Urząd Wojewódzki (English: Voivodeship Office) is a place expats see a lot of during their stay in Poland, especially its department for foreigners. You will need to book an appointment there to get a residence card or file a work permit application. Let us take you to step by step through this.

1. What do you need it for?

You will need to stop by a department for foreigners in your local Voivodeship Office to obtain your residence permit, extend your visa, get a work permit, or invite a foreigner. If you are an EU citizen, this is also your go-to place to secure all formalities regarding your stay legalization.

Before you file your application, learn what documents you need for a temporary residence permit.

2. Find your office

First of all, every ex-pat needs to find a Voivodeship Office relevant for their place of residence. There are sixteen of them, all located in major Polish cities, so one for each administrative region in Poland: Wrocław, Bydgoszcz, Lublin, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Łódź, Kraków, Warszawa, Opole, Rzeszów, Białystok, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kielce, Olsztyn, Poznań, Szczecin. You can find the full list of Voivodeship Offices with addresses here.

3. Book a visit online

Some Voivodeship Offices have introduced online bookings, which means that you do not need to contact them in any other way than via the Internet to schedule an appointment. Once the date is set, you are free to come on this specific day and time, and you are spared from visiting the office twice. This, however, does not work in all Voivodeship Offices. The booking system has been introduced so far e.g. in Wrocław, Gdańsk, Warszawa, Poznań. Unfortunately, some of the scheduling systems are available only in Polish, while in other cities you may need to...

4. Book a visit traditional way

Those Voivodeship Offices which have not introduced such systems can be still reached via e-mail or phone. You can find all the necessary information by clicking the name of your relevant office in the list provided in point 2. It is always important to plan your appointments in advance, as for some offices it may take more time to deal with the number of cases.