While staying in Poland on the basis of a visa-free regime, something unexpected may happen, something that will prolong the period of stay in Poland. Therefore, if you want to avoid a situation in which you exceed 90 days of legal residence on the basis of the visa-free regime, having no other documents legalizing your stay, e.g. a residence card or a visa, you should familiarize yourself with the procedure for extending the visa-free regime.
At the beginning, it should be indicated who can benefit from this procedure. These are foreigners residing in Poland on the basis of visa-free travel in accordance with the signed international agreements or the regulations of the Council of the European Union of 15 March 2001 listing the countries whose citizens must have visas when crossing the external borders, and those whose citizens are exempt from this requirement if such a possibility is provided in the visa waiver agreement. Those countries are:
- Brazil,
- Argentina,
- Chile,
- Honduras,
- Costa Rica,
- Nicaragua,
- Singapore,
- Uruguay.
If the Immigration Office approves the application, a stamp will be placed on the passport stating that the legal stay has been extended by 90 days.
To extend the legal stay on the basis of the visa-free regime, an application must be submitted to the Immigration Office in person, no later than on the last day of legal stay in the territory of Poland. At the same time, the regulations regarding the described procedure do not allow sending such an application by post. It is the practice of the Immigration Offices to leave applications sent by post unprocessed. Furthermore, the regulations do not precisely indicate all the documents that are required in order for an application to be considered positively. However, the authorities assume that in addition to the application, the following documents should be submitted: - Passport
- Documents that justify the need to stay in Poland.
The application is not submitted on a predefined official form, unlike in the case of proceedings for e.g. temporary residence permit. Although there is no official form for the application, it must meet the requirements for this type of document contained in the general rules of administrative procedure and therefore should contain the personal data of the applicant (i.e. full name, date of birth, citizenship, address of residence on the territory of Poland) and a justification.
While waiting for the final decision, the applicant’s stay is legal.
Extension of the visa-free regime is a procedure which is rarely applied however, in certain situations beyond your control e.g. when you are receiving treatment in Poland and it has been unplanned, this application may be the only possible solution. As already mentioned in this article, the regulations do not indicate which documents are required and the application itself does not have a predetermined official form, nor do they list a catalog of cases allowing it to be successful. Therefore, before submitting the documents to the Immigration Office, it is advisable to seek expert advice to help you prepare and evaluate the materials you have collected, or to suggest what else could be useful to apply successfully.
At MyVisa, we remain at your disposal.
Author: Jakub Stawski
