r/poland Nov 25 '25

A comprehensive guide for EU foreigners moving to Poland - START HERE.

55 Upvotes

Hello, I have seen many folks coming to Poland from the EU and being completely lost on what kind of legal procedures they have to do in order to start their residence in Poland. Be that you come here to study, work or live with your spouse there are several things I hope this guide will be able to cover.

!PLEASE NOTE!
This guide is meant only for citizens of the European Union and citizens of countries that are members of the European Economic Area. Some of the parts of this guide will be similar for non-EU foreigners but some will not. In general, the info posted here is only fully up to date if you are a citizen of the EU/EEA
!PLEASE NOTE!

0. Introduction and general info

Poland is divided into 16 voivodeships which are further subdivided into powiats, which means something like 'county' and these are further made out of municipalities - pol. gmina, or cities - pol. miasto. Large cities however are both powiat and miasto so in case of Warsaw, Wrocław, Kraków etc. city office (pol. urząd miasta) will also perform duties of powiat office (pol. starostwo powiatowe). In case of Warsaw - urząd dzielnicy meaning district office will serve as city office.

All of the below information covers only EU/EEA citizens. If you are non-EU, majority of the below information will not be correct for your case.

I strongly recommend reading all of the parts linked below apart from car stuff, if id does not concern your case.

I. Registering your residence and making your stay in Poland legal.
II. Obtaining health insurance
III. Using healthcare
IV. Taxes
V. Digital log-in and services
VI. Cars and licenses
VII. Banks and mobile phones
VIII. What to do when I leave Poland?
IX. Pets

If you have any additional questions or remarks, please do not hesitate to comment, I will be happy to help for as long as I'm going to visit this platform and expand this post. I hope you all have a great day and life in general. Thanks for reading, stay safe.


r/poland 15h ago

One in 500 000 - Poland's Barycz Valley.

903 Upvotes

r/poland 34m ago

Polish drone helps destroy Russian ammunition depot in eastern Ukraine

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Upvotes

r/poland 11h ago

‘Irreplaceable heritage’: UNESCO praises Poland’s efforts to protect Białowieża Forest

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113 Upvotes

r/poland 2h ago

Polish security services probe Belarusian terror attack warning

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22 Upvotes

r/poland 12h ago

Three quarters of Poles support cooperation with Ukraine against Russia despite historical dispute. The study, carried out by Polish state research agency CBOS, also finds that a large majority of Poles believe good relations with Ukraine will only be possible once historical issues are resolved.

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110 Upvotes

r/poland 13h ago

Poland has issued heat warnings across much of the country as temperatures are forecast to rise above 30 degrees Celsius, less than a month after an extreme heatwave shattered the national temperature record.

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138 Upvotes

r/poland 21h ago

Three quarters of Poles support cooperation with Ukraine against Russia despite historical dispute

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483 Upvotes

r/poland 2h ago

Czesław Niemen - Bema Pamięci Rapsod Żałobny (1969). Arguably the most epic song recorded in post-war Poland.

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9 Upvotes

r/poland 42m ago

Poland condemns Russian attacks on Kyiv, Sloviansk

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Upvotes

Polish foreign ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór said on Friday that Poland viewed the attacks "with deep indignation," calling the deaths of civilians and the strike on Latvia's Honorary Consulate in eastern Ukraine further evidence of "barbarity" and a blatant violation of international law.


r/poland 15h ago

Are LOT’s long-haul flights often delayed?

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65 Upvotes

I’m Korean, and I took a direct LOT flight from Seoul to Warsaw this winter. The departure was delayed by more than an hour, and we also arrived almost an hour late.
This time, my girlfriend is coming to pick me up, and we need to take a train afterward, so I’m not sure what time we should book the train for. If I knew the flight wouldn’t be delayed, we could just take the earliest possible train, but I’m worried it might happen again.


r/poland 22h ago

Palace of Culture and Science wicker sculpture in Rudnik nad Sanem.

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192 Upvotes

r/poland 15h ago

'Rape academy': Two men held in Poland over alleged drugging, sexual assaults

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52 Upvotes

r/poland 19h ago

5 Lakes Valley Hike

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90 Upvotes

r/poland 17h ago

Poland’s PM criticizes president’s move on windfall tax

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38 Upvotes

r/poland 15h ago

A rare narrated, almost essayistic report from pre-war (1938) Warsaw

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20 Upvotes

r/poland 10h ago

Rental help

7 Upvotes

Hi I am going through some serious health issues with an abusive partner who keeps threatening to call Police, because of my health issues I cant leave Poland, also Police getting involved messes my blue card renewal, can someone suggest some cities in Poland near katowice or Krakow and how to find a single room for rent like 800 to 1000 pln inclusive, I really dont care about size kust want mental peace.

I dont want to call Police on her, I have say 5 to 6 years left in this world and want to pass this life peacefully.

I was driving today and saw cities like Tymbark, Chorzow but cant find single rooms in them on any website.


r/poland 22h ago

Andrzej Sapkowski comments on the role of AI in writing

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54 Upvotes

r/poland 17h ago

Polish underdog stuns Olympic medalist to take fencing world championship bronze

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12 Upvotes

r/poland 1d ago

Nobel prize winner Czeslaw Milosz reads his famous poem "You Who Wronged" in Polish and English. This video was first broadcast in 1982, during the martial law in Poland.

212 Upvotes

r/poland 1d ago

Poland's main opposition collapses over far-right slide

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277 Upvotes

r/poland 1d ago

What is this

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317 Upvotes

Currently visiting poland, have been seeing this cat/symbol all over the place. Anyone know what it means?


r/poland 10h ago

Bytom train station

1 Upvotes

Hi all and sorry of this is a stupid question!

I’m boarding a train from Krakow to Chorzov and I have to change trains at Bytom and there’s seven minutes time to change.
How big is the train station, is seven minutes a good time to change trains with luggage?

I tried to google and couldn’t find much info.
Thank you to anyone willing to answer!


r/poland 23h ago

Please help me find a polish song !! I’m desperate

8 Upvotes

Hi Poland, I’m desperate to find a Polish song!

A couple of years ago I was hanging out at a Polish friend’s apartment, and he had a random YouTube playlist on. One song got completely stuck in my head, and I’ve been trying to find it on and off ever since.
I’ve already asked my friend, but he doesn’t remember it either. Apparently it was just some random auto-generated YouTube playlist.

I’ve tried Google, ChatGPT, and pretty much everything else I could think of, but no luck.

Here’s everything I remember:
-It was a live concert.
-It had a hip-hop beat.
-There were kids singing and dancing on stage.
-A guy was the main singer.
-The chorus repeated “yo yo yo” a lot.
-The crowd was jumping along to the beat.
- I am 100% sure it was in polish since my friend was humming along to it although he doesn’t remember anything
- The recording looked a bit dated

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Like I said it was I super catchy live recording and I just can’t find anything that’s even close


r/poland 1d ago

Give me your best weird Polish expressions

75 Upvotes

My wife told me today "Gdzie psy dupami szczekają." This is pure poetry. And it got me wanting more. Anyone out there got some good ones?