A Polish technology company based in Warsaw had grown rapidly. It needed to deploy a team of fifteen specialists – some Polish nationals returning from abroad, others third-country nationals already employed in Poland – to a new operational hub in Kraków. The relocation looked simple on paper. In practice, it triggered a cascade of permit, registration, and contract obligations that the company's HR team had not anticipated.
Relocating employees within Poland – or repatriating Polish nationals from foreign assignments – involves overlapping obligations under Polish labour law, immigration regulations, and social security rules. Third-country nationals already holding work permits tied to one employer and location must obtain amended or new authorisations before starting work at a different site. Failure to comply exposes the employer to administrative penalties and the employee to loss of legal status in Poland.
This case study traces how KORDECKI & Partners structured the relocation, resolved permit complications, and extracted transferable lessons for companies managing similar global mobility programmes. The matter involved three distinct employee categories, each requiring a different legal approach.
What was the background to this relocation matter?
The client was a Polish-registered technology company with its registered seat in Warsaw. Following a commercial contract win, it needed to staff a delivery centre in Kraków within sixty days. The workforce included Polish nationals returning from secondments in Germany and the Netherlands, Ukrainian nationals holding work permits issued by the Regional Labour Office (Urząd Pracy) in Warsaw, and one Indian national holding an EU Blue Card issued by the Voivode of Masovian Province.
Polish labour law imposes a general obligation to notify the relevant authority whenever an employee's place of work changes materially. For third-country nationals, the place of work is a mandatory element of the work permit. A change of city – from Warsaw to Kraków – therefore required formal permit amendments or entirely new authorisations, depending on permit type. The client had not budgeted for this and had already signed the commercial contract with a fixed start date.
The National Court Register (KRS) confirmed the company's registered seat remained in Warsaw, which created a further complication: the Kraków entity was a branch, not a separate legal person. This distinction determined which Voivode – Masovian or Lesser Poland – had jurisdiction over the permit applications. Getting that question wrong would have added weeks to the process.
- Fifteen employees across three legal categories
- Sixty-day commercial deadline
- Two Voivode offices with concurrent jurisdiction questions
- One EU Blue Card holder requiring a separate amendment track
- Polish returnees with interrupted social security histories
How did the legal team structure the strategy?
KORDECKI & Partners divided the workforce into three tracks. Each track had its own timeline, its own authority, and its own risk profile. Mixing the tracks – as the client's HR team had initially attempted – would have caused irreversible delays for the highest-risk category.
Track one covered the Polish returnees. Their employment contracts required updated annexes reflecting the new place of work and any changes to remuneration. Under Polish labour legislation, contract amendments must be documented in writing before the change takes effect. Two of the returnees had gaps in their ZUS (Social Insurance Institution, ZUS) contribution histories from their German assignment periods. We coordinated with the ZUS Warsaw branch to reconcile those histories before the Kraków transfer, preventing future pension calculation errors that would have been difficult to correct retroactively.
Track two covered the Ukrainian nationals. Their existing work permits, issued in Warsaw, specified both the employer and the place of work. A change to Kraków required applications to the Voivode of Lesser Poland Province (Małopolski Urząd Wojewódzki). Standard processing time runs up to ninety days. We applied for accelerated processing, available where the employer demonstrates an urgent operational need, reducing the effective timeline to approximately thirty working days. We also advised the client to issue bridging declarations (oświadczenia) for the transitional period, which is permissible under Polish immigration law for Ukrainian nationals in defined circumstances.
Track three covered the EU Blue Card holder. EU Blue Card amendments for a change of employer or work location within Poland must be notified to the issuing Voivode within a statutory period. Failure to notify within that window – which runs from the date the change occurs, not the date the employer becomes aware of the obligation – forfeits the card holder's protected status and triggers a fresh application. We filed the notification within five working days of instruction, preserving the card's validity throughout the transition.
We also reviewed all employment contracts against the whistleblower protection framework introduced under Polish law in 2024. One employee in the relocation cohort had previously raised an internal compliance concern. Ensuring that the relocation process could not be characterised as adverse treatment required documented, objective justification for all decisions affecting that individual.
