it is non-refundable regardless of the decision.

Non-refundable regardless of the decision. You are paying for the application to be considered, not for a permit.

That is a modest sum, and it is the employer who pays it. Its usefulness to you is as a benchmark. If somebody presents a much larger figure as the government permit fee, the published number contradicts them. Their own service fee is a separate, legitimate thing, and should be named as such.

Fees vary somewhat by type and situation, so confirm the current figure with the office handling your case. Our guide on what a Poland work permit actually costs takes the same approach across the whole process.

How to check your own case

Four questions settle which type applies to you.

1. Who is my employer, and where are they based? A Polish employer points towards type A. A foreign one points towards a delegation type.
2. Am I being employed, or appointed to a board? Governance is a different category from employment.
3. If delegated, for how long and for what? Duration and whether it is an export service both matter.
4. Is the work seasonal? If so, expect a separate route with a nine month ceiling, and confirm the letter locally.

Then ask your employer one direct question: which type are you applying under, and at which office. A genuine employer filing a genuine application can answer both parts immediately.

Match your circumstances to the description, ask the office to confirm the letter, and treat any adviser who cannot explain which type applies to you as someone who has not yet read your case.