#ALERT: Traveling not available to everyone who fled the war in Ukraine

Refugees from Ukraine will be able to travel e.g. between Poland and Ukraine or within the Schengen area. In some cases, foreigners may use previously obtained documents and do not have to visit the authorities again.

Poland notified the European Commission of two types of documents, which are therefore treated by other EU Member States as documents enabling their holders to travel.

Polish residence permits that will allow travelling are:

• electronic document (called “Diia.pl”) available in the mobile application “mObywatel”, for people covered by the so-called Ukrainian Special Bill;
• certificate of using temporary protection under European Union law (issued in paper form by the Office for Foreigners in Warsaw).

The above documents can be used to cross the external borders of the European Union and internal borders of Schengen zone.

The maximum period of stay in the countries of Schengen area (other than Poland) on the basis of these documents is up to 90 days (counting in the last 180 days). The stay in Poland is not included in this period. This is the same period of stay in other Schengen countries as for foreigners who have standard Polish residence cards.

We informed about what an electronic document is and how to obtain it in an earlier entry here.

However, the electronic document is only available to adults. This means that children under the age of 18 are not able to travel based on it. We hope that the government will work out a solution for this in the near future.

The above problem does not apply to certificates of using temporary protection. They are issued to foreigners regardless of their age. However, obtaining this certificate is limited mainly to citizens of countries other than Ukraine who previously resided in Ukrainian territory on the basis of e.g. permanent residence permit.

The Polish Border Guard emphasizes that foreigners should also hold a valid passport when traveling. This may be another problem for Ukrainians. Many of them left for Poland in a hurry, e.g. with an expired passport.

EU regulations also require that a passport of the traveller was issued no earlier than 10 years earlier. Many Ukrainian citizens did not have opportunity to obtain a new document. They chose to extend their passport in an Ukrainian consulate. Their passports may therefore be valid, but older than 10 years at the same time.

It is not known how other Schengen states will enforce the requirement on age of passport. In the past, the European Commission issued guidelines to EU member states to limit formalism in the treatment of refugees from Ukraine. We hope that similar guidelines will also be issued for person who would like to travel on the basis of a passport older than 10 years.