MOS residence permit waiting times

There is a legal decision period, there is how long proceedings have actually taken, and there is your own case. They are three different things, and mixing them up is the main reason waiting times in Poland are so confusing.

Last reviewed:
Data period:
2026, as of 6 July (official statistics)

There are three different “waiting times”

1. Formal decision period

Official procedure

Under Article 112a of the Act on Foreigners, a decision on a temporary residence permit is issued within 60 days. For an application submitted through MOS, the 60 days run from the later of two events:

  • you submitted an application with no formal deficiencies, or the deficiencies were fixed;
  • you provided the documents the voivode asked for to confirm your data and circumstances, or the deadline set for providing them passed.

For a permanent residence permit and an EU long-term resident permit, the Act sets a period of 6 months, counted in the same way. An appeal is to be completed within 90 days.

PolandEase explanation

This period should not be read as the total time from pressing “send” in MOS to receiving a decision. It only starts once the application is formally complete and the requested documents are in.

The starting conditions changed when MOS became mandatory. Before that, the period also depended on the date of your in-person visit to the office. Cases started before the change continue under the earlier rules.

2. Real processing time

Official statistics

In July 2026 the Ministry of Interior and Administration published the average duration of temporary residence proceedings for every voivodeship. For 2026 the averages range from 242 days in Małopolskie to 658 days in Śląskie.

Voivodeship2026 average, days2025 average, days
Dolnośląskie303273
Kujawsko-Pomorskie541545
Lubelskie386233
Lubuskie555494
Łódzkie386336
Małopolskie242183
Mazowieckie394271
Opolskie510604
Podkarpackie302246
Podlaskie447290
Pomorskie598544
Śląskie658637
Świętokrzyskie325276
Warmińsko-Mazurskie273211
Wielkopolskie339344
Zachodniopomorskie465465

Source: official response of the Ministry of Interior and Administration to interpellation no. 18089, published by the Sejm in July 2026. 2026 figures are as of 6 July 2026.

PolandEase explanation

Every voivodeship’s 2026 average is at least four times the 60-day period. That is the gap between the formal decision period and real processing time.

These figures cover temporary residence only. For Mazowieckie the same source also gives permanent residence and EU long-term resident figures. See residence permit waiting times in Warsaw.

3. Your individual case

Official statistics

The Ministry states that the duration of proceedings differs between voivodeships and links it to several things: the number of applications submitted to each office, system-level solutions including legislation and the degree of digitisation, the staffing of voivodeship offices, and actions on the applicant’s side. It also notes that in some cases longer waits result from additional measures introduced for state security.

PolandEase explanation

So your own timing depends on your voivodeship, your permit type, whether the application was complete, and whether the office asks you for more documents. An average cannot tell you which of those will apply to you.

How to read these numbers

PolandEase explanation

  • Averages describe past cases. The ministry explains the rise in the Mazowieckie average by decisions issued in older cases, which indicates the averages are calculated from cases that were decided. They do not predict a specific case.
  • An average can hide a wide spread. Some cases finish far sooner than the average and some far later.
  • A legal time limit and elapsed time are not the same thing. The 60 days and the 394 days measure different things, from different starting points.
  • 2026 figures are a part-year. The source gives them as of 6 July 2026.
  • These are mostly pre-MOS cases. MOS became mandatory on 27 April 2026, about ten weeks before the data was compiled. Applications submitted through MOS may behave differently, and there is no official data on them yet.

Community-reported waiting times

Community experience

No PolandEase community statistics are published yet.

PolandEase is building a community timeline database so applicants can compare real reported processing times by voivodeship and permit type.

Each anonymous report will record:

  • Application type
  • MOS submission date
  • Case number date
  • Fingerprints invitation
  • Fingerprints date
  • Decision date

PolandEase explanation

We have not added individual reports from forums or Reddit here. When we do, they will be shown as individual examples, never combined into an average.