EXPAT ESSENTIALSPOLAND
Karta pobytu waiting times in Poland: November 2026 report.
How long does a temporary residence permit take in each voivodeship? On 7 October 2026 we asked all 16 voivodeship offices, in a formal request for public information, for their own processing times. 10 offices sent figures. This report puts their answers side by side, shows how 2026 compares with 2025, and publishes the full data as an open dataset under CC BY 4.0.
- Official figures from 10 of 16 offices
- Decisions issued 1 Jan–30 Sep 2026 vs 2025
- Open data, free to reuse with credit
Residence permits · Data report · Published: 5 November 2026 · By the Expat Essentials Poland editorial team
What the offices told us.
- 6 of 10 offices got slower. Average temporary-residence waits rose in Kraków, Olsztyn, Rzeszów, Łódź, Warsaw, Gorzów Wielkopolski. They fell in Szczecin, Opole, Bydgoszcz. Poznań reported about the same figure (about 340 days) for both years.
- Warsaw had the biggest jump: 271 days in 2025, 429 days for decisions issued in January–September 2026. That is 158 days, or 58.3%, longer.
- Opole improved the most: from 604 to 498 days (−106 days, −17.5%), but it is still among the slowest offices.
- Where you file matters. Kraków reported 250 days and Bydgoszcz 539 days, so the slowest replying office takes 2.16 times as long as the fastest.
- The simple average of the 10 office averages went from 368 days (2025) to 401 days (2026). This is an unweighted average of office averages, not a national figure.
Temporary residence, office by office.
Average days from application to decision, temporary residence (all purposes), as stated by each office. Sorted from fastest to slowest in 2026. Scroll sideways on a phone.
| Voivodeship (office) | 2026 (1 Jan–30 Sep) | 2025 | Change | Cases pending | Source (letter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MałopolskieKraków | 250 days | 183 | +67 (+36.6%) | 39,22719 Oct 2026 | SC-I.1331.28.2026, 19 Oct 2026 |
| Warmińsko-MazurskieOlsztyn | 279 days | 211 | +68 (+32.2%) | 5,00330 Sep 2026 | e-mail, 21 Oct 2026 |
| PodkarpackieRzeszów | 314 days | 246 | +68 (+27.6%) | see dataset | O-II.1331.27.2026, 8 Oct 2026 |
| WielkopolskiePoznań | 340 days (approx.) | 340 (approx.) | +0 (+0.0%) | 54,00020 Oct 2026 | SC-XI.1331.28.2026, 20 Oct 2026 |
| ŁódzkieŁódź | 384 days | 324 | +60 (+18.5%) | 48,62630 Sep 2026 | SOC-IV.1331.14.2026, 16 Oct 2026 |
| MazowieckieWarsaw | 429 days | 271 | +158 (+58.3%) | see dataset | WSC-IV.1331.30.2026, 16 Oct 2026 |
| ZachodniopomorskieSzczecin | 462 days | 466 | -4 (-0.9%) | 45,40230 Sep 2026 | WSC-1.1331.24.2026, 21 Oct 2026 |
| OpolskieOpole | 498 days | 604 | -106 (-17.5%) | see dataset | SO.II.1331.24.2026, 21 Oct 2026 |
| LubuskieGorzów Wielkopolski | 518 days | 494 | +24 (+4.9%) | 23,03522 Oct 2026 | SO-IV.1331.23.2026.ESzo, 22 Oct 2026 |
| Kujawsko-PomorskieBydgoszcz | 539 days | 545 | -6 (-1.1%) | see dataset | BW.II.1331.268.2026, 21 Oct 2026 |
Permanent residence and EU long-term resident.
Average days to decision, same offices and periods.
| Office | Permanent 2025 | Permanent 2026 | EU long-term 2025 | EU long-term 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kraków | 136 | 171 | 108 | 123 |
| Olsztyn | 174 | 268 | 188 | 238 |
| Rzeszów | 263 | 355 | 283 | 375 |
| Poznań | 260 | 230 | 360 | 340 |
| Łódź | 315 | 329 | 246 | 278 |
| Warsaw | 183 | 251 | 288 | 447 |
| Szczecin | 340 | 414 | 436 | 468 |
| Opole | 644 | 606 | 701 | 787 |
| Gorzów Wielkopolski | 182 | 172 | 354 | 423 |
| Bydgoszcz | 214 | 194 | 394 | 357 |
Offices without figures.
These six offices have not sent figures yet. We do not estimate their numbers. Status on 5 Nov 2026:
| DolnośląskieWrocław | No data in this editionNo reply yet. Reminder sent 22 Oct 2026. |
|---|---|
| LubelskieLublin | No data in this editionOffice asked for formal details and a public-interest justification; we replied 22 Oct 2026. Office’s new reply date: 6 Dec 2026. |
| PodlaskieBiałystok | No data in this editionOffice asked for a postal address; request pending. |
| PomorskieGdańsk | No data in this editionOffice asked us to complete the request; we replied 22 Oct 2026. Reply due by 30 Nov 2026. |
| ŚląskieKatowice | No data in this editionOffice asked us to show a particular public interest; we replied 15 Oct 2026. Request pending. |
| ŚwiętokrzyskieKielce | No data in this editionOffice extended its reply deadline; request pending. |
How we collected the data.
- On 7 October 2026 we sent the same request for public information (under the Polish Access to Public Information Act) to all 16 voivodeship offices.
- We asked for the average time from application to decision for temporary residence, permanent residence and EU long-term resident permits, for decisions issued in 2025 and from 1 January to 30 September 2026, plus the number of applications and pending cases.
- Figures are copied exactly from the offices’ letters (dated 8–22 October 2026). The letter reference for each office is in the table. Change in % = (2026 − 2025) / 2025.
- We do not mix in estimates, news reports or reader reports. Our live waiting-times tracker also shows UdSC figures for all 16 offices. Community reports from our wait-times board are not part of this dataset.
Read this before you quote a number.
- These are averages of finished cases, not medians and not a forecast for your case. A few very long cases can raise an average.
- Offices count differently. Rzeszów’s average includes refusals, discontinued cases and cases left without consideration. Szczecin says its reports do not define the start date of the count.
- Poznań gave approximate values (“about”).
- Pending-case counts have different dates and scopes (some cover all three permit types). Do not add them up.
- 2026 covers nine months only, so it is not a full-year comparison.
- Only 10 of 16 offices replied with figures, so this is not a national picture.
Download, reuse and cite.
The dataset (CSV and JSON, one row per office and one row per figure) is free to reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence. You only need to credit us.
- GitHub dataset (CC BY 4.0) — CSV, JSON, licence
- Download CSV — one row per office
- Download CSV — long format (one row per figure)
- Download ZIP pack (CSV + JSON)
- JSON on GitHub (raw)
Hugging Face: not published yet — needs a token from the site owner.
How to cite
Expat Essentials Poland (2026). Karta pobytu waiting times in Poland by voivodeship office, November 2026. Data from voivodeship offices’ replies to public-information requests. CC BY 4.0. https://expatessentials.pl/karta-pobytu-waiting-times-november-2026-report/
Next edition: early December 2026, with any new office replies.
Waiting for your decision?
Use our free tools: check whether you can write a formal reminder (ponaglenie), generate the letter, check the CUKR rules and ask EEP a question.