#Alert: New templates for applications for work permits and declarations on entrusting work to foreigners will take effect tomorrow (July 29)!

As of tomorrow, July 29, a new regulation of the Minister of Family and Social Policy on work permits and declarations on entrusting of work to foreigners will come into effect.

The new regulation refers in large part to the regulations currently in force, but it also contains solutions to make it easier for administrative bodies to carry out procedures for issuing work permits and entering declarations of entrustment of work to foreigners in the register of declarations. In addition, the new provisions clarify some issues concerning these proceedings, taking into account other regulations on the employment of foreigners or the needs of practice.

Unfortunately for employers and their attorneys, however, the new regulation may pose a serious organizational problem. In some cases, they will be forced to prepare new application forms and gather additional documentation to obtain the relevant permits.

The most significant changes introduced by the new regulation are presented below.

1.Clarification of the method of submitting applications for work permits, extending such permits and declarations on entrusting work to a foreigner in electronic form. It will be possible only through the IT system referred to in art. 4 sec. 1 point 8 of the Act on employment promotion and labor market institutions – currently this system is available on the praca.gov.pl portal (other options, e.g. submitting an application or declaration via the electronic inbox of a competent authority will not be possible).

2. Amendments to the procedure for issuing Labour Market Test (LMT), including:

• the obligation of the labour office to refer to the employer only those candidates who meet the requirements set out in the job offer and express interest in taking up a job (in practice, this means that a person who meets the conditions set out in such an offer will be able to refuse to accept it without fear of losing the unemployed status),
• clarification that the LMT is issued in the number of copies corresponding to the number of jobs for which no suitable candidates have been found,
• clarification that each LMT will have an unique identification number, and the labor office will upload information about this number on the praca.gov.pl portal to enable the immigration authorities to see it in the course of the procedure for a work permit,
• determination of the cases in which the labour office will be released from the obligation to accept a job offer and conduct proceedings for issuing LMT,
• change of the LMT template.

3. Defining a new application form for a work permit. The new form provides for the requirement to provide new data, including:

• the LMT number (if LMT required),
• name and code of the profession appropriate for the foreigner’s job (according to the classification of professions and specialties for the needs of the labor market, available at psz.praca.gov.pl); note: that the information on the name and code of the profession was required by the praca.gov.pl portal earlier, in the case of submitting applications through it, although the existing regulations did not specify this requirement, and
• the function of the person signing the application (e.g. member of the management board, proxy, proxy).

4. Defining a new model of an application for an extension of work permits. The form changes significantly. The scope of data necessary to complete it has been significantly extended and in practice it will correspond to the model application for a work permit.

5. Specifying a new model of declarations on entrusting work to a foreigner. New model:

• implements changes regarding declarations introduced by the Act of 17 December 2021 amending the Act on foreigners and certain other acts – includes, inter alia, abolition of the possibility of indicating partial periods of work in the declaration (in order to ensure that the total period of work does not exceed the maximum limit of 6 months in the next 12 months), and
• will take into account the scope of basic duties at the foreigner’s work position – this requirement is inconsistent with the Act on employment promotion and labor market institutions and will be unfavorable for employers (placing these data in the declaration means that any change in this respect, even without changing the foreigner’s position, will require submitting a new declaration).

6. Changes to the so-called criminal declarations related to work permits, extensions of such permits and statements on entrusting work to a foreigner, including:

• introducing new forms of such declarations,
• clarification of the impossibility of signing such declarations by proxies (except for commercial proxies); declarations, as a rule, should come from the employer (or persons authorized to represent it, e.g. members of the management board – in the case of capital companies),
• introducing the possibility of using declarations signed not earlier than 30 days before submitting the application (commonly used in practice also today).

7. Changes in the required documentation in matters relating to work permits, extensions of such permits and declarations, including:

• introducing the principle of attaching to the application in paper or electronic form, respectively, only copies or scans of documents and presenting the originals only at the request of the authority,
• lifting of the requirement to attach to the application a copy of an identity card or other document confirming the identity of the employer, who is a natural person,
• clarification that LMT about a given identification number can only be attached to one application for a work permit,
• lifting of the provisions providing for the possibility of submitting one copy of certain documents in the event that the employer submits applications for more than one foreigner at the same time,
• obligation to submit only pages of the passport containing the foreigner’s personal data,
• limitation of the requirement to present (i) the contract concluded between the entity entrusting the performance of work to the foreigner and the foreigner being the basis for the performance of work in accordance with the work permit and (ii) documents confirming the payment of social security contributions, if required, only for the extension of work permits type A.

The existing provisions will apply to procedures initiated and not completed before 29 July 2022. It is also possible to use the LMT issued on the basis of the hitherto provisions for the purposes of new proceedings.