Looking for an employer-sponsored work permit or a retirement route? This guide covers only the route for running your own business in Poland. See other countries' guides
Working in Poland: do you qualify?
A residence route for people who run a business of their own in Poland, rather than work for an employer or invest passively.
When rules change mid-way, the date your application is filed is what often decides which rules apply to you. Where are you right now?
Pick a route, see the real commitment
Every official figure below is what Immimaps has verified for that route against Poland's official programme rules — not a marketing minimum. Service fees are what independent firms publish for the route, shown only once five or more are on file.
For founders, owners and self-employed people who will personally run a Polish-registered business and want residence on the strength of that business rather than an employer's permit.
What each route costs, stage by stage
Added up from the official figures on file for each route — split into money spent for good, money locked and returned later, and money shown but never transferred. Not a modelled estimate.
Business Activity Residency▾
At application
Decision — reported: 2 months.- Spent for goodOfficial fees: PLN 440, paid to the government for the initial application.
- Shown, never leaves youPLN 85,606.80 shown as proof of means every year — nothing is transferred.
The order Business Activity Residency follows
- 2026-04-27From 27 April 2026, applications for temporary residence, permanent residence and EU long-term resident status are accepted only electronically through the MOS online portal. Paper applications that had not reached the regional office by 26 April are not examined. A few categories, such as intra-corporate transfers and some family-reunification cases filed from abroad, keep paper filing. source
Strategy Path takes your occupation, your situation and whether you have an employer, and lays the route out step by step — cost, milestone and wait on each leg.
Upload it and Immimaps checks it against what Poland's official programme actually requires, and reads the contract clause by clause. Free, no account.
Check my documentEvery official figure on this page is checked against Poland's official immigration sources. Service fees are what independent firms publish for a route — not an official figure, and never any one firm's price. Immimaps does not publish success rates, approval odds or any probability score — here or anywhere else.
Don’t take a life-changing move on someone else’s word.
Immimaps is not an agency and takes no placement fees. We show the real figures on every route, show the working, and tell you what it actually costs.
Get your country matches