What were the process outcomes and transferable lessons?
We secured completed permit amendments for all fifteen employees within fifty-three days – seven days inside the commercial deadline. We obtained accelerated permit decisions from the Voivode of Lesser Poland Province for six Ukrainian nationals in Kraków (winter 2025–2026). For a manufacturing client in Mazowieckie facing a comparable intra-Poland relocation, we had earlier resolved a similar permit conflict involving nine third-country nationals within forty days (autumn 2025).
Several lessons emerged that apply to any company managing intra-Poland relocations. First, the place of work in a work permit is a hard legal element, not an administrative detail. Employers who treat it as a formality risk personal liability for directors under Polish administrative law, with fines reaching PLN 30,000 per infringement. Second, EU Blue Card holders operate under a distinct legal regime. The notification obligation runs from the date of the actual change, creating a short window that HR systems rarely capture automatically. Third, social security reconciliation for returning Polish nationals is frequently overlooked. ZUS discrepancies discovered years later are far more costly to resolve than those addressed at the point of transfer.
For cross-border context, the Netherlands-to-Poland route raises additional posted-worker notification requirements, which are examined in our analysis of global mobility – relocating employees to Poland from the Netherlands. Companies operating across multiple Central European jurisdictions should also review how Slovak-law employment frameworks interact with Polish compliance obligations, as discussed in our guide on employment law compliance for Slovakia companies in Poland. Where relocation disputes escalate to contractual claims, the dispute resolution framework matters: our article on arbitration clauses for Polish contracts covers the drafting considerations.
- Verify permit scope before any relocation decision is communicated to the employee
- File EU Blue Card notifications within five working days of any change
- Reconcile ZUS histories for returning Polish nationals before the transfer date
- Document objective justification for all decisions affecting whistleblower-protected employees
- Confirm Voivode jurisdiction based on the branch location, not the registered seat
The sixty-day deadline imposed by the commercial contract was the single largest source of pressure in this matter. Intra-Poland relocations are frequently underestimated precisely because they appear domestic. They are not. For third-country nationals, the move from Warsaw to Kraków carries the same permit complexity as a cross-border transfer – and the same consequences for non-compliance.
To discuss how a structured relocation programme applies to your workforce, contact info@kordeckipartners.com. We will map the permit obligations, identify the critical-path items, and coordinate with the relevant Voivode offices on your behalf.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Can a third-country national simply start working in Kraków while a new permit application is pending?
A: No. A work permit specifies both the employer and the place of work. Working at an address not listed in the permit – even for the same employer – constitutes unauthorised work under Polish immigration law. The employer faces administrative penalties of up to PLN 30,000 per employee, and the employee risks revocation of their right to remain in Poland. The bridging declaration mechanism available for Ukrainian nationals is a specific statutory exception, not a general rule.
Q: How long does an accelerated work permit amendment take in practice?
A: Standard processing at a Polish Voivode office runs up to ninety days from the date of a complete application. Accelerated processing, available on demonstrated operational grounds, typically reduces this to twenty to thirty working days. The timeline depends on the specific Voivode office and current caseload. Submitting an incomplete application resets the clock, which is the most common cause of avoidable delay.
Q: Does relocating a Polish national from Warsaw to Kraków require any formal steps?
A: Yes. A change of place of work is a material change to the employment contract and must be documented in a written annex before the change takes effect. If the employee's remuneration, working hours, or other terms change as a result, those amendments must also be recorded in writing. Where the employee was previously on a foreign secondment, ZUS contribution histories should be reviewed and reconciled at the same time to avoid long-term social security complications.
KORDECKI & Partners is a law firm based in Warsaw and Krakow, advising business clients across 30 jurisdictions. Our team combines expertise in Polish and international law with a practical approach to employment, global mobility, and workforce compliance. We work with Polish entrepreneurs, foreign investors, and in-house legal teams. To discuss your situation, contact info@kordeckipartners.com.
Disclaimer: This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information herein should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel tailored to your specific circumstances. KORDECKI & Partners assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@kordeckipartners.com.